The Boy and The Plastic Bottle

I saw the boy as soon as he turned the corner but he was too busy kicking an empty plastic bottle along the pathway to see anything else or anyone. Each time he ran towards it, the knapsack slipped from his shoulders. He hitched it back and sent the bottle flying. I wanted to catch the thing and whack the fellow with it. What if it fell in the water? We’d need to fish it out before it filled and sank.

The boy’s aim was good though and the bottle never strayed from the pathway. I crossed my arms and waited. Surely, he would look up some time and notice me? That would be when, hopefully, he would stop his game. That would be when I would make him pick up the bottle and drop it in the dust bin. That would also be when I lectured to him about littering, the trouble we took to keep our Puttenahalli lake and the surroundings clean, etc., etc. 

He was now about half way down the pathway. We had installed two dustbins here painted bright red and green.

Given his aim and strength, five or six more kicks would bring the bottle to me. I waited.

Instead of kicking the bottle, he bent down and picked it up. Twirling it in his hand, he went towards the red dustbin and dropped it in.

Had he seen me after all? I could swear he had had eyes only for the bottle.

He came closer.

‘Thank you!’ I said loudly.

He looked surprised.

‘For throwing the bottle in the dust bin.’

His knapsack strap slipped again. He straightened it, smiled shyly and was about to walk away.

‘Would you pose for a photo?’ I asked.

He obliged. With an action replay.