Once, I don't remember exactly for what occasion, my cousin and I were given small plastic boats, one yellow and one blue. In the evening, after discussing it, we decided that early in the morning we would go to the park to set our boats sailing, to "launch boats," as they say. The park had many small ponds, perfectly suitable for our idea.
In the mornings, like any other children, we couldn't be woken up, but not on that day. Early in the morning, barely dawned, we were already up. The first thing we did was climb onto the big mulberry tree growing in our yard and eat some sweet berries. We climbed down from the tree, taking our boats in one hand and slippers in the other, quietly opened the door, and set off on our adventure.
In the summertime, it gets light very early. The city was deserted, with no cars or people. We ran across the road separating our homes from the park and dashed along the alley with huge chinars growing so high that they seemed to reach the sky. In the back of the park, behind the old billiard hall, there was a lawn with flower beds and paths lined with bushes. Right in the middle of this lawn was a small house where we decided to carry out our plan. To our surprise, there was no water in it.
Without feeling upset, we ran towards the central alley where there were big pools with fountains, and they always had water. Interestingly, in those days, we hardly ever walked, we constantly ran, and if we needed to go somewhere, we immediately jumped up and ran, always racing each other. More precisely, my brother jumped up and ran, as he was a constant instigator in our childhood games.
We reached the central alley where there were three rectangular pools about a meter deep. There were pipes on the sides from which fountains sprayed at a 45-degree angle towards the center of the pool. We started by launching our toy boats in different pools, each of us taking a side and saying "this is my pool...and this is mine". However, it was not a very interesting game and quickly became boring. So, we took our boats and started launching them together in the "no man's land," the central pool.
The boats were simple plastic ones with no special features. Their only ability was to float since they were hollow inside. At first, we controlled them with long sticks made from branches. When the boats moved away from the shore, we started throwing small stones that covered the alley. It became more fun as we tried to race each other, which slowly turned into a naval battle.
No one tried to push their boat with small stones anymore, but instead, we looked for bigger rocks to sink our opponent's boat. Considering that the boats were unsinkable, at least in this way, the battle continued for a long time. By then, it was no longer early morning, and people started walking through the park while the park workers appeared.
Of course, our noise and shouting around the pools immediately caught their attention. Engrossed in the heat of the battle, we completely forgot where we were and got really into it. Until we heard, "Hey, what are you doing over there?!" To our disappointment, the boats were no longer within our reach, they were in the middle of the pool. So we threw everything down and quickly retreated.
For us, it was usually the case that nothing much happened, we didn't stick around or wait, we just ran away, leaving everything behind that got in our way. Such behavior meant that many of our mischiefs, which were not always so harmless, never stuck with us, we simply never got caught. Specifically that morning, we didn't think it was a big deal to throw some rocks and sticks in the pool. But at our age, it was difficult to predict the reaction of adults, so it was easier to just run away.
We ran home where everyone was still asleep, quietly snuck in, closed the door behind us. We settled back into our sleeping spots, as if nothing had happened, and waited for everyone to wake up and for breakfast time to come. In due course, the family woke up and everything went on as usual, nobody ever found out about our morning adventure.
Those preschoolers have long since grown up, there are no more of those pools, no more of that park. But the little brave boats still float in my memory, continuing their never-ending battle.
