When a child, he was anxious to become an adult; when an adult, he was anxious to return to his childhood
Magnifico knew very well that his father didn’t mind his arriving later than him to the shed. Actually, he once overheard a conversation between his parents in which they had broached that particular subject.
“He’s growing so much bigger by the day, and now, he does look more like a young man than a child, don’t you think, Tomas?”, his mother asked on that occasion. “Yes, that’s definitely the case, I’m surprised how fast it has happened. He really doesn’t look his age anymore.” Juanita their dog and Magnifico’s faithful guardian, listened attentively to the conversation. And effectively, he had grown much taller and very quickly at that. Probably because of so much physical labor, he had developed a strong and solid body. His muscles were firm and could take the hard toil of the strenuous work at the farm with ease. Magnifico did look more like a young man than like a ten-year-old kid.
“You just wait and see, Momma; before we know it, he’ll be arriving at the shed way before I do.”, his father remarked. How quickly we went through his childhood, Papa”, Magnifico’s mother answered thoughtfully. At that, Juanita nodded and sighed sadly, as if lamenting Magnifico’s quick passage through his childhood.
“Oh, he’s in such a hurry to grow up, all the time asking when will he wake up earlier. As if becoming a man depended on what time you wake. What do you think, Ma’am? When he really reaches manhood, he’ll realize how wonderful it had been to be a child… But, we all go through that, do we not?