A Slice Of Life-2

'It is easy to be economical with truth; but higher truth is when you want to tell things as they should have been.'

I was Benjamin to my father. I was the youngest among seven children got in quick succession. My father being raised an orphan in a loveless family wanted a family of his own. He got his wish.
I was a premature baby and born with hair all over. There were a few wellmeaning souls who, it seems clucked their tongues in sympathy when they came to see the newborn. Because the man was exceedingly handsome and the woman was passable and children were winsome to say the least, there were those who thought I would be the odd one. In a way I guess they were right.
I was slow in learning to speak. Some thirty months it took me to make some coherent sounds that passed for baby talk.
I was told later that my father despite my awkwardness made much of me and used to take me around whenever he took the air along the beach.
Years later when I noted this down I wrote thus:” I remained silent for so long because I had nothing worthwhile to say.” It just proved I had all the requisite qualities to enquire into a higher truth.
benny