muscles

'you cannot wear these!' my aunt yelled in distress, when she hefted the hiking boots i had worn to her house. 'no no no no!'

i couldn't understand why, until she started passing them around to my other aunts.

'oof, these are too heavy,' said another aunt, nearly dropping one.

'you will get tired,' the first aunt said. 'maybe this isn't the same as it is in the united states, so you don't understand, but we walk everywhere here. we don't have cars. so you will get so tired walking with shoes this heavy.'

they started rifling through the closet, looking for adequately light walking shoes they could loan me for the duration of my visit, while i laughed a little, trying to think of a way out of this problem. my cousin sat next to me, wanting to help, but not knowing how.

'here,' i said to her, flexing my leg and encouraging her to poke my thigh. 'do you think my legs are strong?'

she made an exaggeratedly impressed face, bringing my aunts closer. 'feel this muscle! it's so big!'

my aunts crowded around, jabbing my thigh with skeptical fingers.

'wow, you must be a real athlete!' one of them conceded. 'you are definitely strong enough to wear heavy boots. good job!'

07 April 2018 16:37