A little shop of horrors.

Today, we went to the airport, fairly early, in a surprise visit, to see my mother and sister off on their journey back home.

In the course of that visit, we passed a clothing shop, on the concourse. There were six of us: my mother, my sister, Syahidah, Ainan, Tiarnan and myself. Fintan was busy elsewhere. As we passed the shop, Tiarnan suddenly stopped and said: "Tacot" (spelling to be checked), which is Malay for "I am scared." What was he scared of? A mannequin stood before him, without an essential part of its anatomy. It was headless. Tiarnan found this apparition scarey. He tapped his chest in the symbol for fear and looked up at the unfortunate "person" before him. Why would a headless body be wearing a short-sleeved shirt in a shop, he may have wondered?

Then he noticed something at the other side of the shop and pointed: "There's the head!", he said.

Sure enough. At the other side of the shop, there was a head, on its own, without a body, wearing sun glasses. Tiarnan had, seemingly, found the headless one's head. He was somewhat relieved to have found the unfortunate mannequin's head for him, but I don't think he was entirely reassured that it was a sensible arrangement - to have one's head so far separated from one's body.

Tellingly, he wouldn't venture into the shop. He bypassed it carefully, leaving the headless and bodiless ones to their fate.

How funny it is to see an innocent child's reaction to modern marketing practices. Truly, it is a fearful thing to sell a shirt with a headless body - or to sell sunglasses with a bodiless head. Certainly, anyway, in the eyes of a twenty-two month old toddler.

He was happy to be led away to a less scarey part of the airport.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and no months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and five months, and Tiarnan, twenty-two months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)