Tuesday Voice: Missionary Kid

Yellow wicker chair

By Vic Midyett

Our home, when I was a kid in India with my missionary parents, had a screened-in veranda almost three quarters of the way around – every side but the one the kitchen was on, which was the cliff and tree side.
    The veranda was quite wide too, 8-10 feet, and screened in from floor to roof with the very minimum of wood framing.
    Between the ages of 5 and 8, I would sit in my little yellow wicker chair as close up to the back corner as I could push it, where the veranda met the cement wall of the house and a door going into the kitchen.
    On the ground outside the veranda was our tin trash can. Animals of all sorts would come to check it out. It was guaranteed I would see at least one jackal. There were also bobcats, skunks, and mongooses. 

    One night, or early morning before the sunrise, I was sitting there and a black leopard came up. As the trash can was only 10 feet away from me, with only the fly screen between us, I can tell you I sat completely motionless trying not to pee my pants. I may have.

    The leopard looked in my direction, sniffed the air for a minute or so, and just walked away.
    I think I gave up nocturnal observation of our trash can after that. And I never told my parents about it until after we moved to Australia, 15 years later.
    If the leopard hadn’t killed me, they sure would have!
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Copyright © 2014 by Vic Midyett

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