The Park (episode 2). Cherished Kids

At the entrance to the playground, a large green sign recalls the rules to be observed in this relaxing place for families. It is forbidden to adults without children, dogs, tobacco, beverages and food are prohibited. So are radio and ghetto-blasters… Even if it’s not a written rule, you’re also not allowed to photograph playing children. A guard would tell you that.

Therefore, you lower your eyes and you look to the floor with its soft surface chosen to cushion the fall of our little ones… There are the inevitable names, hopscotches and suns drawn in colored chalk. And suddenly, your eyes stop on the capital letters of a name traced in white chalk: FELIX. You’re thinking that today children don’t know Felix the Cat, the cartoon, anymore. Felix surely is a little boy in the neighborhood.

Mimicking adults, friends of Felix traced his silhouette in white chalk, in the same manner the policemen from the Homicide Squad did it around the body of the man shot at the park gate the previous day. Dead Felix was probably pushed around. They all had a good laugh. They made each other die one after another, transforming the playground into a cemetery. Writing has the power to make live and die. And that is not prohibited by the large green sign.