The Boy Who Loves Mirab

While this is not a promotional piece, Mirab Department Store is at the heart of this story.  

Mirab is probably the closest thing to a mall in our little country.  It is doubtless every Belizean child’s fantasy store with cool toys – a perpetual toy land.  It is no different for Zayne … well… maybe a little different. 😐

Mirab has always been our “go to” place especially during the summer holidays.  We go window shopping together, especially when my daughter is attending one camp after the other and I have to kill some time until it is time to pick her up and head home.   When we first started visiting Mirab, back when it was on Fort Street, Zayne was just an itty-bitty baby.  I would simply prop his car seat onto the shopping cart and commence our way up and down the aisles.  Sometimes I met friends and acquaintances in the store.  I even befriended a couple of the workers and would engage in general chit chat.  As each holiday came and went, they would comment on his growth and progress.  

Of course, when Mirab moved over, we, like every other Belizean, were excited about the new store.  By now Zayne is walking and talking; we can no longer confine him to a shopping cart.  He knows exactly what he wants from the store and a lot of bargaining is now constantly going on. However, mommy is like a well-trained negotiator; I have my responses scripted: 

“Mommy will buy it when she gets paid.”

“Ask Daddy to buy it for you.”

  “Not today. Maybe next time.”

“Hopefully for your birthday.”

“Let’s get a smaller crane and dump truck.”

“Santa will bring it for you.”

These of course are never in his favour.  No amount of cajoling, bribing, threats, or trickery will sway Zayne from changing his mind and picking another toy. Geez! Why is it that it is the biggest crane and dump truck that he wants and nothing else?  

Many a times, I am not sure if going to Mirab is a treat or a form of torment for Zayne simply because he wouldn’t be walking out with the toys he so covets.  Most times he adamantly refuses to budge from his spot and has to leave in tears. 

To say that Zayne loves Mirab is an understatement… this boy dreams of Mirab, talks all day long about Mirab, cries to go to Mirab.  As soon as he opens his eyes he would blurt out, “Today we go Mirab, mommy.”  And I would cringe because I would out-rightly lie to him by saying yes just to get him to bathe and eat breakfast. You see the word Mirab is Zayne’s currency and this mommy repeatedly uses it against him much to my daughter’s dismay.  

It is really a bane because we have to pass Mirab every single day to go to school.  He would bawl out his eyes as we zoom by without stopping.  Does this child think this is Monopoly, and you collect $200 every time you pass? If only…

He does not understand the concept that Mirab does not open at 7:15 in the mornings.  He feels that it should be open any and every time he passes. If this was the case, I would surely have a lot of Monopoly $$$.

We didn’t realize that Zayne could spell until one day he just blurted out the letters M-I-R-A-B and said, “Mirab mommy”.  We were very pleasantly surprised as this is the very first word that he had spelt.  This was our break through much like Helen Keller and the word w-a-t-e-r.   Well after this you know we pushed spelling with him.  Hereafter, you couldn’t step into the house with a Mirab plastic bag because he would recognize it, and this would strike up a one-sided conversation about his crane and dump truck that he is drooling over.   This young one does not yet understand budgeting, nor the fact that some gifts are best left to Santa Claus and his merry elves.  

We have come to yet another summer, and Zayne now attends his own summer camp. This coupled with the fact that Covid-19 cases are still rampant limits outings so it is rare these days that we go window shopping at Mirab.   This does not diminish the fact that Zayne is still persistently asking for his crane and dump truck from the moment he opens his eyes.  I am hoping that he can hold out for the next 5 months so that Santa can make his delivery.  Then it will be on to a new toy that catches his fancy, as I believe it will be years before he will ever outgrow his love for the toys at Mirab Department Store.