Comedy of terrors, Act 1, Sc. 2

The two kids are ready to go out late in the evening with the parents. Mommy asks the Boy to put on his shoes. The girl searches in the shoe rack. It is missing. The Boy doesnt understand why the parents are yelling at him. He stands there looking lost.
Finally Mommy spots it under the cupboard in the bedroom. She calls the Boy over and asks him to retrieve it.
M: I cant bend down, be a darling and get it yourself.
B (getting on all fours, he peers under the cupboard): Achacha peediya (Big Bro is afraid). Lizard there.
M: No lizards there. Come on.
B (peers again): Paata (cockroach) is there. I am afraid*.
M: Dont be silly.
B: Afraid. Mambu undu (snake is there).
M (laughing): Little liar!
(She gets down on all fours and retreives it for him)

* The Boy is only not afraid of ants. He sometimes kills them and takes them over to his mommy for inspection.
The parents wonder when he learnt to be afraid. Fear was not in his list of emotions until recently. In fact they had been careful not to instil fear in him of things around - the way old women made kids eat/behave by threatening them that a policeman/beggar/wolf etc. etc will catch/eat them if they didnt eat/obey.
The mommy remembers that one of her greatest fears was being kidnapped and bundled away by a beggar, having her eyes gouged out and made to beg on the streets.