Playing with Fire 2

Playing with Fire 2

Every long holiday for him was spent 
at the village since he clocked six
His father wanted his children to be 
constructively engaged during the 
long holidays and felt the attention 
his parents would pay the children 
would help them grow in wisdom and 
maturity
His father's mother 
was a trader
His father's father was a farmer
His father had four children
Two girls and two boys
Both his parents were working and 
they didn't have a maid
Leaving the children to their devices 
during the holidays was a concern 
for their parents
Idle hands usually lead to trouble
The last holiday they had before 
the village trips began. the oldest 
of them, 13 years old at the time 
was caught by their mother hiding 
in a wardrobe with one of the 
neighbours children in the name 
of playing "hide and seek"
Nothing untoward was going on 
but a 14-year-old boy 
and a 13-year-old girl sharing such 
a small space was unhealthy
Their mother had always resisted 
the village idea
She believed her children will 
pick up local accent and lose 
their proper English dictions but 
she had to weigh the options after 
that day and choose between 
diction and teenage pregnancy
She was a teenager once too and 
she could remember how curiosity 
leads one down a path of no return.
That was how their yearly village 
pilgrimage got rubber-stamped
Their village was a quiet one
The roads were tarred
They had electricity, their 
grandparents 
had a proper television set and a 
proper compound
His sisters slept in their grandmother's 
wing while he and his brother slept 
in their grandfather's wing
They went to the farm with their 
grandfather in the mornings and 
returned home in the afternoon 
bearing firewood and they go 
went hawking for their grandmother 
in the evenings
The daily activities kept them occupied 
as their parents expected
When they returned to the city after 
the first holiday, their mother 
discovered that they didn't lose 
their diction as she feared 
because they were all together 
They continued to speak English 
among themselves while picking 
up the Yoruba language gradually 
by the side
This was a great advantage their 
mother did not envisage and it 
encouraged her to allow them to 
go to the village for future holidays
The holiday they had in the village 
was the highlight of the year for 
them
It was usually from October to 
January and they would spend 
Christmas and New year before 
returning to the city (This later 
changed due to one government 
policy or the other) but it made 
the holidays full of pleasant 
anticipations and fun 
When he turned 12, a cousin from 
Kaduna came to spend the holiday 
with his grandparents
The cousin was fifteen years old
His name was Sunday
Sunday's father was a chronic 
womanizer and Sunday was going 
through that stage as a young 
man in which seeing a female's 
naked body was the most exciting 
event of his day
Sunday devised a way to peep 
through the bathroom from the 
store beside it without being 
detected and would disappear often 
whenever a female tenant or even 
his own female cousins were having 
their bath
Sunday kept his secret to himself 
and nobody 
suspected him but the thing about 
sin is its desire to expose its victims
After a while, Sunday got tired of 
the usual sights living in his 
grandfather's compound
He could only see and not touch 
and the sight which usually excited 
him at one point stopped moving '
him over time 
He needed a fresh sight, someone 
not too related with whom he could 
do the dark stuff his body was 
whispering to him to do with the 
nudeness he had been seeing
That particular year, some distant 
cousins arrived at their compound 
from Lagos
These cousins of theirs were the 
grandchildren of their grandparent's 
cousins
Their house was on the same street 
but further down the road
The usual practice when children 
arrived for holidays was the greeting
Someone from the house will lead 
the visitors to all the houses in the 
compound to introduce and greet 
those they met at home
Those they met at home will in 
return send some edible food to the 
house to welcome the guests and 
later in the evening visit them to 
welcome them properly
These distant cousins came visiting 
and all Sunday saw was the nubile 
bodies of the three young ladies that 
arrived
The next morning after the morning 
prayer, their grandfather called a 
meeting and informed all the 
children in his house to be careful 
in their dealing with their distant 
cousins
There had been some bad blood 
between the families for some 
generations and both households 
are wary of opening old wounds
As a matter of courtesy, his 
grandfather led all his grandchildren 
to the distant cousin's compound 
to welcome the visitors on their 
way to the farm the next morning 
and the visit was quite a success
It took three week for everything 
to explode! 
Five days to Christmas, Sunday 
suddenly came to his room one 
morning and asked him to dress up 
and come somewhere with him
Like a fool, he followed Sunday 
through the back pathway to their 
cousin's house
When they got there, he found a 
ladder by the wall
Sunday wanted to watch 
the new ladies as they were having 
their bath and he needed someone 
to hold the ladder for him
It was exciting enough and he 
agreed to do it
He held the ladder and Sunday 
climbed directly over the bath-yard 
to feed his eyes
Suddenly he felt a 'wheeze as 
something flew past him, 
he looked to his left and saw a man 
with a catapult
He left the ladder and ran as fast 
as he could
Sunday, left hanging on the wall 
jumped down and ran too
The ladder was left behind
They both sneaked into their 
grandparent's compound as if 
nothing had happened
An hour later, the 
man with the catapult arrived at 
their house dragging the ladder
When he got to their compound, 
the man called to his grandfather 
in a loud voice and said he had 
been robbed earlier that morning 
and the ladder was the evidence 
left behind by the thieves
What!
They didn't steal anything!
It was the worst Saturday morning 
ever
His grandfather didn't know what 
to do
There was bad blood between 
both families and the peace between 
them was more of tolerance
If he admits that his grandchildren 
stole without any proof, he will be 
conceding to a lie.
At the same time, he didn't want 
to dismiss the allegation without 
at least satisfying the accuser
His grandfather told the accuser 
to sit down
There are three boys in the house
Sunday, himself and his younger 
brother who was 9 years old at 
the time
The two of them were called out
The 
accuser's face lit up
The accuser fingered Sunday as 
the thief and to him as the co-thief
His grandfather then asked what 
was stolen
The accuser said he didn't know 
what was stolen because they 
ran as soon as he sighted them
His grandfather turned to them 
and asked them what they stole
He told the truth
They didn't steal, Sunday only 
wanted to watch ladies having 
their bath and he had no idea that 
was what he was being co-opted 
into when Sunday came to wake 
him up from the bed early that 
morning
It was a shameful day
The accuser had them where he 
wanted them
His grandfather was livid
His grandfather walked into the 
house and emerged with their 
suitcases
One for Sunday, and the other 
for him
His grandfather announced that 
the two of them would be leaving 
his house with immediate effect 
and would be punished severely 
before being thrown out
His grandfather gave him 24 stokes 
of the cane and Sunday also got 
the same
The accuser was satisfied
His grandmother begged the accuser 
to forgive the boys and as a gesture 
of forgiveness, should prevail upon 
his grandfather not to throw the 
two of them out
The accuser had no option but to 
plead on their behalf
They were not thrown out after all
The accuser had been fully satisfied
Later that evening his grandfather 
called the two of them and said 
"If i didn't what I did this morning, 
your accuser would have gone 
diabolical and afflicted the two 
of you in some way
The accuser has been spoiling for 
a fight for a long time but he had 
to let the matter rest because I 
didn't spare you.
Always remember that the wounds 
of a friend are always better than 
the whip of the wicked"

PS: He kept his distance from Sunday 
till today 
Evil company corrupts good manners
Better is the wound of a friend...