Mother didn't like me going out with my friends as a child because most of the children were bigger than me in size, and she feared for my safety but mostly she didn't like any of my street friends. Whenever I tried to go out and I needed her permission she would always deny me the privilege. And so, I never got a chance to spend quality time with my friends except in school.
until one Saturday morning, my mother decided to go to the market because of the shortage of food in the house and she left me all alone at home, but then she made me promise not to leave the house while she was away. While she was gone, I heard a knock on the door and I reluctantly open the door only to see my friend, David. David was a local street boy who everyone knew to be trouble. We had been very close friends until he decided to become a public tyrant.
Once I opened the door, David smiled at me, giving me a very firm handshake as if we were grown men, and made his way into my living.
"Wait, David!", I went after him, " you can't be here, my mother won't like it". I said trying to convince him to leave the house before my mother returned.
"Bro, you never come out to play with me anymore...you just sit in here all day!...aren't we still friends anymore?".he said now returning his focus to me...
"David, we are still friends.. but I've just been busy with school. My mother also wants me to be the best in class. So, she signed me up for an after-school tutorial".
"Wow, that's amazing..." he said with full enthusiasm and the both of us began to chatter away, cracking jokes and laughing as brothers do.
After some time, he then looked at me and asked If I would love to go fruit hunting as we use to. At first, my mind didn't accept the idea...what If I left and then mother returned? She would be very unhappy about it, I thought. But after a couple of friendly persuasions, I decided to go with David.
First, we went mango hunting which was very easy as there were a lot of mango trees in town. We plucked a few and instantly moved to the next. Which was cherry-picking. And from there we decided we wanted oranges. But the problem with that decision was that there were only two orange trees present in town, one was far on the outskirt of town close to the market which my mother had visited. While the other was inside a Catholic church. The orange tree in the church had just one problem, which was that no one except the Reverend sisters was allowed to pick the fruits from that tree. And children were strictly warned not to trespass into that area.
I told David to follow me home so that we could feast on the little fruits we successfully collected but, David was adamant. He wanted the orange and he convinced me with his determination. So we both went to church.
When we arrived, there was silence in the church environment which used to be busy with the voice and presence of Reverend fathers, Sisters, and the members of the church. The gate was locked. So we decided to jump the fence. When David got on top of the fence, he stretched out his hands and pulled me to the top. And from there we both made our way down and straight for the tree.
When we arrived at the tree, it was filled with a lot of oranges, big, round, and ready to pluck. We searched around for a stick we could use to pluck from the tree but we found none, seeing as the tree was a tall one, with an elongated trunk none of us could climb it. So we gathered as many stones as we could find and used them to pluck down the oranges.
Halfway through the plucking process, David decided to aim for the higher oranges, the ones at the top. In the process, one of his stones flew straight through the church glass window creating a very loud shatter.
Instantly people began to emerge from the church building, one of them a Reverend father and another young man probably in his early twenties. "Hey, you!", They called our attention, and instantly we ran. The young man chased after us as David and I ran toward the fence. We got to the fence and David jumped clean over it leaving me behind. I called out his name as I struggled to get a firm grip on the top of the fence but I was betrayed as he was far gone. Not long after, the young man caught up with me, and together with the Reverend father they took me home and reported me to my mother who was not happy about it. She beat me so badly, it created a permanent scar in my mind.
Ever since then, I have been unable to trust friends.
