As the holiday began, my relatives gather in twos and threes filling up the once empty spaces. There was merriment and laughter filled the atmosphere as we take turns talking about memories of the past, tales of legends. This is the aspect of the holiday I always look forward to apart from the games, we get to here series of weird stories about the elders in our family and sometimes whenever they feel like spicing things up a little bit the elders/ parents share some funny stories that happened when we were children.
I'm not a fan of this because most of us are now grown ups, listening to our parents tell stories about our childishness while we were kids in the midst of our younger ones makes me feel awkward sometimes. We don't have any control over the choice of story they will decide to tell which makes this act more scary, you don't want to hear your parents talk about how you used to walk have naked.
There was a particular childhood story told by my parents, a story that seems to have faded from my memory. As a child I attended the same primary school with my elder brother and One of my paternal cousins but eventually my brother left for boarding school. I was around primary 4 then. When I was little I was fragile compared to other children because of my height and I was also very slim, believe me I never knew I was going to grow tall eventually because that was the thing I kept wishing for. I had just one friend then his name was toyosi, since we had the same stature we barely have enough strength to go up against bullies.
Thankfully I had my cousin, he was in primary 5. he was like an elder brother to me after my brother left. As a child I was week but extremely cunny I rely on my brains whenever I'm in trouble instead of my strength. I get terrified easily which means I don't go out at night or walk alone. So my cousin felt like I need to step up my game by toughening up.
there was a specific domestic animal I was scared of back then, A dog especially the large ones. There is this house in my street that belongs to a lawyer, he was barely home during the day, he has this large dog in his compound almost 4 times my size. whenever this dog is barking his cage usually trembles. Whenever the the lawyer is not around he opens the dog cage and allow the dog to play around in the compound since the house is fenced and the compound gate is locked.
The thing about this lawyer's Gate is that you could peep through it to see the dog, so my cousin feels like the only way to make me tougher is to confront my fears. Everyday after school on our way back home he takes me and my friend toyosi to peep through the gate to see the dog but we don't just peep only, we develop all kind ways to taunt the dog, immediately we do this the dog will charge at the gate but it was locked. seeing the dog charge at the gate relentlessly, we make fun of it and we kept during the same everytime we pass through the lawyer's house.
Have you heard of a statement that says, "Nothing last forever, change is constant" On this specific day we visited the dog as usual and kept taunting the dog, since it was on a Friday we had longer time to taunt the dog before heading home. the dog kept charging at the gate repeatedly. it got to an extent I got bored and told my cousin we should leave but he didn't listen. I didn't want to leave him behind so I stood back and watched him and my friend continue pissing off the dog.
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Suddenly I heard a loud bang and I raised up my head in fear. it happens that the padlock holding the gate removed and the gate opened. At that moment we where all in shock including the dog because the way the dog looked at us and also looked at the gate, he was also surprised that the gate opened. My cousin and my friend were more closer to the dog than I was, my legs were already trembling. All I could think about is Damn I'm so dead, suddenly a scene from Mr Ben's comedy crossed my mind about how he played dead when he found himself in a lion's den. Believe me that was the exact thing I did immediately the dog charged at us while my friend ran.
Seeing me lying on the floor the dog was not bothered about me at all, the dog chased my cousin and friend to oblivion. After awhile when I realised they were all gone I stood up and ran home in tears. I was so terrified for myself and also I had no idea if the dog eventually caught up with my remaining partners in crime. I kept running home, I was few blocks from reaching home when my mom sighted me from her shop, she ran towards me because it was so obvious that I was extremely terrified and distabilized. she kept asking me what happened but I couldn't say anything I just kept crying.
After few hours, two guys escorted my friend and my cousin home, we all lived in the same compound. it turns out that the dog chased them so badly that they ran into a shop, that was when they got rescued from the dog. they were both surprised to see me at home because they thought I had fainted at the spot. We narrated what happened to our parents and they were upset about the way we endangered ourselves but they couldn't stop laughing about what I did. For weeks I made sure I did not pass through that route to school. My dad didn't scold me or punish me for it, I'm sure he must have felt I had learnt my lesson from the incident.
Listening to this stories about my childhood days brought back a lot of memories, though it might have been painful when it happened but now it is something I can finally laugh at, which serves as a reminder to me that no difficulties or fear I'm facing right now will last forever, it will eventually pass and become a tale of the past.
This write-up was inspired by weekly prompt in hive Naija community.
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