As I watched the ball soar over the fence and into the forbidden compound, I knew we were in for some tongue lashing. But a few seconds later, I heard the unmistakable sound of glass breaking and knew we were in very serious trouble.
My heart almost stopped because as expected we heard the thundering voice of Baba Roscoe " Who did this?, Who broke my window". Hearing the word window further broke my heart as that single word seemed to seal our fate.
For a second there I'd begun to hope that the ball had hit just an empty bottle lying around, but it seemed like the universe wasn't sparing us any luck today.
Baba Roscoe was the Chief Killjoy in the area, it seemed like the only time he was ever happy was when he stopped the kids in the neighborhood from playing street football and having fun. We avoided him like a plague mostly because he was elderly and his words seemed to carry weight with our parents.
Although we tried as much as possible to avoid his house, sometimes we got unlucky and today it seemed was one of those days.
I was contemplating whether to run when I heard his voice just on the other side of his gate.
'You all had the audacity to not only disturb the neighborhood with your football, but decided to break my window as well."
He came out of his compound looking like a wounded lion and whatever idea I had about running fizzled out of my brain. Running would've had no use because my house was just about three buildings away from his and I didn't want my parents to find out what had just happened.
The fact that I had sneaked out to play football after my mum warned me to finish my assignment from school wasn't lost on me. The way I saw it, it was better to face the lion with my friends and hope no one found out at home. At least with a lot of us involved, there was a bit of hope.
"It wasn't me oo" came a voice from behind me and I turned to see it was from one of my closest friend John. The words soon turned into a chorus as the others equally joined in.
They were all looking at me and it didn't take any advanced thinking for Baba Roscoe to figure out I was the culprit.
To say I was surprised was an understatement. All this while, I had been thinking of the incident as a WE event, but my friends were making it clear that it was my canoe and the storm was mine to face alone.
I didn't know what I was expecting, but I knew betrayal wasn't on the list.
From previous encounters with Baba Roscoe, we'd all agreed that whenever our ball went into his compound, we would all go in and beg as one entity. That idea worked most of the time and we usually got our ball back but with the promise that we wouldn't continue playing.
That was probably why it took me by surprise when my friends weren't helping me beg Baba Roscoe but were declaring themselves innocent. Who would've thought that all it would take for all my friends to abandon me was a broken window.
Baba Roscoe turned to me "So you're the JayJay Okocha that decided to break my window". Up until that moment, I realized I hadn't said a single word and my silence it seemed was more than enough proof I was indeed the culprit.
There was no way I was escaping this, the best thing would be to take whatever punishment was coming my way and hope the matter didn't reach my parents. I knew that as much as I thought I was in a big problem, I would be in double the trouble if my parents ever found out.
I was there standing and looking as inconspicuous as I could, perhaps my meek demeanor might just get him to let go of the issue. Alas it was a big NO, Baba Roscoe continued to rant for a few more seconds and I soon spotted someone coming towards us.
If my heart had almost stopped earlier, it most definitely stopped this time around as I watched my mum walk towards us. She'd obviously heard the commotion and must've been surprised to see me amongst the culprits, even though from the look on her face I was fairly certain she didn't know what we'd done. Sorry, what I'd done.
I was supposed to be in the house doing my assignment. I realized double didn't cover what awaited me at home, perhaps triple might come close because judgment day had come early and I'd been found guilty.
"Papa it wasn't him, I was the one" came a voice from beside Baba Roscoe, it was his grandson Jimi. Perhaps I was dreaming because what was this boy talking about, he wasn't even playing with us. Everyone present knew I had kicked the ball, I was
the culprit.
"Are you sure you did it" asked a clearly surprised Baba Roscoe. Everyone in the neighborhood knew he more than pampered his only grandson.
"Yes Papa" Jimi answered
By that time my mum had gotten to our spot and listened as Jimi told a story of how he mistakenly kicked the ball into the compound.
This boy was literally spinning gold out of thin air. It was the biggest lie I'd ever heard, but as I watched, I could almost see the anger deflating out of him.
'But why didn't you say anything when the others were talking" he asked me.
"Errmm, I was scared sir" I answered. I must've been very convincing because I didn't even need to fake being scared.
Miracles still exist I thought, as I watched Baba Roscoe walk back into his compound. I was about to breath a sigh of relief when I remembered my mum had been standing behind me for a while.
To my surprise, it seemed she was satisfied I wasn't the culprit. From the look she was giving me though, I didn't need a fortune teller to reveal what my future would look like if I didn't immediately run home.
I ran home and immediately went to finish up on my assignment and for the rest of the day I did almost all the house chores without her asking me. I didn't want her changing her mind about punishing me.
I went to bed that night thinking of the rollercoaster of emotions I'd gone through that day. I wasn't even close friends with Jimi but the boy had saved me from certain punishment when my closest friends deserted me.
