It was just like every other afternoon. The sun was up in the sky spreading its bright warmth on the town. James woke up and peeked at his wristwatch which he had kept on the bedside table; 2:45 pm. He sighed, and got off the bed, walking into the living room to see his mother setting the table for lunch. She smiled warmly and waved him over to the table.
"I thought you wouldn't wake up till later. You must've been very tired." His mother said.
"Yeah, and now I'm hungry. I had only planned to sleep for 30 minutes, and just like that, four hours passed." James replied.
"Will you still be able to sleep again tonight?" She asked him.
"I hope so." James replied and helped his mother set the table.
When they had both settled in, and his mother said a prayer, they began to eat. James' mother saw that he was rushing his meal, she shook her head and added more food to his plate.
"Mom, that's too much for me." James complained in pretense.
"I've seen the way you're eating, and I know you're very famished. Eat well, and after that, you'll have to go to the grocery store and get me fresh cans of milk and a few other items that we've run out of." She said to him and he nodded in agreement.
After James had cleared the table, and washed the dishes, he took money from his mother and stepped into the sunlight. He passed by a dead tree branch, and he stopped to pick a stick that had the shape of a gun. He admired it for a while and shoved it into his pocket with plans of exploring it when he got back home.
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He got to the store and joined the long queue. Seeing that the line was still too long, James brought out the gun-like stick from his pocket and stared at it. He held it firmly pointed it towards another customer's back, and laughed to himself with the thought of how the customer would've felt if it was a real gun.
James had no idea that the old woman in front had seen him, and without checking to see that it wasn't a real gun, she whispered to the person next to her, and the person whispered to the shop owner who then bent down slightly, and made a call.
"There's an armed robber inside my store, and he's waiting for the right moment to pounce on us. What do we do?" She asked the person on the other end of the call.
"Sit tight. We'll be at your store in three minutes." The person replied.
Meanwhile, James shoved back the stick into his pocket, and kept his head down, patiently waiting for his turn to reach so he could get the items his mother had sent him to buy. Little did he know that everyone was scared for their lives, as they thought he had come to rob them.
A few minutes later, armed men rushed into the store. One of them noticed that James's hands were inside his jacket pocket, and he pounced on him with the thought that James was reaching for his pistol.
"What have I done wrong? Let go of me." James yelled at the man who had pinned him to the floor.
"Shut your mouth, you lousy thief. Do you not care about your people? You came in broad daylight to rob the only supermarket in this town. We're going to teach you a lesson and send a message to stupid kids like you." The man said and pinned him harder to the floor.
"I'm not a thief. You're mistaken." James yelled.
The customers moved to one side and watched the drama unfold. One of them recognized him as the boy who had never gotten into any trouble before. She couldn't believe her eyes, so she rushed out of the store and ran to James'mother. His mother couldn't hold the shock that passed through her as she heard that her son was about to be lynched. She hurried out of the house and ran to the store. The men had James on his knees, his face bruised from the scratches he got while he was still pinned to the floor.
James' mother ran to her son, but the men pushed her aside.
"This is my son. What has he done?" She asked in tears.
"Your son was just about to rob the store when a brilliant woman caught him and had it reported to us before he could pull out his gun." One of the men replied.
"I wasn't with any gun. I'm not a robber!!!" James yelled, and a blow landed on his stomach causing him to throw up the food he had just eaten.
His mother knew there was no way she could help her son unless she found a way to prove his innocence. She walked to where he was being held and stripped his shorts and jacket off him, and then the stick fell out. She picked it up and turned to face the men holding her son.
"Is this the gun you're talking about? This is a stick from a dead tree branch." She said.
"I saw him point it at a customer's back, and he laughed to himself like a psychopath." The woman who had raised the alarm said.
"It was the stick. I was only admiring it." James replied the old woman.
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The men searched the rest of his body and they couldn't find anything on him. James' mother ran to her son and held him close. She rained abuses on the woman for raising a false alarm without being sure of what she had seen, and the men for mistreating her son without solid evidence.
They apologized to James and his mother, but his mother couldn't let it go. She kept raining abuse on them as she took her son home with her.
It was a traumatizing experience for James, and since that day, he stopped going to the store and also stopped playing with objects. He was lucky to have escaped the wrath of the men who had fallen for the false alarm.
