You know one thing about paying attention to details is that not everyone was really thought to do so. It’s easy to just want to pass and do everything as you do them. Even though we know that sometimes we should step back 5 by 5, we somehow prefer to rush things. Sometimes we are genuinely in a hurry, but other times we have just been wired to act before thinking. This used to be me, or should I say this is me and It has made me make avoidable mistakes. Mistakes that would have been avoided if I just took another 15 seconds to look closely. I guess it’s safe to say I often lose track of what is right in front of me because I am only focused on what I have in mind.
Just like the day I came home from school, I knocked and knocked but there was no one to open the gate. I tried calling my mum but her number wasn’t going through, I tried reaching my sister but her number also wasn’t going through. This made me start to think, what could have been wrong. At that moment I had a ton of emotions running through my head. Firstly I was very pressed and needed to relive myself, that alone was already blocking my thinking ability and was making me very restless. I knew that the thing I needed above all was a way to relive myself, so I went to my neighbours house to explain my situation. She could clearly read the anxiety on my face, but at that point I could see some sort of confusion because she knows my mum very well.
Photo by Gizem Nikomedi on Unsplash
I could not tell what she was thinking, but to me it looked something like “Your mum would never leave the house without thinking of a way to leave the key for you.” But I guess seeing my anxiety clearly written she did what anyone in her shoes would do, and that was let me use her rest room. After I was done, I went back to thinking clearly, but this time my thoughts were “how can I enter this house, I need to enter this house, I do not know when they will come back home and I can’t continue staying outside. I was angry, and I was hungry after a very long day, all I thought I would do was just eat and sleep but now I was stuck outside.
For me the more I thought about it, the only option was clear, I needed to break the lock, but thinking about that made me realize something. If I broke the padlock for the gate, how would I break the lock for the entrance door? I went to our backyard to assess if I maybe left the kitchen door open, and behold I did. This made me so happy that I did not know when I began to smile from ear to ear. The thought of breaking the lock had solidified in my head, but this time it wasn't the lock to the front gate but rather the lock to the back gate. So I went to get a hammer from that same neighbor again. This time when I asked for a hammer I could see the hesitation on her face, then she asked why don’t you wait here?
I could not tell her that I did not feel comfortable at her place, so I told her I needed to get something urgently inside the house and it was time sensitive. I could still feel her hesitation, but she reluctantly went in to get me the hammer. For me this was progress, and for her it was clear she had a lot to say but did not want to seem intrusive. After I collected the hammer I went straight to the backyard and started hammering at the padlock on the gate. As I hammered away I could feel some of the other neighbors' eyes in my direction trying to check what was making all that noise, but I couldn’t care less as all I wanted to get inside. After about 15 minutes of continuous hammering, the padlock could no longer hold it in and finally gave in. I was so happy because finally I had won my 15 minute battle.
I went back to return the hammer and I could see the sadness in my neighbors face, it was like saying “I hope you are satisfied now that you’ve gotten what you wanted. And to be honest if she had asked, I would have told her that I have never been more satisfied in my life” I guess at the end of the day she could also read that in my expression as I came smiling from ear to ear. Going back to my house, I finally entered the house happy, but then realized the padlock was broken. In my mind that wasn’t my problem, if they didn’t want it broken they should have at least left the key for me. I was angry with them believing my anger was justified and was ready to argue my case when they finally got back home.
2 hours later I heard their voices at the gate, they were expecting me to be inside and knocked. But since I could not open the front door I replied from the window “You guys forgot to give me the key so I did not enter through the front door.” Their expression showed that there was a big misunderstanding, and immediately my mum put her hand on her head in frustration. “Kelvinnnnnn ohhhh” she said as she would normally say when I have done something bad.
My mum: What is this on the gate?
Me: squinting my eyes closely to her direction I saw a little not tied with a ribbon to one of the pieces of metal that was part of the front gate we normally call protector…
My sister: The key was under the rug brother Kelvin…
It was at this point I knew I had messed up big time
My Sister: Mummy I told you we should give the key to our neighbor because he would not read it, now you see what I was saying
My mum: (ignoring the shades my sister threw at her) pick the key for me please and open the gate. After they had entered, she looked at me and asked; How did you now enter.
At this point all my defenses had been shattered, I had a lot to say but also nothing to say, I wanted to explain but knew that it would be useless at this point so the only thing left to do was just surrender to any punishment that awaited me.
THIS IS MY ENTRY INTO THE INKWELL COMBINED WRITING PROMPT #58