I returned from school after a long walk in the hot sun to meet a large crowd of people gathered in our neighbor's compound. An elderly woman had just died and these people were there to console and sympathize with the poor daughter that has been taking care of her.
I knew they would not prolong the burial by taking her to the mortuary because they couldn't afford that, and that mean her burial would be that particular night to avoid decaying of the body.
This was what I concluded, but I needed to be sure, so I went to ask my mom, "Mama, are they going to bury this woman tonight?" I asked my mom, and she displayed a surprising look on my face before she answered, "Yes, they can't afford to take her to the mortuary."
When I got the answer, my heart began to beat faster because if the next question I was about to ask becomes real, then it'd be a problem for me.
"Okay, are they going to bury her in that compound close to us, or are they taking her somewhere else?" I asked my mom again.
"Why all these questions?" She asked before giving me the answer: "Yes, they'll bury her in her compound."
Immediately I heard this, my mind flared up, and I walked away from her in order not to notice how scared I was already.
What was I scared of? I know you might be thinking it's a ghost or dead body. No, I was scared of canon shots.
It's an unavoidable rite in my community that whenever a corpse is to be buried, cannon shots are fired as a mark of respect and farewell.
Mind you, this is a local canon shot that shakes the earth with a deep sound whenever it's fired, not the one we see in movies. I have a video of it but can't share it because it's not from a free site.
When evening reached around 7:00 p.m., I secretly left the house and went very far to an extended family member's house(an aunt's house). I was there till 9:00 p.m., and that was when it was time for bed, my aunt got surprised,
"You're still around?" I thought you'd gone home. My aunt asked me when she saw that I was still around.
I didn't know what to tell her because it'll be embarrassing to tell her that I left house because of the Canon shot that would be fired for the burial of the neighbor.
She didn't hesitate to call my dad, and that was when she was told that they'd been searching for me for the past two hours😢.
Yeee! this aunty bundled me back home, and when I got home, I received a severe beating.
Funny enough, they had not buried the corpse at that time, which is to say the Canon had not been shot.
I became so scared and couldn't run away again because my mom had pulled me in. I couldn't sleep because it'd be more scary if I got woken up by the sound, so I was just there, praying for them to skip the slot of shooting Canon.
It was exactly 12:00 a.m. when I heard "gbimmmmmm!" gbimmm!" A loud bang! Jeeez! My heart left my body, and I saw myself in heaven. I used my hands to cover my ears to block the sound, but no, it didn't work😭.
There was a break after the two shots, and I was like, "Thank God it's finished," and before I knew it again, three more deep & scary shots were released! Gbimmm! Gbimmm! Gbimmm! I couldn't hold myself back and tears poured out😭😭😭😭.
Then I saw my mom rushed in; she just remembered that I suffers from phonophobia and she should be there to comfort me,
"It's okay, they're not shooting again." She said that while standing in front of me, she could not even come and hug me (African mothers, lol🤣).
That's how it ended that night.
But my fear for Canon shots didn't stopped there because after that night, I can't count the number of times I had ran away from home whenever a burial was around the house because of the fear of canon shots
But now, I'm a big boy. I can fire up a Canon shot☠️