For a few minutes before 11 am, John's eyes were on his watch, counting minutes and later seconds to ring the bell for a 45 minute lunch break.
At exactly 11, John's hand was up. His classmates knew why he raised his hand. There was rowdiness as many of them closed their books and were moving to the shelf behind them to pick their lunchboxes.
"What's happening?" Mr Benard asked the kids in total bemusement. "Ooooh, it's time for your lunch break," he spoke to himself aloud.
"Go and ring the bell," he instructed John, whose hand was still up.
"Sandra, David and Sule, go on your knees. How many times will I tell you that if you don't hear the sound of the bell, you should not leave your seat?" Mr Benard frowned at those that left their seats to go and pick up their lunchboxes. "No break for you today," he ruled.
While others were jumping over one another, the trio of Sandra, David and Sule remained seated.
John was in grade 5 and at the same time, the school's timekeeper.
About ten minutes after the sound of the bell, the boys trooped into the field to play football as usual. They had rushed their lunch in order to have more than thirty minutes to play football.
The kids gathered in their numbers at the center of the field. Ahmed, the school's game prefect, was in charge of organizing the game. He would choose who to play and who not to play. With the ball held firmly under his arm, he used the other hand to point to those that would play. He selected three people to stand as captains for three teams. These three captains started forming their individual teams by calling a name from the gathered colleagues. This was done one after the other until each team was made up of 9 players each. The field is small and the highest it can take is 18 players in total.
John and three others were left standing. None of the teams deemed them fit for selection.
Ahmed wrote the letters A, B and C in three pieces of papers respectively. He folded them and threw them on the ground for each of the captains to pick from. The two teams A and B that were to slug it out emerged. Team C would come in to replace the losing team after ten minutes of play.
John left the field with a dizzying sense of disappointment. He returned to his class with teary eyes.
After spending about ten minutes in the class, he decided to check back on the field. He held the bell by the clapper as he walked back to the field.
On getting to the field, there was a crackling sound as he dropped the bell on the ground. The attention of everyone went to him on hearing the bell sound.
"You all have two minutes to go," he declared.
Ahmed checked his personal watch and realized that they have about 10 minutes left. He remembered what transpired the previous day.
In the previous day, it happened that John wasn't included in the day's match. In order to get back at his mates for not including him in the match, he tampered with the school's watch that he uses. He reduced the break time by 10 minutes.
Everyone was shocked at the sound of the bell including the Headteacher.
As the students moved to their various classes with great deal of disappointment, John was smiling. Mission accomplished.
The Headteacher assumed that the school watch might have malfunctioned. He called John to his office immediately.
"What's happening to your watch?" The Headteacher asked John while he was searching his drawer. "Let me have the watch."
The Headteacher brought out a new battery from his drawer. He spent another few minutes successfully replacing the battery.
"This is a new battery that I have put in. Let me know if the watch is still misbehaving so as to discover if the challenge is beyond the dead battery," he concluded the coupling of the watch and handed it over to John.
Later that afternoon, John whispered what transpired during the break time to Ahmed. They sat next to each other on the school bus on their way back home.
"If you people keep preventing me from playing football during break, the break time will keep on shrinking more and more," he told Ahmed.
Ahmed's hand flew to his face, covering his mouth in a reflexive gesture of astonishment.
"So, the short break that we had was orchestrated by you!" Ahmed exclaimed.
A few seconds later, Ahmed arrived at his bus stop and alighted from the bus.
"Is John trying to repeat what he did yesterday?" Ahmed asked himself as he walked towards John.
"We have about ten minutes to go. Why are you doing this?"
"Either I play now or everybody returns to class. I hold the key and the padlock in this case," John responded.
Ahmed talked to one of the players on the field and got him substituted by John. The match went on for another fifteen minutes.
John wasn't a good player and every of his decisions in the field was criticized by the spectators.
Ten minutes were gone after the break before the Headteacher noticed that the students were still outside playing. He left his office and went to the field immediately.
"Go on your knees, everyone," he ordered.
"Do you know what the time says now? I will teach you all a lesson today," the Headteacher threatened.
Ahmed could not swallow what John had told him.
"Sir," he raised his hand from his kneeling position. "The timekeeper is responsible for this."
"What do you mean?" The Headteacher asked.
Ahmed spilled the beans by explaining to the Headteacher all that John told him in the school bus the previous day.
The Headteacher immediately ordered the students back to their classes except John and Ahmed.
"This kind of action is criminal and selfish," he focused his attention on John. "This is abuse of privilege. It's not good."
"And you," he turned to Ahmed, "you don't prevent your mate from playing football with you because he doesn't know how to play football. You need to carry everyone along as a leader."
John regretted his actions and promised never to manipulate the watch in that manner again.
Both of them joined their mates in the class.
