Time is one of the most important elements of our world. In the past, present, and future, time has been and will always be an important factor that monitors progress, failure, or stagnancy. Many arguments are on the relevance of time and productivity, but my resolve has always been to make the best of time. This is just a runway for my piece to take off—a perception. While I was much younger, I had an experience on the importance of time and watch!
My dad traveled as he normally does, but this time to a country abroad. As a young chap, I had always fantasized about visiting foreign countries. Although I never knew that’s what it was back then, when I see American movies on our white and black TV screen, I wonder how these people got into the TV box. I almost tried looking for a way into our TV, but thank God my mom was around the day I wanted to carry out the experiment! She cautioned me!
“Daddy Ekaabo”, meaning “welcome daddy”, this is me greeting my dad as he stepped out of his car right in our compound, “how are you Folu”, he replied. He arrived at about 7 p.m. As he normally says, anytime he had goods to pack from the car boot, “go to the boot and pack the goods there to my room”, he said. I smiled to myself and ran to the boot to pack the goods. On a day like this, I’m certain that I’ll either get a gift or treats to munch on from the pack of goodies. As stated earlier, my dad just came back from his trip to a foreign land. One of my uncles drove his car to pick him up at the Lagos airport. As I was packing the clothes and boxes, my eyes saw a picture on a carton, and I couldn’t believe what I saw! It was a golden wristwatch! I couldn’t wait for my dad to open it. But as always, I knew he was going to add this ruby to his catalog—he has a lot of unused stuff like mug cups, wine, and other stuff he got as presents. I knew this watch was going to the same prison, and I wasn’t going to let that happen. One thing about my dad is that he may not use any of the goods I mentioned earlier, but he knows their exact number and periodically picks them up. So, I knew I'd have to borrow whatever I wanted to pick from his collection. I know my father’s routine and was vigilant enough to pick up the watch a few days after it arrived with the hope of bragging with it at school and returning it before he noticed. My mom doesn’t bother herself with my dad’s collection she only picks whatever she likes once in a while, she doesn’t look after it. This really helped in ensuring the success of the 'operation pick the watch undetected!'
“Wow! This looks so good on you!”, one of my friends said. This was one of many compliments my fellow secondary school students showered on me. As one of the school drummers in SS2, I was able to showcase my beautiful watch to all my colleagues right at the assembly and even in class. My teachers knew I had used other good-looking accessories like shoes, school bags, pens, etc., which I claimed my dad bought for me, and they discovered it’s true after verifying with my parents. So, I currently have no reason to worry about any challenge, all my plans have worked out fine. I returned the watch to my father’s “vault” (or room) before he came back from work. I felt so good, I really felt like Super Ted (or Superman). Did I just carry this out successfully?
Two of my colleagues in school lived a few houses away from mine, and they sometimes come around while I also visit them occasionally. The same day I bragged about “my” new watch at school, they came over to have a proper look, proximity, and familiarity privileges. You know those overdo juvenile spirits that keeps shouting “you can do it, you can do it!”, came calling that day. In my mind, I know “I could get caught, I could get flogged!”, but I don’t want to disappoint my friends to prevent embarrassment the next day. I told them I’ll be in their homes with the watch soon because I had to look for where I kept it (lies). They surprisingly agreed, and as they left, I did my magic and took the watch to their place. We had fun and played with the watch. In the process, the watch fell and the screen cracked, or was it my heart that cracked? I stood in shock! It wasn’t who caused the problem that was my concern, it was what I'd do to cover it up.
Unfortunately, my dad was already home before I arrived and had noticed his watch had gone missing. The moment I returned home, he was already waiting at the door, looking very displeased. With an angry voice, he asked, “Folu, where is my watch?!”, I knew I was in soup, and indeed I was. I brought the watch out. What got me flogged the most was the crack on the screen of the watch.
I messed with time and watch, at the same time!