http://penastory.com/2016/03/08/what-my-father-cannot-do-moses-okesola/

“……..What my father cannot do, He has done for me. What my mother cannot do, He has done for me ,oh oh oh oh oh Hallelujah he has done for me……” I sang in a mellifluous voice. “Tobi? Tobi! Do you hear me calling you?” I stood stone-still at the sound of my father’s voice echoing from the sitting room. If there is one thing I know about my Father, he hates to be kept waiting. My siblings and I knew this fact and kept it committed to memory. I immediately felt the cool damp evening air on my forehead and bare legs. I was torn between obeying my father’s urgent summons and desperately trying to find a way to finish the song I was singing while trying to play my keyboard at the same time.



I gnawed on the corner of my mouth, my stomach a roiling knot of ambivalence. My parents had rejected my request for a laptop some days earlier because of the foreign exchange rate, telling me to wait until the Naira was strong again so imagine my surprise when I got an alert on my phone informing me that my favorite Aunt in Dallas just sent me money to get a new laptop. I had also informed her a day before, I was overwhelmed and filled with joy and quickly made a mental calculation of the current exchange rate. Anyways, I quickly made a decision, heading towards the sitting room.



“Didn’t you hear me calling you?” He asked. He sounded stern and angry. ”Yes sir”, I replied quietly. ‘Why didn’t you answer?” I made a very big mistake and rolled my eyes. It all happened in a flash. The next thing I knew, I was on the floor. I had just been given a gravity defying slap. The type popularly called “igbati oloyii’ by the Yorubas. If I had anticipated the slap, I might have been able to avoid. My Dad towers over at six feet and three inches and weighed over eighty-eight pounds.

From the floor where I lay disoriented and dazed, I heard my mum’s voice from the kitchen.”Joor Baba Tobi, maa pa omo mi fun mi o!”



How my mum got to me within the space of those seconds, I will never know, all I know was that I was being helped up by my mum. I guess it’s a natural feeling for mothers to protect their children whenever they feel they’re in harm way. After making sure I was okay, the next thing that happened was quite funny and unbelievable. I didn’t even see it coming. All I saw was a quick wave of my mother’s hand to my face with the sound ricocheting off to a far distance. Before I could say Jack Robinson, I was on the floor again. Only this time, I was momentarily paralyzed from my waist up with the only sign of movement, coming from my ringing ear. I felt this buzz on my left ear that reminded me of bees in large numbers and at the same time the volcanic eruption that happened at the bottom of Mount Vesuvius in the movie ”Pompeii” featuring my favorite “Game of Thrones” actor Kit Harrington.



With me laying stunned on the floor and my dad peering at me from a distance, I tried to focus on my mother’s face but it seemed like the whole room was just spinning around. I suddenly had an epiphany and the last statement I heard before falling unconscious was “shebi awa ni what my father and mother can not do, he has done for me abi?”



My parents are not evil or wicked people, it wasn’t as if they didn’t want me praising the Lord or something, I just had to learn an important lesson of my life that fateful night. Now, I am wiser and know when to talk and keep my mouth shut. Up until till this present moment, I still have shivers when I hear that song. It’s so serious that whenever I hear that particular song from a church or an event, it serves as a reminder of that unusual night.

Source:PenAStory www.penastory.com

Let me tell you my own.after my younger brother recieved a good round of beatings from my older brother one day.my mischievous younger brother waited for him to be fast asleep at night.around 2am..he brought out broom sticks and began to flog him.he will flog and hide.my older brother woke up with witch related marks on his body.