There was this time l was little, safe to say l was around 7, yeah 7. Because it was few weeks after my lil sister was born.
So one afternoon, l found myself going through my dads stuffs, in a leather box, inside his wardrobe. Of all the things his room, this particular leather box was forbidden to be touched, let alone opened. A crime that time, that was punishable by the maximum capital punishment. However, l cared less for being caught and punished than for my little body and hands to stay idle. So going through the leather box in his room, l found these little brown packs, with about 10 satchets in each pack. One of the packs was already cut open, so l picked one of the thready sachets and cut one off along the serrated edges. What l found inside was too much of a mystery. I was shell shocked to contain this discovery. l screamed out to my other brothers. They responsed faster than The Flash. They were as shocked as much as startled at seeing what l had unearted; Ballons inside sachets. As if that revelation wasn't enough, when we blew them, they got bigger, bigger than the biggest balloons l had ever seen in my entire life. Instantly, l judged my parents to be wicked souls. I mean, how could they be so wicked that they kept these ballons away from us.
Should l remind you that my sister was born around the yuletide season. It was that time of the year when you would see a jacket of ballons of different sizes hung in every shop. These balloons were won by paying for a gamble by picking a no corresponding to the no of each balloons. However, there was always the largest balloon at the center, that l never saw anybody win till this particular day. So it was as confusing to me, as much as l felt a big sense of disappointment in my parents, for hiding away these sachet ballons, that were even bigger when blown that that center balloon, from us around the time we could have enjoyed using them the most for fun, and to gain street fame and cred.
So many questions also were finding thier ways from our minds to our mouths: were they designer balloons? No abroad uncle or aunt of ours had visited recently, so where did popsi get this American styled ballons from? "They could only be from America. Abi, Deji, are they from Lagos?" l asked my brother. "But since mumsi gave birth, she hasnt travelled to Lagos now?". All these were the questions we were asking.
However, I wasn't ready to wallow in deep hurt l was feeling towards my parents at that moment. Something else bigger than the Landing on the Moon was taking place right there in my dad's room. Cos on the other hand, I instantly became the T'challa of our generation. My brothers had started singing my praise as the Indiana Jones of our time for my discovery.
Without further ado, we had to declare the second coming of Indiana Jones. We had to inform the other kids on the block.
I should say at this point, that our house was already famous for some novel childhood wonders. Amongst which were; Brickgame, Game 2000( the one with the light ontop) Gameboy, family game console, kids walkie-talkie, mouth organ, the Ninja turtle school bags, the 3-in-1 food flask, etc. I mean name it, name any trendy thing in the country at that time, my myself and my brothers had it first on our street. So, l wasn't going to waste time in introducing them to the biggest, most transparent ballon they could never have seen in their entire existence, nor one they could never have imagined in thier tiny little minds. We were already the Princes of Bel-Air. This was going to make us the Micheal Jacksons of the street.
I wasted no time in jumping over the fence to call on Sam and Adeoye. Immediately they saw the glee in my eyes, they knew an alien had landed in Lekan's house, again. In the twinkle of an eye, our veranda was filled with kids, even ones from the second street. Lo and behold, the honor of introducing my friends to the 8th wonder of the world fell on me. I picked out a satchet, l tore it, and brought out an oily whitish balloon. They had not recognised their minds were about to be blown away, until l started blowing air into the balloon. It went from the size of a banana, to the size of a pawpaw. With each puff came shouts and screams of "Ahhhhhh" "Yeeaaaah" from all the kids. And it didnt stop there. I had to call my brother to help me blow more air into it. Alas, this mysterious balloon did not break. This must be a miracle. Because at the size of a 5-6L of air, even less, all balloons known to man at that time would have burst. But the Fatukasis' was around 10L volume of air and it was yet to burst. Besides, it was now completely transparent.
The Isaac Newton in me was ready to take our experiment to another level. I requested that we pour water inside. They all cheered me on. Chants of LEKAN! LEKAN!! LEKAN!!! filled the air. We started to fill this ballon with the first 15L bucket. This "abami" balloon sallowed the whole volume of water. This feat was met with louder "Ahhhhhhhhh" "Yeeeeeaaaaaah" "Jessssusssss". I mean Lekan was literally waking up the dead here. Kids can't you see?
We cautioned that we should add only about 10L more. You couldnt believe what happened. As l was pouring in the second 10L of water, l heard a quavering silence. I intially thought rapture had happened. As l turned around to look at why everybody went dumb synchorinously, even as me, the Prof Pellar was perfoming feats of magic, l saw a figure, an unmistakable figure of my mum.
Dear friends, that was the first time, and need l say the only time, in my entire life l couldnt read my mum's mind by just looking at her eyes. That was the first time l wasn't sure if l had gotten into trouble or trouble had gotten into me. Without uttering a single word, she came over and collected the inflated balloon from me, as well as the ones we had not cut, while ordering us to keep playing. I stood there dumbfounded, so also my brothers. I mean so miraculosly my mum didnt order us to immediately file into the house or disppear. My friends were confused and couldn't really smell what was happening, so each one of them started crawling back into the hole he or she came out from.
Till date, l still can't figure out what kept my mum standing there looking at us, with a blunted facie without uttering a word. Also, to our utmost shocking surprise, mum and dad never disscussed the subject till this very day.
Need l say too, that was the first and last time l would ever set my eyes on those mysterious sachet balloons, as a child or teenager. I later saw one in my adult life. However, l was no longer interested in balloons anymore. As an adult that l am now, l am still fascinated at what those little mighty whitish oily balloons could do, other than get blown to a volume of more than 20L of air.
To cap the story of the greatest wonder of my childhood off, till date, l was never questioned, moreso, spanked for such a defiant heroic adventure into my dad's forbidden leather box, where l discovered the Infinity stone.

Guy you funny o. N.a. so I just dey laugh alone this night.

TEYA:
Guy you funny o. N.a. so I just dey laugh alone this night.

Bros, jokes apart, l am still wondering why my dad kept packs of sachet balloons in his leather box, and why my mum never made mention of the sachet balloons till date.

Hahaha. Gone are the days o.