Secondary school days are one of the most memorable moments of our lives. It fills the mind with nostalgic feelings remembering the teenage years and wondrous experiences.
During my secondary school time, I was someone who didn’t really fancy the academic sessions and my favorite school moments were the when the school bell was being rung for Long Break and Closing. The sounds of the bell which troubles my soul and makes my heart weep dejectedly during morning assemblies and change of lesson periods sounded like music to my ears when it announced the Long Break and Closing time.
The long break period was a time for students to reconcile their hungry bellies with food after hours of separation. It was also a time to relax and a period where the ‘busybodies’ got their ears loaded with weapons of gossips/rumours from the arsenal of careless mouths. Well, as for me, it was a time I engaged in my most beloved game-Football. The type of football I am referring to isn’t the one you watch on television where 21 millionaires kick each other, tumble on the grass and chase after a ball for 90 minutes o.
Have you ever played or witnessed a 5-aside football game before? It is a football game played mostly on a concrete floor and the makeshift goal post (mocking post) is called monkey post. It is also known as street football and the foundation of many renowned footballers. Unlike the leather balls used in playing grass football, we made use of rubber balls the size of coconuts. Only legends can understand the way the rubber balls were boiled until they became very hard and small.
With hearts full of gleeful expectations, my football mates and I would race to the abandoned lawn tennis court, venue of our football games. While some played with their school uniforms on, others preferred playing in their underwear to avoid getting their uniforms dirty or worse still, torn. Playing barefooted was dangerous as one could easily get bruised on the hard concrete surface. This made it expedient for us to play wearing footwear (our school sandals served that purpose). It was during one of those exciting football games that my school sandal decided to put me in trouble. While I was trying to dribble past an opponent, I slipped and heard my sandal scream in agony as its sole got ripped off. “Jeez!!! I don enter trouble today”, I exclaimed.
Images of my mother warning me sternly to take good care of the sandals flashed in my head. She had threatened to skin me alive should the sandals spoil. She reiterated her threat by pulling my ears vigorously. This incident occurred about a week ago . Mother was getting disturbed why my sandals kept getting damaged very frequently. Fortunately for me, she never knew why.
“My mama go beat craze comot for my body today” I lamented as I began to imagine how mum would bark at me while she landed painful lashes of koboko (whip) on my bare back. I had no money on me to buy gum to unite the sole with the other parts of my sandal or have the sole sewn by the shoe cobbler. I pleaded with my football friends to help me with some money but none yielded. Well, I managed to tie two rubber bands around the sole which temporarily held the sandal in place.
When closing period arrived, I hurried home, praying silently for mum not to be home before me to notice the state of my sandal. I was glad when I saw she wasn’t home when I arrived. I decided to play a trick so she wouldn’t notice the damaged sandal.
A smile cut across my lips when I remembered how I once used superglue to gum the buttons of my school uniform. A football opponent had carelessly pulled my shirt depriving it of two buttons in the process. There was no way I could return to the classroom with a uniform devoid of two buttons. Luckily for me, I was able to find the missing buttons which I attached to my uniform using a superglue bought by a friend.
While still pondering on how I could prevent my mum from seeing the sandal in its bad condition, an idea struck me. There was a left over Eba in the kitchen. I had often seen people use Eba as adhesive for posting papers on walls and was quite convinced that Eba could do the magic on my sandal. I scooped some of the Eba in the plate, applied it to the sole of my sandal and was filled with joy when I noticed it worked. Minutes later, mother was home, she checked the sandal and saw nothing wrong. If only I knew what awaited me the morning after.
The following morning, mum decided to leave home for work very early, her workplace wasn’t far from my school and so she suggested we leave the house together. I wore my sandals confidently and had barely taken ten steps when all the Eba attached to my sandal’s sole was let loose leaving the sole of my sandal opened like the mouth of the fish when it was about to swallow Jonah. My mother needed no soothsayer to understand my mischief. Her fury was worse than that of Tyson in the boxing ring. She delivered some unforgettable beatings on my body, decorating it with whip marks.
Ever since, I have developed a great hatred for Eba. There is no way I can love something that betrayed me.