The Preacher Son

Episode 21

‘Guy make we go buy zobo(a reddish drink mixed with jolly juice) from mama isreal’ solomon said.

Zobo from mama isreal was like manna from heaven, it was so sweet that i did not mind spending all my money for it, zobo and ‘talia'(a hausa word for spaghetti) were my favourite break food and i always try not to miss all of them.

On that fateful day, talia was finished and we faced mama isreal house to go buy the block zobo before it finished.

We bought our zobo and we were licking our tounges out when i sighted something that froze my blood.

Some guys were smoking by the road side and i recognised one of them as the ex-student that i stoned.

‘Solomon, i don die’
‘So na zobo coldness nai wan kill you’ he said laughing.

‘Guy see those boys that are smoking na’
Then he recognised them, the solomon i taught could boost my moral quickly told me he forgot his change with mama Isreal and he ran as fast as his long legs could take him.
‘If i run now this boys go follow me, so make i just bone pass maybe them no go recognise me’ i tot

‘My friend come here’ a big voice threatened.
I wanted running but i knew that would worsen the problem so i limped because my legs was not functioning well that moment and went to them.
‘So you saw your seniors fighting and you were claiming superman abi?’ the asked me.
‘Haba bros which day them fight, na today i just start school, my papa say fighting na sin sef’ i said with a tiny voice.

They gripped me by the shirt and raised me up, my two legs were dangling like to cable wire, tears from nowhere started dropping.
As one of them raised his hand to send my face to paradise, a voice which i would now call my saviour shouted.

‘If you touch that boy, all of you would sleep in cell today, i have mark all of you faces’.
Before i landed on the ground when they droped me they had all disappeared.

The story of my fight had spread round to all the teachers and i was called up to the assembly ground and was congratulated, i could still remember some girls even from ss3 rubbing my big head which made me feel good anything they see me, any teacher that came to our class was always asking of me and finally i was made the class monitor which brought me even more trouble.

‘I hope they did not do to you anything’ aunty PHE said while raising me to her feet.
‘Yes ma’ i answered while i sighted solomon coming to our side like he truly went to collect his imaginary change.

‘Ok go to the class and if those boys ever harass you again just let me know’
‘Thank you ma’

She gave us a 5m naira note which i gladly receive and we ran to school because the bell was rung that moment.

‘Solomon why you leave me run na’
‘Na my money i forget na i no want mama Isreal to carry my money’
I was not ready for any argue so i kept mute and started thinking about aunty PHE and what she truly wanted from me which i got to find out later.

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‘Oya today we are going to write our names, age, LGA, address etc in the register’ my form mistress said.

She started filling the information and she finally came to my turn the whole class were waiting to hear my age because the youngest person was about 12yrs so they were wondering if i was older than that to be able to be a distinctive trouble maker and also the most intelligent boy in the class.

‘Whats your parents name’
‘Pastor and Mrs *
‘Age’
‘9years’
‘Chai’ the whole class shouted in suprised,
‘So na 9yrs old boy dey write my name for noise maker list’ a 16yr old boy fumed.
I smiled at myself and took a mental note to write that boy name if am told to put down names of noise makers.

‘LGA’ my aunty’s voice jolted me back to reality.

‘Obot-akara (though the akara is pronounced as ukara)’

The whole class busted into laughter at the mention of my LGA and even the form mistress smiled alittle. I was so mad at my mates because everyone started calling me akara LGA.
I grabbed a paper when the form mistress was through and waved it to the class that i was about
writing the noise makers list.

‘My freind go siddon one place’ the 16yr old boy shouted at me and i quickly put his name as no.1 and added x2 beside it.

The rule then was that if your name was put x2 you would recieve twice as much cane.

I went to solomon’s seat to jist about films and the girl that winked at me at the first day of school came and joined us, i later found out her name was Amaka.

I wrote anybody name that spoke a word except my freind and Amaka.

When the names were up to 20 by that time the boy’s name that i wrote 1st was x6, i went to the ss3 class and called the most wicked prefect i could find and gave him the name. He followed me and called out the name of the defaulters.
When they all came out he flogged them 3strokes each and you can imagine the number of cane the person i x5 his name collected.
When he was going back to his seat with heavy tears down his cheeks he pointed at me and said that we would meet after school.

A threat i laughed at……..