Unlucky

He dropped the empty bowl of Pap in front of his Grandmother, she was in all smiles, her brown teeth shone brightly in the stream of morning sunlight. She gave him his pocket money for the day and after a hug, he skipped off to the school with no bag.

He hummed the Twinkle Twinkle Little Star poem along the way, he felt so free, it was the last week of the session, the week of reckoning, the week of cries and smiles. But that would still be the next four days, for now all that was on his mind were the games he would play at school.

He swore not to join them to play Mummy and Daddy—too childish. Neither would he join them to play “bottle caps football”

“Biro,” he counted his fingers.

“Police and thief,” he smacked his lips, his best, he was so good that he always had the edge either he played Police or thief. He wasn't an easy target as a thief and he catches almost everyone as a police.

“Football,” he said kicking a stone with his right foot, it skidded into the drainage nearby and the brackish water almost splashed on him.

Football would have come first on his list if the seniors would let them use the field and if any of his classmate even had a ball

And then table tennis, more of a locker tennis because they were going to use their wooden lockers neatly arranged near each other to play but there would always be certain edge of the table that would momentarily dispose a player.

“Five—” he said before he tripped and almost fell by the road. A woman selling hot early morning small chops by the roadside shook her head, he smoothen his shirt and trouser and continue skipping.

Everyone at the school was just like him, no bags at all or handbags.

“Make sure you play cautiously, do not injure your self and do no fight, any case that found itself at my table will have the culprits to be blamed. Do not leave the school premises on no account. Have a good day. Thank you.” the Headmaster said before they dispersed to their classrooms.

He played and played till he was tired that morning and he wished they could close early so that he would go home. But he got spirited again when he heard 'mango'. He moved closer to the group of boys whom were talking of the mango trees at the forest. It was the season of mangoes that year and his mouth has tasted none. His mouth watered and he couldn't wait to hold the yellow fruit in his mouth devouring its mesocarp.

“When are we now going,” he asked Yele, the biggest of the boys and who seem to be the leader of the group.

“Now.”

“Now?”

“Now, yes now, what's wrong with now? No one is forcing nobody that doesn't wish to go.”

The boys got set.

Sola made up his mind not to go, he wasn't going to disobey the Headmaster by leaving the school.

“We are going to jump over the fence beside the laboratory leading to the church. Are you coming or not?” Yele asked.

“No, my Grandma would be worried if I don't come home early.”

“Okay, stay back but no one is bringing any mango to the school for you,” Yele said as he stepped outside the classroom, all other boys followed.

“Let's go, Sola, I am sure we would no be caught. This is not the first time Yele and the others are going outside the school and they have never been caught,” Tobi, his best friend said.

“Noo, we could be caught.”

“We wouldn't be caught, we would come back before the school closes.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, let's go,” Tobi said dragging him after the other boys.

Yele went over the fence first, he had been jumping over the fence since his first day at the school that it wasn't really difficult for him anymore, the six other boys followed.

“Off you go, Sola,” Tobi said.

Sola placed his leg in a hole I'm the fence and elevated himself till his hands could touch the fence. He tried to put his right leg on the fence in futility.

“Ohh, you shouldn't have come with us, you would make the Headmaster catch us at this rate,”Yele groaned.

Tobi helped him with his leg while he managed to rolled over to the other side falling flat on his face. Thankfully the ground was full of sawdust.

Tobi jumped over the fence like a monkey and off they set to the forest

The forest was full of organic debris and the boys took care not to step on the excreta that designed the entrance. The trees danced gently at the breeze which shook their branches and the only noises that could be heard was that of the birds. The leaves crumpled under their feet as they made their way to the first tree. It was too tall for them to climb and they threw sticks and stones into the tree until two fruits came down.

When Niyi, one of the boys took picked one of the fruits, Tobi snatched it from his hands.

“It was my stick that brought that down,” Tobi argued.

“Your stick! How can it be your stick when the fruit was right above me and I threw a stone.”

“My stick came from the other side I saw it.”

“I don't care, give it back,” Niyi said, his face getting red.

“Why should we be fighting over a fruit when there is plenty around, let's just look for a shorter tree and get somebody to climb it,” Yele said.

Niyi snapped his fingers at Tobi as they dispersed to check other trees.

“It seems this one is shorter,” Sola said at a another tree which was no shorter than the others but had lower branches with which one could climb to the top easily.

“Okay so who will climb?” Yele asked.

“That's why I came with my boy,” Tobi answered jovially, pushing Sola forward.

“You can climb?” Yele asked.

“Yes,” Sola answered.

“Then let's get to business, but be careful up there, the tree looks shadier than the others.”

“I will also climb” Niyi answered.

As Niyi and Sola scoured the tree, Tobi, Yele and the other boys hinted them on where the ripen mangoes were and after they had plucked it the threw it down to them.

They were like this for like thirty minutes when Yele declared that it was enough and they should come down.

An ant finally bit Niyi's forehead after series of battle with them in the tree, he hurried down the tree and almost fell. Sola followed but he stopped midway.

“What is it?” Tobi asked

“I think—”

“It is a snake! Stay calm, stay calm,” Yele shouted.

“It is coming…closer!”

The snake moved closer to its prey who wouldn't keep an eye contact, then it brought its head up, ready to strike.

“Yahh!” Sola ran unsteadily back into the thick parts of the tree, took a wrong step and fell headlong into the lowers branches then on the ground.

The boys all knew that if nothing he surely would have a broken neck.

Then they took all the sticks and stones that they could get and threw it at the reptile till it fell out of they tree onto the ground where they finally killed it.

“He is not breathing,” Tobi said. “Ohh, if I knew something like this would happen—”

“Don't beat yourself, no one knows, let's just get him home to his Grandma and we would tell her all that happened.

“We would be reported to the Headmaster, we would be caught,” Niyi protested.

“Do you mean we should leave him alone, in this bush-dead?” Tobi retorted.

“Let's just get him home,” Yele said as they carried him home.

———

“What have you done to my son?” Grandma Ruka said when they bought him in, she held him tightly in her embrace, her wrapper almost came off with dragging and shouting around. The neighbors finally came around to help, they took him to the hospital.

Grandma Ruka paced around shakily in the hospital, her wobbly legs barely sustaining her. She prayed that if anything, Sola mustn't die.

The doctor as usual finally came out after some hours with an aura of suspense.

“Mrs Biade,” the doctor cleared his throat before Grandma Ruka.

“We were able to save his live but the fall aftected his brain and he has become paralyzed,” he broke the news before the terrified neighbors whom sympathy suddenly grew in hundred folds for Grandma.

“Paralyzed, forever?”

“Yeah, probably forever,” the doctor answered walking away as Grandma Ruka collapsed into the soft chairs of the waiting room—wailing.