BANGLED BEAUTIES

The time was around 2:30pm, the sun was shining to out done competitor

the humans at the receiving end did not know. Pat was among the pupil

heading home under the full weight of the gamma after school work.

Suddenly, birds that will number about hundreds fluttered and scattered

from corn field that covers a great quantity of plots there. Pat was

mesmerised , he stood transfixed mopping at their receding figures. He

was captivated by their colour, white, yellow, green, beautiful creatures.

The corn field was not entirely corn field, but like biafran tradition, the farm

contains other crops like yam, pepper etc, only that the corn cobs has

grown to cover other crops that it was easily refered to as cornfield. The

area the corn covers might be bigger than stand football pitch, but it wasn’t

own by any single person or entity. It was owned by almost a kindred,

about almost ten families. No barbed wires, no visible demarcation of any

kind only years of doing the same thing and working the same land

over and over again that each person knew where his or her land starts

and end. Even their kids can walk from their houses with their eye closed

and stops exactly where their portion starts automatically. There was never

a case of land disputs or tampering with your neighbours property in the

name of being confused.

 Pat Eso, 9, slightly built, slightly receding front hair even at that age,

nose a little bit flat, height normal of that age group. He was third in line in

family of eight including father and mother. He was in year four primary

school in united primary school Nkpor. His hobbies includes football, sprints

even dancing. At least, he has represented his schools in all three in

school competitions. So, this particular June afternoon, he was forced to

consider adding keeping birds as part of his hobby. He was marching

behind dupty mistress, when those birds took off from the corn field. As he

stood there watching the birds, the mistress kept going but occasionally

looked back watching him. He don’t want to become object of focuse of the

woman. So, he continued his home ward movement, made note in his mind

that he will come back to that cornfield again.

Edu was in fourth year in the same primary school. He was 9 years, fair in

complexion about the same height with pat, hair black. He weighs about

20kg. his hobbies includes football, swimming and cards playing. His dad

has two plots of lands in that cornfield and that was who pat approached for easier access to the

cornfield.

 “What will you be doing with those birds?, Can’t sell them, no one will

buy.” Edu asked

“I wasn’t planning to sell, just as pet”.

“They make a lot of noise, consume a lot of food”

“Not noise, they sing, give them rice every day they will sing down your

roof”

“Give them the same kind of food every day, they became thin and ugly”

“add corns at time then”

“They has offensive odours too”

“Yeah, I know I will keep their cage clean every day”.

“Those birds has brain, you know?”

“How?”

“Of course, you think it is easy to catch them?”

“We will use twine”

“Okay!, let me see how you do the magic”

They bought twines and spent another hour looping them into desired

shape. After that, they went to the field and were surprised to see all

manners of scarecrows on display in the corn field. It was like fashion

parade. They temporally forgot their mission and focused on scarecrows

that truly scared then initially.

Truly, this one on Mr Sam's farm really look like human and was good

enough to halt both on seeing it.

“Shit, I thought it was human”.

“Why did he waste that cloth on the thing?”

“Waste?, he will later collect them back”.

“What if someone steal the cloth?”

“You said steal, then the person will be labeled a thief”.

“You have to catch the person first”

“He will be caught, unless he won’t wear them here”

“They look saleable to me”

“The money don’t worth the soiled name if caught”.

“Okay, I still don’t remember how many thieves they have caught in this

city”

“Every day for the thief, one day for the owner of the house”.

“Yeah, I heard you”

They spent about thirty minutes going up and down the cornfield admiring

and passing judgment on the scarcrows. When they came to Edu’s family farm

land, Edu burst out laughing.

“Hea, men, it is not bad at all”.

“My elder brother did that, I supplied the materials and he did the

structuring. He supposed to move the left hand shoulder up a bit”.

“It still not bad, he supposed to use lafia hat not clothes as hat”.

“Yeah, in the score of one to ten, ten being the best, I gave it five”.

“NO, I think seven is like it”.

“Seven?, no, no, it is over rating”.

“Seven is just okay for it”.

When they finally came to their primary assignment, it was almost five in

the evening, they got down to business of where to place the loops and

how to tie the end so that it will be easy to lose when need arises. Edu’s

family farm being some how in the middle, it looked like a perfect spot for

the beautiful birds, they like mostly to operate from the middle to avoid

being surprised by humans. So, they tied the twines on the chosen corn

cobs and placed the loops on the rows of grains, took last looks at their

handiwork, smiled in satisfaction and went home in high hopes.

“I seriously don’t know why these dummies were not named scare

canneries. You ever see any crows eating grains in this lands before?” Pat querried.

“Whiteman name things, maybe, it is crows that disturb their farmers and

their crops”

“I suspect seriously that it was the case”

“I need you to help me to build cage”

“Today?, man it is late, tomorrow.

“What of if the trap catches bird this night?”

“Then use carton first and build cage later”

“I don’t like cartons, they get wet easily and smell bad”

“Place nylon bag on it, then pray that the trap don’t catch birds with bangles”

“How do you mean bangles?”

“You don’t know some of these birds wears necklesses?, with their country

and zoo of origin written boldly on the neckless”

“country and zoo?”

“Of course, most migrates from western world to here when they have

winter there, humans and birds ran to Africa”

“I have never heard anything like that before”

“I saw in documentary in television last year”.

“And I supposed to release these bangled and neckless birds when caught?”.

“Yes, it is call due process”.

“And if I don’t, how will they know?”,

“I don’t know, some say sensors, some say chips whatever those means, I

don’t know”

“Whiteman magic”

Laughter

“I really will like to build those cages”

“Man, am going home, it is almost five- thirty”

“I will get the materials ready and tomorrow, we do it.”

“Better that way, it won’t be difficult to do, just soak the materials in water or

else it will be hard to pierce".

Pat went to bed around 9:30pm; he was busy getting the materials ready

for fixing the next day, He ate little yesterday night and yet he wasn’t feeling

Hungary or sleepy despite sleeping little last night due to expectations.

 Early in the morning, he rushed to Edu’s house, urging him to

accompany him to the field.

“Man, I have to do my morning duties before looking for birds, besides, it is

unlikely to trap anything, canaries and other corn birds operates in living day

light, man, they are not bats”

“What of if any was trap and die of suffocation”

“Another one will be caught. Just relax men”.

Pat contemplated going there alone but changed his mind. He don’t want to

go into corn cobs alone, most are far taller than him, he will be lost in there.

He decided to persuade Edu again on the way to school. That opportunity

never materialized. It was after school on their way back that they decided

to give dupty headmistress fifty meters and vanished into time air on getting

near the cornfield. Pat ran ahead of Edu to the spot they place the traps

and was disappointed that almost 10 percent of the twines he placed was

wrongly looped and grains were eating from them and still the twine did not

catch even one. Edu adjusted the trap well and encouraged him that

tomorrow, they won’t be too lucky again.

They went home having agreed on the time and venue of the cage building.

For a month, the story remains that of near misses and it was eating into

Pat's health, school performance, home cores and sports. He thought of

nothing but birds 24 hours a day and his mother has tried hard and soft

method of bringing him out of melancholy he was in to no avail,

On middle of november, savoiur appeared in the form of his maternal

uncle, who came with two birds after hearing the tale of his nephew. Pats

joy knew no bound, he immediately went to work of caring and feeding the

creatures. His parents don’t actually love the idea of birds in their family,

they worry about bird flu they hear about in television, but they decided to

keep quiet for the positive change they witness in their ward.

On December 23, the traditional date pat’s family usually returned to their

country side home for yuletidy and return back to city usually on 2 January. Pat knew

that no Jupiter will make his parents to allow him to put the cage in family

car due to fear of flu, he raked his brain on who to hand the birds over to for

one week and found none, so, he decided to be over feeding the birds from

the food his uncle brought and on 23, he placed extra food plate inside

the cage and full the two to over following, water cups, he did the same;

hoping that they will not be able to consumed all the food for eight days.

He went home for Christmas holiday, the worst in his young life. On second

January, on returning to the city; he rushed to the corridor where he kept

the cage, found one laying dead on the cage floor and one that were still alive

was very weak, yet, there was still little food and water remaining. He

changed the water and the living bird rushed it and drank hungrily. He

opened the cage door and the bird flew away weakly.