Episode 02 - No Excuse

 

He woke up to meet the clapping thunder resonating in the air. It was on a cloudy afternoon and his sinews and marrows were just recovering from a bout of malaria that dealt with hi innocent soul.

 Although the windy rain served as a panacea for the dusty nature of the season, the topographic and textural configuration of that locality was prone to flooding. 

As he wiggled across the main passageway, he noticed an unusual silence across the building. His parents and most other tenants were not around because it was a Monday. Thus, he was left with the responsibility of preventing the waters from entering the house and to ward off lizards and unfriendly elements from having access into the building. 

As he walked to the backyard, he noticed a creature lurking around its axis, under the pen house where their hens and anything domestic creatures with two legs were kept.

He bent down checking, assuming a knee flexed position so the drops of water from the roof will not splash into his enlarged lips.

“It's a broiler!”, he shrieked, turning around to see if there was another one. 

“Such a poor thing, let me go and see how I can help it.” As he was about to step into the flood water, the flashing lightening reminded him of his previous experiences with rain, most of which ended in tears. His mum would always beat whenever such happened. His father has told him countless times that if one enters the rain while thunder is hosting a party, such a person would become lifeless at a single strike. 

These thoughts permeated his courage and dampened his resolve to “help the helpless”. The rain was beating hard on the roof causing a noise as the intensity increased. 

The hen stood, looking at Gbenga like a bottle of cold cola like a crying emoji attached to the cover. It was cut in a mesh works of weave-ons and torn ropes that fastened its leg to one of the poles of the pen house. 

It had been there since the rain began. Despite the push and pulls by this beautiful being, it still could not break through. The bondage was not I itself strong and hard to loosen. It's just that the agility and the weight of the gen would not match up to the tensile force needed for this deliverance. So, it had to stay put, looking for a helper that would relieve its burden.

“Please help me”, he could read its mind if it had one. 

For minutes, the boy stood counting scores and permeating realities that could occur on his end. 

“Maybe I can use this situation to earn some credits and be showered encomium by my parents”, he said.

After a while, he decided to launch into the deep, against all odds and save the hen like a superhero. 

He entered the rain, his feet could barely touch the ground but because he was familiar with the terrain, he overcame the flood waters.

He got to where the hen was, he pulled off the tattered clothes, tearing the ropes until they snapped. It took time to remove the weave-ons because they were so tight and annoying. As he grappled with that, the rain became even more intense and windy so that he could barely see what he was doing. Nevertheless, he continued the good job. 

A few minutes later, all the 'jewelries' on its leg were all removed. The close-to-death hen felt a surge of energy and perceiving that life had returned to the leg, it pecked the boy in a stroke and scampered for safety. 

He was supposed to be given a medal but lo, what he got was a painful attack. He wondered why life wasn't always beautiful and heaved a sign of relief. As he was about to turn to the back, he noticed that the hairs had locked his fingers and his leg was stuck in mud. He got irritated as he started to free himself from the lock down. When he was done, he looked up to the skies only for lightening to flash into his eyes. He was about to turn back and run when he heard a voice calling his name 'Gbenga, Gbenga'. It was his mother 

“I was”

“Keep shut”, his mother interrupted 

“you are not feeling fine yet you are playing in the rain. Do you want to be unfortunate in this life, do you want to implicate me in your own stupidity!!”

“I was trying to free our hen, it was stoked here”, I said, pointing to where I loosened it”

“I didn't open the isn't these morning”, she said staring angrily at me. It was then I remembered that it wasn't ours, it was a stranger lost in adventure. “Just come in side”, she said. 

Well, to cut the story short, I went in and was treated of my fever. I was eventually beaten into pulp, but she gathered my broken pieces and took care of my wounds later that evening.

Thanks for reading. Don't forget to drop your comments, suggestions and recommendations as they are highly needed. Thanks 

Written by: Jegede Samuel Whyte

04/04/2020

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