Our hearts almost flew off our chests when Dev was almost knocked down by a power bike. Our parents often warned us never to play football near the main road but we never listened. My childhood life is a bunch of stories to tell the world. When I was a child, we lived in a very big compound where there were a lot of tenants. This building was occupied by many families and individuals. It was more like for the poor and middle-class members of the society. Due to this exposure and the population of the compound I grew up in, I made a lot of friends. John was my best friend. Dev was the most playful one, he saved his lunch money just to purchase a football. Jackson was a quiet and intelligent friend, played less and studied most. Samuel was the most vibrant one, always looking for places to explore.
One of the days we were playing Dev's football at the next compound since our parents wouldn't allow us to play in the open area close to the main road and opposite our compound, we often moved to the next compound to have fun to the fullest. Our compound is located close to the Highway leading from Calabar in the South-East to Uyo and also in the South East, that's why the name of the highway is Calabar-Uyo Highway. My parents loved me because I often appeared to be serious with my education, which I truly wasn't. I used to wake very early before my parents, dress up and leave the house, guess where I often headed to; Dev's house. My friends and I often gather at Dev's house to wait for him to dress up so we could move to school together and we often fight for who would hold the football while going to school.
"Prin prin prin", was our favorite sound in school back then, the sound of recreation and school over bell. This bell often marked the beginning of our football match. When this bell rang, Dev would always take out his ball from his bag, and run outside and all the boys most times excluding Samuel would chase Dev as if he had stolen a golden egg. "Pass to me, pass to me!!!!!!" Everyone would call on Dev to pass the ball to them. When the tempo was calm, we would all gather together and share ourselves into two groups to play against each other. Dev was always the first to say, "Firstborn!!!" This means he was the captain of his team and would be the first to pick who he wanted to play with. The secondborn was always the second captain of the opponent team.
Source
It used to be fun playing football despite the injuries we often sustained just to appear as a star player, most times to impress the female audience by the field sides. I remember one incident where David, one of my mates sustained an injury, a bruise on the knee. The coarse sandy field left his skin peeled. We were all little boys and we had no idea of what to do. Dev suggested we use water to wash off the blood. When we took David to the tap and positioned his knee below the rushing water, he screamed and squeezed his face. Then he said, "Please take me to our class teacher, you guys are just adding fuel to the fire". We then lifted him and rushed him to our teacher.
The female students often enjoyed watching the boys play football and show off their energy. The only "prin prin prin" sound we hated was the break-over bell. This break-over bell meant that all the students and all the students outside were expected to return to their respective classes to continue their studies. It was very funny that our love for football often made us take our lunch by the end of school because we often played football throughout the break time. Most times our lunch would always develop a foul smell. This is because since morning it was prepared and packaged, we never opened it.
David stayed away from school for five days due to his injury because it affected his knee joint and he couldn't walk without crutches. David's injury didn't teach us all a lesson, it didn't kill our passion for football but rather, we encouraged and assured ourselves that we would be more careful from then on. But the worst news we had was that our school banned us from playing special sports like football, race and others in the field except with supervision from the sports master.
Due to this restriction from school, our behaviors and plans changed. We started finishing our lunches and returning home very early after school had closed. We often returned from school as soon as school had closed because it used to give us more time to play. One fateful day when we returned from school, we heard the news that the Plaza Bridge, which was another route most drivers often take instead of the Calabar-Uyo Highway, collapsed. Because of this, our street was the busiest in town, all the vehicles that most times took the Plaza Bridge channeled to our street's main road. While taking my bath, I couldn't hear my Mom calling me because of the loud sounds from trailer horns. The whole street was busy and noisy.
After taking my lunch, I went into my room to take a little siesta just before I heard a bang on our door, "Kpam Kpam, it's me Dev. Godwin, everyone is waiting for you, aren't you joining us today?" I was left with no choice but to impress my friends by answering "yes" to Dev, though an inner spirit in me told me to stay back. When we arrived our usual play spot, I wasn't comfortable playing the game so I suggested, "Guys, this place is close to the busy main road and there is every possibility that our ball is going to land in the middle of the road, let's suspend the play till tomorrow or whenever the road becomes less busy". Dev had never hated me for anything before but due to what I said he frowned at me and hissed, showing his disagreement with my idea.
They decided to play without me but the two teams they shared themselves but were not even, one team had three boys while Dev's team had only two boys, Dev and Samuel. Jackson was absent as usual, reading his books at home. I knew my friends needed me to fill their joy of the game. So I finally agreed to join them to play. When I joined them, Dev's squeezed face suddenly gave out a welcoming smile that could make a lady fall. We played till we became absorbed in the game, and we lost consciousness of our environment. Mistakenly, Desmond from the opponent team kicked the ball away trying to keep it from entering the goalpost. Unfortunately for us, the ball landed in the middle of the highway. Dev immediately ran into the highway without observing to see the incoming power bike which almost knocked him down. The power bike rider had to swerve to one side of the road to avoid hitting Dev down. In an attempt to save Dev's life, the rider sustained a very serious injury and he was immediately rushed to the hospital.
Image is mine....
When the neighbors and passersby saw what happened, they immediately took us to our parents and reported us to them. My Dad was a drunkard who loved to drink alcohol in the evening. I was unlucky that evening because my father was drunk. He gave me the beating of my life. I cried but no one helped me. When my Mom arrived, I thought she would save me but she added fuel to the fire by saying, "Make him learn the lesson of his life. I have warned him several times and he refused to listen. He only listens to his friends, I am nothing to him, show him something".
My dad gave me the beating of my life. Though he considered my age, he only used a tiny cane just a bit wider than a broomstick to flog my hands, but the pain was more like I was put in an iron furnace. After this incident, I learned never to be recalcitrant.
This is my participation for the creative nonfiction prompt 82 of #theinkwell community. Thanks for reading and I hope you've enjoyed it.
THIS IS BASED ON REAL-LIFE EXPERIENCE, A NONFICTION STORY OF MY LIFE.
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That was a very close call and thankfully Dev was not hit and the bike man was only injured.
It's always good to have designated places for sports and entertainment to minimise the risk of such occurrence, but unfortunately we don't have such places in abundance here.
Yes you're right. The only designated place we could play then was the football pitch far from home. As little children we were afraid of unknown bullies and other risks.
You took me back to the lanes of memories.
Those trade, break time was something we couldn't trade for anything. It's usually the best moment in school.😂
!BBH
I always said it seems we share some similarities of our past. Thanks @kingsleyy for stopping by to encourage my work.
Hello @captainman
We ask our writers to support (ie: comment meaningfully on) at least two stories from other writers in The Ink Well for EACH story that they wish to share themselves. You have submitted three stories in the last seven days and commented on one post. You have not used the correct tags. The Ink Well specifically does not support non-fiction posts, only fiction and creative non-fiction. You have also omitted to provide image sourcing for your second image. If you would like your submissions to be considered for curation, please adhere to The Community guidelines, ensuring that you read the contest posts carefully. Please also ensure that you are engaging meaningfully with other writers and supporting them if you wish for others to support you too. Thank you, The Ink Well team.
I'm down. I am very sorry for such actions and I promise it won't happen again. It is often said, "When you caution a child for his actions twice, if he repeats it the third time then it is not a mistake." Therefore, I plead that you take it that I wasn't aware and now I'm clearly told.
About the tags, I have done the needful and I promise to always adhere to the rules.
Accept my apologies and my next post in the community will be mind-blowing and a kind the community would always want. Thanks for correcting me for every step I missed, @inkwell.
The first image was rightly sourced. The second image is mine.