I was raised by highly disciplined parents and they never accepted any form of indiscipline from my siblings and I. Due to that, my siblings and I had so much fear of our parents that we are always trying to be perfect even though we can never be.
When they send me on an errand, I always made sure that I keep the money very well and remember what I was sent. Also, I must never write it down because my parents will think I may forget and to make my brain sharper, I should always make sure that I try to remember whatever I was sent.
One day, we were thinking of what to eat at home because we were tired of eating Rice all the time. Finally, my mum brought the idea of eating corn meal so she sent me to the junction to get corn meal.
Jode, go to the junction to get corn meal and make sure that you check it well so you will pick the best one, my mum said to me.
Okay mummy, I responded and she handed the money to me and I left the house immediately.
While I was going on the road, I saw some people watching television in one shop. Here in Nigeria, there are places where they sell televisions or sometimes cassettes so they play movie. With that, people can have an idea of what the cassette entails. And to also show people how well their television works.
At that time, a movie titled “Merlin” was just trending.
Everyday in class, my friends come to talk about it and sometimes make me feel like I’m the only one left out which was actually true even though I never wanted to hear the truth.
While passing that shop, I heard people saying Merlin has too much magic, Merlin is very powerful, look at what he will do now,. When I heard people say that, I could tell that they were watching Merlin so I wanted to see what the movie was like. I planned to watch the movie for three minutes to see what the movie was like and maybe see some people who will tell me what happened fron the beginning.
Honestly, I didn’t know how many minutes I spent there.
At one time, I started hearing my name Jode!!!. Hearing that voice, I could tell that was my mum’s voice and my heart started beating fast.
I ran away from there to go straight to where my mum sent me but I never knew she sighted me from afar. I ran straight to buy the corn meal and even got home before my mum. I thought she didn’t see me but I was shocked that she saw me and she spanked me so hard. My parents spanked me on that day and gave me the warning of my life.
You spent over one hour there watching movie while we’re here waiting for you to come back home with what we sent you. I was even scared that something bad might have happened, my mum said to me and that was when it occured to me that I spent over one hour there watching that movie but within that short time, I could tell that Merlin is a very interesting movie.
I really don’t know how I got distracted and I’ve never done such before but the hype of the movie got me distracted and I was away with the fairies.
Ever since then, if my mum ever send me on an errand, I always make sure that I focus on where I was sent to. Even when Boys over flowers, the popular Korean movie was trending, I passed that same shop and saw a lot of people watching the movie, I didn’t even branch.
Eventually, my dad bought the Merlin cassette since he’s a movie freak too. My family and I were able to watch Merlin and I also talked about it with my friends in class because I already watched it with my family.
Also, if I’m ever going to do something or branch somewhere, I’d make sure that I time myself and not surpass the time I’m supposed to spend there coupled with the reason that my parents may give me the beating of my life if I ever get distracted or even try to forget what she sent me.
Going away with the fairies still happens to me even though my parents tried to take that away from me.