Five Knuckle Shuffle ( A CHILDHOOD MEMORY)

I can't help but smile at the memories I am remembering right now, thinking about the stupid things I did as a child, and the repercussions that followed. Although I was discrete with my mistakes and even at that little age, I tried as much as possible to manage the repercussions of my mistakes which made it hard to be seen for my stupidity. So without further ado, I will be sharing a particular story of my obnoxiousness as a child and the repercussions that followed suit.

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I was a huge wrestling fan growing up, I would normally practice some wrestling moves from WWE with my dad when my mum wasn't around. That was how we played being a boy with only my dad to play with. (My mum didn't play the kind of games I enjoyed playing). A time came when I began to feel bored because my dad wasn't spending time with me as usual, there was no one to play with because my immediate younger sibling is a girl four years younger than I am. My brother was still a baby then 11 years younger than I am.

We hardly had friends come over to visit because my parents wanted to keep our family life discreet and as a child, It was normal to have a big mouth when I got too excited. I was in JSS2 if I remember correctly, my dad had just got me a Blackberry Bolt 5. It was my second screen touch phone which was my reward for doing very well in the previous academic session. One week into using the phone I was practicing a wrestling skill on my own which happened to be John Cena's popular Five knuckle shuffle ( The move he makes before his finishing move AA)

I got over myself when I began to question whether that move was as painful as those wrestlers show it, and in that inquisitiveness, I decided to try it out on my phone to see the outcome 😂. I guess the outcome is obvious, I broke my phone screen in the process. That was when the precautionary message the WWE always sent about never copying what you see in the ring at home, school, or anywhere began to ring in my head 😂. My enthusiasm died immediately, as my body went cold all of a sudden thinking about how I would get out of the mess I just got myself into.

I nearly cried looking at my broken screen and thinking about all the lies I could tell to avoid a serious beating from my mother. No one was at home when it happened, so I waited till my parents were back that evening. I started doing every house chore I could find, both the ones that were bigger than me and the ones I could handle. My mum was really proud of me that day because those were the things that made her happy.

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HOW I TURNED THE TABLES OF LUCK

My dad came back and there was no electricity, he needed to carry a gallon containing 25 liters of petrol from his car boot but went inside to do something. That was when I seized my opportunity to tell a good lie. I went on to carry the petrol by myself knowing it would be too heavy for me, and I took my phone along pretending to use the touch light to find a passage to the backyard where I would wait for my dad to turn on the generator. When I was almost close to the backyard, I ensured I fell with the gallon in my hand and I made sure to make noise with it so everyone would come and see what was happening.

And just as I expected, my mum came rushing down first, then my dad followed suit. I just remained on the ground, till they came to carry me up and took me inside. I injured myself in the process, but my joy knew no bounds knowing I won't be held responsible for breaking my phone's screen. They thought it was the fall that caused the screen to break and that was how that matter was closed. A week later or so, my mum wanted me to write my Junior waec in another school, so she took me there so I could start the JSS 3 section there. She wanted me to check for the principal while she waited in the car, so I quickly went there to figure out where the principal's office was.

I saw some students sitting around the school, and I decided to ask them for directions to the principal's office, only for them to direct me to an unknown place in the school. They were in a student cult, and I just went into their hands. I was with my phone which was the only tangible thing they could steal from me, when they saw it, they took it, looked at the screen, saw it was broken, and knew it would be expensive to replace. So they gave it back and told me to run. Oh, what joy filled my heart as I ran with my broken screen phone. I became happy that the broken screen had just kept the phone with me a while longer. My parents didn't allow me to go to that school after narrating my experience there, but to date, they never knew the truth behind the broken screen.

THIS IS MY RESPONSE TO THE HIVE NAIJA WEEKLY PROMPT