Dr Fixit (071 - 080)

 071

around our big football pitch and when we saw,

we pinched a pupil near us and pointed at the door

or window, whichever space was nearest,

at the lad running around the pitch with a vest

(it was the norm to take off your white top

and run with your green shorts or skirt.) The class stopped

copying what our teacher wrote on the board

and we were giggling. Our giggles soared

to Mrs Bearit and she turned, surveyed the class 

and followed the gazes to the boy out on the grass.

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Mrs Bearit distracted us. 'You'd join him too,'

she said, 'if you don't do what I asked you to do.'

Who ran around the pitch while lessons were on

must have slept when being taught. We did turn

our undivided attention to our teacher

copying the vowels and consonants as rendered

in Nseebeedee, the core alphabet of Antish.

Who doesn't know them in Antburg is mulish.

In Elementary Two, I worked with chalk

and slate. If I made a mistake, I erased my work

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with leaves. The teachers erased theirs with dusters.

What Mrs Bearit wrote were the core letters

in Antish that are used in moulding every word

that is spoken and understood across Antburg.

First letter was pronounced, 'Ah.' Like a two-rung ladder,

narrow at the top but wide below was the letter 

in capital. The small one was like a pregnant tummy

to the left of the spine. Pronounced 'Beh'

was the second. Big letter sat on one side, the main rim

to the left. The small a pregnant maiden

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sitting, facing right. 'Deh' was the next.

The capital was a bow with the string to the left.

The small letter was a pregnant mother

sitting, her tummy to the left. The fourth letter

was pronounced, 'Eh.' A no-handle three-pronged fork you hook

food with was the big case (facing right). The small was a loop

with the free end curving right. The fifth letter

was 'Fe.' It was the bar of an iron-bender

with two prongs facing right. The small case

was a snake lying across the base

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of the big, the tail below the line pointed

to the left, the head above it to the right pointed.

Pronounced 'E' was letter number six.

The capital letter was like a pole fixed

to the ground and the small a footballer

nodding a ball. 'Ke' was the seventh letter.

Both big and small cases were like a human,

facing right, taking a karate pose. (A slap with the hand

awoken the children from their learning fantasy.

We all wondered what was the reality.

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A yellow fly had flown in through a window,

each class had three and two doors, opened for air to flow

and freshen the space which otherwise would be,

with the masses of us learning, quite stuffy

and was so bold to squat on a child's slate.

Being slapped dead was its fate

for everyone knew it came to suck the blood

as its food. Mrs Bearit picked the fly lying dud

beside the killer and threw it outside.

She urged us to go back to work and write.)

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Next letter was pronounced, 'Mm.' Each case

resembled a cow that on a field would graze.

'Nn' was how the ninth letter was pronounced.

A steep hill and valley when we glanced

at the big case was the picture.

The small case had every feature

of a plateau. The tenth letter to Antish

was special. It had the small 'n' in English

as its head and the lower part of 'g' as its tail.

Pronounced 'ng', the sound seemed to prevail 

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in most words spoken throughout Antburg.

You'd hear it in 'mmong' (water) and the name of a bug,

'ntanta-ahfiong' (firefly) and even in the verb, drink (wong).

I bet you want to hear more till 'mkpong',

that is tomorrow, we'd go on reeling more and more.

Letter number eleven was pronounced, 'Oh.' It bore

resemblance to a full moon or ball;

the capital letter that is, and below it was a dot.

The small was still ball-shaped but had a deep cut

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or vent to its left and it was pronounced 'or'

but you didn't drawl the 'r' like Americans. (The door

banged shut as a strong wind heckled it.

It ruffled the flowers and trees as fruits hit

the branches and leaves as they dropped down.

It seemed the rain was on its way to our town.

Mrs Bearit pushed the door back and propped it

with a broken bench. Her shoes like stilts

she clicked across the concrete floor to the board

and a pointer touched the letter like a sword

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pinned down with the handle to the right.)

The small case was same as the big but the knight

who owned it seemed to pin it really deep

into the ground that only the handle did

stay above the baseline of the big case.

'Peh' was the pronunciation. (In a haste,

the rain rushed in. A blinding flash

made some pop their lips while some dash

under the benches for cover but everyone

had their hands on their ears so the blast didn't stun