Dr Fixit 251 - 260

251

also to him. The race was a ding-dong.

There is doom for the flippant tongue.

I remembered that little tale and shut 

my mouth. After the play, each child to their hut

did return and hug his or her sleeping space.

Where the kids were many and a common space 

would share, they huddled together, limbs crossing.

With grandma, I had the freedom sleeping 

on a mat on the ground if hot was the room

or jumping to the bed if the temperature did zoom 


252

to below zero as it happened in intense rain

and also in the harmattan months. My train

of thoughts shifted from the play in the moonlight 

and I slept off. The cocks crowed and I opened wide 

my eyes to see the shaft of sunlight piercing 

through a crack in the roof mats. Stirring, 

I looked around and listened attentively.

I could perceive my grandma was actively 

working in the rear yard. The machete 

was hewing something. The branches of an orange tree 


253

which stood near the kitchen she was pruning.

It wasn't planted. Its branches were ruining 

the mats on the kitchen roof. A thrown seed

that sprouted on its own, it would succeed 

to stay where it was if its yields turned out 

desirable but the branches that'd sprout 

towards the kitchen would only be allowed 

to thrive when the thorns again our mats

wouldn't pierce. I realized I'd failed to get up

and do my chores on time. I stood and rubbed 


254

my eyes. I remembered it wasn't a day 

for me to go to school but to church to pray 

for my sins which knowingly or not

I'd done. Like keeping my mouth shut 

and not told anyone Moonit and the young tenant,

the apprentice welder, were going errant -

though I didn't know what exactly it was

(but certainly it wasn't a plus)

they were doing but could make someone pregnant 

as girls were asked to be distant 

from cuddles from the young men's hands.


255

I washed my face, swept the floors,

greeted others and did the kitchen chores.

I bathed, ate and jumped into my Sunday best.

With other kids in their finest dress,

we trooped like princes and princesses

to church. We were guided by the deaconesses 

and deacons to the back rows to be taught 

the Word of God which was like a nut

to a bolt on the wheel of a cart -

without it, the wheel itself would part


256

from the wheel drum and could cause 

an accident to the cart or who'd cross

its path, the by-standers or the rider 

and the goods in it. Our youthful teacher 

started the lesson after a short prayer 

for his pupils to be receptive of the matter 

to be presented to them and the wisdom 

for him to be able to paint the kingdom 

of God in colours appealing to our eyes 

and young minds. That when the saints in their whites


257

would be marching on, every one of us -

fathers, mothers and their progeny of course 

would all be among. When he ended,

we exclaimed, 'Amen!' He attended 

to our lesson with a colourful tome.

'The truth shall set you free,' in a tone

quite sombre, our teacher told us the title

of the lesson for today. In his prattle,

he mentioned how a little fib

could land us in a place hot and dry to sip


258

a little water would be impossible 

as water we'd not see. 'Quite terrible 

would be that place all sinners would go:

liars, thieves, fornicators and also

murderers. In the judgment, sin is sin;

big or small, once the tag is sin;

such people would be condemned for 

eternal damnation. But whatever the colour 

of our sins, the Good News is that God

sent His son to come down and cleanse all sod


259

from us all and usher us into His glory 

where no deed we would be sorry.

Only we need seize the opportunity 

right now and change so we'd live abundantly 

in paradise.' He made us understand 

that life in Sandit wasn't quite grand

as the life we would live in paradise.

When he showed us the pictures, we realized 

roads were not with tar and gravels 

but pure gold. And buildings weren't hovels 


260

but mansions. Garbs were immaculate white.

Foods were cute and money won't be tight 

(I believed) as we were told we wouldn't work 

to pay for a single thing. Well, the roadblock 

- I realized suddenly - would be what I saw

last night during our moonlight play. The flaw

though in our Sunday School teacher's talk

was the fact that the exact time we'd walk

into the riches and joy wasn't within our reach -

it could be now, tomorrow or next. I'd breach 

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