A TRIP DOWN MEMORY LANE.

source

As kids, every holiday we had i.e away from school was always fun. I'm sure you can guess why. Almost every child wanted a break from school and holidays for Christmas festivities was always a bonus.
I remember vividly well how much fun we used to have during the Christmas holidays. The extended family will be down from different walks of life. Big aunties, uncles, cousins, spouses, grandparents, kids and everyone basically.

It was always exciting and there was an abundance of everything, from food to drinks, endless gifts and treats for us kids. It was also the time we used to get into alot of mischief and endless schemings.

Packing my bags for the holidays brought back some unpleasant memories that I thought I had since buried.

I was 10 years old when this particular incident happened. My favorite cousin was Michel, he was the only son of his parents, my uncle, Uncle Jude, my father's younger brother and his wife, my aunt, Bukemi. Michel was my favorite cousin because he was as mischievous as I was and we were closer in age. He was 11 years old and crafty was the most appropriate word to describe him.

Even when I didn't have the nerve to go through with some of my crazy thoughts, he was always there to motivate and cheer me on. Talk about two people misleading each other.

I'm a girl and shouldn't be imitating Michel I was told many times, but he was so much fun, anywhere you found Michel, you can be rest assured I'll be close by.
You can't blame us though, once we departed and went our separate ways with our parents in different towns, we never got the opportunity to catch up until the next Christmas. We only communicated through video calls.

I recall a particular incident where Michel and I went to bath in the village river, it was forbidden course, but as children living in the city where such experience was alien, we couldn't resist it. We were seated in front of our grandparents house, chatting idly when we saw some kids with buckets on their heads going to the river to fetch water.

We followed them and imitated them when they bathed with their clothes on after fetching water. I was in the river till my eyes were red, and it was the single most beautiful experience of my childhood.
We were at the river for several hours, bathing and splashing water on each other's bodies, long after the children we followed to the river had gone home. By the time we realised the time was far spent, it was almost night.

We reluctantly left, and promised each other that we would be back the next day for a fuller experience. The entire household was waiting for us by the time we got home, each face registering different emotions, some surprise, some anger, some frustration, some exhaustion and some plain incredulity. The general concession was that we had overstepped and had to be punished.

The gist of it was that we had been gone for too long, and everyone had searched for us in apprehension, fearing that we might have been kidnapped. The only place they didn't think to check was at the river, no one thought we could be there. We had previously been warned to steer clear.

Uncle Jude, my retired army uncle was given the task of making us see the error of our ways. Is it possible for one to have the best and worst day of one's life in a single day? Well, we did or at least, I did. Uncle Jude took the time to spank us one after the other, he made Michel hug the water tank and tied him to it with a very thick rope. Michel could no longer cry for mercy by the time he was done. He went straight to bed, and even refused dinner after.

I was treated in a similar fashion, only with lesser strokes. My butt was red for days and I could not sit properly for the duration of the holidays.

Everyone forgot and moved on, and everything returned to normal. Michel and I were discussing under a mango tree in front of the house one day when his eyes caught a very big, ripe Mango on the tree.

He suddenly had an idea to get it for himself, and despite several efforts of trying to use a stick to pluck it, it wasn't successful. He then proposed to climb the tree and pluck it by himself. Seemed like a good idea, he was a very good climber. After we agreed on the sharing formula of the Mango, I agreed to be the lookout in case Uncle Jude or another elder came by. The memory of our descipline at his hands was still fresh in our minds.

He climbed the tree and I stood sentry. He had almost reached the mango and was trying to find a way to maneuver the thin branch of tree standing between him and the prize, the Mango when I saw Uncle Jude coming out of the house whistling a tune, I immediately shouted at Michel to abort the mission and come down.

He panicked and not wanting his efforts to go to waste, he placed his other leg on the thin branch and reached out to take the Mango, the branch snapped and he fell, only he didn't fall to the ground, he fell and got stuck on another branch of the tree. I shouted at him to disentangle himself and come down when I noticed water dripping from the tree. Was it the onset of rain perhaps?

The next thing I heard was Michel's cry of agony, a branch of the tree had perforated his light shorts and had punctured his scrotum, making it's way to the testicles, thereby causing a fluid like release from in there.

Michel howled in agony, and Uncle Jude came running. He was rescued and rushed to the hospital where he was immediately operated on, and the affected testicle removed as it was ruptured and thankfully, only one of his testicles was affected.

It was a gloomy Christmas celebration after, no one suggested any fun activity, we all just prayed for Michel to get well.
Christmas that year was a bust, the dominant thought on everyone's mind was, "what if he had died?" We never got to experience the full joy of Christmas, and the significance was lost on all of us. We were just thankful that we were all alive.
That incident made me grow up into a reflective adult, and before I make any decision, I always weigh the pros and cons. I learned the hard way. That memory gave me a sense of relief of what could have been had the situation taken a more negative turn.

After he was fit to travel, his parents went back home with him and everyone went their separate ways.

Michel and I were still on constant communication till we became adults and he even confessed to me a few years ago that he was afraid of getting married because he only had one testicle, what if he was unable to father a child? The doctors had assured him that he could a long time ago, but he was too scared to try.

I'm sure you can understand how happy I was when Michel said he would be bringing his fiancee home for this year's Christmas holiday celebrations. He was finally ready to get married, damn the past.
"Way to go, bro" I said to him, smiling over the phone.

No one knows what the future holds, but at least, I'm going home to good news this holiday. The past is the past, and we can focus on a new chapter now.