Mission Accomplished

                     

                                                                           

Temitope Oni (09topsy)

Looking out  of the window of the room I share with my elder sister, I gazed at the twinkling stars perching high up in the sky. I have always loved stargazing but Maami, as I call my mother, would never allow me stay outside at night for a long time. All of us have to be inside before 7pm. Heaven knows I cannot wait to be an adult so that I can stay long hours outside in the night just gazing at the stars; my hair blowing lazily around my face just like we see in Indian films.

Something interesting happened earlier today. Olanma's front teeth finally came off! We had been playing "window" with her teeth and she would push the teeth forward with her tongue so that it appeared as if she was opening a window. And when it finally came off, we began devising means to dispose of it. Segun told us his mummy normally flushed his fallen tooth down the water closet. Busola said we should throw it on the roof so that a lizard would not swallow it because Funke told her that if lizard swallowed one's tooth, it would not grow again.

Olanma was scared of having to live the rest of her life with just one front upper tooth. So, we formed an operation "keep the tooth away from lizards" and since our house is a two-storey building, we had to device a plan of how to get the tooth to the roof safely. Then we started and each of us took turns trying to throw the tooth on the roof. I, being the tallest, decided to allow the rest go first knowing that their hands couldn't reach anywhere near the roof. Like a hero, I took the tooth and was ready to jump up like a superman only to find my pride deflated when it came crashing even before I finished my descent.

That was when Segun remembered the boys quarter's roof of Uncle Maduabuchi. We were all afraid of big, scary, mean Uncle Maduabuchi and we felt he would have also scared all the lizards on the roof away. So, we proceeded to throw the teeth on his roof. We had to climb the reservoir to get to a point near the roof. I and Segun had a brawl over who to climb the railings but being the only boy in the group, he lost to me as Olanma, Funke and Tolu  voted for me to champion our present course of getting Olanma's tooth safely on Uncle Maduabuchi's roof. We divided ourselves into different watch. Busola watched out for the emergence of any adult. Segun watched out for the dreaded Uncle Maduabuchi while Olanma stood at the base of the reservoir deeply worried about a lizard finding her tooth.

As I climbed the railings, Segun suddenly raised an alarm suggestive of Uncle Maduabuchi's coming and I hurriedly came down the railings almost losing my footing in the process. I turned and saw him laughing instead. My face contorted with anger when I knew it was a false alarm and I promised to get my pound of flesh later. I climbed the railings again and this time, with urgency as it was almost time for Maami to return from the market. I finally reached a good position and threw Olanma's tooth on the roof where it landed a safe distance from where I was.

As I was about coming down, I saw this big lizard with an orange head crawl near the tooth and swallowed it. I felt pissed. After everything, the lizard still won and got the tooth as a trophy. Who was I to tell them that a lizard had swallowed the tooth we fought hard to keep away and that Olanma's tooth may never grow again? So, I climbed down as a gentle as I could and shouted mission accomplished!

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