Must Read: Sunrise in Makoko (A Short Story) Season 1

Season 6 years ago

Must Read: Sunrise in Makoko (A Short Story) Season 1

Tade's obsession with Miami and Maine beaches was inborn. He first heard of the waterfronts in a Social Studies class. Maybe it was his subconscious attempt to escape from poverty, he couldn't tell. As a Nigerian that never left the shores of Nigeria, it is not out of context dreaming of coastal enclaves like Miami and Maine, because many places around the world are named Maine. He was later marooned in a Nigerian waterfront, and struggled for months to get out of it.

Haggard Gbada sat with his son in front of their hut and said, "Tade, our story will soon change for better. We will own food crops in hectares of farmland and plantations. I have told you to embrace farming, because It's the only occupation in the world that guarantees food security."

"But with the way you practice farming, I can place a wager that riches will never be in sight. If you make your way to the hood of the rich and examine how they unwind, you will understand that we live in a planet entirely different from theirs," Tade said.

Gbada shrugged and said, "There is a funny saying in this corner of the world that 'Whitemen board aircrafts; I climb a pawpaw tree, none of us has his feet touching the ground'. That's is to tell you that I can be happy in my own way."

"The only thing in my mind now is stardom. I could retrieve the missing ancient crown of Ife-Odan kingdom or get information about the whereabouts of the running notorious

assassin, on whose head a bounty of five million naira has been placed. With one of these, my education will become a reality."

"I hope you won't land yourself in trouble someday," Gbada said with a brightened visage. "I have a reliable information about the missing most ancient crown of Ife-Odan, but I will never try disclosing it to the authorities. If one does that, that will be automatic death for the thief."

"Dad, he will only be sentenced for theft, and that will not be life imprisonment."

"The depth of your ignorance beats my imagination. Such a thief will be murdered before security operatives will have an inkling of what is at stake. You know that the crown is coveted by the ruling house of Ile-Ife. They made unsuccessful attempts to return it to Ile-Ife in the past. The founding Adimula of Ife-Odan was a reigning king in the present day Ile-Ife before he was deposed and banished to Ife-Odan ostensibly for reigning for an extended time. Fortunately for him, he left with the most ancient crown of Ile-Ife. I heard that the crown is so sacred that in emergency situations, if a king removes the crown from his head, he will becom invisible."

"Oh, this is becoming very interesting!" Tade exclaimed.

"Ajala the hunter has revealed to me that the crown is hidden away by a thief in Papa Baalu village. That's a two-huts settlement in Isero."

"You should just remain mute, so that you won't cause the demise of a soul."

Later in the day, Tade and his friends had a rendezvous at a blacksmith shop owned by Diran's Father. The four of them gathered there to play. That day, Diran was adjusting a

part of a rat catcher made of iron, Bolu was constructing a rat catcher made with Nescafe cans and rubber, while Layode was talking to both of them.

"Can you construct this type of trap?" Layode asked Diran as he showed Diran the sketch of a trap.

"Yes, I can. This trap will be suited for catching hawks", Diran affirmed. "I can make this. The difference between this and our normal traps that catch rodents is the teeth form and clenching capability."

"Bolu, how was the school today?" Diran asked.

Layode became interested in the question and said, "Bolu almost ran into confrontations with that dreaded senior student, Ijaya, today."

"I hope he didn't give Bolu the beating of his life?" Diran asked.

"Give me beating of my life? You're dreaming! I will knock him out within seconds if he tries that with me."