ONE CHILDHOOD MEMORY

The house was empty, even the yard was deserted. Grandmother was nowhere to be seen. As usual we sneaked in the hut adjacent to the yard entrance. He did the sack that contained the mophane worms, usually parboiled immediately after picking to preserve them for long term storage. That was my cousin , my partner in crime, literally, that is where we stepped in. We treated them as a roadtrip snack when going to the lands. We both filled our pockets full.Mind you the mophane worms have body armor disgused as small black prickly protrudings. So were we pricked all the time, any movement equaled painfull pricks.

I tied the sack the "exact" same way it had been tied. Grandmother had a way of doing her own things so she did everything on purpose. The way she tied the sack was know to her and he way she put the sack in the corner of the room was known only by her. If it moved an inch she will know, if you untied it she will know, Always. Pockets full we left the hut, there was this iron bath tub and we hid under it and proceeded to enjoy the loot, the delicacy. Laughing at the genius idea of this hiding spot and so positive we will not be found even if someone came in. Silence,... as were we enjoying the feast.

the hiding place below

It was almost evening , which mearnt grandma will soon be coming back form the lands. Of all the days on that particular day, seh decided to go straight for a bath beofre doing anything. The iron tub was the first thing to go into the house before water could be fetched. Being a summer day the water was warm from a day of slow heating by the sun. The water drum caught some sunlught during the day hence the warm water.

We did not hear grandmother arrive so we didn't barge. The delicious mophane worms coupled with the fact that we thought we had the perfect hiding spot had made us forget everything around us . Grandma approached the tin tub silently that was leaning on the hut wall. Realizing the movement of the tub as it was being picked up triggered one response flight. We bolted from under there running for our lives.

Grandma startled and scared dropped the tub and nearly fell moving back. Upon leaning who is coming from under the tub , she fiddled around trying to find something to throw at us. Chasing us, throwing shoes and everything on reach along with hurling insults and curing out aunts and cousins. Laughing as we ran , caused her to laugh as well made our grandma break into a laugh amid all the commotion that was taking place. Later in the evening our uncle was called to talk some sense into us which he did as he barely said a word between laughing to what happened

phane stew