Words of elders are words of wisdom. Anything an elder says, there is always one thing or the other to learn from it. What an elder sees while sitting down, a child may not see it at all even while standing up.
My father had always warned me not to keep late nights but I always looked at his warning with nonchalant attitude. His words, "those who keep late nights get to meet their waterloo one day". Although my coming home late at night was not my fault but was due to my participation in the church choir of which I am a member. Usually the church choir rehearsals were scheduled for late nights because most of the members are workers during the day.
So, on this fateful day, I had gone for rehearsals because the church had a musical presentation to perform in another church and the choir was mandated to go for the event. We rehearsed into late in the night before calling it off. We stopped rehearsals around 11:30 PM late in the night.
So, I decided to head back home even though everywhere was already desolate. I went straight to the bus stop to see if I could see a transport to board home. While waiting, I noticed that some people were chasing a man who had been thoroughly beaten and who obviously was running towards me. I quickly took to my heels too by running into a street nearby to hide from this ugly scene. But unfortunately, the said chased man was towards everywhere I went.
The people were holding sticks in their hands, running and shouting "thief! thief!! " after the man. Just about the same time The Police were having their night parade in their vehicle and they watched the people holding sticks in their hands with keen interest and observation.
As soon as the thief sighted the men in the uniform, he ran towards where I was hiding and the policemen jumped down and ran after him. Eventually they got him arrested but because it was right beside me that they nabbed him, I was arrested alongside with him even despite pleading my innocence. They took us in their vehicle to the police station. And the people who had earlier been chasing followed us to the police station too.
At the police station, they people identified the man as the criminal and they said I didn't know anything about the matter at all and that I had been mistakingly arrested. The police asked me to contact somebody to come and bail me. At this juncture, I knew that my dad was the only one who could bail me out of this ugly situation but I was afraid to put a call through to him because of his rampant warning to me that I shouldn't be keeping late nights.
The police insisted that without somebody coming forward to bail me, they won't release me. I had shown them my ID card explaining that I was coming back from the choir practice in the church, they still refused that someone had to come and get me out.
Meanwhile, the thief had been put in the cell and I was being given a seat behind their desk. Reluctantly I put a call through to my father telling him about the incident and explaining my predicament and innocence about it to him. As at that time it was already 2 AM in the night. My father said he couldn't come out at that time of the day but promised to come and bail me on the following day.
I couldn't and didn't sleep at that Police station till day break. Mosquitoes attacked me throughout of the night and it is an unforgettable experience. My father came very early the following morning to take me home an he says his words again, "those who keep late nights will meet their waterloo one day".
The End
By Olalekan Oduntan
Copyright: ©2021
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