Very interesting story.
Two little boys and a bully. Tugba is the bully's name.

The two boys have gotten used to Tugba's thrashing and have since activated their safety code. "Avoid Tugba's path and stay safe" was the code.

But Tugba always finds a way to corner them somehow.

This eventful day was no exception. Tugba would command the two boys to come and stand before him. Demand to know how they dared to not greet him, tell them how many strokes of the cane their rudeness earned them. And like an adult proceed to cane them accordingly.

They will collect it crying and he will still demand for them to say "thank you sir".

Tugba is 9 years old while Penda is 8 and Wase is 7plus.

On this fateful day, they were on their way home from playing ball with other kids when Tugba caught them. For some reason this time they only collected 2 knocks each.

As they went their way pressing their heads in pain and marveling at their good fortune, they spied a group of parents playing board games and discussing politics near the market place.

Surely their salvation army is here! Both boys parents are among too.

The courage to report their bully rises up. Their resolve in place.

Tiny shoulders squared up, chest heaving, chin thrust out, nose running, wails ringing eyes streaming.

The sniffling and wailing crested a higher tempo.

Sure enough they got the attention they wanted.

"Kanyi kwagh?" Asks one father

"Why are you two crying 😭?" Echoes another

"Who beat you" yet another parent barks his inquiry

" It's..... it's" hiccups Penda pointing at the direction Tugba went.

"It's Tugba" Wase was more eloquent

"What did you two do?"

"Nothing.....we did him nothing" piques Wase the eloquent.

"He said we are bad boys and he beat us" Penda narrates, chaste heaving, eyes tearing up, wiping nose with the tail of his shirt.

"Wait a moment, you mean Tugba, fourth son of the third wife of Akume, whom we married from Mbayongo is the one that beat you?" Asked Penda's father

"Yes Papa"

"I see, it was Tugba and who that beat you two?" Wase's father was now standing up, both hands on his waist.

"He was with nobody " says Penda

"Uwu, Orne, se maa ka sasev o" (O boy we are raising women here o") this was Wase's father to Penda's father, rolling up his shirt sleeves.

He reached out and grabbed his son by the ear. "Did I just hear you say one boy beat the two of you?"

No answer. The encounter was not going according to plan. Wase's father was supposed to roll up his shirt sleeve and go get Tugba, not Wase's ears.

"Are you girls? What were you doing while he beat you up?"

This was from Penda senior who had already used his tall height to snag a twig from the overhanging branch of a Marina tree 🎄

"Nothing Papa, he beat us" Penda had to reemphasize the point. It's like these adults were slow on the uptake.

"You are always washing plates with your mother, why won't ordinary Tugba beat the two of you like girls" this was followed by a stinging smack on his buttocks with the twig.

"Yeeeeyeee Papa I beg oooo Papa, please Papa"
"Shut up that mouth" snaps his very angry father, three more swings of the twig had Penda rolling on the ground.

Wase was not faring any better.

His father was pulling and twisting his ears amidst intermittent slaps on his backside assisted by Akiki, his colleague at the work place.

Penda was wailing and squirming in pain as they tossed him between them like a ball. He is trying to figure out which of the two men had the meanest swing of the palm.

None of the adults was helping matters at all.

Some were back to their board games while others were telling each other stories of their wrestling prowess when they were younger.

Apparently none of them were ever beat up by anyone; or ever allowed the back of their heads to touch ground for any reason.

"if I ever get to hear that your age mate beat you up again, you will see the other side of me, now shut up and get of my sight before I get a good whip for you."

Wase's father gave his ear one final twist and a smack in the small of his back which got him on all fours.

"Now run and don't let me get home before you. Let me see you follow your mother to the market again. Useless boy" Penda's father threw the twig after his scrambling son.

"Tugba beat us....... Tugba beat us. Have you ever heard such a thing?" Wase's's father angrily asks after his running son.

"Tugba beat you! Did water wet your muscles that you allow someone to beat you?" Asked one of the parents.

"No he dried his muscles in the sun and rain soak it, that's why?" Answered another father.

Everyone burst into laugher which echoed after the two youngsters all the way home.

Of course they dare not cry to Mama either. Nothing is normal today.

Who knows what these mother's can do with cooking utensils if provoked.

All the adults are thinking upside down today anyways!

But the real issue is how to prove that their muscles are neither wet nor damp.

Suffice it to say that the two boys didn't get to sleep that night until they planned what to do with the indomitable Tugba.

The next encounter with Tugba is a story for another day................

Culled from Prophet Atetan V.A memoirs and embellished for effects