It was a beautiful Saturday morning and my mother has gone to the hospital where she works. My father hardly spends time with us because he works in an oil company where he goes off-shore for months and only visits us only when he is on vacation. We were a happy family blessed with three children; I was the eldest and a set of male twins; Ken and Ben. We lived in the outskirt of Benin, in an area that was crowded and fairly developed at that time. Though our house was not far from the town, one feature stroked my imagination; the moat. Daddy always says he likes the beauty of the moat which was the reason behind him owning a house in such a suburban town. It was also rumored that sometime ago when it rained heavily, houses and children flows through the moat. As a child, I thought it was a fairy tale, though our street had large pot holes that could cause erosion, children in the neighborhood usually play in these holes whenever it rains.
On this fateful day, I was busy with my household chores; sweeping the floors, doing some laundry and keeping an eye on my younger brothers. Though I was twelve years old, and two times older than my twin brothers, it was my duty to care for them, as stated in my culture since I was as the first child and been a girl-child. It had not rained for sometime since we were in the dry season but this particular day, it became cloudy, windy and stormy. At this time, my brothers were already outside playing soccer with their friends. It started to rain, so I decided to go outside and bring them in since mum never allows us to play outside whenever it rains so that we do not contact pneumonia.
From a distance, I could see my brothers playing happily in the rain, some of their friends had already taken off their shirts and were very excited as my brothers. Approaching them, I found out that the girls were not left out in the fun. I spotted my friend Amy. She immediately called out on me. I reluctantly joined in the fun, forgetting my mission. It rained heavily that day and we all played like we have never done before, we ran from one point to the other, overwhelmed by the momentary drops of the rain, accompanied by thunder. It rained for about forty-five minutes. At last, it stopped raining and my senses returned. I looked around me and behold I was two streets away from my house and the children present were few. Perhaps the others might have gone home I thought.
Immediately, I started looking for my brothers, luckily for me, I found Ken but where on earth is Ben? I felt as if my heart were pierced by an arrow. I was totally soaked by the rain but was not bothered. Where is my brother? I kept asking myself. What do I tell my mother? These questions kept echoing in my brain. We searched for him for about two hours, asking our friends, but none seem to know his whereabout. Finally, we went home, thinking he will be home, but did not find him. My mother arrived and I narrated the story to her in tears. Could he be dead? Who knows? Our neighbor accompanied her to the nearby moat to see if they would find my brothers body they searched for about twenty-five minutes, but they found nothing. My mother started weeping that her son is dead. Ben and I also joined her in crying that we will never see our brother again. It was my entire fault, I kept thinking. Our neighbor suggested we inform the police.
Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. A man entered and behold -- there was my brother. The man quickly told how my brother came to their home in the company of his sons. Since they were wet, he made them take a bath, change their clothes and eat before bringing him home, since he hardly knew the name of his street..
From that day I never went out or allowed my brothers to go out whenever it rained. I thanked God and promised myself never to disobey my parents again
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