Christmas Eve Charade

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I come from a very large family. My mother had nine of us. We are five boys and for girls, all by one mother and father. My grandfather, Mathias had only a son, that's my father. So, when he got married, they agreed that my mother should give birth to as much as possible so that the family could be enlarged by so doing. There we go, for over twenty years, mother would be pregnant in two years distance. This is a typical reasoning level of the Nigerian family. The need for expansion and dominance used to be seen in the numbers of children born in a family.

It wasn't tough feeding and sending us to school. As a senior civil servant, he earned good pay and other funds came in as imprest to run his office, I am sure he didn't only run his office, he used a large part of it to run the home. You may say that's corruption, but that's where our society threads. And for our education, there wasn't much stress since the government designed a free education system where everyone can attend school, all of us did attend public school, not in these days where we have rotted the system.

When Christmas approaches, what comes to mind is how the children will be clothed in new adornment. Usually, mother would buy similar clothing material that would be sewn for us all. It is usually a memorable time seeing siblings in the same kind of clothes and probably shoes in some cases.

One good year like that, all was set for Christmas. Since. my cousins and other family relatives will be visiting, dad had to make a bigger preparation. Apart from the local breed cockerels we had, my dad bought a he-goat, the type that has one funny smell.

There was joy everywhere in the home. Such celebrations happen only once in a Blue Moon. It was going to be a very beautiful Christmas after all. There would be enough to eat and drink. When the goat was brought and tied near the barn of yams, everyone came to see it. Some children tried touching it. Till evening, no one left the sight of the goat.

Before dinner, some boys from the other street were pursuing a cock. I am pretty sure that's for Christmas. Sometimes, one gets to wonder if the cockerels knew it was time for them to be slaughtered for the Christmas celebrations, most cocks don't come back home. Probably, they have been stolen elsewhere.

As the boys ran after the cock, another group emerged from the other compound laying ownership claim of the cock in pursuit. To settle the matter, the first group of boys who had caught the cockerel in the race, raised its wings to show the other boys the pieces of cloth tied under its wings as a sign of their ownership. That was how the matter was settled. The second group of boys would have to go elsewhere to look for their cockerel, else no chicken is guaranteed for that Christmas.

After dinner, there was were bangs of knock-out here and there. It's Christmas Eve and everyone is excited. I joined in the explosion charades but couldn't stay out for too long.

Suddenly, I found that our tied goat that was meant to be by the yam barn is nowhere to be found. The noose tied around its neck was still there but the goat has vanished. I called my siblings and we searched and searched everywhere but couldn't find the goat. What would have happened? I thought as sweat covered me.

While we joggled between our thoughts and reality, I found that nothing can be done. Maybe someone has stolen the goat. I asked curiously:

> who untied the goat?

David stood there without minding whether the goat was missing not.

> Maybe it has done grazing

That was the response of David.

In a bid to verify of the goat was still somewhere around, I decided to go check. Then, I realized my bladder was full, I needed to ease myself. It was at this juncture that I realized I had been dreaming.

I rose for bed to the bathroom and peeped through the window, just outside there, our huge Christmas goat is there chewing it cord