I woke up to the sound of my mother shouting my name at the top of her voice. I instantly jumped out of bed as she yelled my name again. "Good morning ma" I said as soon as I got to the sitting room. She hissed and started shouting at me. "You are just waking up when our neighbor's son Mohammed, has been up since 7 a.m. doing chores. If I start complaining now, you will say I talk too much. Well, make yourself useful and take the plate of rice in the kitchen to our neighbor ". I imagined myself telling her that our neighbor was a muslim and that their son had not been forced to attend a vigil last night to mark new year's eve. In reality, I simply said yes ma, walked to the kitchen and did as I I was told.
I returned home with a plate of rice and chicken from our neighbor. Mohammed's mother had collected ours with a smile on her face. She also gave me a plate of jollof rice to take home. Immediately my mom saw the plate of jollof rice she said, "Throw it away, before bad luck will disturb my family this new year ". I hid the meat in my pocket and went to the dustbin outside to throw the rice away. On getting there, I saw the stew rice I had just given to our neighbor there. I shook my head and smiled when I noticed that
there was no meat in the dustbin. I was startled when I felt a tap on my shoulder. On turning, I discovered that Mohammed was responsible for the tap. He equally had a huge smile on his face. He pointed at the plate of rice in my hands and we simultaneously started laughing.
Anene Ebubechukwu Anthony
