Some years ago, when I was still in secondary school, I remembered the shortcut my friends and I always passed through whenever we were late. We have been so used to passing through the bush path, and no one has been noticing us for so many months. One fateful day, when we were coming to school, we sighted our English teacher from afar. We had tagged him names, as he was the worst when it came to wickedness. We devised a way of setting a trap for him.
Lawrence Baganiah
Although we never thought he would pass through that path, one of us said we should set a serious trap and wait until he falls into the trap. I was not in agreement with her plans, and so we went into hiding. After he had gone, we came out of the bush path and migrated straight to our class.
The first period we had was English, unknowingly to us, and he had never, for once, missed his class, nor did he come to the class late. It was just a few minutes after assembly, and so we sneaked into the class, not knowing that he was in the class. He saw us sneaking in but did not say a word. When he later said, ‘Settle down," I was shocked and left without a word. I gazed at my three other friends, and they also did the same.
Some minutes later, he called us out and asked us to give him two reasons for entering his class late and coming late to school. No one was able to talk. Instead, we were just looking at him, as if he were not talking to us. He got angry and asked the three of us to go down on our knees. We did just as he said.
He continued the class, and a few minutes later, he noticed that we were feeling comfortable with the kneeling position, so he decided to ask us to form an angle of 90°. We thought he was going to free us soon, but after creating an angle of 90° for five minutes, my legs began to shake. I was sweating profusely, as well as my other three friends. I later voiced out that I was tired of the position I was in. He did not say a word and instead continued with his class. I was so tired but did not want to disobey him for being my teacher. After another ten minutes, he asked us to get up and go to our seats. I did not say “thank you, sir” just because I was not happy with the punishment he gave to us.
Two minutes later, he called me back and asked me to go down on my knees again. I disgustedly looked at him. I had to obey him, and he said I should say, “Thank you, sir.” I said what he wanted to hear, and he asked me to go back to my seat. He felt I was being so rude for not saying “thank you, sir” to him, but then I knew what I was doing.
The next day, we decided to come early and passed through the bush path. We tied the leaves that covered the path leading to the school compound. We tied the leaves that looked so strong and would not be able to lose time with each other, ranging from the left ones to the right ones of the road. After doing that act, we decided to hide just to watch the miracle that would happen. We waited for more than 50 minutes, but he was not coming. As I stood up, wanting to leave, I saw him coming from afar. I whispered to others, signifying his arrival. They all kept quiet and watched the miracle that was about to happen.
As he stepped into the positive tie, we were watching seriously, and immediately we saw him fall like a baby. He noticed that something had gone wrong, and someone had tied those leaves as traps for him, according to his look. He even said it was allowed, “Ye! These students have set traps for someone to call on. Nice one. I have to find the one who did this." We were just laughing deeply without him noticing.
As he was going again, he thought that was all and was walking freely. Unknowingly to him, there were other traps set ahead. He fell into those traps and again fell. This time, he was angry and deep in his voice. He managed to leave for school. This was when we began to laugh harder.
As we got out of the bush path, the very first person we met was our English teacher. We pretended to have gone to the bush path to ease ourselves, which I knew he would not accept.
He called us and took us to the staffroom. He called other teachers and started revealing how he fell for the trap we had set for him. Likewise, he said he saw us hiding but pretended not to see anyone. Not only that, but he dealt with us mercilessly for that act, and ever since that moment, I never dreamt of passing through the push path ever again.
