Short story: Spare the rod ...
Under the bright moon and windy chilly night sat Abrewa Araba, a wise old woman. Because of her many years of experience in life and wisdom, many people came to her for advise.
As for the children, she was a friend to them and this was because of the story telling sessions she had been having with them whenever her schedule permitted.
Advertisement
Like that particular evening, Abrewa Araba did not have much to do so she went and relaxed under the tree on her compound.
Anytime the children saw her relaxing in her chair under the tree, to them, it indicated that they could go to her for story telling.
So one after another, the children in the community gathered around her to listen to her stories.
“Once upon a time at Nsten,” began Abrewa Araba, lived a young lady called Eva and her son, Ampedu Arthur. Ampedu, as he was affectionately called, was very troublesome. He started off by taking small amounts of money belonging to his mother, Auntie Eva without telling her.
Unfortunately, his mother failed to correct him on all those occasions. Instead, she defended his act by stating that all children do that when they are young so Ampedu would also stop once he grew up.
Soon, Ampedu was stealing bigger amounts of money from his mother yet, all that Auntie Eva did was to give him a stern warning and then let the matter go. One day, he found his mother’s purse on their sofa in the living room with a few notes of money and coins. Ampedu took all the money in the purse and quickly left the house.
Apparently, that was the only remaining money Auntie Eva had and she was going to use it to purchase foodstuff for that evening’s supper.
She was sure that Ampedu was the one who took the money because no other person than him entered the living room when she placed her purse on the chair.
She searched everywhere for Ampedu that day but he was nowhere to be found. By the time he returned home late evening, he had spent everything. Still, Auntie Eva did not punish him. What she rather did was to change where she normally hid her money so that he would never find her money.
When that happened, Ampedu started stealing from the tenants in the house.
Under the pretence of playing with their children, Ampedu gained access to their rooms and that was when he stole from them. There have been several complaints to Auntie Eva about the alleged stealing by Ampedu but anytime they reported to her, right in front of Ampedu she would tell the person making the report that Ampedu was not capable of stealing.
On several of those occasions she fought with the people after those hot exchanges. This, therefore, empowered Ampedu to go on to commit that wrong doing.
There was a time one of the most respected old people in the town came to inform Auntie Eva that he saw Ampedu smoking with a group of bandits in one of the uncompleted buildings on the way to the market. Search on Ampedu saw a piece of cigarette in his pocket.
Ampedu denied that he smoked it and that it was his friend who put it in his pocket.
Auntie Eva believed his side of the story and that started another argument with the person. The old woman felt hurt and left.
After all that had happened Auntie Eva did not pay heed to anything people said about her son.
Ampedu’s behaviour grew worse to the extent that one day, he disappeared from the house for almost a week and nobody knew where he had gone to.
Auntie Eva asked of him from several of his friends but they said they did not know of his whereabouts.
She, therefore, resigned herself to fate. Auntie Eva was at the market buying some foodstuffs when one of her neighbours rushed to inform her that Ampedu was being beaten. Initially, she thought her neighbour might have made a mistake and so she was hesitant to go to the scene where the beating was taking place. But her neighbour’s insistent call on her to hurry made her go.
To her utter dismay, on arrival, she saw Ampedu being hit with big sticks by the market women for attempting to steal money belonging to one of the market women.
Advertisement
She tried to stop them but nobody took notice on her. Before she could tell them she was his mother, a woman carrying a big stone threw it hard at Ampedu’s head, sending him to the ground. “Enough,” Auntie Eva yelled and that stopped all the women from beating him further.
Ampedu started bleeding profusely. She stopped a car and with the help of the driver, took him to the hospital. She was hooted at by the market women for being a bad mother and also for raising a criminal.
Auntie Eva felt so embarrassed in all this and she blamed herself for everything. If she had raised Ampedu well, he wouldn’t have become a thief. She was the culprit.
After finishing the story, Abrewa Araba asked the children who was to be blamed for Ampedu’s predicament and in unison, they all shouted: “Auntie Eva”. ‘Do you also agree with the children?’
Gifty Aba Simons.
Advertisement