school public holiday:
i guess i've always been absent-minded to a large extent. These days my simple distraction has been inferred to mean ADD-attention deficit disorder or more simply old age. Who would have guessed that big grammar and an attending dire diagnosis would be the explanation for forgetfulness. Meanwhile it is not that i always forget, just on occasion.
Friday school days were usually shorter and more fun - the weekend i guess, but more importantly because the Muslims had to attend to prayers at about 2 o'clock. This means that lunch break was earlier and everyone was happier. Anyways on this fateful Friday, nothing seemed different.
On Monday. there was a public announcement on the radio to the effect of declaring the said day a Public Holiday (I forget why). This was after we'd gone through the usual ritual of getting ready for school. Unfortunately, the public holiday did not include Public Servants. So it was with vehemence that i insisted that no one had told us about any public holiday in school o!(which was true by the way - or at least as far as my absent mindedness could remember). I don't think any of my siblings raised much opposition - we would all rather be in school than holed up with the wicked help.
As if on cue, the help called me aside and whispered "are you sure there is school? If there is no school, you will be in trouble with me." I prayed even harder, dreading the possibility that I was wrong. Lo and behold, we got to school and immediately I knew something was wrong - too quiet! If it were up to me, I'd have reopened schools just to avoid her spelled out trouble!
Unfortunately, I couldn't reopen school. I was homebound and trying to dodge going home to avoid Aunty 'sisi's' trouble. And did I get the trouble - in full measure. My parents dropped us off at the gate and drove off for work. I braced up for the showdown. Aunty sisi was scrubbing the corridor as we walked in. I took off my school clothes and went on my fours scrubbing with aunty. I don't remember the rest of the day in detail but I remember I cried myself to sleep. I think that is selective memory....
