The Animal

PARROT 

WRITTEN BY ISAAC ODUGBEMI

The Animal

Kopotapokopa, came the sound from the field at the backyard of the three storey building. The sound keeps coming recurrently. I tried to maintain my concentration on the PC and then the sound came forth once more, again and again. What is happening on that field, I ruminated within me. A few minutes later the pumping machine's cry interrupted the flow of that that emits from the field at the backyard. 

Kopotapokopa! It came again. It sounds like walking steps of something, could it be a dog, goat or a wandering cat that had escaped into the large compound during the day. Curiosity is the ability to seek and acquire new knowledge, skills, and ways of understanding the world. I became curious. William Fulbright suggest that we must dare to think about ‘unthinkable things’ because when things become ‘unthinkable’, thinking stops and action becomes mindless. I stood up, walked to the balcony, took a long breath, and picked my touch light. All from the top to bottom the light from the touch lightens the field and I saw something amazing. 

John Lubbock opines that what we do see actually depends mainly on what we look for. ... In the same field the farmer will notice the crop, the geologists the fossils, botanists the flowers, artists the colouring, sportsmen the cover for the game. Though we may all look at the same things, it does not all follow that we should see them. The touch went directly at the animal walking on that field. 

This reminds me of two brothers who were journeying in the forest from their village home. Their aim was to get to the next town in a fourth night. They had exhausted their food and water because they left early before the dawn to avoid any ambiguous greetings from neighbours. The brothers spent the first two days arguing and talking. When they get to a T junction, one will say I choose left, the other will say I choose right because the thief on the right hand of Jesus at the cross obtained the compassion of the dying messiah at the last minute. At a time both will sit for hours at the junction making puzzles and guesses. On one particular junction, they saw something in a pot. Initially, what caught their attention is the well wrapped pounded yam carefully placed on a long banana leaves at the T junction. There was a pot beside the leaf-covered pounded yam. And inside the pot was a well cooked Egusi soup with ponmo, fish, and meat. The light complexion brother knelt down and prayed to God for giving them the manner, after the prayer, he beckoned on his dark complexion brother to join him but he refused saying the food is a sacrifice and forbidden to be eaten by humans because they are meant for the gods. "Ye are gods", said the Yellow brother. The food is meant for gods like us. He removed his ankara suit, sat down on the barefloor and consumed the food. Hmmmm, And that is why Suzanne Collins agrees to the fact that Knowing it and seeing it are two different things.

The touch light went directly on the animal once again. It was neither a snake nor a lion. It looks like a wild lizard. The shooting tongue was that of a snake, the eyes like that of a bird, the head is like cobra. It walked so slow but steady like a landlord of a nearby village. And then it tried to look up in the direction of the light. The brown skin had elements of black sketches while its tail is like that of an alligator. It greeted by shooting out its delicate tongue. The man in me attempted to rush down to the spot and terminate the life. And then I remembered the movie "the terminator". I stood still ruminating on what to do next. If I kill this animal, no one gains or loses. It was what our grandfathers taught our fathers to do, to kill. They hunted every animal and nothing seems uneatable. Every slaughtered animal ends in the cooking pot of our mothers. The meats are either smoked or cooked. In the village, the men will sit with their friends; order for a keg of palm wine and drink until the keg's content is totally aborted, and by the next morning the content is flushed down the latrine. There is a better way to handle the matter. I saw the beauty and confidence in that animal. It was about twenty five inches in length. It is just a baby alligator, innocent and beautiful. I believe it has the right to live though I might change my mind later, but for now let it survive.

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