Who Stole The Candy?


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Who stole the candy?

A Story by Aunty Yetunde Ofulue

stories for you. Do you remember her? She is a Linguist working for the United Bible Societies. Her stories will be published in books later, but she says “I want our U-18s and their friends to read my stories first”. .Aren’t you lucky? Here we go.

“Who stole the candy?” Daddy asked in a stern voice. We all lined up, my sister Mira, my brother Toshi, my cousin Tara, and myself. I was the youngest of the lot. And I was scared of the look of the cane peeping from behind Daddy’s back. That was all that was on my mind, really—the cane. Daddy was speaking again, now in a softer tone. “ If the one who took the candy does not own up, I will have to spank you all”.

Daddy had kept a box of candy in his wardrobe. That day, he found out that the whole box was missing! Someone had gone to his wardrobe and stolen the candy. Now, he wanted to find out who the culprit was.

There was silence for a long while after Daddy spoke his mind. I guess we were all thinking about what he said. I, still shaking in my shoes, thought about the prospect of everybody getting spanked.

Suddenly, someone spoke up, “I did it, I took the candy”! Everyone looked up, and it was my voice! Daddy walked up to me and said, “You took the candy, Keisha?” I nodded, looking down and still shaking all over. Daddy sent the others away. Then he put me on his laps, face down, and gave me the most painful spanking of my life. Daddy warned me against stealing, then sent me to my room. All this while, the others were peeping from behind the door.

Once in the comfort of my bed, I cried and cried so hard, I could not stop crying. It was painful not because of the spanking, but because I had just owned up to something I did not do. Yes, I did not steal the candy; I was just trying to protect everyone from being spanked. Just then I thought, this must have been how Jesus felt, being punished for what he did not do. He accepted to be punished to help others. But I did not want to be in Jesus’ shoes.

Much later, my brother found out that it was my cousin Tara who took the candy. Now, it was Tara who got spanked. Will I ever own up again, for something I did not do? I don’t think so, but I had learned my lesson well.

 

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