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Introduction

Welcome to my blog. Last time, in The story "The wounded captain" I wrote about Taboo on Playmates. And I liked the fact that some of you my dear friends enjoyed the story.
And today, in episode 2 of the Story, we will be looking at the title below.

Hocky the Dog

Abia remembered his father's instruction always, especially the first instruction. "I don't want you to go outside and play with anybody". In his quiet moments, Abia often thought of what terrible things would happen to him if he disobeyed his father. He knew that breaking of bounds and playing with the village boys would infuriate his father.

Whenever he came back from school, he ate his food in silence, took a bath and had his siesta. Sometimes, he would sit down on his bed with his eyes widely open trying to count the number of ceiling boards in his room. He recalled his father's threat: 'Something terrible will happen to you'. He recollected that Ituen's son had been blinded by an unknown fellow when he returned from a game and he had not recovered since then. Yet no-body had discovered the culprit.

Ituen was a victim of circumstance. He had helped the village to stop incessant stealing of cassava and goats by teaming up to arrest the culprits. They were tried and convicted by the court.

Before then, the thieves had been beaten and made to go naked on the road accompanied by some drummers. They were later set free after the ordeal. This act was not punitive enough because it gave them an opportunity to be free so quickly and to steal again.

But with the introduction of the court system by Ituen, thieves had decided to kidnap his son and charm his daughter.

To serve as a warning to him, they blinded his son with a big stone.

Abia usually thought of all these and resolved that his father might have considered the bad attitude of the villagers before taking such as decision. And that he had done so to protect his only son.

When the period of his siesta was over, he rose up and began to read or do his home work. As soon as he found a difficult word. he quickly went to find its meaning in his 'Michael West' dictionary bought for him by his father.

After a brief study period, he began to play with his father's pets. Amongst the pets, the one he liked most was Hocky. Hocky was the name of one of his father's many dogs.

The slight difference between Hocky and certain human characteristics, was the eloquent manner in which human beings spoke. Hocky could not speak, but could only murmur and demonstrate like the deaf and the dumb. If Hocky needed food: it lifted up his legs and placed them on its mouth.

It maintained normal siesta period, slept on a highly raised and soft surface. One rarely saw its excrement. Sometimes, it sat like a human being especially during games. Hocky was fond of watching a certain game known as 'Nyori."

Nyori is a game where nine rubber seeds are collected and shared four amongst two players. Each player mounts four seeds in front of him while sitting astride on the ground. The distance between opponents could be ten or more metres.

Any player could start the game by using the extra seed to aim at the mounted seeds of his opponent.

They would continue aiming at each other's mounted seeds until each mounted seed is scattered. The aiming still continues until the separated seeds are completely scattered.

Abia and his father's gardener were fond of playing this game. The gardener often aimed straight at Abia's mount and scatter all of them before Abia was able to scatter his mount.

If an opponent's seeds are not scattered, the thrower scores twelve points, If an aimed seed does not completely scatter the mount, the thrower scores 6 points.

The last time Hocky barked was when thieves aimed gun shots at Akpatta's gate. The thieves heard Hocky voice and ran for their dear lives. The thieves never took Hocky's barks for granted.

Conclusion

Thank you for visiting my blog and I hope you enjoyed the story. Visit next week for another interesting episode.

Episode 1, Taboo on Playmates