Ba Ba black sheep,

Have you any wool?

Yes sir! Yes sir! Three bags full.

*********

It is that time of the year when the lights come out to play. Christmas is in a few days, and the new year in another week after that. The harmattan air has been playing hide-and-seek for a few days, yet anyone with a nose could feel the slightly dry and cold air starting to find its way into places. Soon, dusty roads will need rain, ashy skins Vaseline, and the suffocating afternoon heat begging for a hint of heavenly teardrops as the harmattan begins its full cycle. Harmattan in Lagos is not kind, it is sweltering heat with no breaks. The kind of heat that gets you looking for a concrete or tiled floor to lay your bare skin because you want the coolness to seep through every inch of skin. It is heat at night that leaves you opening windows in hope of catching the slightest breeze as it finds its way through the crowded city, and during the day, it is hot humidity that makes you question your choice of clothing and why you left your house in the first place.

It is in that hot yet dry harmattan air that we see 3 young boys as they head out of a large sprawling four-flat compound. The sun is starting to set, and we hear the Muazzin call to prayer. It’s almost time for Maghrib. But the night holds an even bigger event. It is the night of the fireworks battle. For two years in a row, Orchid Street has lost to Rose Boulevard. This time, a loss is not in the plan. The Orchid boys will do all it takes to win. This year, they had a secret weapon – Ọ̀pá Mósè.

Ìyá Máyọ̀wá sells firecrackers near Ornament Estate where the boys live. Atomic Boom, Terminator, Mad House, she has them all. She also sells sweets, local snacks, Fanyogo and Supreme Ice cream, which attracts the children to her in the first place. The children call the packaged milkshakes Ice cream but it couldn’t be farther from the truth. In the afternoons, after school and on their way home, the children from the estate converge by Ìyá Máyọ̀wá’s small stall at the Estate gate to buy some snacks and sweets, and occasionally when they could share, got Ice cream which they ask the seller to cut into two with his scissors. The spot where Ìyá Máyọ̀wá sells her wòsì wósì is the unofficial after-school meeting place. It is the place where the children hold mischief plans or discuss new school sweethearts and heartbreaks. It is also where they get information about competing schools – who made the state quiz competition or the Schools Football League. To an innocent bystander, the small shed at Ornament Estate gate is quite a sweet attraction for the young occupants of the Estate, but those who know, it is where big and small decisions get made – the place where battles are first won.

It is at this spot that the first street fireworks battle had first been initiated. This was before Ìyá Máyọ̀wá’s time, and before the person who sold at the spot before her. Over the years, this place has become a steady sort of tradition passed on from old to young, and from young to younger. Everyone who lives on either street is involved, from the street Chairmen to the security guards to the school-aged kids. The rules are clear although unwritten – on Christmas eve, the streets go to battle with fireworks and firecrackers. The last street standing with the most ammunition get to keep their bragging rights for a full year. So there were firebombs bought and stored at different times over the past one year by different houses as they prepared for this one night. With one year to plan and prepare, they were prepared for nothing but a win.

The boys check their secret weapon again, and the stash of firecrackers they had bought. All looks ready to light up the sky, and of course, Rose Boulevard. The houses on Orchid Street were ready, so were the three boys as we see their faces in the bright light of the moon night. They go to the central football field right in the middle of the Estate, the field that separates Orchid street from Rose Boulevard.

Fireworks start going up from every house.

Boom! Tatatatatataa!

Pow! Pow! Po!

Tatatatataaa!

The sounds hit the sky. The battle is in now in full swing! Unsuspecting visitors to the Estate who are on the roads can be seen screaming and running as they get pulled into the fire. Heels went one way, bags scattered the other way.

We see the boys on the football field digging the ground to prepare the launch of their secret weapon – the Ọ̀pá Mósè. The online reviews about this fire-bomb had been nothing but stellar. Rose Boulevard would finally acknowledge this game belonged to Orchid Street. It was time to launch. The first boy struck the match and held it against the Ọ̀pá Mósè. Nothing. He tried again.

The second boy decided to try this time, certain it must be the match stick. Nothing. Then again. Then again. And again. They looked back to the ground and the opening soft earth mound they had dug to plant the firebomb, it had been empty all along. This firebomb would not be lighting this sky that night. This Ọ̀pá Mósè wouldn’t lead them to the promised land – there would be no win against Rose Boulevard. Not this time.

Across the field, we also see three other boys struggling to light up something that looks like it was dug into ground. Each group of boys look at each other from across the field. Their firebomb wouldn’t light up as well. They all burst into laughter.

***

End.