The Brave Promise

A story by Promise Miller

JSS 2 student of The Entrep Academy

Once upon a time, in a village called Afia, was a twelve -year- old boy, called Promise. Promise was obedient, honest and a peaceful boy. The other part of Afia village was a forest known as ‘The Fearful Kingdom’. In that forest, were three notorious boys, who moved between Afia village and The Fearful Kingdom, stealing people’s things.

The villagers complained to the local police in the village, but the police made light of it. They tried to make the villagers feel comfortable by telling them that nothing like that was happening. One day, Promise went to fish in a river that was a boundary between Afia village and The Fearful kingdom. As he was waiting for his hook to catch a fish, he saw three boys swimming and moving things as they moved. He looked closely and saw that some of the things they were moving were household things.

Promise ran quickly to the local police station to complain, but the policemen on duty took it as the complaint of a child who doesn’t know what he was saying. Promise got upset and ran out quickly. As he ran, he saw two of the boys whom he saw moving things. They had a big sack in their hands. Promise quietly followed them and saw that they were moving towards the chief’s house in the village. The boys felt someone was watching them and stopped to look around, but Promise hid himself behind a tree. The two boys spoke to themselves and quickly walked away from the chief’s house.

Promise came back home, but didn’t say anything to anyone. He wanted to have evidence. He remembered his uncle bought a camera for his father about a year ago. His father did not mind if he used it, so Promise went to the shelf in the sitting room and took the camera.

He ran back to the river and hid himself while he waited. After a while, he heard footsteps. He knew the thieves were back. He watched again as they moved things across the river. Promise quietly brought out the camera and took a quick shot, then quickly went down before he would be noticed. As the thieves got to the other side of the river and were about to get into the forest with the stolen items they had, Promise took another shot of them and started running. The three boys heard the sound of running footsteps at the other side of the river but were not sure if it was a human being.

Promise ran straight to the police station again and this time, he just showed them the pictures from the camera. The police saw that he was telling the truth and apologised to him, for not believing him earlier. They went with him to the river side and raided The Fearful Kingdom. The thieves were caught and arrested.

When the chief of Afia village heard of the brave acts of Promise, he inquired of his parents and sent for them. The chief appreciated the brave boy’s parents with the sum of fifty thousand naira. Promise was happy. He knew his school fees would be paid.