8 views
the scream
we hadn’t been living in Liberia for very long, just about six months or so and our semi domesticated wild bush cat ( the nearest thing to a pet cat my mum could find) she’d had kittens to our great delight, her name was Soda, which is Bassa the local language for ‘cat ’ we were very imaginative in our family, thinking back as an adult I can see now that mum was looking for home comforts and we had always had cats, in lac though ( Lac was our village) there were none, things of that size and with meat on them usually get eaten because they still live off the land out there, which is how it is and how it should be.
I think my Dad and I fell in love with Liberia more than mum and my siblings, but I digress...
Mum had decided she was going to scrub the whole house down in a vain attempt to get rid of the huge cockroaches..we didn’t even know about giant flying ant week yet!
so there was mum scrubbing the floor with a big bucket of water when all of a sudden we heard what sounded like one of the kittens screaming in pain or terror
“ quick go and see if it’s in the kitchen Kat...quickly!”
I didn’t need to be told twice, I was off like a shot adrenaline fuelling me.
I didn’t even get as far as the kitchen though because there through the dining room window..outside in the carport I saw a gigantic green mamba reared up about two feet off the ground with a FROG! halfway to being swallowed, eyes bulging out of its head and it was screaming for its life!
“ mum quick, a snake is eating it!”
I shouted in my eight year olds terror, Mum obviously thought I was talking about one of Sodas kittens and so she came running straight to the back door with the bucket of soapy water and threw it all over the big snake..who was just trying to eat his dinner.. the snake jumped one way, the frog was spat out the other way and that was the first time I realised that mum was some kind of hero!..and also the first time I ever heard a frog scream!
anyway the frog happily hopped off not believing his luck and the Mamba slithered away cursing us stupid white folk sticking their oar in and ruining his lunch.
© katMad
I think my Dad and I fell in love with Liberia more than mum and my siblings, but I digress...
Mum had decided she was going to scrub the whole house down in a vain attempt to get rid of the huge cockroaches..we didn’t even know about giant flying ant week yet!
so there was mum scrubbing the floor with a big bucket of water when all of a sudden we heard what sounded like one of the kittens screaming in pain or terror
“ quick go and see if it’s in the kitchen Kat...quickly!”
I didn’t need to be told twice, I was off like a shot adrenaline fuelling me.
I didn’t even get as far as the kitchen though because there through the dining room window..outside in the carport I saw a gigantic green mamba reared up about two feet off the ground with a FROG! halfway to being swallowed, eyes bulging out of its head and it was screaming for its life!
“ mum quick, a snake is eating it!”
I shouted in my eight year olds terror, Mum obviously thought I was talking about one of Sodas kittens and so she came running straight to the back door with the bucket of soapy water and threw it all over the big snake..who was just trying to eat his dinner.. the snake jumped one way, the frog was spat out the other way and that was the first time I realised that mum was some kind of hero!..and also the first time I ever heard a frog scream!
anyway the frog happily hopped off not believing his luck and the Mamba slithered away cursing us stupid white folk sticking their oar in and ruining his lunch.
© katMad
