Presumed Brave

“Please, my children, never must any one of you enter this room. It is a room I use for my work, since I am a herbalist. I am the only one entitled to enter this room because it is an inheritance from my late father. I only use it when I want to heal the dead. My dad gave me instructions, and I had obeyed, and I'm passing these same instructions on to you, my children. You must also obey, and no one must disobey me. If you disobey by chance, you will have your head to blame. I have warned you all.” Mr. Ado gave a serious and sound warning to his children.

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They all threw their heads, showing a sign of concurrency. Matthew, on the other hand, has been the inquisitive type who wants to know everything. He loves to do research on any little things he sees around him, even at school. In his school, a bottle was placed on the chemistry lab workbench with the instruction written on it, “Keep out.” Everyone has been keeping out of this bottle since those allowed to enter the lab are science students. Matthew is not a science student and does not even know the names of chemicals except acid.

This bottle happened to have its label removed. It is only the chemistry teacher who knows what it contains and so writes “keep out," just to prevent students from dipping their hands into it or playing with it somehow. The chemistry teacher even played safe by writing on the bottle “Conc. H2SO4”, which every normal science student would detect quickly.

Matthew, who was the inquisitive type, went straight to the lab and saw three of his mates seated right in the lab.

“Hay Femi! How are you today? Matthew asked.

“I'm brilliant," Femi replied as others shook hands with Matthew. They both laugh and gist with each other.

Matthew drew closer to the bottle kept on the table and tried to touch it, but Femi and others asked Matthew to keep out, as the sign implies. Matthew checked and saw the sign “Keep out.”.

“This is ordinary water. Is it not water they used to make acid?” Matthew, who wants to know everything, asked his friends.

“I can touch it without harm. You all know that I always touch electricity with my bare hands without being electrocuted. So, touching the ordinary water that they called acid can never harm me at all," Matthew said while smiling.

“You know we love you so much, right?” Femi asked.

“I know," Matthew replied.

Matthew was just gazing at the bottle, as his mind would not leave the content in the bottle. Matthew decided to look around and discovered that no one was watching, so he decided to open it stylishly and dip his finger in the acid. Immediately, he jumped up and shouted. He wanted to run away, but his friends noticed and immediately asked him to wait. They poured cold water into the affected place, and immediately, the affected position was calm but had already burned.

He got home and told his parents about what had happened. He was lashed with words, and his dad scolded him. “You are not going to sleep in this house today. So, you have the guts to get injured and bring it to my house?" Matthew's dad said.

Out of fear, Matthew stayed outside without remembering to come inside the house. When it was night, he sneaked into the house and went straight to that secret room of his dad so that he would not find him until morning. He knew the warning his dad had given to him and his siblings and went straight to the room. He slept in the room until daybreak. His dad entered and saw Matthew lying down on one of the couches in the secret room unconscious. He shouted, “Yeah, Matthew has finished me.”.

Matthew, on the other hand, was unable to wake up. His dad needed to carry him out of the room just to fortify him. The spirit of the gods had entered his body, and he needed to be cleansed. He bought a male goat and slaughtered it in front of the entrance to the secret room.

After the cleansing, Matthew was left alone, lying half-dead on the floor. His mom cried bitterly, seeing her son lying helpless.

“Don't worry, he will be fine," his dad said.

After two hours, he was revived and asked, “What had happened here, and why are you crying, Mom?”

“Your dad had warned you to keep out of that room. Why did you enter the room after the strict warning?" his mom asked.

“I did not know the outcome would turn out to be this tough. I won't try that never again”, Matthew replied to his mum.