Have you ever asked yourself why the dog is always in a constant ,hot chase of the car anywhere it sees same?.It’s a standing natural phenomenon which has come to stay; never to be reversed.
In those days in the animal kingdom, there was acute famine which unendingly posed a threat to the entire animal world to the verge of throwing them out of extinction.
Trust the intelligent, outspoken Tortoise, Sheep and Dog who swung into action to remedy the situation by embarking on an economic journey to the land of Canaan stocked with raw milk and honey.
The entire animal world was completely hard-up, none had money to contribute to cater for the transport fares of the tripartite martyrs of the animal kingdom.
Being the arrow heads of the kingdom, it was a cross the trio of them must bear if the animal world must survive.
Off, they went; boarded a bus to the land of Canaan. As they haggled, they agreed on a fair conceded transport fare to be paid by each of the passengers in the bus.
While approaching their destination, the conductor began to collect the agreed transport fare from each of the passengers on board the bus.As he demanded the required fare from the Sheep, it was given to him without any difficulty. Now, it was the turn of Tortoise to pay but instead of paying, he burst into tears and began to narrate the story of how he just lost his father and mother at the same day.
The news of the sudden demise of his parents touched the whole passengers in the vehicle who voluntarily contributed and paid his transport fare to the conductor.
The burden quickly shifted to the Dog who sincerely pleaded not to have had enough to completely pay his transport fare after using part of what he had to pay for Tortoise.He promised to completely pay when he alights close to his in-laws’ home near the bus stop.
On arrival therein, the Dog quickly hopped off, ran into the house of his in-laws and borrowed what was left to make up his transport fare. As he handed over the money to the conductor, he stood and waited in vain for his balance, having paid more than what was expected from him.
The conductor who claimed not to have had the balance on him began to search his pockets and later asked for help from other passengers who couldn’t come to his rescue. He then threw a secret sign to the driver who smartly screeched off, leaving the Dog shouting for his balance to no avail.
The Dog then swore that he’ll never rest until the day he’ll catch both the vehicle, the driver and conductor and compel them to pay the balance of the overpaid transport fare of his.No wonder the Dog always pursue the car whenever and wherever he sees same.
On the other hand, the Sheep always claims the ownership of the road and finds it difficult to give way to on-moving vehicles because he’s owing nobody hence he completely paid what that was expected of him as transport fare; the reason the Sheep always occupies the road at all times while the Tortoise can’t stop being cunning and cleverly twisting all situations to suit him forever.
•Culled from a collection of Rex Onyekachi Uzoegbu’s(Poet,Novelist,Playwright,Social Critic) didactic Folktales.
