Storytime
When I was young I was an explorer and adventurous. My normal day included playing games with my friends, exploring places I had not gone to, and being fascinated with electronics. I was creative and used to making cars using wires from metal hangers and rubber to hold the wires together. I could make big cars and even small cars using wires. I also enjoyed opening the electronics to see how they function.
I remember trying to build my television with a box, glasses, and sheet from cartoons from the gazette. I always wanted to create something from scratch, on my own. This led me to collect many wires, batteries, and boxes and store them in our house. This went on for long and it started pissing my mum off. She did not want me to bring any more staff so I had to look for other places to store them.
I started storing them below the sink that was located outside the house. The space was big enough to store many things. With time rats started leaving where I stored my staff because it was not organized well. Soon they were moved out of there to help reduce the rodent and some of my staff were also being stolen at night. I had to find another hiding place fast before I lost my staff.
We did not have a car then but I had two big tires under my bed. The tires my mum let me keep because she knew if they got stolen I would not have things to play with. I was not a fan of sports since I was young I just like creating stuff and was interested in knowing how certain things work.
I remember back then, most houses did not have electricity, we used batteries to watch television. These were the big batteries that are normally used in cars. When they did not have enough power, my uncle used to take them to the charging bay to have them charged. My dad did not allow us to watch television, especially during the day. I believe now that he wanted to conserve the power so we could use it at night to watch television. With my curiosity and foolishness when I was home with my friends. I knew how to connect the television to the battery and switch on the television. We would watch the TV for a while and when I suspected my dad was almost there I switched the television off.
But my dad was like a god, he always could tell that the television was on. I denied opening the television and this made him very angry. He never beat the although, just gave me a warning. When I grew up after he was long gone, I discovered how he did it. You see all of the Television back then had a big backside. When you watch the television for long the backside of the TV becomes too hot. And because the television was inside a wall unit with a small hole at the back for ventilation, it took a long time for the television to cool down. So my dad had to just put his arm at the back of the Television and know I was lying. I was really foolish back then, swearing how nobody had even switched on the television.
I had to look for a place to store the staff and I came up with a perfect spot. It was in plain sight just outside the place we left but I never saw anyone access that place. I had already figured out how to open this safe place using a nail and knew nobody would try and access it. This safe place to store my staff was an electric street light pole. It was not working, I do not why and I used to open it just for fun. So I started to store my important staff there and I would retrieve them if I needed them. Nobody ever asked me or warned me about that street light pole. Life was peaceful and smooth now that I didn’t bring a lot of my junk home.
One day something came into my mind, to figure out why this street light was not working the way it should be. I opened the pole with ease and started undressing the wires. I was either 9 or 10 years old back then so I did not know anything regarding electric wires. These wires were insulated with tape and I was opening the tape, the top cover was dry but the middle was sticky. I was determined and managed to open them up without touching the wired part. There were wires going up the pole and some coming down from the ground. I knew colour coordination, red has to merge with red and brown with brown. Because I had no knowledge I tried to merge the two wires with my bare palm. The wires
Apparently, these cables were live they just had been disconnected. I felt power passing through my body, it was as if it was sucking blood. I could not let free on my own, I was screaming. People rushed out of their homes to see what was happening. I could see my family standing outside the gate and wanted to rush towards them but I could not let go. I felt the electricity pass inside me, it was like waves hitting me. I have been told that behind me some masons were working there and when they saw the incident they ran away. I didn’t understand why people were just looking at me instead of helping me.
There was this clinic that was in the estate, the doctor who was operating the clinic was the one who saved me. I was told he hit my arm with a wooden stick and I fell on the bare ground. I don’t remember being hit or seeing him. Immediately I was free I ran towards my family at the gate crying. When they saw me rushing towards them no one embraced me. I believed they feared that I still had electricity in me. I believe the incident happened for more than five minutes.
I remember they placed Colgate on my index figure which had a burn mark. On the spot that was most affected you can see all the patterns is going towards to place that was greatly affected. It was my right hand that toughed the live wires so electricity was passing on the right side of my body. This has affected the right side of my body to date. I still experience sharp chest pain, I cannot bend my head comfortably to my chest especially when at the barbers and my walking posture changed.
I tell people that I was electrocuted when I was young and got stuck there for long but they don’t believe me. This is because electricity shock can throw you far away, cause severe skin burns or when you get stuck you end up dead. This happened to me and I survived. I later came to learn on campus that students learning electric engineering are advised to always use the right side of their arms when testing for electricity or working. In case you get electrocuted power will run on the side of the body where the heart is not. If I had been electrocuted on the left side I would not be here to tell you my story. Stay safe