If you grew up in the country-side (aka ushago/shags)
setting like I did, you will probably recognise and even reminisce about this
game. For ease of telling the story, I will use some fictional names. Any
semblance to a real person, in the public domain or otherwise is to be taken as
purely coincidental. So here goes a not-so-common scenario in the game:
Wairugu is selected as the ‘it’ to start the game. The rules
are simple. Muhati Nguyi will do the ‘I draw the picture of a snake on your
back, which finger did I point you with?’ and Wairugu is then to guess which
finger Muhati used. With every wrong guess, she accumulates 10 seconds. On this
particular instance, she guesses wrongly 4 times (she clearly lacks in some
acumen) and thus ends up with 40 seconds.
The next step is now to close her eyes and count up to 40
seconds, while her playmates – Kabure, Muhati, Ntuale, Mukomeni and others take
the opportunity to hide. The one who is able to pull an MH370 stunt (no trace
to be found), is the eventual winner in the game. After the 40 seconds are
gone, much like the 40 days grace-period of a thief – I wonder who decided on
40 – the chase is now on. Wairugu is to try and find as many of her playmates
as possible within the shortest time and with each find, she is to run to a
designated spot and ‘Tipo’ – much like calling a press conference and tipping
the press on your find!
In this particular case, Wairugu keeps searching over and
over but her playmates are proving rather elusive. As an additional rule to the
game, a hiding participant can observe the search party from their hiding place
and if situation allows, they can run and try to get to the press (Tipo) before
the one who is searching, in which case, such a person earns immunity for some
specified time.
Kabure being a novice at the game, assesses that Wairugu is
not seeing her and so she bolts for the ‘Press’ but Wairugu sees her and they
both make a mad dash to the press getting there at virtually the same time. An
argument ensues on who got to ‘Tipo’ before the other and they simply cannot
agree. Kabure tries to pull Muhati into the argument, saying he witnessed her
get there before Wairugu and so she should be safe. Muhati unwittingly comes
out of his hiding place and Wairugu promptly ‘Tipos’ him. At this turn of
events, he tries to argue that he only came out to be an arbiter between the
two but Wairugu dismisses him as having lost in the game. In her books, she now
has both Kabure and Muhati as having been ‘found’. Muhati distances himself,
saying he did not witness what was going on between the two of them and
insisting the only role he played in the game was to innocently draw on Wairugu’s
back to start off the game. He goes ahead to claim that he was not even part of
the hiding game and his role ended at the kick-off.
While Kabure is still arguing on whether she beat Wairugu to
it or not, Wairugu starts getting frustrated. She needs to find someone else to
nail and hence graduate from being the ‘it’ in the game. She therefore devices
a different strategy – she can be astute sometimes. She decides that she will
just shout ‘Ntuale I have seen you!’ and then proceed to ‘Tipo’ him. She does
this but decides to add Mukomeni to the list. She shouts out loud for all to
hear that she has found both Ntuale and Mukomeni and she runs to press ‘Tipo’.
Ntuale having the quicker mouth (and slower brain) comes out breathing fire
that it can’t be true. He argues that Wairugu had not found him and he should
be allowed to go back into hiding. Mukomeni seeing this, also comes out,
against his better judgement and joins in pointing fingers at Wairugu. The soon
join forces and even start defending Kabure, although they were in hiding and
did not witness what went on between Wairugu and Kabure, suddenly they are
taking sides and saying Kabure statement is true and Wairugu has basically not
found anyone and therefore she remains as the ‘it’ in the game. They are now
even willing to serve as witnesses for Kabure in this matter…but Muhati has
since distanced himself completely and already looking for a different game.
At the end of the day, what was meant to be a game for all
to enjoy, has ended in bitter exchanges and finger-pointing with accusations
and counter-accusations. As things stand, Wairugu is still the ‘it’. In the
meantime, there are still other faceless and nameless players who are still
hiding and with the way things stand, Wairugu is running out of energy and
patience to find them. They are probably the winners in this game, but until
Wairugu finds them and exonerates herself, she remains the ‘it’ in the game and
the pressure is still on her. If the day and hence the game ends with the way things
stand, Wairugu is the loser.
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