PASSAGE II

My father could stand anything from his children, but the only thing he wouldn’t stand was having his children go out at night to join other noisy children in their moonlight play. He, therefore, made sure that the door was locked and that he went down on our sleeping mats in our room as early as possible.
On many occasions, we would lie on our mat and listen to the joyful noise and songs of other children. We would see our father as the most wicked man in the village, which was our world. After some time, however, we have come to accept this way of life without complaint.
But then, two cousins, who recently lost their father, came to live with us. They had been brought up differently and were not used to being kept indoors while other boys were playing outside.
They grew restless as the days passed and began to think of a way out. Soon they worked out a plan. They knew that my father usually went to sleep in the front room of the house after checking that we were locked up in our room, and that the gate was locked. In their plan, my cousin included me. It was that one of us would be left behind each night so as to lock the gate and the door of our room after the two who had sneaked out to play. We could do this in rotation. My father would find both the door and the gate locked and assumed we were safe inside.
I did not take kindly to this plan. However, after a lot of argument, I agreed to stay in every night and see to the locking and opening of the doors. My cousins were delighted, and this plan worked for many weeks.