Free Precious and the Monkeys by Alexander McCall Smith Page B

cautiously, one at a time, just in case there was a lion in the room. But there was just her father, telling his story.
    â€œHow did that lion get in?” she asked. “How did he get past that big strong fence?”
    Obed shook his head. “I later found out that somebody had not fastened the gate properly,” he said. “It was carelessness.”
    But enough of that. It was time to get on with the story of what happened next.

HAT WOULD YOU DO if you found yourself face to face with a great lion? Stand perfectly still? Turn on your heels and run? Creep quietly away? Perhaps you would just close your eyes and hope that you were dreaming – which is what Obed did at first when he saw the terrifying lion staring straight at him. But when he opened his eyes again, the lion was still there, and worse still, was beginning to open his great mouth.
    Precious caught her breath. “Did you see his teeth?” she asked.
    Obed nodded. “The moonlight was very bright,” he said. “His teeth were white and as sharp as great needles.”
    Precious shuddered at the thought, and listened intently as her father explained what happened next.
    Obed moved his head very slowly – not enough to alarm the lion, but just enough for him to look for escape routes. He could not get back to the hut, he thought, as it would take him too close to the frightening beast. Off to his left, though, just a few paces away, were the family’s grain bins. These were large bins, rather like garden pots – but much bigger – that were used for storing the maize that the family grew for their food. They were made out of pressed mud, baked hard by the hot sun, and were very strong.

    Obed lowered his voice. “I looked up at the night sky and thought,
I’ll never see the sun again.
And then I looked down at the ground and thought,
I’ll never feel my beloved Botswana under my feet again.
But the next thing I said to myself was,
No, I must do something. I must not let this lion eat me!
    â€œI made up my mind and ran – not back to the hut, but to the nearest grain bin. I pushed the cover back and jumped in, bringing the lid down on top of my head. I was safe!”
    Precious breathed a sigh of relief. But she knew that there was more to come.
    â€œThere was very little grain left in that bin,” Obed went on. “There were just a few husks and dusty bits. So there was plenty of room for me to crouch down.”
    â€œAnd spiders too?” asked Precious, with a shudder.
    â€œThere are always spiders in grain bins,” said Obed. “But it wasn’t spiders I was worried about.”
    â€œIt was …”
    Obed finished the sentence for her. “Yes, it was the lion. He had been a bit surprised when I jumped into the bin, and now I could hear him outside, scratching and snuffling at the lid.
    â€œI knew that it would only be a matter of time before he pushed the lid off with one of his great paws, and I knew that I had to do something. But what could I do?”
    Precious knew the answer. “You could take some of the dusty bits and pieces from the bottom of the bin and …”
    Obed laughed. “Exactly. And that’s what I did. I took a handful of those dusty husks and then, pushing up the lid a tiny bit, I tossed them straight into the face of the inquisitive lion.”
    Precious looked at her father wide-eyed. She knew that this was the good part of the story.
    â€œAnd what did he do?” she asked.
    Obed smiled. “He was very surprised,” he said. “He breathed them in and then he gave the loudest, most amazing, most powerful sneeze that has ever been sneezed in Botswana, or possibly in all Africa. Ka… chow! Like this.

    â€œIt was a very great sneeze,” Obed said. “It was a sneeze that was heard from miles away, and it was certainly heard by everybody in the village. In every hut, people awoke, rubbed their eyes, and