The Chase

This story is from my childhood experience, and I ask that you all not judge me because we all know how mischievous children can be at times.

So, when I was bout 7 or 8 years old, before my uncle got his own land, the goats he raised he typically left them in my grandmother's yard. Now, I know what you're thinking, "Who leaves goats in someone's yard?!". What you have to remember is that I grew up on this little island in the Bahamas and so this was not uncommon nor out of place.

My uncle had a very BIG ram, with very LARGE horns and each day after school when I would visit my grandmother I would tease the ram, and this was because I swear this ram did not like me. Each time this ram saw me, he would be giving me the dirty eye or be growling (or whatever the ram version of this would be) at me.

This teasing consisted of me sticking my tongue out, throwing little twigs at the ram, and so on (I never did any real harm to the ram).

So one day on a Saturday, I was hanging out in my grandmother's yard, with my cousins, all girls, who were all OLDER than me. And being the mischievous child that I was, I was there still teasing the ram. My cousins warned me several times to leave the ram alone and I didn't listen. I then decided to take it upon myself and go behind the fence where the ram was in order to tease him much closely.

Now, although the ram was big, I wasn't afraid because my uncle had the ram tied pretty securely with some rope. So as I got closer to the ram, continuously teasing him, I'm telling y'all that this ram BROKE LOOSE off his rope and started chasing me! Oh my goodness! I have never been so scared in my ENTIRE LIFE and in that moment I thought I was going to die...I even saw my life flash before my eyes (yes, that's a thing).

So imagine little ole' me running from this HUGE ram, screaming and shouting, with both arms in the air frantically waving, and my cousins who I ASSUMED were responsible for my well-being, seeing that they were older than me, were standing around watching and LAUGHING! Like how could they ignore the fear and horror that sat upon my face?!

It seemed like forever, but I'm pretty sure that the ram chased me around my grandmother's house at least five times!

But then, God's grace and saving mercy fell upon me. As I was making my way to complete my 5th lap around the house, I came upon a small opening in a fence nearby. I doubted I would make it through, and not because of the size of my body (I was pretty skinny at that age), but because of the size of my head!

I thought that it was better to try, then to die. As I came closer to the opening, I was able to make it through the fence. But let me tell y'all, had I been even .02 seconds slower I would have ended up on an emergency flight into the city to have ram horns removed from my butt, because that ram chased me with a VENGEANCE and he was looking for blood!

Unfortunately for the ram, since he was directly chasing me, he tried to get through the fence as well, but his horns got stuck in the fence (can someone say GLORAY!).

I don't know how long it took my blood pressure to come down, but STILL to this day my cousins tease me about my near death experience.

And, I still wonder if I had died that day, if they would've been charged with being an accessory to murder.

I guess we'll never know.

But I learnt my lesson that day! And my lesson to you all is, never intentionally engage in behaviours that could possibly harm you. Stay away from toxic relationships, environments, and people! And when they try to chase you in order to reel you back in, RUN LIKE HELL, and don't stop!