When You Wish He Lied

It was in barely dawn and the atmosphere was just becoming less hazy due to the midnight rainstorm that made a loud and flashy impression on that dark night early august, just two years after a major flood that claimed the lives of several dozens in the ancient city of Ibadan. The chiming of the phone beside Banji woke him up, just in time to hear the cockcrow, a sign that day break was a moment way. The chiming stopped and he was about to doze off again when it interrupted his swift transition back to dreamland.

“Hello, huh? Where? Alright, I will be right there” he responded reluctantly. 

“Babe” he turned to the other side of the bed, speaking to his wife Sarah, she responded so he continued,

“They called, I have to attended to this one urgently”

“But I thought we had an agreement”

“Yes, I know but they called and when they do...”

She interrupted him before he could finish

“You have to leave, I get. Just be safe ok?”

“I will”

The sun was fully out at around 9am, and Sarah was making breakfast in anticipation of her husband’s arrival. Calls like that weren’t supposed to keep him all day at the work. He was a senior engineer in a major multinational company and he was responsible for the oversight of several installations of the company in the city. In the early hours of that day, an installation was experiencing a setback caused by the heavy downpour during the night, he was alerted as to the situation at the facility. Sarah was expecting to hear from him so she waited until her patience candle burned out. 

She tried calling his number several times but it wasn’t reachable so she gave up. “Apparently work got the best of him, he will come and meet me here. We had an agreement about work this weekend” she thought, already getting exasperated. She soon settled into other forms of occupation and not long, it was nearing dusk and there was still no word from her husband. She became more agitated as he still wasn’t reachable and most of his coworkers weren’t either. Her phone began to ring, on the other end was her friend uche.

“Babes, wassup? Are you at home?"

“yes”

“Is Banji at home with you?”

“No, he stepped out earlier today”

 she responded, her voice a bit shaky 

“Hope it’s not work again?”

“Girl, why all these questions, what happened”

“babe, is he at work?”

“yes, I guess”

Immediately she responded, Uche dropped the call. She tried calling back but she didn’t pick up. A few minutes later, she heard a knock on the door, her legs got her to the door, faster than a thunderbolt. She opened the door without asking who.

Uche barged in looking so rough and shabby. She lived not quite far away from the estate where Sarah and her husband lived, and they were very close family friends. 

“Babe, I wanted us to have this conversation face to face that’s why I decided to drive down here in such a hurry” Uche said

“Alright, what is it? You scared the monkey out of me, you still are” Sarah responded, trying to remain calm.

“Okay, let me explain. I got a call from the company about forty-five minutes ago that there was a collapse in one of their installations and they can’t seem to ascertain the level of damage caused so they were contacting most of their staffs that could have been called in that morning”

“Alright, what now happened?” Sarah, now losing her patience

“Let me continue, I guess they couldn’t reach Henry so they called me. I tried his number a couple of times before it went through. He told me he was called from that installation that morning and he left around 9am but they said the installation collapsed around 7am. Based on the cheating history my husband has, I figured he was at it again so I called like I was checking on him and that lying bastard told me he was at work, at that installation. The dog has been with his side chic all day, he had no idea what was going on. For a second, I was happy he wasn’t there but then arrghh… ”

She observed that Sarah was looking confused and worried, so she couldn’t help be ask.

“Don’t tell me Banji is at that plant”

“He has been out since before daybreak, I can’t reach him!” Sarah responded now about shedding tears.

“OMG! That doesn’t sound right, but are sure it’s the same plant?” Uche, in shock

“Errm, I don’t know, like I don’t know anything right now, he was beside me this morning and he was gone”

“Jezz, I wanted to come and report henry to your husband that’s why I was asking about him on the phone. I thought you guys were taking the weekend off work”

“Yes we were but he said this one was urgent, he was supposed to just go and come back before I even bling. Oh! God, I’m I not done for?” she began wipe uncontrollably. 

Uche tried to calm her down, she had a heavy heart herself due to her husband infidelity but it was nothing to be compared to the pain Sarah was going through. 

                ****

          (Three months ago)

“Banji, are you sure I am your mother? You have basically ignored everything I told you to do."

“Mama! Aren’t you the only one that can answer that question?” he responded with a little bit of sarcasm in his tone.

“ori e baje” she responded, with a tone void of rage. 

“Mum, I got this, I will send the money and I will come and check the house okay?”

“o daa o, I have heard you, my regards to that man you are leaving with” she said with a scornful gesture.

“Mama! Sarah, is her name, she is my wife and she is a woman in all capacity” he responded 

“Sorry o, Oko iyawo. What do you call a woman who has been married for three years with no child ehn?” she paused then continued 

“Ako aya niyen na, a male wife shor. I knew it, when you saw beautiful and well-endowed Yoruba girls there, awon omo ilewa, you went all the way to ile igbo, to bring a barren hen” she hissed, look him in the eye and said;

“There goes another valid point that you never listen to me your mother” 

This was one of the numerous discussions about Sarah that Banji’s mum had engaged him about her childlessness. He always defended her because attacks from his mom were always targeted at her womanhood. Most times just like this scenario, Sarah would be in the house when mama visits, but the couple always made it look like she was away because on countless occasions, things had gotten nasty when mama meets Sarah face to face so she hides in the room throughout the duration of the visit. After she left that faithful day Banji on getting into the room met Sarah in tears.

“Babe, you know all those things she said aren’t true” 

“Maybe, she doesn’t know why we don’t have children yet but that doesn’t exempt me from the hatred she has for me” she responded

“Well once all is set, we can start making babes, we will take a weekend off from any form of commitment, you will go off the pills and it will just be me and you going on and on… one of those matches will definitely result in a beautiful baby boy”

He paused kissed her on her forehead, wiped her tears away then he continued.

“Can we do that babe?” he asked. She nodded in affirmation with a blush.

 Then he said;

“So when that happens, you will be rest assured that we will all smile, just three months more, I need to plan well for my unborn children before I start planting the seeds”

The both laugh and kissed after wards.

                 ****

“Uche, this weekend was supposed to be special, it was supposed to be like a honeymoon, we had it all calculated. Why is this happening now, I don’t know what has happened to my Bamiji”

She kept crying, while pacing around the living room. Uche was trying to comfort her but she was failing at it. They have been friends since their third year in the university and somehow they got married to two friends so it was an automatic case of family friendship and not only that, their husbands worked in the same company. Never have they thought since the inception of their friendship that such a day as this will come, when one will have a cheating husband and another, an apparently faithful on whose whereabouts’ is unknown. Sarah could almost wish her husband was like Henry, probably with his mistress and not laying lifeless under the rumbles of a collapsed plant. 

The time was now 7pm and there was still no sign of her husband, the company had now made contact with her but they couldn’t say for sure if he was in the plant as at the time of the collapse. 

The news was now everywhere and the number and identities of the causalities weren’t known, but all throughout that day, another news was ignored, there was a flood in some parts of the city and some things were destroyed. Sarah, couldn’t get herself to face the reality that her husband was no more so she never left the house until she was sure he was part of the victims of the plant’s collapse.  

Uche left the house after a while leaving her to herself and hopes that Banji will be safe. She sat on the floor of the living room staring at the door hoping that she will hear him knock at the door and walk right through it. There were a lot she wanted to tell him, atimes she will hallucinate, munching words like she was with someone, seeing things that weren’t there. This continued until she snapped out of it by the aid of the doorbell.  

At first excitement was about building up inside her but then she remembered that only a visitor will use the doorbell, Banji never uses it when he is at the door. Still curious as to who was at the door at that time of the night she reluctantly walked to the door and asked;

“Who is it?”

“Is this Akinbade’s residence? We are from the Nigerian police fore”

She could barely keep herself together, in her mind, all forms of red lights went off, she felt her worst fear had eventually happened, maybe they found his body, and maybe they have come to tell her that he didn’t make it. She tried to calm herself down and opened the door. 

Two young men walked in, one dressed in mufti while the other was on uniform. 

“Hello ma, my name is john, we believe you are the wife of one mister Oyebamiji Akinbade right” said the man in mufti

She nodded in affirmation, with paled eyes and an extremely inquisitive countenance. 

“Alright, in the early hours of today an incidence occurred. A bridge around Jerico area collapsed due to the rain last night that destroyed a lot of properties. Although we all thought no major incident happened at that bridge but then we found a Toyota carmry with this plate number somewhere down the meandering water. The car apparently crashed into the gap the collapsed bridge created, we believe that is your husband’s car?”

“O my God!” she exclaimed now in tears again. 

“please calm down madam, we found him in the vehicle, unconscious, he must have driven so fast that he didn’t see the bridge and went right into it” he pause and continued.

“Your husband has been taken to the University Teaching Hospital. We have been trying to contact his next of kin but all we had was this address in the vehicle’s documentation and his own phone number which of course is useless”

A little spark of joy lighted her face because of the news, at least he never made it to the plant but he was in another unpalatable situation. She quickly asked to be taken to where he is and they left the house in a hurry.

Banji was in the ICU of the hospital and had suffered a minor head injury due to the impact of the crash, the water below the bridge wasn’t deep so he was lucky not to have drowned before being discovered. He was out of coma the following day and they spent another week at the hospital with family and friend visiting. 

Sarah’s retrospect on her thought made her realized how desperate she was during those hours of uncertainty, she had a friend whose husband was cheating and lied about going to work when in actual fact, he was with his mistress but luckily, he was exempted from being a causality of the tragic incidence at the plant. She hoped somehow that Banji was with another woman and lied this once about going to work, at least he will be safe. Every worker in that installation that day either died or was severely injured. It’s funny how love can be, in that desperate moment, when you wish he lied.

  The end!

Curious

Sometimes I find myself holding a shovel
Stuck like a picture on a best-selling novel
About to dig; Dig into the sepulcher of memories
Just wondering what I could find
A rotten body of my past mistakes? (Rhetorical)
Events from yesterday that Ill love to re-take,
Because I failed the course of moving on
And I see myself sitting in the class of my waiving emotions;
My indecision persuades me to dial the same number
Every tone of the phone ringing strikes a painful chord across my heart

I wouldn't deny that I was on her IG page few minutes ago
Shes having fun, and probably that's what hurts the most.
Damn! I never knew Ill do this again but here I am
Listening to her voice on the other side
And my lips go on strike; void of words
My heart is pounding fast now,
My finger is pressing the red button now
Hoping she calls back even though shell never
But just like today, I will repeat this again tomorrow
But today, I hate me, and I promise to move on
But its hell difficult because sometimes, Im just CURIOUS!
So Ill dig again!

Regrets (poem)

As this ink paints words on these pages I remember you and how your words hurt,
Not the words you spoke, but the ones your didn’t,
Not the choice you made but the one you didn’t
Your weight crushed me, not the once you put on me, but the one you didn’t -
The weight of your love.
 You gave me a pseudo yoke, its crazy!
You made me believe I got you, every thought I had was about you,
Every battle I fought was not to doubt you, or your love! Damn, foolish me.
They say fools fall in love, well, they probably right,
Cause the words you said gave me sight,
A right perception of my lone naive walk in darkness of false love,
My continued logging for a false future with you,
False dreams, false desires, every hour, every single day.

I wish I could hate you, blow up and use curse words to spite you,
But that isn’t me, your actions can’t change who I am
The arrow of your betrayal pieced deep into my heart though, but didn’t corrupt me.
I have regrets, yes I do! They are regrets of my choices:
Why I told you I love you, why I stayed true to you, why I cared so much about you!
Why, why, why... ? but that's on me.
When fear turns to anger, anger turns to disappointment, and disappointment births Regret
And Regret? Pain!
Then In pain you ask yourself, this question;
“Did I ever love her? “And YES! Screams at your face,
Then finally you ask.” Why Did I ever love her?”
Probably will never know........
{THE END}

Dad's Note (Flash Fiction)

My half sister is pregnant, she is beautiful, gorgeous and she has a kind of shape that dudes keep drooling over as a teenager. I also thought she had good qualities but I only have physical evidences to back that up. She is only beautiful on the outside, inside? Well, I can't say. She was wayward, disobedient, a little spoiled brat and for some reasons, she was loved by all. Well, all that was until three months ago when she could no longer hide her tiny little secret. My bet was that she must have tried to get rid of it all to no avail. When I came up from the menial job I was doing that evening exactly three months ago, the report at home was that; ‘Mariah was pregnant for a faceless bastard’. They had no idea who the father was; of course, she had been with a dozen men of late so who knows the one who was responsible? She was looking dejected and confused that evening, probably trying to figure out who the father is? I wasn't surprised, in fact I was shocked that it took so long for her to bring this type of shame on the family and even then, everyone rallied around her in pity, she wasn't receiving much scolding, Dad was quiet about it but you could see 'pity' written all over his face instead of range! 

It still amazes me why he preferred her to me. All I have done in all the 20years of my life was try to please him. I got straight A's, helped out in any way I could and made the family proud and yet I seldom get applauded by my dad or any other member of the family for that matter. My father hated me and I had to accept that fact every day of my life. But yesterday was a drastic turn of events, as I walked into the room and saw his lifeless body on the bed. Standing across the room, motionless like a statue, I felt nothing, absolutely nothing, I shed no tear. I watched his two wives, my step moms, wailing in what appeared to be agony and rolling on the floor, shedding crocodile tears as neighbors tried to calm them down and right there, I gave my mind up to an imaginary scenario of what it would have being like if Mom was here, would she have put up the same show like these women? Who would have acted better? I probably wouldn't know because she died of cancer four years ago. They said it was cancer but I don't believe it was, I still blame dad for her death till today because if he had stayed true to their marriage vows and didn’t bring in a second wife just 3years after they got married, maybe he won't be lying lifeless on that bed and maybe if he was, mom would be the only major cast in this scene but of course, what do I know, I'm just a child they say.

Today is his funeral, Dad wasn’t rigid about his religious believes, sometimes he believed God was in church so he'd grab his rosary and pick up an old Bible of his and go to a cathedral but that rarely happens unless it was Christmas. Otherwise times, the Quran had the answers so he'd find his way into any building overshadowed by a crescent moon and a star. But he’s father is a fanatical Muslim and unlucky for his body, Grandpa is still alive so he had to be buried immediately according to the Islamic rites. Now, here I am, watching a man who I wanted to love so much yet let down by his neglect, lowered into the earth along with all his wrong decisions. So I am deciding to make my own decisions now, to leave home and go far away from my pregnant sister who obviously detests me and my step mom and wayward step siblings, who always thought I and my mother were cursed. But before I go, I needed to pick up the old Bible dad used to take to church every Christmas, it will be the only memory I'll have of him.  Sitting on his bed, scanning through the Bible, I understand why he never showed he cared, it was because he truly loved me, even enough to leave a note for me; I shed my tears now in quiet grief as I walk away from the darkness of my dad’s bad decisions to make mine in the light of his path drawn out in his note.

Wrong Turn

A little bit over 110km/h wasn’t a normal speed on a single lane road at an odd hour of the day but that wasn’t the problem, the tension in the vehicle was. It was high, skyrocketing, I must say. I could remember the feeling I had, a bizarre; it was that of a vehicle drifting too fast into a sharp bend and I heard the tyres voice out in a screech as they struggled to remain on the asphalt and for a split second they went mute and all I heard was a violent roar of the engine and I felt a new sensation like we were airborne, a loud thud followed. I could feel my internal organs shake like a vibration was sent through every cell in my body and I went blank.

I heard voices difficult for me to articulate any when I regained consciousness. All my body was numb, I couldn’t feel myself but I knew I was in motion. I was moving fast with a lot of people around saying all sort of things and by their tone, I could tell that all wasn’t right plus I was the topic of the deliberations, the whole scenario must have overwhelmed me like a dark cloud, making me drift back into darkness once more.

“Can you hear me? Hello Sir, if you can please move a finger on your left hand”

The sweet feminine voice said as I gradually regain consciousness. My eyes were heavy but I needed to know what was going on. With a sense of Delirium, looking Confused, I stared at the unfamiliar faces. The environment was a familiar sight and I could instantly recognise what it was. It was an emergency ward of a hospital. I had been in a similar facility before;  that was when Nancy, My Ex girlfriend in the university, had a complication after an unauthorized abortion but that isn’t a gist for today. I could hear sounds like beeps from the equipment in the ward and of course the doctor who was asking me a question. I could feel my body now so I acknowledged her question by moving my index finger twice. Then I a split second it dawned on me that I was with my wife a while ago, something happened and I am here now, Oh My God, where is she. Just before the doctor could say anything else, I voiced out a sentence with all the strength I had despite how bad my chest was aching,

“Where is my wife?”

The doctor’s reaction wasn’t clear, maybe that didn’t expect me to speak or maybe it was something else, I couldn’t phantom and that made me very nervous.

                                                                   ******

                        (48 hours prior)

It was the 3^rd of March, a day before our second wedding anniversary, and I had just arrived from work. Feeling exhausted, I knocked at that door of the flat we lived in and I didn’t get any response so I knocked again; over and over again. ‘At least, she must have heard the sound of my car when I drove in’ I thought, what’s wrong? I asked myself. Moments later, I heard footsteps and twist in the lock. As the door swung open, behind it was my Sandra; my wife. She was in tears, looking dejected and frustrated. I had seen that look before so I didn’t bother asking what happened. Sobbing intensely, she said as she threw herself into my embrace was;

“I shouldn’t have picked her calls Tope, I swear I shouldn’t have” 

“I understand dear, Mama can be a pain in the ass a times, maybe most of the time. I am sorry” I responded.

We had only being married for two and yet my mum was pestering her for a child, obviously not because she didn’t feel she could have children but because she was trying to get back at me for marrying someone from the East; an Igbo girl, against her wish. This kind of emotional torture was fast becoming a regular occurrence in our home, solely caused by my Mum but that very day, she crossed the line. She told Sandra over the phone that she was bringing a new wife for me and she will have to live with the reality of being a first wife in the house since she didn’t have a womb which could qualify her to be the only wife. The incident got Sandra really upset but it was still my choice to accept mum’s proposition which was definitely off the table. So I comforted her and promised to take her out on a date the following day to make up for that episode she had with my mum and to celebrate our wedding anniversary. That night, things didn’t go as planned.

I arrived early from work at about 6pm to pick her up for our special date and at around 7pm we were both dressed and ready to go. I had made a reservation in a wonderful resort at the edge of the city and since it was Friday we decided that we would be spending the night and hoping to make a baby in one of their exquisite suites. So we drove out on a 40mile journey. 10 minutes into the trip, I noticed Sandra wasn’t laughing at my jokes anymore, she became quiet and lukewarm at first and suddenly, she asked me with a soft tone; so you have started chatting with the new bride huh? I was confused at first and then I remembered that Mum had shared my contact on WhatsApp with the lady she wanted me to marry as a second wife during the day and I was trying to be polite so I responded to her messages. Sandra was with my phone and I guess she must have seen a notification from the lady and read the chats. Oh! How stupid I was. I planned telling Sandra but not that night, it was supposed to be about us, just the two of us. 

With a rather harsh tone she asked again “Tope, didn’t you hear me? What is this date about if you already have plans for a replace me?” 

I didn’t want to make any wrong statement that could ruin the whole night so I kept quiet trying to pick the right words to respond in my mind because I knew how Sandra becomes when she is vexed; more reason why I have never pictured cheating on her besides the fact that I love her more than life itself. Just before I could respond, she made a terrible statement;

“Hope you have told your Mum that I am not the problem, she should be considering checking her son too, he has some old books we need to be consult”

I knew she didn’t mean it, she apparently was referring to my past but my ego got in the way of my reasoning so I flared up like a volcano. Not quite long, we started exchanging words, saying a whole lot of things we didn’t mean. I never knew I was going too fast, I didn’t see that bend; I drifted too fast, and before I could regain control of the four runner jeep, it was off the road. We took a dive for valley down the slope of the main road.

                                                               ********

“Where is my wife? Where is Sandra I asked again?” 

“Please sir, calm down, your wife is alive, we manage to safe the three of you but we are hoping for the best concerning you wife, please you need to rest” the doctor responded.

I had a fracture on my left femur and I took a hit to the head, the doctors said I was lucky, the airbag helped. But Sandra didn’t have her seat belt on so she sustained a severe head injury and she was in a coma. Once I got better the doctors allowed me to see her, I would seat beside her bed in her ward everyday praying and hoping she open those pretty eyes once again. The doctors said they save three of us but I didn’t pay attention to the statement until I got better and found out that Sandra was pregnant and she didn’t even know it. I wept, prayed and hoped. In that period, my mum discovered that what we had for each other was more that her prejudice and bias, she had to pray with me and a lot of friends and family also joined the train. 

Two weeks after the incident, Sandra opened her eyes and I was right there to be the first person she will set those pretty eyes on after being tragically shut for weeks. I felt like I got a second chance with her and this time I was willing to stay and fight for and with her no matter what. I was happy to have my wife back and not only that, our child was also on the way. Oh the table turned; a tragedy became a testimony.

                                                                        ****

Doris, My Daughter, is 3years old today and we are expecting her younger sibling. Looking at my beautiful daughter and my very pregnant but extremely beautiful ebony wife, I can’t but reflex on all I could have lost, but all that I have gained instead. That wrong turn, on that highway, one that night years ago, could have been my last. But I had the opportunity to make the right turn even after I made that wrong turn.

Prejudice 2 (Memoir)

Alas! Chaos looms in the air

We dance to the tune of our fears

The pains of losing those who we held dear

Hoping when death arrives, they won’t be there.

My little legs took me fast as they could and I caught up with my fleeing neighbours; they were guys that lived beside our house. I felt they were making the right moves so I followed suit. As the crow flies, in few seconds, we found a perfect hiding spot; it was the house of a neighbour, a Hausa Muslim family. They saw us running so they offered to shield us from the mob who everyone knew was nearby. 

“Come inside, quickly” the woman said, wearing her hijab covered from head to toe, beaconing on us to come into her home. We were all sceptical about her offer, we asked silent questions among ourselves without using words but they were rhetorical, did we have any other choice? We just had a short time to either accept her offer or die trying to flee. She took us in quickly and her daughters directed us to the bathroom, told us to duck, and stay away from the window. Between the time I made the choice of vanishing with my neighbours and the point I got into those ceramic walls in a strange house, I felt it was like a flash, I had no thought precisely, felt nothing in particular, I just knew somehow, we were in our neighbour’s bathroom, about hundred meters from my house with no clue what was going on outside. Sitting down in that bathroom trying to catch my breath, my mind then began to function properly, I could now reminisce. I started to wonder what could happen in the next few hours, will we be safe in here? Will they find us? What about my family, will they be alright? There horror of losing my family began to dawn on my tender mind, tears were the only expression I could show, scared and tormented in my heart, shaking all over yet I had to be quiet.

For a moment, we heard nothing; it was as if the who quarters became a graveyard, not a sound from the birds tweeting, or the gentle waves of the tress. No! It was dead silent for a moment; it was like nature was watching to see what comes next. In minutes the silence was broken with a shout, it wasn’t chorused like before, they was individual voices calling out to people specifically, they would shout and you could hear various smashing in all directions. They were forcing themselves into houses, destroying properties they could find and desperately searching for the occupants of the houses they broke into.

It continued for several minutes and as time flew; my mind was drifting in all directions. I was scared to death. Not knowing if my family was still alive added more to the pressure. They were out to kill and we didn’t know if anyone could stop them, we just waited and hoped. We could hear the footsteps outside the bathroom, in the isle, our host moving around their normal duties to avoid suspicion but we were still suspicious of them somehow, they could give us up, they were of the same kin. During conflicts like this, you don’t know who to trust.

After over 30 minutes in hiding, there was a turn of event, several gunshots outside, the atmosphere changed and the noise increased. We could hear people running in different directions. Everyone in the bathroom was asking questions, you could see that in our eyes, “Do they have guns? If they do, this doesn’t sound good” someone just had to peep through the window to know what was happening outside, he needed to be careful. Lo and behold, it was not what we thought, there were soldiers outside. Apparently, someone had called the incident in and they moved in as a swift response to the issue before anyone got hurt. Deliverance was outside but I wasn’t satisfied, I was still scared, what if they were still outside and we come out and get mobbed? My little mind wondered. The face of everyone in was lit up but I was still unsure about what happened before the soldiers arrived, what happened to my family. 

“You can come out now, the army is outside, Ku ji ko? (Have you heard)” said the sweet voice of the girl outside the door of the bathroom with her Hausa accent. 

“It’s alright lets go outside” said the eldest person among us, trying to assure us and himself that it was fine to come out from hiding.

We came out to a different kind of atmosphere; there was smoke from a distance and solders all around, with guns in their hands. We waited for some minutes and a coaster bus arrived to take us away. I didn’t know where we were being transported to and I still couldn’t see my family members, just neighbours who were hiding in other neighbours houses during the siege. Not quite long, I saw my Mum, Dad and my two sisters, at that moment, nothing else mattered, not the fact that my heart had be beating so fast that I thought it would force its way through my rib cage or the fact that I had pictures in my head of them; dead, and I alone as an orphan, taken back south with tears from the north. It was a joyous moment seeing families alive once more.

 As we got transported with the bus having a convoy of scary looking soldiers, I found out what the smoke from the distance was when we got to the front of our house. It was Dad’s car, they attacked our house majorly for no reason I can clearly state till date but I know they were calling out for my Dad.

“Auditor!!!!!!”  They kept yelling, according to my dad. 

Luckily they got out, my Mum also didn’t buy Dad’s idea so instead of remaining indoors; they fled at the last minute to our immediate neighbour’s house. They hid in her bedroom while she stayed at the door preventing them from coming into her house to search for them

According to the Hausa culture, once the husband of the house isn’t at home, you are not allowed, as a Man, to come into the house and intrude on the woman’s privacy. Her husband for some reason unknown, left home that morning before all the attacks and so did several other men too. That cultural norm came in handy and saved my family from the blood thirsty folks who kept searching our house destroying anything they could lay their hands on. Before they were interrupted buy the soldiers. Since they couldn’t find anyone they decided to destroy the house, set the car ablaze and contemplated burning the house but they knew it wasn’t our house, and besides, what point will it make if they set a government property ablaze.

We got to the gate and found out that one of the attackers was killed, his body as picked up by the soldiers at the other side of the fence, that was the first time I saw a dead body up close. As we kept moving I wondered where they were taking us to, I didn’t ask, I just waited for the suspense. Everyone was looking calm but I knew they were scared as we moved away from the city to the outskirts; seeing various scenes of destroyed properties by the road sides. Soon we arrived at the Barrack; it was now obvious that we were to become refugees for the next couple of weeks. We live in certain apartments in the barracks and we all had to live as a family with the rest of the rescued.

For two weeks we lived as refugees, got used to hearing gunshots from several distance and near. Inside the walls of the barrack, it was safe even though there were guns around and restrictions, but it was better than back home. Families were separated for those periods but it was worth it, we stayed alive.... 

After two weeks and some days as refugees, we returned back to the quarters, the riot had subsided and we had to get used to the new reality. We moved back to our house after the place was fixed to make it habitable again. A lot of our property had being destroyed but it didn’t matter, we had ourselves. While at the barrack, my eldest sister was brought there and she and other students who had exams then were transported carefully to write their papers. Feeling safe again was difficult, we found it hard to do, and any sound at night would create a panic in our hearts. About a week after we got back to our house, there were fresh rumours that something was being plotted again to re-kindle the flame of the conflict so Dad and Mom finally made a tough decision, it was time to leave the north for good and go back home, it was time to return to our families back in the south, Ibadan was the perfect destination.

Oh! I can still remember that morning when we had to say goodbye to what we had known as our home and hope for a better life; far better than what we had in the north. We were on their way back to the south.

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                                                            Ibadan (present day)

We had to adapt to a new life, a new reality in a new environment. We have our lives. Starting a new life away from the nightmare we awoke from wasn’t easy but we had God’s help, we still do. But in all that happened we learnt a lesson; life is the most important asset a man has and in that moment, when you have lost all, you know that family is everything you need once you are still alive. We still have friends up north, some we’ve lost contact with and others are gone. Now in my early twenties, looking back through the window of time; memories of almost 13years down the line, I know that we are still standing for a reason even despite all the PREJUDICE!

                                                   (The END)