Hello all. Here's a fictive tale I began to write a short while ago. I'd appreciate your remarks and criticisms, especially constructive. Cheerio.

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....and here's the concluding part of chapter 1.

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Nice write up

olashas: Nice write up

Thanks ma'am. I really do appreciate. I'll continue with chapter 2 in a lil' bit.

sorry i have not been active here. Nepa has been very unfriendly this few days, and i ve been quite beesy with some queer stuff. but i gat one here.

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....and here's the concluding part of chapter 2

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The nondescript fellow trudged down the dusty lane that led to nowhere. He had never even given this part of life a thought, he only knew the ostentatious side and not this dry and miserable part he was going through right now. He was not only bitterly poor, but crazy, crazy according to what people said. He had concluded it was pointless to argue with them. He was crazy. Yes, crazy to death. He let out a loud guffaw and listened to his own voice reverberate in the distant foliage like a hooting owl. He had been walking like this for five days now and no one had bothered to ask him who he was, perhaps, they also thought he was crazy. He had met a few hikers on the way and as soon as they saw him from afar, they quickly switched lane as though they could sniff that there was something ethereal about him. Yet, he knew in his heart that he was in his right mind. Most of the times, at least. Except for those special times when he lost control and his body played puppet to some poltergeist. But then, that was not his fault, at least, not entirely his fault. And that was why he always had the hood of the beige jacket he wore over his head. He never let anyone see his face, not that he could himself could remember what he look like, but, he preferred to keep his identity, from himself and from the world. He had no idea where he was going but he had resolutely decided that he would lay his head somewhere this night, no matter the cost. He had been trekking for so long now and he was so drained that he was not quite sure whether he was flying or levitating, he just couldn't feel his legs any more.
His stomach was beginning to roil and churn like a rogue wave in the atlantic; it did not mean he was hungry, in fact, it was some sacred obligation even more important than food which he had to fulfil. His small torso heaved heavily, hard life, and thought he'd better get started before he wound up in some mundane position. He patted the hip pocket of his rust-red Bermuda shorts, the metal object was still there, it would have to pass for a knife, since he did not have one yet. He veered out of the road into a narrow bush ridden path that led to what he wanted. It was just a matter of minutes before his new owners came for him. He preferred to refer to them as his new owners, because they just came abruptly, took what they wanted and just left again. If he did not want to be at their mercy now, he had to find what they wanted quick.
The leave-ridden path wound into an overgrown bush path, then, into a thick forest, his steps increasing geometrically as his heart rate. Trees sped past his view as he broke into a run, wading through thick growth of shrub as though it was empty space.
In one blurry instant, a long brown snake glide past right in front of his running steps, probably escaping on hearing the sound of crunching vegetation. He was not sure how he was able to balance his momentum and his stopping potential. All he knew was that the next moment, the serpent was in one hand and slamming it into the earth several times. The snake was quite dead by now and the knife in his hand had already done justice to its head, all that was left was to suck. But he had never liked or in the least, eaten snake meat, he did not kill it because they wanted the flesh, they wanted it for something else. He was in a frenzy now, and his eyes was reeling from a pain resulting from the million high-pitched voices in his head. They were all saying different things at the same time. It was too unbearable, but if he did not supply what they wanted, he would die. He knew because they had told him before that on the day he stopped running errands, his head would implode like a watermelon.
Hastily, he tossed away the knife and raised the serpent in both hands, the bloody open gut aimed at his mouth. He slurped on the warm red fluid as it flowed into his mouth, some spilling down his neck and jacket. His heart first seemed to pause for a dizzying moment before resuming at a steady rate. Even the heavy throbbing in his head began to clear off and his bleary eyes return to focus, then he realized he had been glaring into the sun. He squinted and looked away, squeezing and sucking out the last drops of life from the homiotherm like tasty time. It now dawned on him that the blood tasted a tad different from the others he had tasted, although he knew that even if it tasted like acid, he would have taken it anyway. His hands consciously felt the warm callous scales of the dead reptile as he dropped it. It was not until he dropped it that he realised that the greenish piece of rope he had just sucked life from was quite long, from his estimation, about 4 feet. Horrors! How had he killed it? With worms crawling all over his body, he flinched from the bloodied carcass and raced away, crashing into shrubs and small trees as though he were been pursued by a leopard.
He did not stop until he hit the dusty road and considered himself well beyond the woods. As he bent over by the side of the road asphyxiating and thinking about his crazy and inexplicable encounter with death, he realized he had not retrieved the metal blade with which he had severed the head of the serpent. He quickly pushed the thought aside. What the heck? He would have died from a single scratch from that snake's fangs and here he was thinking about some sissy knife.
He cast away his backpack and sank to the earth in despair, his shorts fold snagging dust. He pulled back his hood for the first time in many days to reveal his once smooth and ruddy complexion. He did not need anyone to tell him he now looked like a scarecrow. Scarecrow or not, he did not give a fig any more, although he sat in the middle of the road, and an angry sun was beating mercilessly on his scraped scalp. All he could think of was a better way to die. This blood-hungry phenomena was already beyond his control. Whenever the pangs came over him, his lost control over his senses and all movements in his body became subject to some unseen force. The strangest part was death had eluded him on the many occasions he had tried to kill himself, including times when he had come in contact with wild animals like a few minutes ago. He touched around the nape of his neck to feel the deep impression that the noose of a hang rope had impressed on it some days ago when he had tried to hang himself. He had simply dozed off and woken up on the ground with a sharp pain in his left buttocks. That was all and it was scary enough to put him to death, but he had not died. It was mysterious. He had never heard of any one unsuccessfully hanging themselves. May be it was in line with the promise of the voices that if he served them well, they would consider him and give him the gift of immortality. He grunted and looked frightfully over his shoulder at the woods he had just escaped from. If the life of immortality would be this miserable, he would rather die. In times like this, he was often afraid to die, but there was no better option than that. He roused himself from the dust-bath and adjusted his hood properly over his head. He would give dying one last shot. He had to succeed this time.

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Voila! There ends chapter 3....

Baaaaaaawk! The fowls yelped and scampered in all directions, scattering feather and clucking agitatedly as they ran.
'Seriously?' Lesley cried. 'What was that for? I almost got the complete footage.' Leslie lamented to the spoil sport who was now walking towards him with a gallant swagger. It was his friend, Giwa.
'Really?' Giwa sniggered, his bulbous nose meandering like a weasel's. 'You must be quite jobless to be videoing these.' He pulled out the bench from under Lesley and slumped into it. 'I hear there's some work down at the market square. They need someone to probably mop the market square clean.'
Leslie wasn’t listening, there was a ghastly mask on his face. 'Huh? Battery empty? Please save the file. Please. Please. No... Nooo!' the phone blanked pitilessly and he flailed his arms wildly in a frustrated tantrum. The video was gone. The sodding phone was dead and he could bet his dinner that the video file did not save. It was so disheartening.
He turned to face Giwa; He was busy shaking off strands of white feather from his trouser folds. 'This is all your fault. I lost the video.' He slammed into the bench beside Giwa.
'You can always get those on Youtube. If you need one, I can get it for you. Now snap out of it, remember your teams getting their butt whooped today.'
'no way!' Lesley retorted.

and that, pals, is the end of chapter 3. i have been so preoccupied with some other things during the past week, but i'm back now. on to chapter four.

CHAPTER 4
Lesley was sucking on a bloody thumb outside by the verandah when he first heard the familiar cackling but the pain was so sharp that he neglected the sound. He had burst the thumb while trying to pop a coconut with his bare hands, the same way he had seen that circus man do it in the market on his way home, a feat he now considered foolish. He hastily tied a rough piece of rag as a tourniquet over the wound to hold back the angry rush of blood, the sight of which was already nauseating him. It was as he looked away that he saw Doyenne. Big, fat Doyenne. Her wavy orange plumage was glistened in the radiant sun like fire. A wave of chicken taste suddenly filled his mouth, succouring the pain that his fingers felt. Oh, the sweet irresistible taste of Garri with roast chicken. He remembered vividly the way his friends had clandestinely chased, caught and cooked one of the freely roaming fowls in the school neighbourhood one sunny afternoon, just for a taste of its sinewy flesh. Although he didn't joined them in the unscrupulous act, he afterwards craved a plate of the oily sauce when he could no longer stand the scent. Who could blame them? Boys who had spent so long soaking and eating garri in school that they had almost forgotten the taste of meat. Even since he arrived home, he had not tasted meat of any sort, it had been bony fish all the while. It was not that he did not want to eat meat, only that he couldn't help but eat the food momma provided on the table. He jerked when he suddenly realised that he had been thinking of chicken sauce – In truth, Doyenne chicken sauce. That really was the wrong way to go about remaining friends with his sister. If she ever got to find out that he was having all this adulterous thoughts in his mind, she would never forgive him. It was as he vanished the thought from his mind that he realised that Doyenne had not been the one cackling, It had been a rooster. It looked like one of the fighting twosome from the other day, but he was not entirely sure if it was the one. He could not help but smile at the cock's carriage. His crown stood high and he walked with great pomp. As soon as he saw that he was being observed, he flapped his wings in a proud manner and let out a loud crow, then paused for a moment, cocking his ear, probably expecting to hear a counter-crow in the distance. When none came, he continued his calm saunter across the compound and then found something at the edge of the fence at which it began to twitch about and squawk rabidly. It became obvious that it was food as Doyenne hurried to the spot cackling as she went. They ignored Lesley as he calmly looked on. He had never made out time to observe birds like this. The spectacle that was unfolding before him only hinted at the fact that mother could have been entirely wrong about niisa. Not that he was taking Niisa's side, but if this few minutes he had taken out to watch them was this interesting, then it was likely, it even interested Niisa even more. He had not yet made out time to speak with Niisa over the issue and he was beginning to doubt if he would still have the time to talk to her before he left back for school.
Shuffling feet sounded on the other side of the fence and as he intently watched the entrance for the owner, Niisa strolled in.
“Hey what's up? Where are you coming from?' He asked hiding the wounded palm behind him, it was beginning to throb and thump again.
Niisa tiredly shuffled up to an empty stool beside him, sighing heavily as she slumped into it. The birds were gone by now and he did not know when they disappeared. He had been so lost in thought.
“Momma asked me to get some soup ingredients for dinner.” Her gaze shifted to a bloodied piece of rag on the concrete banister, and then she noticed he was hiding his left hand. “What's that? You cut yourself?”
“Oh that? It's nothing jare. I was just trying to break open a pod of coconut and then the sissy thing decided to pop my hand instead.”
She observed his cup of Garri on the banister and reached for it. There was still some water in it, along with some white sediment of Garri. In times like this, garri water was an elixir for the blistering temperatures. Lesley watched as his sister slurped on the cool liquid. Colour seemed to return to her face and she looked calm as she wiped the corner of her mouth. He wondered if now was a perfect time to bring up the issue he had stalled the other day. He knew he would have to return back to school in a very short while, and if he did not now, he perhaps would never get the chance to say it again. On the other hand, he could only hope that it would not culminate into a brawl.
From the corner of his eye, he could see her gazing intently at him, so he allowed his face to contort into a mischievous grin.
'Guess who I saw this afternoon?'
She was sceptical for a few moments before finally declaring, “Nothing really comes to mind now. Its like the sun has succeeded in disorienting my brain. I cant even think straight.”
“Doyenne.'
She jerked up ramrod straight in her seat.
'Where did you see her?'
“Right there, with a real cocky rooster,” He pointed at the far end of the fence. “This moment they were there, and the next they were gone. I guess she just brought him to show him to you, as a new suitor.
She wordlessly relapsed back into her seat.
He looked at her, fair, pretty and cool-headed, but only God could tell all the butterflies that were fluttering on her inside. All the warmth, the smiles, the exuberance, the childlike playfulness, where did they go? He had never truly been able to answer that question since father died. Although he knew she and father were the best of pals, he could not imagine that she had not let go father died two years. Was that not enough time to let go and get on with life? He remembered how her affection with a doll had nearly killed her while she was still a toddler. He had tried all the techniques he knew, but nothing seemed to work. That was why he had now decided to sit still and watch where this human-chicken symbiosis would lead to. If it would help her open up and let go, well, he would gladly let them continue and, probably plead with momma not to interfere any more, maybe it would help her heal.
He pursed his mouth and exhaled noisily through his nose. The options were quite confusing and dangerous but he would risk it, after all life itself was a risk. He could only hope that his choice would not lead to chaos.
'So is it true what momma said?'
'About what?' She asked, a quizzical expression on her face. He could tell she was feigning surprise, so he remained silent.
She avoided his gaze and her long slender fingers roamed to her suprasternal notch. “I don't know.” she finally responded, her voice gentle, but firm. “It depends on how you view it. Its just that I personally do not see anything wrong with it.”
“Yes, neither do I”
Her head jerked up at him in surprise, “Really?” There was a disbelieving smirk on her face.
'Yes.' Lesley affirmed. 'Really. I gave up trying to cheer you up a long time ago since all my attempts proved futile.' His hand roamed lazily to his face in search of some more white-heads. 'And I was delighted to hear from momma that you finally found something that cheered you up, and although it's a little weird, I considered it all right as long as it made you happy.'
Relief flooded her rosy cheeks in a genuine smile he had not seen for a long time. He meant all his words, even though he knew momma would ream him out for siding her, he still felt this was the best line of action.
'Thank you very much,' her thin wispy voice despite its simplicity bore a tonne of gratitude.
'Guess you know I have to return to school tomorrow. I just thought –'
'What?' she broke in “Tomorrow? That too early? I thought you were going to stay until the end of the month?”
Lesley stroke the side of his face uncertainly and allowed his gaze to disappear into the horizon. It was still the middle of august and school did not fully resume until august ended. He was not sure whether he should say this, but he would to see what reaction it would evoke. 'it was Momma's idea anyway.'
Niisa puckered her lips and Lesley knew he had struck a major chord.
'I'm not sure though, but I think she might have had to borrow that money. All the last saving she had went into reconstructing the roof that caved in the other day, at least I know that much.'
Now, it was his turn to be surprised. Momma seldom borrowed money. She frequently ensured that every penny they earned was through hard work. Lesley once remembered her going ballistics over an offer of his to defer his admission and assist the family by working.
'But why would she do that? I thought I told her that I could wait if she couldn't get it just yet.'
Niisa shrugged apprehensively. “I think there's more to it than meets the eyes. If you observe carefully, her moods these days have become quite foul.'
He nodded in agreement. That much was true. He had attempted to lighten her mood by cracking a joke the other evening and she had been so absent-minded that she had not only waved off the joke but had also cut herself with the knife which she was using to slice the vegetables. When he had asked, she had merely grunted and asked him to be more prayerful. It had been all over him that day and then he had resolved that this evening as soon as she returned, he was going to confront her and demand to know what it was that bothered her so much. But here was the answer starring right at him in the eye – she had had to borrow money from an unpleasant source. His conscience buffeted immediately with guilt. A sizeable percentage of the money he had asked for, at least, 60 percent, was for some selfish use of his. He wanted to buy a new phone and he had heard of a place where he could get it cheap. All he wanted was to change his phone.
Niisa starred at him intensely and his heart began another fresh circuit of race-- he had allowed his face to betray his emotion. He hurriedly stopped his hand from nipping incessantly at his throat and managed a smile; it was likely that Niisa could already tell what was on his mind.
He cleared his throat noisily, 'So that's what she has been bothered about?'
'No. absolutely not.' Niisa cut his hopes again. 'Early this morning, I woke up to go to the toilet, but on my way, I heard some noise in the parlour. When I went to check it out, it was momma and she was praying. Not just praying, but groaning. And even though her voice was low, I could still hear some of the words. Most of what I heard was -' she shut her eyes tightly as she tried to recall. '-it was about the issue of the house sha. It must be that those father's kinsmen are really serious about coming in to take over and chase us out.'
That news hit him like there was a collision of several hundred butterflies in his abdomen. He hurriedly tried to join the dots in the eye of his mind. He had been wrong all the while. It appeared that father's kinsmen were really coming and momma had hurriedly gone to borrow some money and had told him to return to school as soon as possible. The next time she had said it she had been specific – tomorrow morning. She was trying to get him away from home as quick as possible. If that was the plan, then Niisa was not left out.
“Did she say anything about you going for an holiday somewhere?” his furrow creased as he asked the dreaded question.
Niisa slapped her palms together and shrugged. 'Well, as I went out with her this morning, to get some ingredients from the market, I thought I heard her mumble something about us going to granny's place next week or so. I didn't pay any attention to it because I thought she was talking to herself. Like she's been doing for some time now.'
Lesley clasped his fingers and sighed. He had that much figured out, Momma was running a one-man black-ops and they were all pawns in the game.
“There's no way i'm going any where. My exams are just around the corner and I have to be around for the tutorials,” A worried look suddenly flashed across her face and she looked him in the eye. 'you surely do not believe that, do you? I mean, that those guys are really coming, and that they are coming for our house. You said it yourself the other time that it was some kind of joke, didn't you?'
Lesley almost swore as he struggled to restrain his hand from travelling to his face again. It was like there was some kind of magnetic force between his face and hands.
'Oh no, yes-- certainly not,' He stuttered desperately. The words of Giwa about him ruining his face with incessant fingering, his own guilt-ridden conscience, and his proud words about saving the family house kept mixing into a kaleidoscopic indecipherable image in his head.
Niisa's phone rang momentarily, giving him some time to pick himself together and clear his head. When she got off the phone, he realised that he had neither picked her conversation nor the caller.
“Who was that?”
She gave him a perplexed look, but changed her mind. “That was momma, she wanted to know if you've had your breakfast yet,'
'But she could have call my –' He stopped short when he realised his phone was dead. He might need to go to the viewing centre very soon to charge his phone. He just hoped his raging conscience would permit him to leave the house.
“I'm sure it's all gonna work out fine.” that was all he could muster. He was tired and needed some rest to clear his gnarled mood.
Niisa shook her head resignedly. 'I hope so brother,'
She reached for his wounded hand. She had been watching it for sometime. “Lemme see your hand. You did a poor job of the tourniquet.”
Lesley let her fix the tourniquet her way. A brilliant idea was beginning to form in his mind and his head was now clearing. There was no way he was going to be caught up in the middle of this. He was going to leave home as planned.

Phew....nice one
Thumbs up

oyestephen: Phew....nice one
Thumbs up

Thanks pal.

alrighty! on to chapter 5.

CHAPTER 5

The hazy landscape meandered lazily before the hooded figure as he raced downed the gnarled path splashing mud in all directions with his barefoot. He did not think he had been running for long, although his definition of 'long' had changed drastically these few days. To another individual, it probably would have been too long. His travels had mainly been lonely and his 'benefactors' had been generous enough not to have sent him on any errand recently. Just yesterday, he met a small boy who actually spoke a few words to him. And the conversation seemed to flow smoothly until the boy had asked him for his name. That was when the animal skin burst and all its contents leaked out. It then dawned on him that he did not have a name. Or probably, he had lost it. In blind rage, he had staggered into the wild, and for the rest of the day had gnarled at the very fabrics of his mind to recall his name and all that had come to his mind was a most horrible dream that had set him on this path; a dream he did not ever want to remember. Afterwards, as he had laid on the earth totally drained of all pulse, he heard a still whisper of the single word 'Lemma'. Although it did not exactly ring a bell, but in that instant, he had sprung up from where he laid in the dust and now, he was racing back to where he had seen the little child yesterday. He could only hope that he would still meet him there. After several weeks of longing, he had finally gotten someone to talk to, and had lost the opportunity all because he did not have a name. Now, he did have a name: Lemma, at least it was something to play around with even if it was not his true name. Now he needed to get that kid and for once in a long time, have a friend. Someone who would talk to him and ask him some more dumb questions.
The dusty road unwound into a lonely bushy path, he could tell it was the same he treaded yesterday for he could still see his foot prints in the muddy earth. He doubted that people ever passed this way, or may be it was because they were avoiding him.
His mind roamed to the kid. Small dark oily face, thin sinewy body, probably between 10 and 12 and very scraggily dressed. That was all he was able to see from the several yards distance he had kept between them. He had been roaming the empty street when Lemma ran into him and he had instantly asked Lemma whether he knew the road well, that he needed to find his way home, but was worried that his Mom warned him not to come home yet. As Lemma asked him why his mom did not want him home, the boy asked him for his name.
He crossed the road and sauntered to an incomplete building on the other side of the empty road, there were a very few house scattered about, most of which were incomplete. He stood in the middle of the road and looked around, then, he saw the kid. He was sitting by himself on the shabby floored pavement of an incomplete bungalow and chewing on a finger. He raised his head and smiled when he saw Lemma.
“Lemma, Lemma!” Lemma called out rabidly, some yards away.
A puzzled look crossed the boy's face.
“me,me,” Lemma poked at his chest, “me, Lemma. me, Lemma.”
Then, The dark-face brightened in an understanding smile. “Ok,” then he returned back to his finger-curing.
“What about you?” Lemma called back. He still stood at a distance away. He was strewn all over with dirt and mud and did not hope to scare the boy yet.
“me, Tiene.” he mouth the words comically through several gaps in his mouth.
“Where's your mama?”
“She died yesterday.” he kept a straight face yet.
“Died? Who killed her?”
“Sick, then she died.”
Lemma's brow furrowed with dismay. “But I thought you said she told you not to come home?”
Tiene pursed his lips and looked down at the fingers which he had just bitten. He looked satisfied with the results.
When Lemma realised he wasn't yielding, he decided to inch closer to him. He stopped just a few inches from him. Tiene's head was still bowed as he observed his tiny fingers.
“you aren't scared of me?” lemma asked and the head bobbed vigorously.
“why? You really should.”
tiene lifted his head and smiled, a toothless smile that sent shudders down lemma's spine.
He made as though to say something and then changed his mind. He thought he was scar, but here was some one who did not think so. How then was it that people had been avoiding him all this while?
“I think your question depends on the state of mind, I don't consider you to be scary, that's all,” Tiene said as he scrubbed his eyes arduously; he was done inspecting his fingers.
Lemma was shocked at the kid's answer. This was a mystery he could not explain. Adults and children alike had all fled from him in fright but here was one that did not even flinch at his sight. He knew he looked worst off than a masquerade. He had even once seen a moth collapse at his deathly stench.
“Mom said that nothing was really scary unless I thought it to be,” Tiene stifled a yawn and laid down on his side. Lemma thought he was going to sleep very soon.
“So, what are you doing in this parts? You look like you've had a long journey, don't you think it's time you had a rest?”
lemma was shocked by the question, he did not want to have to talk about the drean, it was too early and the wound was still fresh.
Nevertheless, he cleared his throat and started talking.
“What I tell you today, you must tell no one. Understand?” He said firmly and the small head bobbed in response.
“Alright, I honestly do not know where I'm from or where I'm going, all I know is that I've been travelling for some time now. Not a journey with vehicles of course.”
Tiene shifted his tiny frame on the pavement and beckoned for lemma to sit beside him.
Lemma resumed his narration after he sat down.
“All I remember is mostly from a nightmarish dream I often have. And that's what I’m going to tell you now, since you are not scared of me, I think you won't be frightened by it too.”
Lemma observed the horizon. It was probably a few hours before dusk. He should be able to finish by dusk, hoping Tiene did not sleep off before then.

Lesley refused to glance even for a fleeting moment at his reflection in the polished glass door of the store as he passed by it. He had passed this way everyday now for a year and had always observed his appearance in the mirror. Today, He did not need any mirror to tell him that he looked miserable. He both looked miserable and he was it. Finally, He had met his Waterloo, Just when he thought he had it all figured out. It had been so embarrassing that he couldn't tell his friends about it, let alone, call momma and tell her. The only person he told was his bunkie, and he had straitly warned not to tell anyone. He had sold his aged blackberry last week as soon as he had returned from home and he had gone down with all the money, including the one he had collected from home to the phone market. But he had been unable to get his dream phone because the money he held was just a little short. it was as he walked past the school gate to his apartment that a black burly guy had called him by name. At first he had being hesitant, but when he realised the money was safe in his back pocket, he relaxed and strode up to him. The guy had introduced himself as a course mate along with Lesley, and that made him doubtful until the guy said that he had just relocated from another department. They had discussed about the department and its rigours for a while and they got on very well. Just as he turned to leave, the guy mentioned something about money and from thereon, everything had become a blur. He did not know when he reached into his pocket and handed the money over to him. It was not until he reached his dormitory and his bunkie asked him about that the phone he had gone to buy that he realised he had been hoodwinked. Even now, it was still a dream that he could not wake up from.
A phone rang in the distance and a fair-complexion lady who was passing by looked at his crotch area. He snarled viciously at her and she cowered. On other days, he would gladly have followed her up but today was a wrong day to do that . All he wanted now was to wake up from this ghoulish nightmare.
The same blurry sing-song tune sounded again but this time, it was not so far away. That was when his mind registered the tune. It was from a phone in his pocket, a quarter-past-dead Motorola which his bunkie had given him out of pity. He fished out the phone from his pocket and then realised that the fair-complexioned lady had tried to communicate to him that the phone which was in his hip pocket was ringing. He looked back shyly but the lady had disappeared. With great difficulty, he pressed the stiff answer button on the phone.
“hello. Who am I speaking....,'
'huh? Is this some kind of joke?' the caller responded. 'don't you have my number any more?”
'I’m sorry, but there have been some complications which presently cannot allow me to know who the caller is. Not unless you tell me. I' sorry.'
The caller sighed over the phone and there was a rush of static at his end. Lesley thought the caller had gone off the phone until he heard the sigh once more.
“Alright, Niisa. Happy now?”
A pang of guilt coursed through his entire frame. It was Niisa and he hadn't even recognised his own sister's voice over the phone. It was either because her voice was gnarled by the poor phone speaker or because there was so much on his mind.
“oh, my dear, I’m sorry. I did not mean to offend you. Ahm...,” he scratched his head hesitantly, searching for what to tell her. He was sure she would have deciphered what was on his mind if she were here with him. “My phone was stolen, so my bunkie borrowed me this,”
“What? Who stole your phone?” Niisa's voice was electric.
Lesley sighed creating a rush of static that he was sure could only be generated by the phone, a phone he would indefinitely be stuck with for a long time. He shook his head distastefully and sighed once more.
“My dear, we don't always know the thieves, all we know is that they take stuff that isn't theirs.” the truth was since the ordeal, he could not recall the face of the diabolical fraudster. “Just don't tell momma about it.” he added. She had enough on her mind already and he did not plan to add any more weight to that.
“Let's forget about me. That's past now. I know Its been a long time I called. Pardon me, there's been so much happening around here. How are you?”
“I'm fine.”
“and momma?
“I haven't heard from her for a while now. I'm still mad at her.”
“mad at her? What for?”
Niisa clucked her tongue softly. “it's obviously been a long time you called her. That very week you left for school, she practically towed me to granny's which is where I am presently. She said it was for my own safety, but I don't see how that's possible. You know how much I hate it down here.” Her voice was already straining over the line.
Lesley let out a unsteady stream of air from his pursed lips. So long, momma had done it again.
“that's been about 2 weeks plus, right?”
“Yeah.”
“That's very serious. Do you have a plan?
“you mean like to break myself out of here? You know that's practically impossible. Granny's been all over me ad nauseam. Not like I’ve been stressing myself, but she either has me shelling melonseeds or weeding the small garden in front of her cabin when I'm not reading. It's so boring over here.”
“I really don't know what to say, sis, but I could say that momma did it for our good....,”
“Don't start, don't start! While did I call to tell you self, I should have known that you'll take sides with her. Listen, I’d –“ Niisa threw a tantrum and the line went dead. That was the icing on his pudding this morning.
The very air he breathe tasted miserable. He had pissed off his baby sister. Everything. The cars that passed, the birds fluttering their wings overhead, the houses, everything was like the irritating irregular clanging of metal tins and barrels. But for his practical test this morning, he would have allowed his jerky legs to lead him to the stream, perhaps, the fresh scent of the moisture-filled air would help clear his nerves, and relax him a little. All the money was gone, and all his hopes of survival for this semester had been dashed into tiny shards. In deed, life was not worth living any more. May be he should just allow his legs lead him to the stream after all, then he would take a long tired bath. And then he would drown. It wasn't worth it any more.

hydronium.......ya simply d bomb....ve bin following ya post for a while buh cudnt commend ya cos awas a visitor..jus registered naw am hia am i to pay ma respects to a sterling writer with a stupendous writeup...kip d fire burning man....ya rock...lack words to describe aw much ah revere and esteem ya mien of writing...do rock on

Akukaria: hydronium.......ya simply d bomb....ve bin following ya post for a while buh cudnt commend ya cos awas a visitor..jus registered naw am hia am i to pay ma respects to a sterling writer with a stupendous writeup...kip d fire burning man....ya rock...lack words to describe aw much ah revere and esteem ya mien of writing...do rock on

*blushes*
Well, I'm flattered beyond words. I was on the brink of freezing this post for good because I thot no one cared. Thanks for expressing your views and Stay tuned.
Vaya con diõs.

if you are viewing this on a phone, Please bear with the lack of coordination between the paragraphs. I presume it's as a result of Nairaland's text format.