Pastor Bamidele Johnson woke up at exactly 3; 02 am. It had being a tiring day for the Johnson’s especially his wife. It was their first son Gbenga’s engagement ceremony. The family decided not to blow the event out of proportion so it was a simple occasion with very influential but limited guests in the compound of their 6 bedroom duplex in ikoyi.

His effort to force himself back to sleep failed. The cure for his going back to sleep is to go downstairs to attend to his everyday ‘3am green tea addiction’ which he had picked during his university days. He stretched and turned to his left to catch a glimpse of the most wonderful woman he had ever met in his life, the mother of his two boys, Chief Mrs Kemi Johnson. From his heavy sleepy eyes he could see she was lying on his right arm side ways with both knees bent together facing him with her mouth poked out like she was pouting to someone in her dreams. The same gesture she always did whenever he teases her or he tries to trouble her on purpose. She still looked as beautiful as she did 20 years ago.

He stretched towards her to kiss her on her forehead quietly before sneaking out of bed because he knew she had a stressful day. Same thing he did that every night, like he was sort of seeking her attention before getting out of bed which he didn’t understand himself. She mumbled and turned to the other side of the wall facing her dressing table with her eyes closed.

Chief reached for his phone beside his pillow and pulled the duvet down off his chest to ease him from getting out of bed properly. As he stepped his foot on the flip flops beside the bed he heard his wife murmur something from her sleep. He didn’t respond at first because he thought she was fast asleep. So he bent over the bed to cover her with the duvet properly and planted another soft kiss on upper back close to her shoulder.

“Please switch off that Air conditioner on your way out dear, its still too cold for me” she mumbled out in her soft half-asleep calm voice.

“Ok mummy” Pastor Bamidele whispered in a sort of teasing tone in his voice. He loved calling her ‘mummy’ even though she never liked it. He noticed a smile on her cheek from the way her cheek bone moved. Calling her mummy was his own way of teasing her especially because she looked so much like his mother. She always complained calling her mummy would only make her age faster than her mates but pastor Bamidele never listened.

He left the room and headed to the kitchen. On his way down to the basement, he noticed the light of his last son’s room, Jaiye was switched off. That’s Strange! He thought to himself. It was odd because his son can never sleep without both his television and his room light switched on ever since he was a kid. Even though he had been acting very strange ever since he entered his 2nd year in his university and also after he turned 21 a month ago. Jaiye had always been the stubborn child of the family, and also the mysterious one. He was a carbon copy of his father’s looks and stature but had a totally different character from him. His father always called him ‘quiet trouble’ because he hardly talks to anyone in the house.

Pastor Bami waved off the thought of his mysterious son as he entered the kitchen. He just wanted a quick green tea therapy for the night because he had a very busy day by morning, especially very early business meeting for 7:45 am. Normally he would just sit on the dining table in the kitchen, drink tea, study the bible for some few minutes, pray, watch CCN news and head back upstairs to bed but he felt different tonight. He didn’t wasn’t to spend more than 20mins. He reached for his favourite mug in the cabinet that had mugs and poured himself some already prepared green tea from the electric kettle. He reached for his phone in his pocket as he sat on the chair beside the dinning table in the centre of the kitchen before placing the tea on the table. There was no pending notification on his phone so he dropped it and stretched for the bible on the centre of the table.

As chief flipped through the bible pages he had a sudden weird vibe like something wasn’t adding up about the night. Then he noticed what was wrong. His dog, an Alsatian wasn’t in the kitchen.

“Pogo?” he called out and whistled. Usually pogo sleeps in his cage all day and guards the house at night with Musa, the security guard but pastor Bami made a small entrance on the back door that leads into the kitchen. As an ardent dog lover, pogo comes into the house only when pastor Bami comes down to the kitchen at his ‘Green-tea Hour’, but for some very weird reason pogo wasn’t in the kitchen today. Where could this dog be? He asked himself as he sipped from his tea.

He stood up and opened the kitchen curtain to see if pogo was outside the compound but he couldn’t see clearly because his cars were parked in an unusual way tonight because of the chairs, tables and canopies that were used from the ceremony earlier. He whistled and called out again to check for pogo but to no avail. He shrugged and sat back on the chair thinking about where the dog could be. He tried to dial Musa’s mobile number on his phone but he waved the thought thinking he was being paranoid about the dog like his wife usually. Is the dog bearing our surname or are you sure this dog is not your brother? He smiled as he recalled his wife’s voice.

He picked up the bible again and continued to sip his tea. After some few minutes he started feeling the effect of the tea calming his nerves so he decided to pray knowing the sleep was finding her way back to his system. While praying he heard footsteps like someone ran down the staircase. What in heaven is this boy up to by this time? He asked himself. He wanted to stop his prayer but he hesitated and continued to pray trying not to be distracted because he knew it had to be Jaiye when he heard the sound of his room door creak before closing.

After Praying he scooped the mug to drink the rest of the tea in one gulp. He took the cup into the sink to wash it properly before placing it in the cabinet for cups and mugs. He didn’t want any problems from his neat- freak wife by morning especially because the kitchen was some sort of personal sanctuary. The thought his dog came back as closed the bible and placed it neatly. He stretched to reach for the TV remote controller on the table to check if he could see pogo through the CCTV camera. He had bought and fixed 6 CCTV cams around the house after the robbery case that happened in their neighbourhood about 4 months ago. He moved closer to get a clearer view of the cam that divided the TV screen into 6 parts. He zoomed into the cam that covered the back of the house closer to pogo’s cage but he couldn’t see clearly because his cars were parked in a way that blocked the dog’s cage. All he could tell from the camera was that the cage was open but he couldn’t zoom in to see if pogo was in or not.

Then he decided to zoom into the other part of the camera that covered the security man’s room thinking pogo was sleeping around the entrance to the gate but what he was shocking. The camera was showing only in black and white so he saw his dog lying in a pool of blood close to his security guard that was being tied up by a man that had his face covered. He zoomed in further and saw two other men standing with guns parading the premises.

‘Armed robbers… armed robbers!’ he whispered to himself as he zoomed into the other camera with his shaky hands. He tried to see if they had found their way into the back door but he couldn’t see the entrance because his car was still blocking the camera. He stood there shocked motionless for some minutes still trying to believe what he just saw. He regained consciousness when he remembered his wife who was still fast asleep upstairs. He picked up his phone from the table and dialled his friend’s number, a police commissioner Mr Eze. He didn’t pick up his call at first and he continued to dial his number as he continued to watch how they beat musa on the screen. Please Pick up… pick up… he whispered.

‘Hello?’ Mr Eze responded with a disturbing tone in his voice ‘Pastor what’s the problem?’

‘Big problem Mr Eze, sorry to disturb you this late hour’ pastor Bami said in a low tone.

‘What’s wrong?’ Mr Eze asked with a clearer voice.

‘Armed robbers, please can you send some officers to my house immediately? They are in my compound right now; I can see them through my CCTV camera.’

‘What? Right now? I hope you are safe and your family?’

‘Yes for now… Please can you send some officers right away?’ pastor Bami pleaded ‘I can see them trying to walking towards the main door from the camera’ he added.

‘Ok I’m going to drive down to your house myself right away. Take your wife and kids to the pent house and lock yourself up. I’ll be there in some few officers in less than 10mins.’ He paused and continued ‘How many of them can you see from the camera?’

‘I can only see three of them for now but I feel there are more’ Pastor bami replied. ‘Please hurry, I’m going wake the rest of my family to keep them safe’

‘Ok pastor… I’ll be there right away.’ Mr eze said. ‘Please stay safe till I arrive’ he added and hung up.

Pastor bami walked towards the main door to double check and lock properly. He knew opening the door would take make them waste more time. He rushed back towards the television to see what they were up to through the camera but this time he saw 6 more armed robbers including musa. Two of them stood to guard the main entrance gate, 3 of them stood side by side and the last one stood behind musa and forced him to knock on the door with a gun pointed behind his head.

Pastor dashed out of the kitchen to wake the rest of his family. He noticed jaiye’s door was slightly open when he as he climbed the stairs. As pushed the door open to wake his son, what he saw was again very shocking.

He saw Jaiye standing in front of his dressing table removing bullets from a cartridge and loading it into a gun. Pastor Bami stood there with his mouth wide open in shock for some seconds until he gain consciousness when he heard Musa calling out for someone to open the door and knocking. Jaiye didn’t flinch or stop what he was doing. He didn’t say a word until he corked the gun.

‘Daddy I’ll explain later lets wake mum and Gbade’ Jaiye said as he walked past his father. Pastor Bami sensed some level of security when he heard the way his son spoke and walked like a real criminal but he just couldn’t believe what his eyes were seeing.

Once again he regained consciousness when he heard the intense bangs on the door. They both walked towards gbenga’s door some few steps before pastor bami’s master bedroom. Jaiye knocked till gbenga opened.

‘Armed robbers’ Pastor Bami’s said.

‘How many are they?’ Gbenga asked with his eyes wide open

‘Six’ Jaiye replied

‘And where’s mummy?’

‘Still sleeping’ Jaiye replied

‘Ok give me a second’ gbenga replied and turned back into his room. They both followed him inside. He walked towards his cupboard, moved his reading table and climbed on it to reach for a small black container on top of the cupboard. He came down from the table and placed it on his bed. Pastor bami was surprised to see Gbenga bring out a gun from the black container.

‘Oh my God… You too!!!’ Pastor bami yelled.

Both boys just stared at each other and didn’t bother to reply their father when they heard musa calling out from the back door that led to the main house. For some reason pastor bami felt so secure. He didn’t feel like he needed the police anymore. He never would have imagined or thought his two sons could have guns.

‘Stay behind us daddy’ Gbenga ordered in a very tough and fierce tone without looking at his father’s face.

‘Don’t tell me you are going to use that Gbenga’ pastor bami asked. The two boys ignored their father as they both tiptoed out of the room with their guns drawn like well train military men on an operation. Their father walked behind them like a child being protected by his father. He still couldn’t believe what he was seeing. He knew Jaiye had been behaving very weird since he entered his second year in university but he never would have thought his son would have a gun. He was also surprised about gbenga who was heading for a pastoral course and had just graduated with a second class upper GPA law degree. Especially the way they both carried their guns like professionals. He knew they had to be cultists.

They stood on both sides of the door with their guns pointing towards the stairs to allow their father gain access to the room to wake their mother. They followed him into the room and locked the door behind them. Their mother was still fast asleep but their father tapped her on her shoulder to wake her up.

‘Kemi… Kemi…’ he whispered as he continued to tap her shoulder. ‘Wake up, there’s a problem’

‘Oh what is it this time bami… you know I’m tired’ she murmured

‘Mummy get up… we have armed robbers in the house’ Gbenga said in a calm voice.

‘What!’ she exclaimed. This time her eyes were wide open

‘Yes, six of them’ Pastor Bami replied. ‘I called Mr Eze and he told me he was one his way’

‘Jesus Christ!’ she exclaimed again as she jumped out of bed. She stood still with her mouth covering her mouth like she was stopping herself from screaming when she saw her two sons with guns peeping through the window carefully.

‘Please tell me these things are not real Bami’ she pointed to the gun with Gbenga while facing her husband.

‘Mummy they are real’ Gbenga with an authoritative tone ‘We are not going to use them to kill anyone, its just to scare them away and please we will explain things better to both of you tomorrow so for now just watch how we handle the situation.’

Mrs Kemi rushed to her dressing table to pick up her bible, her scarf, anointing olive oil and started praying out of panic while pastor Bami continued to dial Mr eze’s number on his phone.

‘What do you think?’ Gbenga asked his younger brother as they both peeped through the window carefully. ‘Do you think they are more than six?’ Jaiye responded by nodding

‘Ok’ Gbenga replied ‘But do you think they are real armed robbers or our enemies because they don’t look organised and they don’t have a uniformed colour’ Jaiye responded again by nodding his head.

‘Ok then, lets scare them away’ Gbenga ordered. ‘Two shots each to the air first ok?’

‘Ok’ Jaiye replied and took one step backwards to cork his gun properly. Their parents stood watching their kids dumbfounded. They were so shocked that they couldn’t even no what to say at this point.

‘Daddy cover mum’s ears and stay flat on the ground because they might decide to shoot back at us if they are well trained robbers which I doubt because they look like their guns don’t even have bullets but you both should stay down’ Gbenga ordered and his parents followed the order without hesitation. This time Mrs Kemi was weeping as she continued to pray. Gbenga turned back to his brother.

‘Like I said… just aim for the sky ok? Gbenga said ‘I’m opening the window now… ready?’

‘Yes!’ Jaiye replied.

To be continued ...





Effects of boredom....