Come and see the light, the light of God, come see the light o, Amen Amen. – Bros Shina sang as he walked into my mum’s shop.

“Mayo Mayo! Mayo mutumina!” How are you doing today? I can see you’re reading”.

Yes Bros, the book you recommended the last time, I replied as I brought the wooden bench out for us to sit.

“Smart boy, so what have you learned so far?” he said.

Bros Shina was a person of intellectual and erudite taste, a young engineering graduate in his mid-twenties who just got a job in the northern part of Nigeria, Kaduna where I lived with my parent, he was from Lagos, born and bred in Lagos. Bros as I fondly called him, graduated with first class from one of the reputable universities in the western part of Nigeria. He had that energy, the liveliness people who live in Lagos wear with pride. He spoke eloquently and always ladened his words with wisdom.

-After school, I help my mum in her petty provision store, I and Brother Shina sat on the bench every evening discussing about Lagos and the World in general. I love Lagos stories, from stories about the dangers and discomfort of the molue buses which he said were always entertaining, to the story of his university days, then to the stories about great world empires, the Greek Empire, the Roman Empire, the Greek mythology and then back to Science.

Listening to him carefully and asking questions in between, I knew every popular place and streets in Lagos. His narratives were beyond words and he soon became my mentor.

“So what do you think made the Germans lose the World War 2?” he asked.

“Because the Allies – Britain, France, the U.S, the Soviet Union were more powerful”, I replied.

“You’re very close, but not really the main reason, did you know that Hitler was Austrian born?” he interrupted.

-I adored Bros Shina and wanted to be like him. He was also religious, but carried science and history religiously. He said science and religion are like Sudoku, “Mayo science is just Sudoku with empty spaces, Sudoku leaves spaces out if they don’t know it while Religion fills every spaces, you know why?” Because God works in mysterious ways”, he said with a smile. He had this warm sense of humour I find quite witty.

“Why do you want to study medicine? You’re very sharp and good with calculations, you should study to become an engineer”, he said one day as I closed the shop for the evening.

-On a hot afternoon, Bros Shina had just returned from work. He waved at me from afar as he opened the gate to his flat.

Suddenly, I heard a voice shouting bura na bura na, an sace mun bura na.

I quickly came out from the shop to see what was going on. Passers-by gathered around him trying to find out what had happened.

He ran towards our street and kept shouting in Hausa – an sace mun abuna, an sace abuna na!

-This was a time when stories about men’s joysticks being stolen were quite common in Nigeria, but it was majorly in big crowded cities like Lagos and such were still quite new in Kaduna.

From stories Bros Shina told me, men whose joysticks were stolen, first had an odd encounter when a passer- by touches them and then a sensation of chill travelling to their genitals, and finally the person become convinced that his genitals were gone, and not gone as in totally disappeared but shrunk to a size smaller than that of a day old baby. These he said were later used for money rituals.

After a harsh interrogation, Passerby soon gets to find out that it was Mallam Isa -the tea seller across the road, he said a stranger had stopped to purchase a cup of tea at his shop. After handing over his money, he clasped his hand he immediately felt an electric chill down his groins, just like Bros Shina told me.

A woman was soon asked to check if his claim was true.

“Yes o the thing no gree stand o be tashi ba”, she screamed.

I became very curious and came closer to the crowd, the man was lying and crying, helpless like a child as he sat on the floor amidst the crowd.

“Waya sace maka? Wane? Who stole your genitals? ”, People kept asking him repeatedly.

He managed to describe the person as he sobbed in between, “he was a tall man, he was wearing a black jeans trouser and a white T-shirt and, he walked right into this building”, pointing opposite the crowd.

With the loud noise from the crowd, Bros Shina never came out. The crowd now was becoming larger as passers-by were stopping to see what was going on.

The loud and vociferous crowd, mostly young boys soon started yelling and moving violently towards the Boda Shina’s flat yelling-“Ina yake! ina ke!”.

I stood in frustration trying to wonder what to make of this, as this puzzle ate into my soul deeply.

“What? That was Boda Shina! Every description he said was Bros Shina”, I murmured in confusion.

“…But Bros Shina? How can it be Bros Shina? ”

-Alhaji Bawa a rich and well respected man in our street who also had been watching from his balcony quickly understood what was next, he came out and spoke immediately to crowd in Hausa

They listened and for a moment the crowd was calm like a still water, but some were still agitating, he went into Brother Shina ‘s flat.

Soon afterwards, a voice came from the crowd, “ya da wo ya dawo, its back its back”.

It was the boy with the missing genitals, I could see tears of joy in his face as he kept yelling “ya dawo”.

Alhaji Bawa came out of the house and told the boys to leave the environment as they were still agitating to lynch the culprit.

That was the last time I saw Bros Shina, as he left for Lagos the following morning and never to return.

I miss Bros Shina, I miss our evening gist.




*source http://www.tlkdrum.com/bros-shina-short-story/




Copyright-Mayo Bayo 2015

Hope you enjoyed it?

Yea! That was really interesting & captivating!

I enjoyed every bit of the short story.
Thanks bro.

D story is so arresting nd grabing

Thanks for your feedback, it means a lot to me!

Ikonz:
Yea! That was really interesting & captivating!

I enjoyed every bit of the short story.
Thanks bro.

I am glad you enjoyed it, and thanks for your warm compliment, I hold it dearly

waxyung:
D story is so arresting nd grabing

CC:Lalasticlala