This episode sounds more like you than Maria writing. Nice job btw

Egomah: This episode sounds more like you than Maria writing. Nice job btw

It is me writing.

I analyse what she tells me and write it my own way.

Ok, was trying to say she answered question just like ur character in ur own story.

Egomah: Ok, was trying to say she answered question just like ur character in ur own story.

I understand.
HAPPY RUNNING.

Chapter 6:

Life in a Libyan prison became unbearable just after a day.
My life had changed to something else.

The day we came in, we were shown around by a female Prison officer. And we had believed things were not too difficult until when the following day, nobody came to do anything for us.
The food they served us were nothing close to what we were used to.
It was true we were prisoners and had no rights whatsoever to make demands but i in particular never expected that things could get that worse.

After our lunch the previous day, we were told that we could join the other prisoners to play around until 4pm when we were to return to our room.

We couldn't play with anybody; we had no friends. We just stood near a fence and watched as other people played.
We heard Igbo And Yoruba languages. We heard Edo too but were very cautions to approach anybody even those who spoke our own very language.

Everybody had suddenly disappeared around 4pm and while we walked slowly back to our room; two uniformed men approach us and asked us to lie on the floor.

They produced a whip and started hitting us.
Nina cried while i wondered what was wrong.
Was that the standard thing here?

No it wasn't because after dealing with us, one of the men told us to run fast back to our room.
Oh! It was timing thing. We were supposed to disappear as soon as possible immediately it was 4pm.
Nobody told us to be in a haste about that. But we learnt the hard way.

"I am going to kill myself" Nina had said as soon as we got back into the room.

I got scared. "Listen Nina, we will get out of this. You just have to hold on".

"For how long?" she started crying.

Despite everything that was happening to us, i knew that the other prisoners were going through similar situations. And since they were holding on, we should be doing the same too.

"Nina, there are many people here. They were happy playing their games this evening. We must learn from them. Just calm down, things will change, things always change" I had said.

Aunty Philo was nowhere to be seen or heard. The people who were supposed to take us to the harbour had disappeared.
Yes, i wanted to believe that they had disappeared because if they were also in prison, our situation would have been the worst.
I had prayed that they were not in prison because they were the only people who knew what had happened to us.
They told us not to panic when we were arrested. There must have been a reason for that, but it was just a hope.

The second morning after we were brought to the prison facility, Nina reminded me that we didn't eat that night.
There was no alarm for dinner. But food was the least of my priorities at that stage.

While Nina announced that she was going to take her own life, i prayed silently that death would come and take me away but it never happened.
I stayed alive in that prison until we began to blend into the prison system.

We would hear the morning bell, got ready for our room to be unlocked, went to Eat our breakfast, went to play in the fields, went to eat our lunch, play a little more before retiring for the night.

Dinner was not on the menu, though sometimes, they came and shared some snacks late in the evening.
Our bodies were confined in one place and so was our minds.
The worst was our minds that wondered outside the prison.
Yes, our minds wondered outside the prison at all times; i thought about everything out there. I thought about if anything was being done to free us.

Aunty Philo who was our primary contact was in Italy, there was nothing she could do from there and even if there was, i doubted she could bribe the authorities for our freedom.
I wondered if the two men who were crossing us were also doing anything about our conditions. I had watched as they were also cuffed, it meant they could have also been locked up somewhere.

Our situation was that of hopelessness. The worst part of it all was that i refused to accept that i could spend months or even years there.

Two days after we were arrested, Nina got sick. She had started vomiting inside the room and when i asked what it was, she said she had contacted cold.
I had quickly pressed the emergency button fixed on the left side of the cell wall and a woman came two minutes later.

"My friend is dying" I had stammered.

When the woman asked what happened, i told her what Nina had been doing.
While i spoke with her, Nina was curled on the bed shivering.

"Please do something" I had nearly shouted.

The woman had left and returned five minutes later with three other people and a stretcher.
They carried Nina onto the stretcher and locked me back inside the room, then they left with her.
I had held the iron bars that served as our door and watched as they carried Nina away slowly.

It didn't take much time for it to dawn on me that i could be left alone inside the cell for an unknown period of time.

For the first time since our troubles, i had a real cry. Not that it helped but there was absolutely nothing else to do. I couldn't read the single Koran left inside the room and the worst part was that it wasn't written in English.
I couldn't think straight. I couldn't come up with any idea of what was going to happen to us next.

As i cried, i blamed Jamb for my woes. If i had passed the exams, i wouldn't have been in that hopeless situation.

I slept alone that night, it was the worst night i have ever had in my entire life. I needed a companion to share the hopelessness with. I needed someone to talk to. I even wished that the prison authorities brought someone else to replace Nina pending her return; anybody, even a total stranger but it didn't happen. I was left alone inside that cold room, not being able to think beyond the walls and tired of crying.
At a stage, i stood up and looked for an object to kill myself.
Yes, i wanted to end it all right there in the room but there was no life threatening object inside the room except the Koran.

I picked the book up.

This is the west side story that Maria reminds me of. Such a crazy world when you go down there. You think that having money brings joy and peace to you, but the pursuit of it brings out the beast in you....John Legend

Chapter. 7

"Dear Allah, if you are really a God, strike me down through the power of this book. I am tired of this life and what it has given me. I don't want to continue leaving in this condition. Please give Nina the power to move on without me. Make her understand why i did this" i finished the prayers and dropped the book back on the bed, then i sat down and waited for the all powerful Allah to strike. Minutes turned into hours and nothing happened. Hours changed from one to two to more and yet, Allah did nothing.
The tears had started flowing down from my eyes again.
I had grabbed the book and started hitting my head with it but it seemed to have had no damaging effect, then I tore two pages and started chewing it.

I was practically running mad before my conscience hit me.
"What are you doing to yourself? The God who kept you alive until this moment will see you through this trying times" the voice in my head had said.
I have heard that message in our Mary the Queen Catholic Church back in Ekpoma. I recalled the Rev. Father who said that very words. It was like yesterday.
I wanted to doubt that God who kept me alive until that moment was going to see me through but since the Rev. Father said that long time before my situation, i believed in it.
I just lost the count of time until i woke up the following morning.

The morning bell had woken me up, it was time for breakfast.

A female prison official had shoved a plate under the metal door and smiled.
The plate contained a small pack of Orange juice, two piece of bread and a small satchet of butter.
My eyes were red and she noticed because she had stopped and asked if everything was OK with me.
She spoke English too.

"Where is my friend, you took her away to the hospital yesterday" I had said with a straight face.

"I don't know. I came this morning. I will ask for her later" She had said and continued to deliver food to the next prisoner.

They opened the prison cells up every 10 am and allowed us to play in the compound.
I wasn't interest in playing that morning, therefore i just took my bath and walked out to watch others play.
While i sat near the football field and watched the men play, My thought was with Nina.

'Where did they take the poor girl?'.

Despite being confused and scared as hell, i pitied Nina.
She was too soft to bear such troubles.

I remembered asking Nina how she ended up in Burkina Faso with me, we were joking that evening when Aunty Pamela left back to Lagos.

"My Mother said it was a good idea to go abroad" She had started.

She went on to tell me how Aunty Pamela bought Rice and Beans from her mother somewhere called Orile in Lagos.
She said her mother sold Rice and Beans in bags and that she had worked with her mother after finishing secondary school and as usual, was waiting for that stumbling block called Jamb.

Nina was on the bed in our little room in Ouagadougou while she narrated how she met Aunty Pamela. "She came to buy Rice one after noon and brought wo beautiful clothes for me. She had promised to get me a gift the last time she came. My mother was excited and when Aunty Pamela left, my mother told me that the woman liked me so much. I blushed the entire week because i was told that she liked me. Aunty Pamela was quite popular around town. Many girls i knew always boasted that they bought one cloth or shoe or something else at Aunty Pamelas. When she left the day she brought the clothes, i knew that something was going to be involved somehow. People didn't just like people that much in a poor country like Nigeria. I had heard about Lesbians and i feared Aunty Pamela could be one of them. Despite receiving the two clothes she bought me, i waited to shout at her anyday she would invite me to her place. But she had other plans.
She came again to buy foodstuffs in our shop and excitedly announced to my mother that she would like to send me to Italy to live with her friend who exported Italian made wears from Milan. My mother who never heard or knew Milan and where it was, was excited. She didn't even ask for my opinion. All she knew was that abroad was mentioned and whether i liked it or not, i was going with Aunty Pamela. That was how i went to stay with Aunty Pamela before you came from Ekpoma".

Of course there was nothing extra ordinary and strange from the way she had been scouted. But just like most other teenage girls, she was lied to about what she was going to be doing in Europe. No every teenager was going to jump into the boat if she was told she was going to become a prostitute.

Right there in an open field where i sat alone, i watched as the men kicked the round object all over the place. From the look of things, it seemed that we were in a secluded facility. The Libyans i had met while waiting in Tripoli were all light skinned but all the people i saw playing out there in the field were pure black men and women.
Some didn't look Nigerian at all but were still blacks.

"Young Lady, why are you here alone, come and joint us?" the voice had said behind me.
I didn't hear her footsteps come up behind me, it could have been because of the shouts from the men kicking the ball around opposite me or from the ladies throwing ball around behind me.

"Uhm Sorry. Thanks. I don't know how to play the ball" I had stammered while standing up at the same time.

She had helped me up by taking my hand and pulling me up from the ground.

"Jasmine, what about you?" She said.

I looked surprised since i didn't know what she meant by Jasmine.

"Jasmine is my name, I am from Eritrea. What about you?" She said again.

"Elitree. Where is that?" i had said. I was still confused.

"Eritrea is a Country near Sudan and Ethiopia" She answered with a smile.

"Thanks" I had managed to say. "I am Maria and i am from Nigeria".

She had confidently held my hand and pulled me slowly towards where i had seen them throwing the ball around.

Since they were just throwing ball from one person to another, I joined them.

ayobami52:

And this more of the reason why the site was locked up, cos of people like you.. he told you all his life story not for you to be using it against him, but for you to learn.
you have a very shallow mind, no quality of a man and good runner in you., you aren't meant to be here in the first place..
so immature... you are hereby evicted!!

and this is why africa will never develop. a white person cant make that statement which he made.

Chapter 8.


Jasmine walked with me to the dining hall when we heard the bell. She spoke good English with a beautiful and clear accent. Before we met, i had never known or heard about any Country called Eritrea.
Not that i was so good with country names in Africa but i knew the popular countries such as Cameroun and Ghana and even the Sudan and Ethiopia she mentioned while we were at the field.
The Eritrea must have been a small country or new for me not to have heard about it.

"Why are you here?" Jasmine had asked me on our way to the dining hall.

I didn't know if it was safe to tell her why i was there but since i figured out she was also a prisoner, i decided to tell her anyway.

"My friend and I were on our way to the Sea when we were arrested. They brought us here after the arrest" I had said.
It was as simple and short answer as it could have been.

"I am sorry about that" She had said.

Sorry for what? Why was she sorry?
She was also a prisoner.

"Thanks" I had said and kept quiet.

She had looked at me and said nothing; i did the same too.
When she looked me square in the face again, i felt she was expecting me to say something.

"What" I managed to utter.

"Would you like to know why i am here?" She asked politely with a smile.

Oh that, she wanted me to ask why she was there.

"Yes, please tell me" I said.

"Our country is at war with Ethiopia since last year" She said. "We have gained independence from them since 1993 but they haven't allowed us to enjoy the new freedom. Their military men come to our villages and kill us, rape our women and burn our houses. Many of us ran to Kassala in Sudan and lived there. We hoped that things would be better so that we can return to our country but it became worse, so we started to come to Libya so that we can go to Europe from here too" Jasmine had said.
She clearly enjoyed talking.

It was difficult to tell her age but i suspected she was a little older than me.

Since i didn't know all the places she had mentioned, i Decided not to embarrass myself by asking more questions but when we finished eating our food, she continued telling me how they were arrested.

"That is my sister there, and my brother" She had said while pointing at a group of four people standing together.
"We came all the way from Teseney in the Gash Barka Region in Eritrea. They have killed so many people there. My father decided to stay back and fight with the people, so we prayed for him and left. When we left Kassala, we took vehicles to Altbara in Sudan. They arrested us there and put us to prison but when a lawyer came, we were released and were told to leave Sudan. So we decided to go to Egypt through the Nubian Desert. But they arrested us again at Wadi. They told us that the Egyptian Army will shoot us if we cross the border. After trying three times to cross over to Egypt without success, we decided to come to Libya. We got to Al Kufra Libya after five days before our money finished. We were Arrested there and brought here. We have spent three months now but we hope ..." she was saying.

"What, how many months?" I interrupted her.
The three months had suddenly caught my attention and shook my brain.
What did she mean by three months?
Did she actually mean that she and her family members had spent three months inside that facility?
If that was what she meant, then i could spend that too.

"Yes, three months. We have been here for three months but i heard that the President Ghadaffi had instructed the responsible authorities to release people from war zones with immediate effect. It means that we are going to be free" She smiled.

"But what is going to happen to me?" there is no war in Nigeria" I had managed to say with croaked voice.

She was honest enough. Rather than giving me a false hope like i was used to, she bluntly told me that she didn't know what was going to happen to me.

That was it. There was no way i was going to stay blindly in a Libya prison without a slight knowledge of how long i was going to stay. It was never going to happen. I would kill myself as soon as possible. That was just the best alternative. As for spending one month there, not to talk of three months, that was never going to happen.

I was already in tears five minutes back before Jasmine realised i was no longer paying attention to her Geography lecture.

“Hey, why are you in tears, is everything OK?” She had asked when she found out i was crying.

She had asked if everything was OK.
How could she have said something like that?
How could everything be OK when i was locked up in a prison without any offence.
Or did i commit any offence.
Wait, i did.
I was going to venture into dangerous waters of Mediterranean Sea and was arrested for being an illegal alien in another Country.
What was i expecting that would happen to me if i was arrested?
Was i hoping that the Libyan authorities would give me a big hug for trying to cross the entire length of their Country into the Mediterranean Sea without authorization?
I brought all that was happening to me on my self and i figured out it was hard on me because i had never experienced such difficulties in my life.

Beside me was another human being who was in the same situation as me, even with some members of her family and yet, she was calm and hopeful.

As i cleaned my eyes with my handkerchief, i told Jasmine that everything was alright.

“I am Ok, just that i can’t imagine myself spending months here” I said.

“Hey, its Ok. Its better than being killed. You must give thanks to Allah for everything. You will be free someday and continue your journey” She said.

I thanked her and nodded as we walked back to the spot where we were throwing our ball aimlessly earlier.

Jasmine had helped me a lot in the three hours i already spent with her. She had been able to divert my mind from thinking about Nina whom at that very moment, had not come back to the facility.

I wasn’t even sure she would return.
Our Fates.

” The person who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing, is nothing, and becomes nothing. He may avoid suffering and sorrow, but he simply cannot learn and feel and change and grow and love and live”

We will get two updates daily from now on.

Jasmine walked with me to the dining hall when we heard the bell. She spoke good English with a beautiful and clear accent. Before we met, i had never known or heard about any Country called Eritrea.
Not that i was so good with country names in Africa but i knew the popular countries such as Cameroun and Ghana and even the Sudan and Ethiopia she mentioned while we were at the field.
The Eritrea must have been a small country or new for me not to have heard about it.

“Why are you here?” Jasmine had asked me on our way to the dining hall.

I didn’t know if it was safe to tell her why i was there but since i figured out she was also a prisoner, i decided to tell her anyway.

“My friend and I were on our way to the Sea when we were arrested. They brought us here after the arrest” I had said.
It was as simple and short answer as it could have been.

“I am sorry about that” She had said.

Sorry for what? Why was she sorry?
She was also a prisoner.

“Thanks” I had said and kept quiet.

She had looked at me and said nothing; i did the same too.
When she looked me square in the face again, i felt she was expecting me to say something.

“What” I managed to utter.

“Would you like to know why i am here?” She asked politely with a smile.

Oh that, she wanted me to ask why she was there.

“Yes, please tell me” I said.

“Our country is at war with Ethiopia since last year” She said. “We have gained independence from them since 1993 but they haven’t allowed us to enjoy the new freedom. Their military men come to our villages and kill us, rape our women and burn our houses. Many of us ran to Kassala in Sudan and lived there. We hoped that things would be better so that we can return to our country but it became worse, so we started to come to Libya so that we can go to Europe from here too” Jasmine had said.
She clearly enjoyed talking.

It was difficult to tell her age but i suspected she was a little older than me.

Since i didn’t know all the places she had mentioned, i Decided not to embarrass myself by asking more questions but when we finished eating our food, she continued telling me how they were arrested.

“That is my sister there, and my brother” She had said while pointing at a group of four people standing together.
“We came all the way from Teseney in the Gash Barka Region in Eritrea. They have killed so many people there. My father decided to stay back and fight with the people, so we prayed for him and left. When we left Kassala, we took vehicles to Altbara in Sudan. They arrested us there and put us to prison but when a lawyer came, we were released and were told to leave Sudan. So we decided to go to Egypt through the Nubian Desert. But they arrested us again at Wadi. They told us that the Egyptian Army will shoot us if we cross the border. After trying three times to cross over to Egypt without success, we decided to come to Libya. We got to Al Kufra Libya after five days before our money finished. We were Arrested there and brought here. We have spent three months now but we hope …” she was saying.

“What, how many months?” I interrupted her.
The three months had suddenly caught my attention and shook my brain.
What did she mean by three months?
Did she actually mean that she and her family members had spent three months inside that facility?
If that was what she meant, then i could spend that too.

“Yes, three months. We have been here for three months but i heard that the President Ghadaffi had instructed the responsible authorities to release people from war zones with immediate effect. It means that we are going to be free” She smiled.

“But what is going to happen to me?” there is no war in Nigeria” I had managed to say with croaked voice.

She was honest enough. Rather than giving me a false hope like i was used to, she bluntly told me that she didn’t know what was going to happen to me.

That was it. There was no way i was going to stay blindly in a Libya prison without a slight knowledge of how long i was going to stay. It was never going to happen. I would kill myself as soon as possible. That was just the best alternative. As for spending one month there, not to talk of three months, that was never going to happen.

I was already in tears five minutes back before Jasmine realised i was no longer paying attention to her Geography lecture.

“Hey, why are you in tears, is everything OK?” She had asked when she found out i was crying.

She had asked if everything was OK.
How could she have said something like that?
How could everything be OK when i was locked up in a prison without any offence.
Or did i commit any offence.
Wait, i did.
I was going to venture into dangerous waters of Mediterranean Sea and was arrested for being an illegal alien in another Country.
What was i expecting that would happen to me if i was arrested?
Was i hoping that the Libyan authorities would give me a big hug for trying to cross the entire length of their Country into the Mediterranean Sea without authorization?
I brought all that was happening to me on my self and i figured out it was hard on me because i had never experienced such difficulties in my life.

Beside me was another human being who was in the same situation as me, even with some members of her family and yet, she was calm and hopeful.

As i cleaned my eyes with my handkerchief, i told Jasmine that everything was alright.

“I am Ok, just that i can’t imagine myself spending months here” I said.

“Hey, its Ok. Its better than being killed. You must give thanks to Allah for everything. You will be free someday and continue your journey” She said.

I thanked her and nodded as we walked back to the spot where we were throwing our ball aimlessly earlier.

Jasmine had helped me a lot in the three hours i already spent with her. She had been able to divert my mind from thinking about Nina whom at that very moment, had not come back to the facility.

I wasn’t even sure she would return.
Our Fates.

” The person who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing, is nothing, and becomes nothing. He may avoid suffering and sorrow, but he simply cannot learn and feel and change and grow and love and live”

10


“I can’t breath well” The frail voice lying beside me had said in the middle of the night.

I didn’t have anything to say to what she just told me. I didn’t know if i was supposed to say sorry to her or to tell her to try harder to breath.
Breathing was never something humans did by force.
Since i had never been in a similar health situation as Nina was, it was very difficult to know exactly what was happening to her.
She said she couldn’t breath well, the only time i witnessed such things as not breathing properly was each time i contacted flu or cold. But it usually happened during the dry seasons because i was very allergic to dust.

But inside our room, Nina wasn’t showing any sign of cold, she was just lying there like a log of dry wood. The rate at which she ate food had declined three days after she returned from the hospital. She had started to reject anything food, complaining about loss of appetite.

It happened around 4:20am. She was snoring lightly before i slept but when i woke up, the snoring had disappeared.
I was torn between attempting to wake her up or just pretend that i didn’t notice anything until the day broke properly.
There was the fear factor too. If i didn’t shook her to wake her up, i could have been on the same bed with a dead girl; a spirit.

Yes, a spirit. That was how i, with other people of my age back in school, saw dead bodies.

We had been told stories about how the spirit and ghosts would assemble around a dead body to welcome it to the spirit World.
I, with most people in Edo State had grown up with that belief.

Even now that i am telling the story, i still don’t know if that is true or not.

But that night in a Libyan Prison in Misrata, i was not going to pretend that everything was alright. I was going to wake Nina up to make sure i wasn’t sleeping alongside a dead body and the spirits that had come to take her home to the spirit World.

The only hope i had before shaking her body was that the same thing had happened two days before that very day.
On that first day, Nina had suddenly stopped breathing. It was still early evening, around 8pm.
The lights were still on, she was telling me a story about where she went to Secondary School, how she had a crush on one Yoruba boy called Ademola and how the boy promised to marry her.
Nina had said that if she knew that she would ever found herself in the situation we found ourselves in Libya, she would have just stayed back and waited for Ademola to make money and come to marry her.

“Look at me now, i don’t even know if he will still like me when i return to Nigeria” She had said.

I had deemed it good to encourage and give her hope. “He will still like you when you return”.
I had said that and waited for her to continue telling me about Ademola but she kept quiet.
I had thought that she would resume after having some rest or thought but she kept quiet.
After two minutes, i had said, “Where is Ademola now?”.

” You left and I cried tears of blood. My sorrow grows. Its not just that You left. But when You left my eyes went with You. Now, how will I cry?”

Nina had said nothing; therefore I had tapped her slightly on the back but she didn’t move. I tried the head but she didn’t move.
I placed my hand across the openings of her nose to see if air was coming out of her bit i didn’t feel anything.


Fear had gripped me and i had started shaking her violently until all of a sudden, she opened her eyes and stared at me for several moments.

“What is it?” She had asked after about two minutes.

“Nothing” I managed to say.

What was i supposed to tell her?, that i thought she wad dead?
No way.
Such news were not easy to give.

But unknowingly to me, that was the actual day and time Nina left me.
The return and staring she made after shaking her violently was just to spend a few more time with me.
She was gone.
She left me that very day.
She died that Wednesday evening.
I was just living with a ghost.

It wasn’t her fault that she was not allowed a free and peaceful passage to the underworld, it was my fault.
In an effort not to lose my friend, i had disturbed and stopped her from going home.

But how was i supposed to know. I was just a naive teenage girl who didn’t want to be left alone in a prison cell.
I wanted someone to talk to. I needed someone to encourage me as well because the idea that i was in a prison in Libya was choking.

On that early morning, nina had decided to go home quietly. She wanted me to sleep first before she left. She didn’t want any violent shaking that could return her to our World. She just waited until that point in the morning when sleep was the sweetest, then she left without a goodbye.

“Nina, Nina, Nina wake up” I had started saying quietly while shaking her slowly.
She didn’t move.
I had tried to place my hand across her nose and mouth but there was no movement of air.
At that stage, i knew she was gone.

With fear and confusion, i crawled quietly out of bed and pressed the emergency alarm.

While crawling out of bed, i got down through the bottom of the bed. I had thought that the spirits would be at the top and around the bed and that it could be disastrous for me to disturb them.

Even while pressing the emergency bell, i was praying that the spirits didn’t find it offensive and slapped me.
I had heard when i was a kid, that anybody slapped by a ghost would die.

I would have switched the electric bulb on but unfortunately, the lights in the entire prison facility were controlled by the authorities. They switched on and off whenever they wanted. It was the price we were paying for being prisoners.

It took the Prison guards about five minutes to get to my room.
Those five minutes were the longest i have ever had in my life but, i didn’t know what to say or do. I just waited until to men in uniforms came to my door and asked what it was.

Since i was standing near the metal door, the authorities knew that something was definitely wrong.
I had started crying as soon as they came closer to my door.

“She is dead, you people have killed her” I had managed to say before they started making more calls.

” Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them – that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.”

This is so touching

11



None of the Prison authorities paid attention to my accusations and crying, they simply stood there and waited until four other people came; three men and a woman.
The woman had some medical equipments with her.
One of the guards had produced a key and opened my room, then she held my hand and led me outside where the other people were standing.
The large flashlights in their hands made the vicinity looked like it was during the day.
The two prisoners on the right hand of my room were standing up and looking outside to find out what the problem was.

Inside my prison cell, the female authority whom i suspected was a nurse, examined the lifeless body for a minute or too. Then she came out and said something in Arabic before she left.

Two men went into the room and covered Nina with a large cloth from the stretcher, then they carried her out and put her on top of the rolling metal.

I was still crying. “Where are you taking her again, where are you taking my friend again?”.

Nobody said anything to me but two of the men were standing on each side of me. Somehow, i knew they were there to stop me from doing anything stupid.

As they rolled the corpse away through the corridor passageway, they locked my door and asked me to follow them.
I had wanted to tell them that i wasn’t going to sleep back in that room, the room must have been filled with all species of ghosts and spirits.

I followed them to the administrative block where they opened a standard room with a good bed.

“You sleep here. We will give you a new place later today” a female authority had said.

I was tired and worn out and felt headache as well. There was no need to continue crying because it could only led me to sickness and then they would come to take me to their slaughter house like they did to Nina.

Without thanking the lady, i walked slowly into the room and sat on the bed as she closed and locked the door behind me.

That was the last time i saw Nina.
The day was a Friday and it was the day we were usually released on time to play.
The female authority who had shown me the good room had unlocked the room around 8am and handed me a small tray pan full of wonderful foods; fruits, biscuits, milk and Honey.

‘Why did they do that, did they think that i was going to go on a hunger strike, and decided to make me an offer i won’t reject?’

I believed it was to make me feel cared or whatever. I wasn’t going to die of hunger and since i was hungry, i took the tray pan and started eating right away.
My situation was that of hopelessness already, trying to go on a hunger strike would make things worse.

After eating my food, i was taken away to a new cell block where a single Ghanian girl lived. Rather than being excited that someone new had come to keep her company, the silly young woman was angry that i had come to share her room with her.

“What happened to your own room” She had asked.
She knew who i was, she had seen me many times at the dining hall but we Spoke to each other. I didn’t know where she came from and i doubted she knew mine, or may be she knew.


I didn’t reply her question, i just sat on the bed and stared at the wall.

After three more unanswered questions, she gave up.

The freedom bell had gone earlier than other days that morning and we had gone out.

Jasmine was eagerly waiting for me near the dining hall. She had rushed towards me when she saw me coming.

“Marie, what happened, i heard your friend died last night” She had asked before hugging me.

I said calmly, “Yes, they took her body away early this morning. She died”.

I didn’t cry again, i didn’t feel anything, i just narrated what happened to Jasmine as if i wasn’t affected by Nina’s sudden death.

“Tell them you don’t want to stay in your room again” Jasmine had suggested.

I told her that i was sent to live with a Ghanian young woman who was far older than i was.
Jasmine adviced me to go and meet them again and tell them i didn’t want to stay with the woman.

“They could ask me to return to my previous room and i don’t want to be alone in that room” I had said to Jasmine.

Jasmine did not join other girls to throw the ball that afternoon, she stayed with me and tried to console me at every given opportunity.

While we sat together and watched others played, my mind wondered over what happened earlier in the day.
Nina was gone for good, i didn’t hear that from anyone else, i saw it myself.

Who was going to tell her people what happened? Aunty Pamela or Aunty Philo or me. I didn’t even know her people, though if i ever got to Lagos again, i would defiantly locate where her mother sold food items and tell her.
I would ask questions until i track her down but the real issue at that moment was whether i was ever going to see Lagos again or not.
I had a feeling that seeing Lagos again could be impossible but like Jasmine told me, Tomorrow was always unpredictable.

The rest of the week went by without much incident. No one else died. I wondered why it had to be my own friend that died.

My new roommate had eventually come to terms that i was there to stay with her. We were not yet best of friends but we had started to talk to each other.
We had been able to establish a casual friendship that had so much limits. The best we had done together was to sit beside each other once at the dining hall and the day we told each other where we came from; that was it.

Exactly 8 days after Nina died, they came. Two of them from the hotel where i was lodged with Nina when we came to Libya.
A female authority had come and told me that some visitors were looking for me.
My heartbeat had increased.

“Who are they?” I had managed to ask.

“Follow me, you will see them now” She had said as she unlocked our door and waited for me.

I had followed her to the reception where other prisoners were seated with their visitors.

I recognized him as soon as i saw him.

I walked to his table and sat opposite him.

“Where is your friend?” He asked.

Nina!

” When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy. When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.”

I'm really feeling this Maria's story. Its such an emotional one. I hope she locates Nina's parent and inform her.
My elder brother once went thru this in the early 1994, got dumped in Niger, almost died until someone helped him back to Kano state. When he came back he was looking like an AIDS victim.
Funny enough he still insisted and went again, this time he made it to Lybia that same year and came back in 1996 with some cash, only to go back and was imprisoned until Gadafi sent Nigerians back. Guess what, he still went a year later, but this time he has Europe in his mind which he finally got to.
The rest is history, he's now a citizen of italy and now works and live in Manchester England. His attitude makes me not want to travel, he has a machine kinda attitude and can be scary sometimes. Though he's now a born again, but I always keep my distance

This is really serious

Wow! she died just like that.

12


The tears that suddenly started flowing out from my eyes told them that something was wrong.

“Don’t worry, two of you will be free today. Sorry i didn’t come on time, we were searching for The prison where you girls were taken. Where is your friend?” He had asked again.

“She died” I said after cleaning my eyes.

“What happened?” He asked coldly. It was almost like death meant nothing to him.

“I don’t know. She got sick and vomited. They took her to hospital and when she came back, she died” I replied.

“We come to bail you out of here. They are processing your release papers now. You will go with us” He said.

That was the best piece of news i heard since i left Nigeria. I didn’t know how it happened but i had a feeling that Aunty Philo had a hand in it.

I was still with them when they were summoned into the admin office to sign some papers and when they returned to where i was, they came with a prison official.

“Go to your room and change your clothes, pick up your things, you are free to go now” the prison official had said to me.

I couldn’t help but smiled for the first time since i came into that facility.

I stood up and walked with the official to my room where the Ghanian lady was reading a book, she has been reading that one book since i joined her in that room.
Not that the book was a big one, it was just a small pamphlet with a picture of a black man on its cover.

“I am leaving here Aisha” I had said as i picked up the yellow nylon bag that contained my entire properties in Libya which were the cloth i wore the day i came in, a tooth paste and brush, a comb, an extra slippers and mirror.

“Where are you going?” Aisha had removed her eye glasses and said.

“I don’t know yet. They said i am leaving the prison compound” I lied.

She stood up instantly and protested. “They are going to kill you. Be careful”.

What?
Was she insane too?
Or maybe she knew what she was saying.

Have I been living in the same room with a mentally challenged woman?

The point was that the situation we found ourselves was capable of making someone go mad.

I had even attempted to kill myself twice; therefore being insane was just a small case.

“I will be careful Aisha” I managed to say as the official outside shouted at me to hasten up.

We returned back to the reception where the Hotel manager and his friend were waiting for me.

“You can’t go out with the uniform” a lady official said as she pointed at my cloth.

I didn’t even remember i was still wearing the cloth.

The official had pointed to a room and asked me to go in there and change my wears.

“Please i want to say goodbye to a friend” I said to her.

“No, you can’t. You no longer have access to the yard. You are free now” She smiled.

I felt bad. I wanted to go and tell Jasmine that i had been freed but they refused.
I only hoped she won’t feel bad about it.

After changing back to my original clothes, i followed the men to the main gate where we were cleared to go.

Outside the Prison compound, we entered a car and drove away.

“You will leave Libya to Italy tomorrow night. This man has come to take care of that” the voice said from the driver’s seat.

I thought i didn’t hear him well.

“Your Aunty contacted me from Italy to pick you girls up. Its a pity your friend is dead” The second man chipped in.

I was still processing what they just said in my head but i managed to say something. “I am going back to Nigeria, not Italy”.

“Why?” that was the driver.

Why?
What a question.
How could they not have known why?
I just got out of prison for attempting to go to the Sea and someone was asking me why i wouldn’t want to go back to the same Sea.

“I don’t want to travel to Italy again” I said.

“Hahahahaha” I heard from the front seat, the second man. “Your Aunty has spent some money on this project. You can’t just go back now. Its true there was a mistake during your first attempt but that won’t happen again. That’s why i came down from Italy by myself. You also don’t have to worry, if anything happen again, we will find and set you free faster” He continued.

My mind was made up or so i thought.
The only thing i wanted at that moment was to return to Nigeria. However, the stumbling block was that i had no money with me. I wasn’t going to go through what Nkem went through due to lack of guidance and money.
I was still going to be under the custody of those people and since they already said that i would be leaving for the Sea the following day, there wasn’t enough time to do anything.

I kept quiet as they continued to convince and discourage me against going back to Nigeria.

“You will forget all this troubles when you get to Italy. Its is a nice and beautiful place. Your people are many there and they will take care of you”

Did i even have anything to say about all this?.
The truth was that they located and released me from the prison. I didn’t know how they did that or if they would do it again if i got arrested once more but the truth was that i was the bait. I was the one being arrested at gunpoints and being handcuffed. I was the one who stayed for weeks in the prison and ate garbage in the name of food. I was the one who would live and sleep with a stranger since my only friend was gone.
None of them had asked where Nina’s body was taken. Not that i knew where it was taken but they should have atleast asked.
Or did they already knew that it was an irrelevant question.
They were never going to ask for the corpse to send it to Nigeria.
They were all businessmen who were only interested in investing their resource where profit would be made.
No profit would be made by asking for Nina’s dead body.
They knew it and i knew it. They knew that i knew it and that was why they expected me not to push for that question.

I kept quiet and followed them for an hour and half before we arrived back at the hotel in Tripoli.

Then i learnt that “When you don’t have money or power, your life would be determined by those who do”

” Each day holds a surprise. But only if we expect it can we see, hear, or feel it when it comes to us. Let’s not be afraid to receive each day’s surprise, whether it comes to us as sorrow or as joy It will open a new place in our hearts, a place where we can welcome new friends and celebrate more fully our shared humanity.”

13

“I want to go and look around” I had said to the security man at the hotel gate.

“No, no. I was told not to let you go out” He said.

“Who said that and Why?” I had asked hopelessly.

“Please go back to your room” he said.

I was in another prison, only that this time, it was a more comfortable one. The entire incidents were messing my head up.
It was obvious the security agent was acting on the orders of the manager.
The truth was that i had intended to return to the hotel after taking a walk around the familiar territory but nobody was going to trust me.
I had told them on our Way back from Misrata, that i wanted to return to Nigeria. I believed it was the reason why they didn’t want me to go outside at all. They didn’t trust that i would return to the hotel if i left and i didn’t blame them. There was no way they would know that i didn’t intend to run away from there.

I had returned back to my room and lay on the bed, thinking about how i got myself into all that mess. For the second time since i arrived in Libya, i singled out Jamb and blamed it for my woes. If i had gotten the cut off mark required, i would have been in a university then. I had applied to study Business Administration at the University of Benin and Ambrose Alli University Ekpoma. The cut off marks failed me and it meant that i had to wait at home for another year.
The down side of waiting at home was that i was definitely going to forget most of the things i studied in secondary school.
I could have gone to extra Mural lessons but it wasn’t the same as coming fresh out of school.
The worst was that i was not guaranteed success in the third attempt. It was frustrating. The more i waited was the more i was likely to fail as long as i took the exams by myself. The only way out was to hire someone to take the exams for me. My parents were never going to endorse that, i knew them.
The Nigerian academic system was a mess. The country could have adopted a system where the unsuccessful Jamb candidates would be channeled into something else such as government subsidized vocational studies.
The do or die affair of Jamb would not have been allowed. It was partially the fault of the academic system that i found myself in that condition up there in Libya.

“You have a phone call” The male voice had said after knocking on my door and bringing me back from my reverie.

He had knocked again and said the same thing.

I got up, opened the door and followed him.
The manager was seated in his office when i arrived.

“Sit down, your Aunty will call again in a minute” He had said as he pointed to a vacant seat.

I sat down without saying a word.

Two minutes later, the phone rang and he picked it up. “Come closer” he said as he handed me the receiver.

“How are you?” the female voice said.

“Who are you?” I asked.

“Its your Aunty Philomena” She said.

“Did you tell them to lock me up in this hotel?” I fired. I wasn’t scared. I was actually attempting to annoy her so she could Approve my return to Nigeria. Of course that would mean paying for my transportation.

“Look, it wasn’t our fault that you were arrested. It happen sometimes. You have to thank God that we were able to pay for your release. I am sorry for what happened to your friend, its one of those things. We will settle with her people in Lagos. You will be taken through a safer route to the Sea tomorrow night. You won’t go through that troubles again”.
I listened as she continued.
“The silly boys we paid decided to take you through a more dangerous and cheaper route. That was why you were arrested. I promise you that it won’t happen again” She had said.

Despite my young age, i knew that Aunty Philo had no guarantee of the safety of any route. She knew Libya, she has been there many times according to her but she also knew that the government security officials could strike anywhere anytime without permission.
Things were intensive in Libya at that particular time. Security agents could be seen walking around everywhere during the day time. It could have been as a result of the war which Jasmine had talked about in Misrata Prison yard.

Libya was a military Country. According to what i heard in the streets, the Eastern people of Benghazi were agitating for the supreme leadership which has been held by Mumar Ghadaffi for Long. Although Libya was relatively good and calm but the East wanted to Rule. The situation had created fear in Libya and the people of Tripoli had been on alert ever since.
The Sudanese Army were also stationed in the desert near Kufra according to Jasmine. It was only a matter of time before things escalate but it was imminent.
Rumor also had it that the Western governments were planning on how to attack Libya and that there was a large ship that belonged to The United States, stationed in Mediterranean Sea; the same Sea i was supposed to use to go to Italy.

“Aunty i have heard you but they should have allowed me to go and take fresh air outside. That was all i wanted” I said.

She said the restriction was for my own safety and after her speech, i believed her.

Back in my room, i saw two new dresses on my bed. Who bought and brought them did so behind my back.
I had walked outside the room and checked the door number again to make sure i wasn’t in the wrong room; but it was my room.

They were beautiful clothes.
I had picked and examined them one after the other; they both fitted me perfectly.
There was no accompanying note to tell me who had brought them. I hated such surprises but i had only one cloth with me; therefore even if it was The Devil himself that kept the clothes there for me, i was going to take them. I had a feeling the hotel manager and his group knew how it came but i wasn’t going to ask any questions. Whoever kept them would have to come and tell me before he or she can receive any ‘Thank You’ from me.

At that moment, i learnt that, “To capture someone, you must use what he or she can’t reject”.

They captured me.

” I think that one of the reasons why people look towards the end of humanity is that people are afraid to die alone. If you die alone, the people you love will miss you, or if they die, you miss them – the sorrow is inevitable. When you truly love someone, the thought of losing them forever is horrible.”

14


“Did you like the new clothes?” That was the hotel manager. It was the following afternoon.

“I don’t know” I said.

“But they are nice” He said.

“Yes they are nice”.

“You will wear one of them tonight to Italy” He continued.
I kept quiet.

He tried to give me more encouragement and advised me not to attempt to run away.
“Libya is dangerous now, especially for women. They kill people everyday. If you run away to a place you don’t know, they will capture you and send you back to Prison. We will not come to release you. You will stay there for many years and nobody will help you. So you must do what i say. My friend will come and pick you up by 8 this evening. If anybody give you anything to take to Italy, please don’t take it. If anybody ask you to swallow anything, don’t do it. When you get to Italy, your Aunty will come and pick you up” He had said before he left.

Without being told, he was right. Venturing out into the empty country would be dangerous. Not that i was going to be killed but i could be stopped and questioned. And if they discovered that i had no legal documents, i would be headed back to the Prison. And no matter how much Aunty Philo and his gang of traffickers wanted me in Italy, i knew that it wouldn’t take them much to decide against helping me again. The truth was that i was already at their mercies and i didn’t need to misbehave.
When the manager left, i decided that nothing would make me run away again. I was going to follow them wherever they wanted.
I was going to the Sea that night, at least if anything happened on the road, they would know that it wasn’t my fault and that would make them help me out. But i also knew that if i died on the road, my body wasn’t going to be flown to Nigeria. They didn’t fly me from Nigeria to Libya when i was alive. I had to go through Benin Republic – Ghana- Burkina Faso- Niger Republic before i got there. There was no way they would fly me home when i am dead.

For the rest of the day, i did nothing but prayed in my mind. I asked God to be with me, to secure me and to take me safely across the Sea.
Without being told, i knew that the Sea was a dangerous place to venture. I wasn’t a fish and as a result, i wasn’t designed to live in the water. I didn’t know how to swim, there was no big river in the area i grew up. Swimming pools were for the rich, i didn’t even see any swimming pool for the first 17 years of my life. The first time i saw it was at a hotel in Benin City where we were arranged to go and meet a government official who came from Abuja to inspect a project in Benin City.
Ten girls were arranged to go and entertain him and his entourage. We were paid to massage and have sex with them. We were taken to the hotel swimming pool where we drank champagne and played with them for the whole night until they left the next day.
It was my first time to do such thing but it wasn’t my first time to have sex. But those were stories for another day.

It was 8:20 pm when The knock came to my door. I had been waiting for it since 7pm.

“We are ready” The male voice had said as he pushed the door open.
I was already standing up with my yellow nylon bag containing one of the new clothes. I had been told to throw away the old one; therefore my entire property at that time was the two clothes.

“You look beautiful” The manager had said.

I blushed.

“Lets go”.

I followed him to the back of the hotel where the other man was waiting, it was the man who had come to the Misrata Prison yard with him.

There was a small gate at the back of the hotel that led to a single road, we followed it and came out to the road where his car was packed.

Two other girls were already seated in the car, both were Nigerians from their looks.

I opened the front door and entered as was instructed by the man.
A quick look at the back and a good evening was enough for the two girls seated behind me.

“The place we are going now is called Zuwarrah. It is an hour drive from here and it is close to the Tunisian Border. I will hand you over to the man who will take you to Italy. We have already paid for the transport to Italy, so you don’t have to worry. You will be taken to a large farm where you could stay for up to three days or even one week depending on when enough Passengers are ready. He will be giving you food and you are not to venture out of the place. The Police come there sometimes, so you must do as he say” Do you understand me.

We all kept quiet.
What was going on?
We were to be handed over to someone else once more.
We were to be hidden in a farm for up to one week depending on when they have enough passengers to make the trip.

Since i had decided that i wasn’t going to make any silly move, resigned to my fate.
I was going to do everything he had said.
What other options did i even have? None except to run away which i knew would be the biggest mistake of my “Journey to Italy” Career.

We drove in silence for several minutes until we entered the city of Zuwarrah.

We drove inside a hotel and were taken into one room; three of us.

When the man left, i asked the other girls where they come from.
They were both from Edo State.
There were both going to travel to Italy with me on the same boat and at the same time; Ayo and Tricia.

“But Ayo is a Yoruba name” I had said when she told me her name.
She said her mother was from Remo, somewhere in Ogun State or So.

We didn’t have much to discuss in the hotel room, except the introductions and the routes we took to Libya.

Both of them had been together from day one of their travels until that very day.
They had come from Northern Nigeria, A town called Daura in Katsina State Nigeria.
Their desert crossing story was more pathetic than mine. Their vehicle had broken down twice in the middle of nowhere and it was the Grace of God that saved them.

“Broken down? Tell me about it” I had demanded.

I was a little older than both of them. They were just kids, 16 Year old girls.

” Truly, it is in darkness that one finds the light, so when we are in sorrow, then this light is nearest of all to us.”

I comment my reserve.

You know we have something cooking.

also check out. www.nairaland.com/1913928/one-wrong-turn......true-story

I don't want to imagine what this girls are going thru.keep up the good work sir

15.

Ayo was the more outspoken among the two girls.
“We left Nigeria since last month” she had started. “Today is 14th and it is our 39th day on the road. We spent atleast three weeks in Tripoli alone. The woman who escorted us to Agadez said that a man will come to Tripoli to pick us up but when we got to Tripoli, we didn’t see anybody. The driver who crossed us through the desert was a good man. We were 6 of us in his vehicle, packed at the back of the Old Land Rover with gallons of Gas. It was not easy”.

I felt there was no need to ask her what eventually happened when they didn’t see the man who was supposed to pick them up in Tripoli.
The story they were going to tell me would surely be as pathetic as what Nkem told us back in Tripoli.

In a country such as Libya, getting stranded was very easy. The main citizens of Libya didn’t like the Black Africans. They somehow felt that we were the lowest level of human beings and that we had no brains to think for ourselves.
They mistreated us with every slight opportunity.
The only way stranded girls survived was to start selling their bodies in the streets.
There were spots where they visited during the nights to stand and wait for men.
It was very dangerous because the Arabs didn’t see killing other human beings as big deals.

There were many Nigerian men living in Libya as well, sometimes they helped the stranded girls out but of course, they would disappoint if you asked them for money, but then it was never their responsibilities to give you money. They didn’t ask you to come to Libya coupled with the fact that they were also there to make life easier for them and their families.

“So how did you people make it this far, did your contact eventually come?” I had asked the girls.

Ayo said they didn’t see the contact. Rather another woman had come from Italy to pick her own girl up and when she came to the place where they were staying, they met with her and told her that they were stranded.

“We begged her to give us money to go back to Nigeria but she refused” Tricia chipped in from where she sat on the floor.

The woman had decided to sponsor them to Europe rather than sending them back to Nigeria, but warned that they must both pay her 30,000 Euros before they could become free. She said the Euro money was a new currency introduced in Europe in January of that year.

“30,000 is how much in Naira?” I had asked.

Ayo said she didn’t know but believed it was a large sum of money.

It was then that i even began to have a glimpse of what i might face when and if i get to Italy.
Not that i didn’t suspect something earlier. I had thought about all the money Aunty Philo was spending on me. There was no way she was doing that for free or just for me to come over to Italy and help her out in whatever business she was doing. But the truth however, was that what i didn’t know was bigger than me.
Besides, at that stage of my travel career, there was nothing i could have done except to Obediently follow instructions.
There were always the options of rejecting whatever was thrown at you. Taking a horse to the stream and making the horse to drink were two different things; or so i believed.

“But did she tell you how you are going to make that money?” I had asked.

They both shook their heads indicating that they were not told anything about how the money would come.

Sometime past the midnight, the man who brought us to Zuwarrah returned with another man. He told us to follow the new man and wished us good luck.

The new man had a Mercedes car which he asked us to enter. He drove for about ten minutes and stopped in front of a gate, then we all got down.

The small gate on the right hand side of the road opened before we got out of the vehicle and as soon as the driver locked the car doors, he asked us to follow him.

We entered through the small gate and walked into a bungalow.
Two other people were there, two males who i later learnt were from Ghana.

“This is your room” The man said to us as he pointed to a vacant room on our right.
We walked reluctantly into the room.

A large mattress without a cover sheet was lying flat on the floor.
A small 14 inches TV, showing the weather forecast of the Mediterranean Sea was sitting opposite the bed.
There was high wind in the Sea and that got us scared.

“The weather is not good yesterday and today. If we are lucky tomorrow, it will calm down, then we will travel” He said behind us.

“Where is the Sea?” I asked.
I had been hoping to set my eyes on the Sea since i arrived in Tripoli.
From what i heard in Tripoli, they said the Sea was a massive body of water that stretched to eternity.

“You will see the sea in the morning, it is not far from you” The man said before he left the room again.

The TV opposite us was showing nothing else except the blue Sea.
Fear gripped three of us as we watched in silence.

“Is this where we are going to enter?” Tricia had asked.
Nobody answered her.

To think we were going to travel through that windy Sea was fearful. The two things that gave me encouragement were that we were not going to travel alone; there were going to be other people.
Secondly, there was nothing i could do at that stage of my travel.

The small gate that we entered through was shut and locked right in front of us and was locked with a key that could lock up the largest prison in town.

Inside the bungalow, the metal doors were also locked before us, There was no escape. We were going to Italy whether we liked it or not. We were already at the point of no return and there was nothing else to do except pray.

“Knock Knock Knock” the door.

We didn’t know whether to answer or not, nobody gave us any guidelines on how to conduct ourselves in the building; therefore we looked at each other and decided to keep quiet.
When the Knock came for the second time and we did nothing, the door was pushed open and behold, the two charcoal black men we saw when we entered the building initially.

16


We all looked at two of them at the same time and said nothing, we just sat where we were on the bed and stared at them.

“Are you from Nigeria?” One of them asked.

“Why do you want to know?” I fired back.
From the little time we spent together, i had realised that i was older and more outspoken that Ayo and Tricia. I was going to be doing most of the talking, afterall i was a prisoner.

“Nothing, we just want to be friendly. I guess we are all going to Italy” he responded.

“Thanks for checking on us. We are Nigerians and what about you?” I fired again.

He said they were from Ghana and asked if they could join us for a chat in our room.

Since we didn’t know who was who in the bungalow, we allowed them to sit with us.

Things changed when one of them touched my boobs.

“Why did you do that?” I shouted.

He smiled and asked me to calm down.

“Relax sister. Its not a big deal” he had said.
He was about to say something else when the slap came from my right hand and landed on his face.

“You idiot. Touch me again and see what will happen to you” I shouted.

All of us had strangely stood up from the bed at the same time and was facing each other.

“Do you think you can touch anybody you see on the road? Am i your girlfriend or what?” I was shouting.

The noises seemed to have filtered out because it took less than a minute for the man who brought us there to show up.
He asked what was going on and i told him without allowing anybody else to talk.

He told the boys to leave the room and warned them not to return there.
He also apologized to me and said that if such thing happened again, i should just come to the backyard and report to him.

“Don’t make noise here because we cannot afford to attract the Police or the Army. If they hear noises here, they will come and take you to Prison” He had said.

I understood him perfectly because i believed he was saying the truth. We could not afford to be discovered.

Around 7am in the morning, the man said he was going to Tunisia to buy a boat.

“We already have enough passengers, we are only waiting for the Sea to calm down. I am going to buy our boat in Tunisia. I will be back this Afternoon. Please don’t attempt to go out of this building, you must not be discovered” He had warned.

We also heard him giving some kind of instructions to the two boys who had come to have fun with our boobs earlier.

When he left, the Ghanians returned. They stood at the door and asked why i slapped one of them.

“Have you come again? I have told you to leave us alone. Stop coming here. I will tell him when he comes back” i said.

One of them said to us “We are not afraid of him. We have paid him to take us to Italy. You are shouting because i touched your boobs, is that not what you are going to be doing there in Italy? That is what Nigerian Girls do in Italy. They sleep with men for money”.

“It is not your business what Nigerian girls do in Italy. Go back to your country and say that to your mother” I said.

“You have big mouth. Pray that you don’t enter my trap or i will punish you” He said before they left.

It was late in the night when our man returned and said our boat was ready. He also said we would leave Zuwarrah as early as 1am the same night.

It was a good piece of news for us. We were finally going to Italy. The only downside was that i hated night travel. The worst fear was that this night travel was going to happen inside water.
It was my first time of traveling through water and it had to be during the night.

“We are hungry, we ate only the small bread we brought from Tripoli” I said to him after breaking the news to us.

He apologise and asked me to follow him to the back of the house.
He gave me more bread and juice for three of us, he also made the mistake of giving me for the two Charcoals who lived opposite our room.

“Give this to the two boys there” He had said.

I thanked him and returned into the main house with the items.
Rather than knocking on the door opposite our room, i walked into our room and declared a feast.
We ate the bread and drank all the juice.
The bastards could die of hunger for all i cared. In the alternative, they could go and demand for their own.
Perhaps next time, they should learn not to call Nigerian girls Prostitutes; even if that was what they were.

For the rest of the night, we discussed our travel and prayed.
Ayo and Tricia were scared. I was scared too, perhaps more scared than they were but i kept my fears hidden.
I was a little older than them and if anybody was going to encourage us, that would be me.
My encouragement came more from the fact that there was nowhere else to go.
We were going to make the boat whether we liked it or not.

“I am scared of this water travel” That was Tricia.
What was she afraid of?

“Me too” The familiar voice of Ayo had said behind me. “This whole thing is very scary. We are traveling through water and we are traveling through the night, all in the name of going to Italy”.

I interrupted her, “Ayo, you don’t have to be afraid. This people do this all the time. They know the route to Italy. From what my Aunty said, Italy is not far from here. We must have faith in God and pray that nothing happen to us”.

I knew that my weak attempt at encouraging them was helping. But it didn’t take away the fact that i was also scared.
I didn’t know what we were going to meet on our way to Italy. I had heard about Sharks and Whales and all the other dangerous Sea Creatures that were capable of hurting people inside water.
How was i supposed to be sure that we won’t run into one of the demons inside water.

But what settled the whole thing for me was the fact that i believed that i already handed everything over to God.
I was told God knew everything before they happened; He must have known what we were going to witness out there and since He secured me from day one of my travel until that moment, He was going to see me to my final destination.
That was what gave me hope.
Hope!

wow Zubby!!! Keep the story coming....

More ink to your pen (abi how una take dey talk am) bro!

17.

On our way to the sea, our leader didn’t say anything about the food he gave me for the Ghanaians. I had feared he was going to raise the issue but he didn’t.
Not that the Ghanaians were going to do anything about it but i didn’t want our leader to be upset with me or my sisters.

The path to the Sea was a small tunnel, built from the farm to an opening near the large body of water itself.
We walked for ten minutes under the tunnel until we came out to the other side of the scary tunnel.

The way it looked, i was scared the tunnel would collapse on us. But we made it to the other side without any incident.

“Wait here” Our leader said as soon as we came out.

In front of us, was the large Sea. The moon was out in the sky but was not shining too bright, though it was perfectly enough for us to see the body of water that stretched to infinity.

“Don’t talk or make any noise, i will be back” the leader said and went back into the tunnel.

“Where is he going again?” Tricia asked.

‘Good Question. How the hell am i supposed to know’ i thought.
But since i had assumed the leadership of our little group, i said, “I think he forget something. Lets wait and see”.

It took us thirty whole minutes to wait in the brushes before he returned. This time, he came back with more people, About 20 or something closer to that.

My heartbeat increased as soon as i saw them. There was not enough light to see their faces clearly but i could tell that they were all black people like us.

‘What was happening?’
Was the entire black Africa on the run?

“Wait here. Nobody talks, I will be back” the leader said once more.
He had returned with another Libyan man whom he introduced to us our captain.

“He will be telling you what to do while i go and bring the rest” The leader said before he left.

He was going to bring more people.
‘How many people were going to be on the boat to Italy’
‘How big was even the boat’

I have never seen a ferry boat earlier in my entire life. The things i saw on TV was the wooden floaters used by fishermen in Niger Delta areas of Nigeria.
I had been praying against traveling with that kind of boat and when i saw the new twenty people emerged from the tunnel, i knew that there was no way we were going to travel with such boat.

Sometime around 2am in the night, our leader emerged with more people.
A quick count put the new group at 11.
In total, we were about 36 of us, including the man who was going to drive us.

“Please pay attention” the leader said as soon as he returned with the last group.

“You are going to Italy tonight Insha Allah. Allah will see you through. The water is calm today. Fadil here is your captain. He knows the route. Italy is not far from here. You will be there in the morning. Do not do anything stupid inside the boat. Do not make noise so that the Libyan coast guards won’t hear you. If the Italian coast guards catch your boat, do as they say. They will take you to Italy. Our supreme leader stopped them From bringing immigrants back to Libya. Help yourself by keeping quiet until you leave the Libyan waters. When you get to Italy, the Police will probably seize you and take you to the camps. That is the normal way, so don’t worry about that. After taking your names, they will start taking care of you. That is when you can make contacts with whoever you are going to meet there. Most of you are not going to meet anybody, so when you have a chance, you can leave for another country, that is what others do. Good luck” He said and repeated what he just said in French.

Ten minutes later, we saw the large boat coming towards the nearby shore.
It was large, atleast larger than the fishing boats i had seen on Televisions.

The ground in front of us was beach sandy.
As we filed in a single line and marched towards the water, soft cold breeze hit us and sent some shivers down my spine.
Whatever it was at that point, i was going to Italy.
If only Nina had lived up until that stage, she would have been as excited as i was.
Tears dropped off my eyes as i thought about her.

As i walked through the shadow of the man in front of me, i wondered where they must have buried Nina.
I have heard in the past, that people sometimes got burnt when they die.
Was that what they did with the body of my friend?
Did they give her a good burial; i doubted that.
I doubted the Libyan authorities would spend money to bury someone who sneaked into their vast territory without permission.
No, they didn’t give her a good burial and i wouldn’t give her a good burial if i were them too.

Life was nothing, it was just a state of passage between birth and death.

It was such a pity that we have the heart not to forget deaths easily, even when we knew there was nothing we could do to stop it. It was inevitable. It was real and it was the end of life. As long as there was life, there was death.
The races that understood this, lived each day as if it was their last but in the case of my beloved people of Edo State, we saw death as a wicked unwanted thing that came to steal from us.

As we walked closer and closer to the Sea, i said a few more prayers, did the Catholic sign of the cross and waited until the man in front of me entered the boat and sat down.

“Come on fast” The voice said to me from inside the boat.
He had stretched his hand and grabbed mine as i raised my right leg high and jumped slightly into the anchored boat.

“Seat here” He pointed between a man and a woman.

“Welcome” The voice sitting on my left hand said.

I turned and looked at his face, it was one of the Ghanaians we ate their food back on the farm.

“Thanks” I responded.
It wasn’t time to make enemies, it was time to pray and ask God to keep us safe first.

“Sorry for what happened in the farm” He continued.

“Its in the past, I have forgotten it”

“It won’t happen again. It was a mistake from me” He said again.

I looked at him and nodded.

“Thanks for being a gentleman, What is your name?” I asked.

18.


“My name is Stephen” He said.

“Ok, Stephen. Thanks once more for being a gentleman. It is time to pray for now. We will have plenty of time to talk later” I said and smiled at him.

In twenty minutes, the entire people standing outside had entered the boat.
The man who kept us in the farm was not traveling with us. He had stood there and waved as the boat slowly heads into the middle of the Sea.
We were all packed close to each other. The spaces between the seats were very small to the extent that our chests were almost touching our legs.
We were going to be in that position until we get to wherever we were going.
There was no space to sleep.

The boat was an engine one with open spaces. It gave us the chance to see the Sea despite the fact that it was in the night.
The moon reflected on the far peaceful waters for miles.
The sound of our engine was almost drowned by the waves created by our boat as we gathered more speed and bounced on the water surface.

At a stage, i got very scared and thought that we were going to fall into the Sea.

Ayo and Tricia were two rows ahead of me. I didn’t know how they did it but they had managed to stick together from Nigeria until they got into the boat on the Zuwarrah Mediterranean shores.

As the boat bounced its way towards Italy, more cold hit us gradually.
The only source of warmth was the body contacts between me and Stephen. The woman sitting on my right hand side had managed to fall asleep in that horrible condition. Rather than blaming her, i envied her. I wished it was me who was able to sleep and forget what was happening.

Things got to a stage where i had to lean tightly on Stephen who was strong enough to hold me without shifting.
It was such a good thing that we settled our differences earlier. I commended his maturity over the way he swallowed his pride and apologized. I was sure that i wouldn’t have done the same. Whatever the reason would have been wouldn’t matter, what i knew was that there was no way i was going to initiate peace between us. The way i saw things, it was clear that if our boat had a problem, Stephen would have tried to save me first.
The thought made me to like him more and more as we progressed to Italy.

“I am scared” I had managed to say to Stephen about two hours into our Journey.

He said i should not be scared because people had been crossing over to Italy from Libya for long.

“My cousin lives in Amsterdam now. He went to Europe through this route. It is him who gave me money for this journey” he said.
My head had somehow managed to found his shoulder.


“Amsterdam, where is Amsterdam, is it in Italy?” I asked.

He said Amsterdam was not in Italy but Holland. The way he described Amsterdam made me want to follow him there.

“How are you going to find your cousin when you get to Amsterdam?” I managed to ask.
It had suddenly came to me that we still faced a different problem in Italy. We were supposed to contact our people when we got there.

There was A piece of paper containing a phone number that was given to us but the truth was that i didn’t know where it was at that moment.

Stephen had said that we will find our way when we got to Italy and i believed him.

Ayo and Tricia would occasionally glance behind at us and i wondered what was going on in their minds.
Stephen was our collective enemy but somehow, fate had brought us to sit together beside each other and there was no better choice than to make peace; which we did.

It wasn’t a dream.
I thought i heard some kind of noise and when i opened my eyes, i saw a white large boat sailing slowly beside us.

It was early morning but i could see clearly. The men hanging on the side of the boat wore uniforms and despite the fact that the day was almost broken, they held torchlight. A woman was with them and she also wore the same uniform.

They were saying something to our captain who pretended not to have heard them and was moving slowly towards no where.

We drifted slowly alongside the large white boat for almost twenty minutes before we saw a similar boat heading towards us.
The day had broken properly now and we could see what was written on the side of the large white boat; POLIZIA.

I needed nobody to tell me it was the Police.
What i didn’t know earlier was whether it was the Italian Police or the Libyan Police or even Police from another country.
We were told that Tunisia and Malta were very close to the route we were taking.
What confused me more was that the Police were just as yellow as the Libyan people.

I was hoping to meet different kinds of people in Italy, not the same things i saw in Libya.

The new boat had blocked our way and forced our captain to stop.

“Where are you from and where are you going?” A large white man had stood on the deck and said with a small speaker.

We all kept quiet, if anybody was to respond to them, it was our captain.

The man with the speaker had waited for a minute before he repeated what he said “Where are you going and where are you from”.

The same silence met him again.
He turned and said something to someone and one minute later, two men came out to the deck with a large rope that was capable of dragging an Elephant.

They were wearing some masks and immediately they came up to the deck, they jumped into the Sea and in five identical strides, they were upon our boat.

The Coastal Police, we eventually found out, were pointing guns at our boat as if they suspected that we may start shooting them.

Both the large boat beside us and the one that had intercepted us were pointing several guns at us.
Nobody said anything in our boat, everywhere was silent as if we knew that we were not required to say anything.

Five minutes after the two people jumped inside the water with the rope, they swam back to their own boat and started moving.
Then our boat started following them by force.
We were being towed and there was nothing we could do about it.
We were finally captured by the Italian Coast Guards.

Awwwwww.....I hope they get treated humanely at least in Italy..

Good read Zubby!!

19:

“Pay attention” That was our captain.
“This people are the Italian Police. We are in Italian Waters now and we have been captured. They are taking us to Italy. From there, everybody must be recorded and fingerprinted. You must tell them that you are running away from war. Don’t tell them that you know me, i will find my own way”.
He was addressing us in English and French.

We understood him clearly. We were already in Italian Territory and judging by what we were told back in Zuwarrah, they can not send us back to Libya. They said Ghadaffi had stopped them from doing that.

They towed our boat for an hour and some minutes before we arrived in an Island.
The same two jumpers had jumped out of their boat again and dragged the rope that was tied to our boat. They pulled us to the shore of the Island and told us to start coming out one after the other.
Several Police men and women were already waiting at the Island before our arrival. There was two ambulances belonging to Red Cross Society standing 20 meters away. There were also some Red Cross workers standing with the Police officers.

“Sit down there” One Police woman had said to me while pointing to the sandy ground.
Some other immigrants who came out of the boat before me were already sitting on the ground as well.

The sun had started coming up in the sky and it made everywhere very beautiful. Despite the sun up there in the sky, the weather was relatively cold; atleast colder than what i have ever seen.

The Red Cross people had seen me shivering and had rushed and covered me with a blanket.

“Are you OK miss?” one of them had asked.

I didn’t say anything, i didn’t know what to say.
We had been told that we must remain silent when confronted with questions we didn’t have the best answers for.

About five minutes later, all the members of our crew had come down from the boat, including the captain who happened to be the only person in cuffs.
Why the Police found it necessary to cuff his hands remained unknown to me.

“Stand up and follow me slowly” One Police officer had shouted at us in English and French.

We got up and walked after him in a single file. Other police officers and the Red Cross people walked beside us.
Ahead of us was a large facility.
We were led into the Facility and were made to sit on the chairs scattered inside one of the halls.
Nobody said anything to us as we waited.

Ayo and Tricia had found it necessary to avoid saying anything to me or even coming to me.
Surprisingly Stephen had stayed away from me as well. Nobody said anything to anybody.
Looking around the hall, it was so easy to notice that everybody was happy.
We were arrested and nobody seemed to be bothered at all. One could see little smiles on the faces of everyone. I guess they knew something that i didn’t know. But whatever it was, i was going to find out in due time.

Food came.
What?
They brought food for us.
One tray pan filled with hot creamy Potato Porridge, Banana Juice and water Was handed to each person.

During the arrest and towing drama, i had forgotten that i was hungry but as soon as my own tray pan was handed over to me, i started devouring the meal as if i did not eat anything for ten days prior to that.

The Red Cross workers were hovering around us as if they wanted to make sure nobody disturbed us.
They would occasionally come close to one person and touch him or her on the cheek or shoulder and asked if he or she was OK.

After the meal, we were led one after the other to a room where we were asked some questions.

When it was my turn, i went into the room and was told to sit down.
A woman interpreter was seated beside me.

“English or French” The woman interpreter had asked me as soon as i settled down.
I told her that i spoke little English and no French.

“What are your names?” She had asked.

“Maria James” I said.
I had made up my mind that Maria would become my name in Europe. It had started in Libya and it was a chosen name.

“How old are you Maria?” The man sitting opposite us asked.

“15 Years” I said.
I was told on the phone by Aunty Philo, that i was to tell them i was 15 years if i made it to Italy. I didn’t know her reasons but i figured it could be the norm since she was there before me.

“Where are you from?” he asked.

I was also told to say that i was from South Sudan but for some reasons, i said “Nigeria”.
I didn’t know my reasons for saying i was from Nigeria but i said it anyway. I had somehow felt that telling too many lies could only rope me more and more.
It was true that i had arrived in Italy but the truth was that i didn’t even care if i was going to be deported back to Nigeria or not. At least i knew that if the Italian authorities were to send me back to Nigeria, it was never going to be through boat again. They were going to fly me back to Lagos and probably give me some pocket money.

“Where did you board the boat that brought you here?” The question came immediately i told them i was Nigerian.

“Libya” I said. I had decided to be keeping my answers as short as possible.

“How did you travel to Libya from Nigeria?” He asked.

Was that his business really? But i was in their custody, so i was expected to answer everything they threw at me.

“Desert” I said.

“Look into this camera” He said as he pointed to a tiny camera sitting on top of his Computer monitor.

He snapped my face and said, “That would be all for today”.

I stood up and returned to the hall where we had eaten our food.

“An hour after all of us were interviewed, we were taken to a large ferry boat and were asked to enter.
We followed instructions and entered the boat.

“We are leaving Lampedusa to Sicily. You will be properly documented in Sicily when we get there” A police man had announced.

There was no more Stephen where i was seated. Rather Tricia was returned close to me. But due to the two people sitting between us, we could not discuss anything.
There would be time to chat properly when we got to Sicily.

20

Pozzallo was a town in Southern Sicily Island. It was very close to the big Sea and somehow, looked like what would someday be swallowed by the Sea.

That was where we were taken. A bigger camp was there and when we arrived, we were taken to the administrative blocks where we were asked more questions and were also finger-printed.

“In one week, you will come back here for your proper interview” the man who finger-printed me said while giving me a piece of appointment paper.

I nodded and returned to the hall where more immigrants were seated.

About ten minutes later, i was called out and was taken to a room where i was to live until my interview.
The single spacious room contained two beds but there was no other person in it when i came in.
I sat on the bed and looked around.
There was a small TV sitting on top of an old fridge. The remote control was also in front of it.
I picked up the remote and pressed the power button; nothing happened, The cable was unplugged.
I stood up and plugged the power cable on the wall socket; the TV started work immediately.

A news caster was showing, the topic was about yet another immigrant-filled boat, captured by the ever vigilant and ever working Italian Coast guard Police department.
The language wasn’t in English or Edo but the captured images were very clear to understand what was being said.
A boat with more than 50 immigrants been captured, and was being shown on the TV. None of the immigrants looked black enough to be classified an African.
It meant that it wasn’t just us fleeing to Europe.
Whatever that was chasing us, was also chasing people from different parts of the World. And every body was headed to Italy, or maybe there were other countries were people were fleeing to.
Italy must have been a very big and good place to be able to contain all those people.

“Who is that?” I had shouted in English.
A knock had come to my door.

“Its me Stephen” came the masculine voice.

‘Stephen, how did you know that i am here?” I asked without opening the door.
I was already standing up and ready to open the door if he didn’t answer what i just asked.
I had been missing him since we arrived in Italy. I didn’t know if he felt the same way but i was never going to jump all over him and declare that i couldn’t live without him.

“I followed you here, please open the door for me” he said.

I didn’t ask any more questions, i just opened the door and saw him standing there.
He had changed his clothes and wasn’t looking as deep black as the same guy i fought in Libya and ate his food.

“Hi pretty” he continued.

I told him to come in and sit down.
While closing and locking the door after him, he went straight to my bed and sat there.
Was it even my bed? Well, it was the one i was sitting while he came.

After locking the door, i went to the same bed and sat beside him.

“I am sorry for what i did in Zuwarrah”.

“Stephen, i have told you to forget that. I don’t even remember it anymore. Please Just forget everything that happened in Libya and lets thank God for bringing us here at last. Do you know that i ..” i was still talking when the kiss stopped me from saying anything more.

Rather than slapping Stephen, i found myself doing nothing.
The kiss was the first i felt in a very long time.

My hands had somehow managed to hold him around the neck while our mouths were still on each other.

Some moments later, i pushed him out slightly. “Why did you do that?” I asked.
In truth, i didn’t want him to stop. I wanted the kiss to go on but at the same time, i wanted to still act like most African Women.
I wanted him to know that women were never easy to get. He had to suffer. He had to make promises, monetary and other material promises.
That was how cheap the life of me and most of the other black girls had become.
We were all for sale and the worst was that we had no specific prize.
We were brainwashed to believe in the ideas of others, especially our friends.

Back in Secondary School, i had a friend named Linda. She was such a talkative and was always there to discourage you especially when a guy comes your way.
She had made sure i had no good relationship back then because she would tell me that the guy’s parents were poor or that the next guy’s parents were bad people.
I ended up having no serious guy in school.

While i questioned Stephen inside my room, i also knew that the moment he wanted to pick an offence, i would beg him. I would make him believe that he misunderstood me and i would have to go down on my knees if i had to do that.

“I love you Maria. I know this is going to be very difficult for you to believe due to how i misbehaved back in Libya but its the truth. I am in love with you and have been thinking about you since we started coming to Libya” He said.

I instantly believed him. I didn’t even consider whether he was saying the truth or not. I had asked enough questions because i wasn’t sure what would make him angry.
I couldn’t imagine him getting up and saying that he was leaving due to my doubts or silly questions.

There was a small problem. Back in Libya after Stephen and his friend were told never to return to our room, Ayo had said that Stephen was a cute guy.
She had said that if Stephen had approached us in a matured way, she could have liked him.
I believed what Ayo Said. Despite being too dark skinned, Stephen was handsome and tall. Tricia confirmed that too.
Therefore when God brought Stephen and I together in the boat, i knew that it would take a devil to separate us again. My friends had confirmed that he was handsome and that was all i needed.
I also believed that if i had been alone in our room in Zuwarrah when he touched my boobs, i would not have slapped him; i would have smiled and encouraged him the more.
I didn’t know if that would have made me such a bad girl but i knew and was hundred percent sure that i had missed the touch of men.
I had missed it because i had been busy fighting to Survive.

Han!! Love just like that?? Hmmmm....ok I'm waiting to see what comes out of this...

Good story Zubby, keep it pumping!!!