Smart didn’t recall the name his parents had given to him. He had left home when he was eight. His drunken father, a burly worker, enraged by the arrival of a dumb son, beat his mother regularly, blaming her for smart’s embarrassing condition. When Smart tried to defend her, he too was badly beaten.
One night, there was a horrific fight and his mother never got up. The boy stood over his lifeless mother and felt an unbearable upwelling of guilt for permitting it to happen.
This is my fault!
As if some kind of demon were controlling his body, Smart walked to the kitchen and grasped a butcher’s knife.
Hypnotically, he moved to the bedroom where his father lay on the bed in a drunken stupor. Without a word, he stabbed him in the back. His father cried out in pain and tried to roll over, but his son stabbed him again, over and over until the apartment fell quiet. Smart fled home but found the street of Lagos equally unfriendly. His condition made him an outcast among other young runaways, and he was always forced to live alone at one of the room in dilapidated house, eating stolen foods and fruits. His only companions were tattered novels and English Language Textbook. He taught himself how to read and write.
Days soured into years, Smart grew strong.
One day he was mocked on the street by a girl far older than him. The girl found herself pummeled within inches of her life.
When the authorities pulled Smart off her, Smart was arrested and was jailed for attempted murder. Rather than Smart learnt after he was release but Smart back to the street and now he had grown more big and powerful. He became the ghost of the street. He became hired assassin. he was caught and death penalty was issued to him.
©Fasasi Eyitayo S Marvel
#saynotodomesticviolence #domesticviolence #domesticviolenceruinsfuture
http://www.eyitayomarvel.com.ng/2018/03/the-mute.html