During November time in Maiduguri, the time when thick aerosols laden the entire region. The time when the harmattan wind became lower than normal temperature in the morning and night and hotter during the day time. During the day, the weather was quite sticky and sweltering that I had to wear my fleece jacket, a jacket I never liked. Last month, we had the problem of reduced visibility. Soil particles were distributed in the atmosphere by the movement of air masses.

People could hardly see other people from a distance, the whole atmosphere was covered in light dust haze. Dad had bought a lot of face masks for us. My eyelashes and every other hairy part of my body were turning canescent, no matter how many times I washed, it won't remain black for long.

The Muslims who washed themselves for purity before prayers suffered from it the more, because the more water touches your skin, the more it increased. This is something we are used to, nobody seems bothered or complained about it. It was this same evening that I went to the shop with Chibuike. Chibuike is my elder brother and my only sibling. After dropping me at the shop, he left saying he wants to go to the church, for Altar boys meeting. I wanted to go with him, but he refused. He said he will be going to see Uche after that. I groaned but he ignored me and left. Mum called me to attend to a customer, before I could finish attending to the customer Chibuike had reached the police station. I love dogs but certainly not the police dogs of Monguno police division. Like a dog with a bone, they don't stop barking. They were already barking at Chibuike, and the police station route was the best route to follow when you want to go the church area. Churches weren't scattered in Monguno. We had a place called “the church area” where all the churches were built together including protestant churches. Someone standing in mom's shop could easily see another person at the police station. The only demarcation was the main road.

Ada, mom called me'. She never addressed me as Chidera. She called me to attend to customers again. I don't like coming to my mum's shop because of too many customers to attend to and too many things to do. After attending to the customer, I went to the fridge to take Schweppes to drink. It is a sour drink that contains enough lime but I like it, Chibuike will never take this drink for any reason. Most people who often take this drink, usually said they like it because it isn't sugary, and they would prefer it to the rest. Chibuike taunted and said they don't know it actually contains more sugar so it could inhibit the taste of the excess lime in it. I was always checking the time and looking at a distance to know if Chibuike was on his way, but I couldn't see him anywhere and it was already dark. I didn't get to watch Tom and Jerry by 7pm, and by now it was already time for super story by 8pm. Even my parents were now worried, Chibuike usually comes home before it gets too dark if he wanted to come back late, he'd tell my parents about it. Mom was already in tears, I could hear her muttering silently.
God, please protect Chibuike” I muttered silently too.

Source: www.facebook.com/ezeaniolivia

Please continue. I couldn't find the rest of the story on the Facebook page.

Worldhopper:
Please continue. I couldn't find the rest of the story on the Facebook page.

Below is the link to the second part👇

https://www.nairaland.com/7558833/blood-moon-olivia-ezeani-part