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This is a work of fiction. Nothing on this post is real.




I was so confused and everything around me was looked so weird. I couldn’t even remember anything about my past, not even the slightest detail of my life before now. It’s like I just started existing out of the blue.

I think my heart started beating a few days back and that was when I became conscious of my environment.

I was still a fetus living inside the warm environment created by my mother’s womb.

Here is how been a fetus looks like.

First, you sleep a lot. Not because you are lazy but that’s the only thing we knew how to do then. Then secondly, you kick a lot, don’t worry, somebody else will tell you why we kick a lot at that stage in life.

During my uterine life, I had so many other features apart from sleeping and kicking. You will get to know about these features right away.

The amniotic fluid I was submerged inside gave me the heavenly comfort that I needed to survive that stage of my life. I wonder how the uterine life would have been without it.

I could also feel the pipe-like stuff that runs from my abdomen to somewhere else. Later in life, I grew up to understand that the pipe-like stuff is called placenta and it was my source of food and nutrients curated from everything my mom eats and sometimes it provides defense against diseases through the help of my mom’s own body defense.

I could also feel my tiny legs move at will. When I noticed my limbs could move I never knew I was the person controlling them. My hands too; I get filled with so much ecstasy when those tiny limbs move slowly inside the gelatinous amniotic fluid.

My eyes were still shut, I never bothered to open them, and I didn’t even try to.

It would have been a little bit easier if somebody had given me a crash course of what this environment is all about; at least I would have explored it better without being ignorant and confused.

Wait a minute, before I forget to tell you, I was able to hear sounds too, some were coming from the outside world, while very few just came into my head from nowhere and that’s the voice of another fetus existing right beside me inside this fluid-filled world of mine.

This guy, I never knew him before, I met him there. We will, later on, devise a means to enjoy our stay inside the womb.

“Hey bro” He will always call out with his small tiny voice.

I couldn’t see him so I don’t know what he looked like. But I think from our conversations, he had the same features just like me. I was able to hear his voice inside my head whenever he talks and likewise him, he hears my own voice too and that’s how we communicate with each other.

I loved his company so much, I wonder how life would have been if he wasn’t there with me.

One day, his right leg touched mine. The leg was so warm and tender. I told him to adjust his leg that he is touching me so he removed it. Later on, I used my own leg to touch his and he never complained, I enjoyed the warm, soft and tender feeling I got while touching his leg with mine, and I think he felt good too, so our legs have been touching each other since then.

Later on, I used my own leg to touch his and he never complained, I enjoyed the warm, soft and tender feeling I got while touching his leg with mine, and I think he felt good too, so our legs kept on touching each others’ ever since then.

Months went by, we noticed that we were rapidly growing bigger and bigger. We could feel different parts of our bodies develop and new parts pop up from nowhere. The sound of our heartbeat became more audible day after day.

Only God knew what we were turning into, monsters? No, I don’t think so.

Then suddenly, something happened.

It was a very wonderful day; we’ve finished chatting, as usual, laughing and telling each other all the fetus-like jokes that you will not understand. It was now obvious to us that there was an outside world in which we are going to come out to. He made the discovery, not me. We talked so much about the outside world and imagined how it will look like. He will always kick the big ball that we were living inside, saying it will make his legs strong. Later in life, my biology teacher will tell me that the big bag containing the fluid (Amniotic fluid) is called a Womb.

We talked so much about the outside world and imagined how it was going to look like. He will always kick the big bag that we were living inside, saying it will make his legs strong(I told you somebody will tell you about it).

Later in life, my biology teacher will tell me that the big bag containing the fluid (Amniotic fluid) is called a Womb.

He discovered so many things while we were inside there. So many things that we had no name for, but we knew they existing so we gave them our own names. He would have been a smart kid if he had made it out with me.

Let’s go back to that very painful day. He told me that something was going wrong with him. He told me his body was so hot beyond normal. That he could feel his own pipe-like cord (placenta) ripping apart from the top.

I was feeling unsteady too, but mine wasn’t as serious as he explained his own to be. When my own condition eventually became terrible, he was feeling so weak already and his voice was fading away. I used my legs to touch his own severally as we used to do but within some minutes his warm legs turned cold and he stopped responding whenever I talked to him.

When he became silent, I thought he has fallen asleep. I became so worried because he will always tell me whenever he starts feeling sleepy and we will say good night in our own fetus language and sleep off. But this time around he just went silent without notifying me.

I became more worried when I tried to reach him with my legs and I couldn’t feel his legs any longer. I swerved my arms around but couldn’t feel his presence. It was obvious that his space inside the womb was now empty. Where would he have gone?

Goose pimples popped up all over my tiny, soft and naked skin. The cold chills of loneliness took over me. I couldn’t still explain what was happening.

Inside my mind, I concluded that I will not be his friend again when he comes back from whatever place he went to. Why will he leave me inside this fluid-like world alone? Why didn’t he tell me he has found a way out of here so that we can go together? I thought we were friends and we are into all these things together. My heart was shattered. I cried throughout the day and slept little at night because I will always wake up to any slightest noise thinking that he is back. I will call out his name severally and my spirit will sink down when I end up not getting an answer.

I lived like this, so unhappy till the very day I was born. No wonder Mum told me that the midwife had to whip my ass several times before I gave out the loud cry that will open up my lungs and other parts of my body to start functioning and sustain me throughout life.

I was very sad even at birth and the better part of my baby stage in life was filled with bitter moments. With time, I forgot about him when I started making friends with other babies of my age.

I eventually grew to the stage when I will forget the baby language and start speaking the human language that my parents spoke, that was when his memories cleared away from my head.

Later in life mom told me that she had a miscarriage sometime ago and few months after that when she thought she had lost her baby, she realized that she was still carrying a child and that was me. She told me that the fetus that fell off was very tiny and has a tail-like stuff like a tadpole. She picked it up and ran to her Doctor who told her that the thing that fell off was a male fetus.

My mom said that she worked herself to stupor and stressed out that very day my twin fell off. She also said that she was sick and took some medications against the prescription of her Doctor.

I never got to meet my twin brother again. Even though I can’t remember my life inside the womb and the things we did together and talked about, I still miss him. I miss his tender, soft and warm legs that kept me going while inside the womb. I missed his companion, I sometimes wonder how he would have looked like and how smart he would have been. If he was to be here with me today, I wouldn’t be battling with the problem of understanding all these tough mathematical equations in school.

Maybe you are just sitting in heaven inside the dead babies department. Don’t worry, we will meet one day and never to part ways again.

Maybe you were recreated by God and giving to another family?

Contact me whenever you read this post, I will like us to start from where we stopped.

Though I am in my early 20’s now, I still miss you like mad. Growing up with your absence made my life so different and less exciting as it should have been.

Rest well twinee.

I write more at:
http://goldeneggs.com.ng

Source: http://goldeneggs.com.ng/lost-my-twin-brother-to-the-cold-hands-of-death/

Boboye4slim:
this is so front page worthy......I can imagine the horror faced by our brave soldiers.....

I wonder what I did to our Nairaland moderators that they've always refused to push my posts to FP.

I don't want to put the blame on the old woman in my village.

I wasn't at first. But that lasted about 2 weeks until we had our first IED attack.

The vehicle in front of me was hit, I'm gunner so we pull up and I went to bang on the window but first noticed that a VERY large piece of shrapnel is sticking out of their smokestack right at eyeball level.

Meaning, had hajji, the driver taken a second or two longer, that piece of metal about the size of my chest, would have split my head into two.
That’s when it hit me that I could actually die in combat, it was an unsettling and quiet moment before my platoon leader whacked me on the leg and yelled. “GENTRY, STOP FUCKING AROUND UP THERE OR I’LL COME UP THERE AND PUT MY BOOT IN YOUR ASS”
He was a salty old former MP NCO who took a direct commission to avoid being forced into retirement.

He knew I just had my “come to Jesus moment” as they called it when I soldier first realized he wasn't immortal, he did his job and subtly got me snapped out of the daze and back focused on the mission.

Our guys were safe except one of them blew out an eardrum.

But yeah, soldiers are trained to not think about their own mortality. They suppress your natural instinct to get away from danger and train you to follow orders and if you do, you will come home alive.

The first time is in the training when they tell you people are actually trying to kill you, then everyone freezes up a bit. No amount of training can prepare you for the reality of being put in mortal danger.

That’s why you have your higher tops with you, they are there to give you a loving kick in the pants, and get you back on track.

In combat, everyone reacts differently the first time and freezes up like a deer in front of a car's headlight when it dawns on them this isn't a war movie but it's real life where you can really just come into the war and within a second or so, you might take a bullet or a blast and that's all.

After that moment I can't recall ever being shocked by combat like I was that night, but I suddenly had a healthy respect for the fact we were not in training anymore.

Like anything almost dying or seeing people around you die, whether friend or foe. That is something you adjust too, the first time is the worse, the next easier, and it keeps getting easier till its second nature or till it's your turn.

I don’t know if you're ever 100% prepared when a brother in arms falls but I can tell you they did get easier to cope with each time. I wonder if that's because I became stronger or just kept losing bits of my humanity and went numb. That’s a question best left unanswered.
But yeah everyone is afraid to die in combat unless they are liars or psychopaths. That's why you have a team to support you when shit get’s real and people start coming back in body bags.

Most will freeze up a little the first time, it’s natural and as long as they can readjust focus and carry on it’s not even mentioned cause anyone that's been in combat knows how emotionally trying the first time your life is in actual mortal peril.
Combat is contradictory, you're excited it's real this time, you're scared you might die, you're afraid you'll screw up, you're confident in your team and your training.

Nothing like war brings out the true man or woman, you learn a lot about yourself when the bullets start flying, stuff that up till that moment was just speculation.

Now you want to talk about difficulty, try coming home after spending a year in a place where literally everything is trying to kill you, and readjust to civilian life.

I remember my first day back home, I went to leave and was struck with a sense of absolute terror and panic for no just reason.
It took me about 15 minutes to calm down and realize it was just my mind flipping the Bleep out I was about to leave without my rifle.
I wasn't in combat anymore I didn't need a rifle but after so long eating, sleeping, and having it by my side every minute of every day. I couldn't muster the courage to leave without it till I had time to rationally convince my combat trained mind I was no longer in combat.

#BattleBreed

Source: http://borednigerian.com.ng/soldiers-afraid-dying-battlefield/