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Episode 5

The sun sank slowly behind the tree giving a last try on staying alive before going down soulfully into the bowels of the earth. The forest stood undisturbed as the animals, those that ruled the jungle by day prepared to go to sleep to allow space for the nocturnal ones to operate. As the whole place grew quieter, something else disturbed the peace of the forests. A sound of struggling and shuffling of leaves with the breaking of twigs. A group of men had found their way into the jungle and were pulling a package. The package wasn’t entirely lifeless as it struggled to be free.

The men pulled it to a spot with red cloth tied around it. In no time, all the men removed their garments and were soon dressed with red clothes covering their loin area. One of them picked up a gong and struck it three times. At the third sound, the bushes behind the red cloth shook slightly as another figure emerged. This one was bent in the shoulder and walked with a little difficulty. An old man in his eighties carrying dreadlocks on his head that extended to his waist. He walked slowly and surely.

As he came out of the shrine with his back, the four men who had brought in the package immediately knelt down.

“Baba, this is the hunchback you requested for. He is the final phase of the ritual.” Oti said. He had been unemployed for a very long time and finding out that he couldn’t get a job decided to go through a short cut.

“Hmmm... The final phase of the ritual you say? What have you all gone through that you call this the final stage of the ritual?” The old man’s voice even though it sounded croaky was loud enough as it tore through the courage that the men had put up. The scratchy edge made three out of the four men cringe in fear.

“Ah baba, I have gone through a lot. I had to keep cats so I could eat their faeces the moment they pass it. I stayed days with a smelly mouth and a stomach that rumbled like the accursed thunder.” Dimka replied.

After a prolong laughter that sent the birds around on an emergency flight, the old man spun 360 degrees and landed a slap on the head of one of the men. Immediately that one dropped on the ground motionless. Before the eyes of the men, he contorted into a mass of jelly which the ground quickly absorbed.

“That is the phase of the ritual which you failed to perform. He isn’t supposed to come back here alive.” The old man said as he made another turn. The three men had scampered to a safe distance and watched him from there.

Pointing his hand at the package that had suddenly become motionless on the ground, he pointed his left hand upwards and muttered some words.

“Kasuwan dare
Kasuwan rana
Mai salle a duhu
Mai sa riga ba wando
An kawo maka albashi
An kawo maka abubuwa
Tashi ka amsa!
Tashi ka amsa!”

The package on the ground levitated and stood upright.

(It is late here. I will continue tomorrow)

-Joey

Episode 4

Ekene walked up and down Elele street without seeing any number 32. It was when he was going on his tenth upward movement whilst counting each house to see if they were even up to thirty two that a woman who had a buka on the street that sold ewa agonyi beckoned to him. Ekene moved towards where she sat in her little shop constructed from rusted roof sheets and blackened woods.

“My pikin, goodu morin’ o.” She greeted him as soon as he entered into the shop. Ekene was sweating slightly from the morning sun that was a bit hot that morning and the tension that seized all his body. He was clenching and unclenching his fist as he stood before her.

“Good morning ma.” He responded.

“I don dey see you since as you dey do waka waka about. You lost something ni abi you come meet person for here?” She asked as she opened her giant cooler.

The aroma of beans there and the appetizing bread that designed a tray reminded Ekene that he hadn’t had anything to eat that morning. He looked as she stirred the food in the cooler in preparation to dish out for a customer that had come almost the same time with him. The oily beans and the pieces of kpomo Ekene caught sight of triggered a movement in his bowels. The sound was really loud and embarrassing. Ekene swallowed as he answered the woman.

“Yes ma, I came to see someone. I was told to come to number 32, Elele Street here in Maroko.”

“Oh, number 32? You sure say that kind of place dey for this place? In fact, them no number any of the houses o. Abi na job interview you come for?” The woman asked.

Ekene smiled and shook his head. She just reminded him of his jobless status.

“I no come look for work. I come meet person. The person na him give me this address and na here okada drop me. Him say na Elele street be this but him no tell me say the street no get numbers.” Ekene replied.

“Toh, siddon make you eat na. When you belleful, you fit call the number of the person wey say make you come here.” The fat woman wiped off the sweat that had gathered on her forehead.

It was a nice invitation to Ekene but there was no way he could accept it. The only money on him was his transportation back home. He only wants to see his girlfriend, if possible, free them from her captors but he did not know how. He could be working into trap but Ekene did not mind. Even if he died, he had nothing to lose. No one depended on him for anything. He was just some lone ranger born into the world to suffer. If he died suffering, it would make no difference. He had eaten the bread of suffering all his life.

“Okay ma, I for like siddon eat o, but I no get money at all.” Ekene started moving away from the woman’s stall but was stopped by her voice.

“No be so my pikin. Na me say make you come inside come chop. I don dey watch you since. You remind me of my pikin wey been don die tay tay. Abeg come inside come chop.”

Ekene needed no further invitation. He entered into the shop and took his seat opposite a man that opened the middle of the bread he was eating and was stuffing it with ewa agonyi. Ekene nodded at the man who nodded back.

Ekene mouth dropped open as the woman placed bread and a whole plate of ewa agonyi in front of him. A cold bottle of coke to wash it down soon followed. Ekene thanked the woman profusely and settled down to enjoy his meal. He was already halfway through when he realized albeit too late that the food was drugged.

Ekene felt his head swoon slightly before everything went blank. He was dead to the world and the dream he entered into was an endless one.
*************************

“Oga, wake up. We don reach!”

“Reach where?” Ekene asked drowsily. He had been out for a very long time.

“Lekki na. We dey for Adeleke Street abi no be there you say you dey go?”

“Me? When I tell you that...”

Everything came rushing back.



To be continued...

Episode 3

The market was rowdy. All the traders tried their bests to outshout each other in their bid to get customers. It was 9:00am and the market activities were already in full swing. There was no space for wheel barrow pushers to pass through and those coming in to buy the early morning goods that wasn’t contaminated by flies already had a hard time passing through the thin lanes.

Ugoji sat in front of his stall armed with his sharp knives. He had woken up as early as 3:00am to go to the abattoir to get meat. He had sold the whole hind of the beef he had bought and had called for more supplies. This time, he asked that 10 butchered goats and the hunch plus thighs, tail and head of a cow be brought. Business was going well and Ugoji enjoyed every moment of it.

Ugoji bent down to pick a black cellophane bag. That was what saved him. Everywhere suddenly went blank and he was thrown into his make-shift shed. He landed on his back and nearly blanked out. The sound in his ears was loud and shrill. His head throbbed from a sudden headache and his whole body shook violently from the vibration that had ripped through the market. Ugoji could hear the muffled voices of people as they screamed but none seemed to come close to him. As he laid there, he saw himself walking back away from the light. He was walking backward into a dark tunnel that never seemed to end. He was about losing sight of the light when someone shook him violently.

Ugoji opened his eyes to see a masked figure standing in front of him. A surgical mask that appeared to be puffing in and out like the wearer blew air into it. It was after the fourth shake that Ugoji began picking the words of the man.

“Are you okay? Can you hear me? Hey, stay with me!” The man was saying all at once while using a scissors to tear Ugoji’s clothes off. Ugoji just laid there oblivious of what had happened. It was when the medical attendant propped him up that he saw the horror. The customer that had stood in front of him, a pregnant woman, was severed from her waist upward by the force of the explosion. Her decapitated head laid some meters close to him. Ugoji looked around to see if he could see maybe a sign of the child in her stomach somewhere but didn’t find any.

“That woman...” Ugoji pointed.

“Oh, her? Well, there seemed to be more of her in the market. They were positioned at different points and kind of set off their suicide vests at the same time. You were lucky to have survived. A lot of people didn’t make it. We are still counting the dead.”

Ugoji looked at the man. A suicide bomber? She had appeared pregnant and had her face contorted like she would go into labour anytime soon. Phew! He had been lucky to survive then. Dead people and dying people fighting for their lives were sprawled all around him.

One thing bugged Ugoji though. The person attending to him only spoke in English, no Yoruba, no Hausa or Igbo, just English. Ugoji smiled at the prospect that the country had finally upped its game of using qualified personnel for emergency cases.
***********************************

The news was agog with it. It was on the lips of everybody. The first suicide bomb going off in the heart of Lagos with a lot of casualties gave the government something to chew on. It was also a success as none of the suicide bombers were stopped neither did the Nigerian government have a lead. It was a cold case from the very beginning. All the women used and men who had set off their own suicide jacket at the exits of all the entrances of the market could not be identified.

“Good evening fellow citizens of Nigeria. This is a trying time in our history. A complete barbaric act took place this morning in the heart of Lagos. It was perpetrated by men without any feelings or fear for the sacredness and sanctity of human life. They feel they can take human life at their own discretion without thinking of the repercussions. They feel they are a law over themselves and have the right to destroy government properties without the full arm of the law catching them. They are wrong!

No stone shall be left unturned; no toe shall be left unmatched! The sponsors of the suicide bombers shall be brought to book. We have deployed various tactical agency out there and investigations and manhunt has begun. We are also keeping an open portfolio for those who are involved and are ready to broker peace with the Nigerian government to step forward. They will be judged according to the precepts of the law. But those who feel they can carry arms against the government should wait. We are coming for them. They will pay with their blood, every single drop for this carnage caused.

I also urge every law abiding citizen to carry on with their normal activities without fear because machinery have been put in place to prevent another attack of this kind.

Good morning Nigeria.”

The President ended his speech. Justice flipped the remote to the next channel. He had listened to the national address of the president and wasn’t disappointed with what the president said. He was both proactive and reactive and the country has enjoyed enormous peace and progress since he came in through a by-election. There had been a total overhaul of the security agencies. Competent people had replaced those that entered with “I-know-person”. The military had dealt a devastating blow on the insurgence and had finally reclaimed every local government, village and even houses captured by the insurgents during their deadly reign of terror.

Cartoon Network is Justice’s favourite channel. He would stay in front of his TV all weekend watching different episodes of different cartoon programs. He loved how fast they move or run away from a scene if something was about to go wrong. Justice always wondered why humans did not act that way.

As the channel he was watching went on a commercial break, Justice flipped back to channels TV to catch the news that was breaking that very moment. The convoy of the President had been attacked. No one was hurt but the message was crystal clear. A new terror was in town and they knew their onions.

To be continued...

Episode 2

The newspapers carried the news with sensational headlines.

“Fake policeman found hanging on a pole wire!”

“Policeman gets drunk and mistakenly hangs himself on a pole wire!”

“Old woman swears for son who joined police, found hanging on a pole the next morning!”

Nobody could offer an explanation as to how the policeman found himself hanging. Even the man whom it happened to had no explanation. One moment he was squeezing the trigger, that same moment everything blanked out. He could not even explain how he found himself hanging upside down.

Linda Bebeji blog carried the news the most. The blog went ahead to look for the kindred of the policeman involved. They interviewed them and posted the exclusive news on their online blog.

“I have known constable Musa from when he was a small child. That boy, he listened not to his parents and was always entering into one problem or another. The more he was advised, the more he moved wayward. He ran away from classes more times than he attended and would not write exams. His grades were so poor that the only job he could go for was to become a police recruit. I even thought he had died. I never knew he would come out on the news for the whole world to see. I am really disappointed in him.”

The brother of the friend of the sister of Musa’s in-law gave his own bit of the history he knew. Everybody wanted to contribute, everybody wanted to say something but nobody asked who the masked man in Ankara was. He was quickly forgotten.
******************************************

The sound of the rain falling on the roof of the houses was like music to Ekene’s ear. He had been standing in a shed and waiting for the huge pellets of a collection of raindrops to subside before he ventured into it. Ekene is a tall, dark handsome young man with slightly gapped tooth. His teeth shone brightly whenever his smiled and there seemed to be a constant flash of mischief dancing at the corner of his eyes.

He had just come from his twentieth job interview. The starched cloth he had ironed to attend the interview felt slimy on his body. The rain had caught up with him when he took the turn that led to his street. He would have braved the heavy downpour if it hadn’t rendered him blind momentarily. Ekene had to seek refuge under the shed of a woman that sold Akara and Akamu in the morning.

As he shook slightly from the cold icy wind that came with the rain, he felt a vibration in his pocket. Dipping his hand into it, he brought out his phone and pulled off the dark cellophane bag that covered it to prevent water from getting into it. A smile flashed across his face the same time that a bolt of lightning darted across the cloudy skies.

“Hello dearie...” Ekene spoke softly as he picked the call and brought the phone close to his ear.

“Hello Ekene!” The voice in the background was a bit bristle and harsh in his ears. There seemed to be a cutting edge in the voice.

“Sorry, who am I speaking to?” Ekene asked raising his brows slightly. He was calm and relaxed or the cold wind he stood outside in humbled him.

“Oh, you forget so soon, Ekene, you creepy snake that thought you could swallow yourself and survive it.” The voice said.

“Where is Alheri? What are you doing with her phone?” Ekene asked.

“Oh, her.... She is... B*tch, speak up or I will smack more blood out of your fucking lips!” The stranger said from the background.

It was when Alheri’s voice came over the wave, broken and crying that Ekene felt his pulse rise and the rate of his heartbeat tripling up. Ekene felt like a mouse cornered. He had nowhere to run to. The best he could do was fight back but fight who? He wondered.

“Please, don’t hurt her. What do you want?” Ekene asked.

“Oh, you now have courtesy of sounding courteous right?” The man laughed into Ekene’s ear, a laughter that was icier than the wind that tore through Ekene’s body.

“Pleas just tell me and I will get it done for you.” He replied.

“What will I need from a jobless human being? You don’t have money to pay if I ask for a ransom but you have something I need.” The man said.

“What is it?” Ekene asked quickly.

“Your skills.” The man replied before the line went dead.

Ekene looked at the phone in his hand. He had the urge to immediately hit the redial button but he held himself. He would wait to see if the number would contact him again. He needn’t wait long. The message icon of his phone flashed at the top of the phone. Sliding it down, Ekene tapped at the message.

“Come to house no. 32, Elele Street, Maroko by 9:00am and you better not be late. Your girlfriend’s life is hanging on the balance.”

Ekene read the message over and over again as he felt a hot trickle of sweat run down his back. He was sweating inside the cold storm.

To be continued...

I can't believe I forgot to include this:

This is not a true life story, just a figment of the writer's imaginations. Every resemblance the story bears with incidences that has happened in the past or with people is a mere coincidence. Also, no part of this work may be copied and posted outside this forum without express written permission from the writer. Those found guilty of faulting will be prosecuted.

Dear bloggers, please take note!

Copyright 2018


-Joey




"Kai, wallahi if you move, I will remove that part of your skull that holds your brain in it." Constable Musa barked at Justice.

Justice froze midway. He had been in the business of acting a super hero but never had he thought that he would run into real law. Justice had read about Superman and Spiderman and had also watched their movies. He believed in the strength and the power of good deeds. So it was no wonder when he went to the market and got himself a whole six yards of spanx ankara. He would become a Nigerian Superhero!

Not having a name to call himself after spending sleepless nights designing his costume, he settled for the name, "Captain Gidi". He would patrol the night streets of Lagos and help those in dire need of his help.

Justice chose Ajegunle as his area of jurisdiction just as Superman had New York City as his. He would wait until NEPA strikes before putting on his costume. Then he would parade the night, jumping from one fence to the other watching and waiting to see if anyone would break the law.

He had foiled many a robbery attack and had gotten a sort of acceptance amongst the local populace. He would wait for the robbery to be in progress before making his appearance and whenever he did, the robbers always become jittery. If they do not surrender, they tend to run away leaving their weapons.

"Oga police, you no sabi me? Na me be Captain Gidi o." Justice tried to explain himself. He could feel the sweat trickling down his face within his face mask.

"Captain wetin? Oh, so na you dey cause bad business for our boys." Constable Musa said as he cocked his Ak-47.

Looking into the barrel of the AK-47, Justice literally saw his life flash before his eyes. He saw how he was born and how the woman who delivered him had pinched his buttocks to make him cry. He saw how he stole a long goat intestine that got stuck in his throat when he was 7 years old, one Christmas. He saw how he urinated on his bed when he was in SS3 but had lifted the junior boy that slept underneath his bunk and had dropped him on the piss. He framed the poor boy who had no defense having woken up to adult urine smelling on him with himself soaked to his bones. Justice knew his time was up.

"Oga officer, you did not tell me you are one of them na." Justice said as he turned and faced the man. Adrenaline had begun zapping through his veins.

"If I had told you, would you have surrendered?" Constable Musa asked with scorn.

"No, I wouldn't have. I would have taught you to respect the Nigeria Police Force Uniform you are wearing."

"Oh, this uniform wey I thief from that police wey don drink kain-kain sotay him pass out? This..."

That was the last thing the officer said. The next morning, the neighbourhood woke up to a police officer dangling upside down the electric pole with the rope holding his gun used in tying his leg. The people did not know if they should help him or not. Whispers of:

"Na wa oh... Una sure say Captain Gidi never over do am this time?"

"Who be this Captain Gidi self? Him dey use juju?"

"Why nobody get him picture sef?"

People waited for the police to come pick their colleague. They came by 12:00pm after waiting in queue at the petrol station to fuel their patrol van. They came with handcuffs.


To be continued...