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It was Rachael that squeezed the paper and threw it out of the bus after Halimot had been pinned down to the seat of the bus, she picked the paper and sifted through it well to see what her friend wrote down that made her go mad, her mind boggled, she could not understand the written words, she could not believe if the picture of the man her friend had drawn was real.…whatever was there, her friend needed not to see it again to avoid a relapse.


Agent Rowland compared the morphemes together and he was convinced they were words from the same language. What concretized his assumption was this number 0082 that appeared in the two papers in his hand. For sure whoever had detonated the bomb had left behind a clue to locate him. Could that be a decoy, a diversion attempt to a wrong person?
                There were more to this and Agent Rowland vowed to get to the root of it all!

Here came Agent Rowland, an ingenious guru in intelligence gathering, not that tall, he was very swift in movement, he walked with a straight posture. When he looked, his eyes penetrated beneath the surface. His eyes always seeing far beyond the horizon, he was gifted with that or perhaps the several trainings he had undergone had shaped his instinct and stimulus. His moustache, well trimmed added beauty to his looks.

When other Detectives were busy searching for what was hidden he would decide to search for that that was obvious. You could see him now distant away from other Detectives, fingers interlocked at his back, pacing back and forth. He was cogitating, an instinct was whispering to him to keep moving farther away from the scene and he obeyed the command. He was taking the steps aptly.


Then suddenly his eyes went for a squeezed paper lying by the road side, there were motley of other disposed items of different kinds by the road, but his detective astuteness was focusing on that particular paper, it looked new…that struck something of intelligence in him. He went for it, stretched the paper straight and stared at every content on the paper. First, the picture of a man in it caught his attention, and then some numbers.


There must be some intelligence in this, he mused over the numbers, then like a brainstorm…the number began to form meaning. That was it! The plate number of the man drawn. He extrapolated. What could that have to do with the bombing? Could it be a clue left behind by the bomber…why must he leave a clue? Why must he sketch himself? Many thoughts began to spin his head. Then he paused, could that be a glitch of his brain or what? The language he was looking at now in the paper corresponded to a language he had for the past three years working on day and night to decipher. He delved into his pocket and brought out a long list of strange written words with avalanche of numbers all over, too many to understand, and too obscure to pronounce.

Then Rachael's assumption about her friend became real to her. She sidled forward and took the baby from her, she gave the baby to another passenger and grappled her friend to a silent wriggle. She must not come down from the bus in her state of mind. She needed help. Rachael and two others held her down to the seat. Halimot struggled hard but became weak, she succumbed, wept silently and minutes later she slept off.


Not quite long, Police and other security units had arrived at the crime scene tilling ground for a buried clue while the paramedics were rescuing the trapped victims under the rubbles. Mutilated bodies were being loaded into the ambulance, fire fighters were at their best to put off the smoldering wreckage.

THE NEXT UPDATE COMES UP ON MONDAY.LEAVE YOUR COMMENTS/VIEWS/REACTIONS.

Thanks

“Mad! This country is fucking mad. What is our government doing to put a stop to these incessant bombings here and there!”Somebody in the bus shouted in annoyance.


And another man replied “Nothing is right about this country, imagine since October first bombing, nothing was done to put a stop to it. People were bombed at the barracks at the eve of New Year, Police headquarters was also threw up in flame and here we are today, UN building was targeted. Who knows where else!”

An elderly man heaped up a sigh, “May the Lord, restore peace to our land. This is saddening!”

Halimot was absorbed in her thought, making a frank effort to translate what the man had said on phone.
“Our man has done well. Mission 0082 completed, we should prepare for the next attack!”


The meaning formed in her mind, and that got her berserk, she jumped to her feet and yelled, thudding with her fists on the window screen of the bus. “No! Stop…stop!”

I was with him all through his project, we did it together. He was to write on the death of an indigenous language; the cause and effect on our cultural identity. Some of our indigenous languages die gradually due to a lot of reasons. This particular language we are talking about here, our researched revealed that it had only one speaker of it left.


We met the man and took the language from him. We documented and produced its dictionary. We were lucky to meet the man before he died, he died three years ago. So it is only Austin and I that supposed to be the custodian of the language. Mr.Igbinewaka was his name, he was happy to share it with us. He did not have children to pass it to. He was the last of its progeny. And here is this man in suit, proving us wrong.


Of course you should know it is not just only him, likely to be more than two because he was speaking it to someone at the other end of the phone. So I wouldn’t rest until I find out how he came across the language. You see the language share some properties with different continents, like an American pronunciation, part of it Indian and Pakistan. It also sounds like Southern Bantu languages”


Rachael was somehow confused, the whole thing Halimot had told her sounded like a kind of mumbo jumbo esoteric to her understanding alone. She replied “Whatever… just take it easy”


Halimot knew she would not take it easy with this man, it must not be what she was thinking, she waggled her hair to shake off the thought, that too drew Rachael attention. Her friend was going mental. She concluded, she kept eyes on her observing any of her further strange behaviors, she knew what next to do. She would tie her down in the bus and call on a doctor.

The loud sound the gate of that day rattled, echoed back in her ears. She unconsciously buried her head to the fold of the baby in her hands.

She rushed back to the bus, the driver was set to pull his way out of the gridlock. Sirens were humming louder and louder from the ambulances and police vehicles coming toward the scene. The driver knew things would soon get worse on the road because of many people that would be swarming out from different directions to have a look at the wreckage of the building.


Halimot rummaged in her handbag for a pen and a pad, she was not that good at sketches but she would try to put the image of the man on the paper. She did, and wrote the number plate of the man down, lest she forgot, she put down those few words she picked from the man’s conversation too. It was very important for updates.


She struggled to pronounce the words and the sound came out gruffly, that attracted Rachael, she was bewildered, her friend must not go mad…she had been musing over since. Why the grotesque language coming out from her. Could that be one of the ranting of an unstable mind? She clapped her on the shoulder.


“What is it Halimot?, don’t deteriorate your health with too much thinking. I beg oo!”
Halimot understood her friend more than what she had said, she smiled and replied “Not what you think.”
Rachael took the drawing from her and looked at it for some minutes, in her amazement she wanted to talk but the words weren’t forth coming. “What, whh, tt, ”She fluttered.


Halimot giggled at her and offered her the explanation.
“You see, this man, he was among the crowd at the blast. He spoke those words I’m trying to read out. Strange language you would say but this particular language was what Austin did his project on.

[i]At this juncture the subsequent updates might bear a similitude to reality and it is imperative to say that this is just a pure work of fiction based on Nigerian experience, and therefore should not be considered as fact.

The Novel is an intellectual property of A.LAWAL and should not be copied or published without the permission from me A.LAWAL ayolad4@yahoo.com. [/i]

I went through your work at Romance section and I could say you are doing 'enviously' well with a lot of fans over there.Nice story.Nigeria potentials are in abundance,u are one of the untapped resources,brighter than oil.

@lola.luv@Tadon200,Thanks so much for the words of encouragement.I'm still on with the story.I've written it up to Chapter Nine.I wont disappoint u I will continue posting as much as I have more fans on this.It does me no good keeping message locked up in my shelves.Books sleep on shelves while message is meant to be spread around.

Thanks for spending your valuable time going through my work.It humbles me

“And you say you know her. That is incriminating! You want this thing to make a fool of you, a gold digger? I didn’t spend all that money on you to bring an irresponsible girl of this nature home. This would smear my ego. Get her out of this compound before I kill somebody!”Chief Bamus was frothing at mouth, angered, he bashed the door and leapt in.


“Your Dad has spoken!”His mother warned, wagging her finger and followed suit.

Austin reveled the support his parents had given, he gave a smirk, hooting with laughter.
“You…lose” He called out each word slowly to burn her feelings and concluded smacking his chest “…and I won. No good meat passes me by without having its taste” He informed, sot-tovoce.


Then before Halimot could wake up from her bogey, two able-bodied guards in uniform had surrounded her, they clapped hold of her by the arms and began to drag her. Another one was standing at distance with two dogs in his hands barking to frighten her away. They opened the gate and pushed her off to the ground and slammed the gate against her.

This is how I come up with Titles,my story line do the magic.What I'm writing on would surely tell me how to cap it.Get your thoughts[The theme,the road that your story is to roll on] together before you set on putting words on paper,and the rest would be as if some spiritual being is pouring words into your head,it wouldnt let you be at ease until you deliver the message it sends you.They call it MUSE,the goddess of art according to Greek Mythology.That's myth but the reality is that if u are creative you are more than just an ordinary being,u can do all you've got to do.Catchy titles wont be a problem

@AjanleKoko,Check at my thread at this section, I have a novel entitled The raging fire being posted.Go through it and let me know your take on that.Art for art sake isnt what I believe in,not just to entertain alone but a message to pass across;the duty of every commited writer of his/her time.Chinuachebe,Wole Soyinka the list goes on kept history in ink and struggled to put things inorder,I think that should be our collective struggle,and that is what I based my writings on.

@Myne White.I'm glad to hear from you. I will ,but just want to be sure my story is not boring.What could you say on what u've read so far?

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She was going to dump Rahaman on him…he was his father, he should not deny his son if at all he would not marry her. He should not let the boy grow without having a father. She knew that would be difficult to do, remembering what she went through the other time she had gone to meet his parents on the issue of the pregnancy, life had thought her lesson and she had grown a tick skin she would dare the consequences.


She knew what her visit to Austin parents would yield her immediately she stepped in to their compound…she was greeted with whiff of intimidating environment blooming with flowers of different kinds that gleamed the house with green nature. Trees made the boulevard to the mansion seated on a raised landscape. She mustered up courage and waddled up the road, she was three month old pregnant, Austin parents must be aware of this before things got out of hand. She quickened her steps and found herself standing at the front door to the house. She wanted to press the button before an image appeared from the balcony above her questioned. It was Austin.

“Can I help you please?”

She was startled by his voice, she shook slightly and blubbered “Austin, please don’t do this to me. I didn’t do you any hurt to deserve this. You know you were my first and before and ever since you cannot ascribe me with any wrong doing. Please I’m carrying your baby”


“Who the hell allow you into this compound? Get it straight to your head. I have my fiancée, she just came back from United States. You cannot ruin my house with your bad luck. Can’t you see from the start that we are not of the same social rating? You are a daughter of nobody. I only allowed you to hobnob with me those days to give you a bit of what good life was, and it is over now.”He burlesqued.


Sniveling and slobbering she begged “Please don’t do this to me, ee, ee”
Then there came a flood of light and sound from a jeep revving up the drive way. The driver parked and two people alighted. It was Chief Badmus and his wife, Austin’s parents.


Halimot turned to look at them and they stared at her too. Austin’s mother spoke out
“Who is this, Austin?”
“Mum, that is the same question I asked myself. May be someone is planning to use her against my marriage with Rose. Who knows?”He shrugged.


“You mean you don’t know her?”She was revolted by her sight, she used her fingers to form an irritating image in the air.
“I wouldn’t want to be unfair to say I don’t know her. I do, but just one of those girls that threw themselves at me on campus, you know everyone would want to associate with a good home. Just an affair with her, protected myself not to catch any disease from her filthy body and here we are trying to make a big deal out of it to make herself my wife just because of all the wealth around me!”

CHAPTER TWO


What they were welcome with as soon as the bus arrived at the city gate was a huge bomb explosion just a few distance away.

The sound shattered the windscreens of some of the vehicles, some swerved into a ditch, while some colluded on each other. Horns hooting, sirens blaring, there was a grid-lock. Some people had abandoned their vehicles and scampered in disorder. There was grim panic of daunting fear written all over their faces. Now they could understand what had happened. They could see the plume of thick smoke that enveloped a huge building close by. It was The United Nation building. It was under attack!

People stood aghast watching in dismay…then information murmured around that it was suicide bombing by a sect; the group of religious extremists from the North.

Halimot had come down with the other passengers from the bus to catch a glimpse of the incident from far, they stretched their necks to see, some with camera began to snap. Inaudible noises wafted from mouth to mouth cursing the perpetrator of the wanton act. People huddled up in different gaggles discussing, Halimot had nestled her way closer to the scene, she could tell whichever ethnic group each of the languages that breezed across her ears belonged to but there was this unfamiliar sound a guy next to her just spoke on phone. She turned back to see him well, he was tall, dark in complexion, dressed in suit with a brief case in his hand. As he was speaking on phone he was wriggling his way out of the crowd. Halimot sustained her gaze on him. There was this feeling that kept Halimot to keep on looking at the guy. The Language he was speaking drew her attention, it was strange but somehow familiar to Halimot. She was able to pick some words out of it and the words began to form meaning in her head.

It must not be what she was thinking, but she was not sure, so she had to follow the man till the man entered his car and drove away. She crammed the number plate of the car…Austin would be interested in this guy…a thought told her. Then she hissed, Austin again…could she ever do without thinking about Austin. She had to discuss about this guy to Austin, that his existence proved their long time ago research wrong. But she knew that the personal issue she had to discuss with Austin topped any other priorities, then the issue of this man might come second.

“Papa, nobody is buying me with ring or flower. The marriage is real, we are working seriously on it!”She replied with a smug expression.

That was a week before now. The pregnancy was just a month old then, if she knew on time that she was pregnant she might not have gone to the village to see her mother who was on sick bed. She had gone and her father had seen that she was pregnant.

But now Austin wanted to put her to shame…he was saying something about the marriage which she could not comprehend. Was he saying that he had shifted the marriage or was it that he was no longer interested in the whole thing? That he didn’t have interest in her and the marriage again? What about the pregnancy, that she should abort it?
She screamed “Austin! Please don’t do this to me!”

A sound of an explosion disrupted her stream of thoughts, she was jolted back to her environment. There was an accident!

By the time she would wake, the bus had already travelled some distance, just some hours left to get to Abuja. She yawned, stretched her body, Rachael gave her a ravishing smile and proffered her baby to her with a remark “He is squirming, maybe he needs some breast. Rahaman is truly a blessing, he didn’t give me a headache babysitting him all this while.”

She took the baby from her “Thank you”…and began to dandle him, later she thrust her breast to his mouth. She was reticent, ambivalent of what Rahaman truly was to her, to her friend he was a blessing, and deep down her heart too she knew he was a blessing but Austin the putative father saw it in a different light.

Now she understood the whole episode well in retrospective, Austin had promised to take her home the following day she had accepted his engagement ring but came up with excuse of his mother not being in the county, it would take her two months before she would be back. So she had to wait. She did not brood any suspicion, Austin was real. And things were going on well with their relationship. They spent quality time together writing their final year projects and Halimot was so much of great help to him in helping him collate his ideals together.

The reality dawned on her when she became pregnant and decided to convey the good message to her love.
They were at one of their dates smooching in the cool atmosphere when Halimot purred to his ear. And like a thunder it tore his heart away.

“What! Pregnant?”

Austin became blush, and blithely shrugged her hands off him. “Could that be a joke!”He asked grudgingly.
Halimot cringed with fear, reposition herself and reacted befuddled “Aren’t you supposed to be happy. We are getting married in few months time”

“Did I hear you well, getting married? Are you getting drunk?”He fluttered. “But …wait, didn’t I tell you that this marriage of a thing should wait. My God, are you trying to force yourself on me by claiming that you are pregnant?”
“But Austin, this supposed to be our joy…”

Austin interrupted. He didn’t allow her to finish.“Get rid of that thing or be at your perils!”
He rose up and walked furiously to his car. Halimot had jumped to her feet too, running after him, begging. But it seemed things had gone rupture between them with this news of pregnancy. Austin was not paying her attention, he started the car and zoomed away. Halimot was dumfound, sky began to reel and everything in her world seemed upside down. She was now attuned to what seemed as reality…that Austin was playing her a fool all this while.

“You are a disgrace to this family!”Her father berated her when he noticed some changes in her; her eyes were pale, and she was consistently vomiting. “How could you have allowed a man to sleep with you when he has not paid your dowry as a wife?” Though with a tinge of fear, she meekly showed her father the engagement ring in her hand. “Papa, I’m getting married soon.”And her father gave a cursory look at the ring with disdain and remarked “ Ring!, ring and flower. Oh my God!, you girls of nowadays are too gullible to be bought by ring and flowers.”

He had invited some of Halimot friends to the rendezvous, he had informed them without giving Halimot a clue of what he was about to do. She came seeing her friend sitting round a table groaning with assorted different kinds of champagne.
What could Austin be up to with her friends this time around? She could not comprehend!
It all came as a surprise to her!
Austin drove in a car from a hidden corner bedecked with flower that lettered some words.
Halimot had to read it out morpheme by morpheme in an unbelievable tone of what surprise Austin had overwhelmed her with.
“Will… you… marry… me… my… Angel?”
“Oh my God!”She swooned, as if being fallen from the heels of her shoes, drunk with ecstasy.
Her friends rose up gloating to the love swishing aloft in the atmosphere. From distance it seemed they were all prodding her to say yes. She read their lips and she knew they were already in his support.
“That sounds good.”She wiped off the little drop of tears on her face with the back of her hand and said whatever she had to say amidst excitement.
“Yes!Yes!Yes!”She ejaculated.
Having collected the engagement ring from Austin with her friends witnessing the whole episode of drama Austin had displayed, ‘how best could one prove his genuine love?,  she convinced herself that Austin was her man. She did not even know when she began to count her fingers, 1, 2, 3,Yes!It was solid good three years Austin had been stalking her around asking for her friendship, and in all these three years he kept to her rule not to touch her. But of late before the presentation of the ring they had gone a bit closer than just being friends…Austin had been making steps closer and closer. Sometime with just a kiss,,  then getting deeper feeling moistened and when Austin had tried to yank off her shirt with some button popping out, she would always halt him to a sudden grip!
“STOP!!”
But that night when they got back to Austin’s apartment, after devouring the cookies, the yogurt and ice cream with Vanilla flavour they brought home from a restaurant, in the atmosphere filled with some romance songs, especially a track by Whitney Houston ‘My love is your love’, that was followed by a track ‘Have you ever’ from Brandy, Halimot begged to be made love to after much handling Austin had with her. And Austin granted her request with a long hour that seemed endless. Wallowing in painful sweetness none of them wished an end to it.

Austin never believed she could be all this right until that night…that she was a virgin. He was indeed captivated. A girl of her beauty and age, at twenty seven would have lost her virginity some years back. Austin knew Halimot was truly a girl to be taken home to Mama. After all, they were already in their final year. The time was ripe to get married.

It had taken some hours now that Halimot had been in time warp thinking about her past, some air of tiredness blew across her face, she could still hear some of her colleagues discussing about politics…their voices seemed to be distant away waning little by little she flaked out.

Austin was a braggart, brash and pompous, a course mate of her at the Department of Linguistics. If by intelligence Austin was too low for her standard, though handsome and rich. Halimot was a brilliant student, diligent, determined and dedicated to her studies, she was aiming a first class and she wouldn’t allow a never-do-well of a guy to write her destiny for her. But Austin would never let her be, he wanted her as a wife!

That was the way he had put it…no hanky-panky, no playing around with her, all he wanted of her was to marry her.
That amused her and gained her attention. She responded after long months of shunning him.
“And who told you I’m searching for husband?”

Austin knew that would be the beginning of her fall, though, he had not encountered much problem such as this from other preys that had fallen to his trap. They were always ready to bee-line around to suck his honey of mammon of life. None of that seemed to interest Halimot, he had noticed and vowed to track her down and feast on her. Halimot was too pretty of a girl to let go without having a feel of how she tasted. He challenged himself. 'And this is the time!'

“For everywoman there must be a man, and no one knows who it might be until we give it a chance. Don’t judge me until you xrayed my heart and you found no true love for you”
She giggled “And how do I see that?”

“That is it!”He rapped on the desk Halimot had put the book she was reading and continued “…You can never know how much you mean to me until you allow me to prove it to you. And that has been what I have been asking of you. I’m not saying we should jump into the whole thing but let start from being friends and you would be able to study me if I’m a kind of guy that could make your man”

And that was how it started, as if Halimot were everything of a girl he had dreamt of. He changed his ways, always at her beck and call, showing care and love. Halimot couldn’t help but believed that he was real.

How could she doubt him when Austin had called her up on phone informing her of taking her home to his parents, but before they would go, Halimot had to accept his proposal. Here they were at one of the biggest amusement parks in town on one of their dates. A perfect location to pop the question like those places in the movies…he added some flavor to its ambiance with a little bit of drama.

“Halimat! What’s up!”One of her colleagues a corps member who was boarding the same vehicle tapped her by her shoulder before she could tilt her head to see who, she had already walked pass her. It was Rachael one of her humorous friends who had been giving her reasons to live, filling her with joy, love which seemed to have eluded her life. Rachael noticed that her friend was once again wearing an expression of sullen resentment; she backtracked and extended her two hands to her to help carry her baby which she cocooned to her chest with one of her hands while the other rested on the handle of her luggage she was trudging.


“Hey poor mite, come over here”. Rachael took him from his mother’s arm and tugged insistently at his chubby cheeks. To Rachael, the boy was a blessing her friend should be proud of rather than being lachrymose, bugging herself with unmentionable thoughts spawning in her head. The two walked slowly through the aisle and secured their seats. There were a number of Youth corps members in the bus, happy to see each other and they started roaring in joy. Other passengers in the bus were somehow jealous of them but they wouldn’t say a word. They were Youth corps and should be treated with respect so they bore their noises with no grudges.


“Waoh! I can’t believe my experience in this state. Never could I have imagined that such giant leaps of development could spurt out in just few years of administration in this country. The Governor must be a God sent. He marvels me with an undying passion to transform the life of his citizens. This is a landmark achievement second to none in this country.”One of the corps members jerked out. He craned forward pointing through the window to the road. “See new construction of roads, I bet everywhere you go in the state you will always see the presence of the new administration transforming the lives of his people”.

Austin was not raised to be a terrorist, and he had never wished to become one,but that evening when he pulled the trigger of the sniper that  got his friend down in front of the operatives that came to decode the information he sent on the net, he knew things would never be the same again.

   He was declared the suiced bomber responsible for the UN Building!How could he convince the world that things were more complex than what they read and listened to in the news!

ENJOY THIS!

This is a pure work of fiction based on Nigerian Experience,and should not be regarded as facts to be quoted or used in interpreting the happenings of comtemporary time in Nigeria.

It is an intelluctual property of A.LAWAL and should not be published without permission from me.The ideas that formed the structure of the work are entirely mine.

Thanks.

                                                               
                                                                   CHAPTER ONE

Her face did not betray her state of mind, moody, unhappy and devoid of the brilliant enthusiasm it was supposed to be radiating as a Youth-Corps member in her uniform who had completed her One-year-National service. She groggily dragged her luggage along the direction the conductor of the bus she was to board had pointed.

“Aunty corper no be Abuja you dey go? Na the bus we dey load be that. But come sit down. We go announce am for speaker when we are set to take off. Go that place first go collect your ticket”

The conductor dressed in a well ironed uniform and so were many others working at the park. The park was well organized, equipped with modern facilities, array of new luxury buses were lined up for boarding, there were shades carved in blocks with rolls of chairs where the passengers could wait before they would board buses. The hawkers at the park had been provided with stalls where they stayed to sell their goods, while some big eateries had sprung up around and within the park that bedazzled the sight. Some private security guards were conducting checks on the passengers before they could go on board.

She noticed and admired all these new changes that had transformed the park she once knew to be a fortress for thugs who had lost hope in life and could be reckless at driving. Having to travel through some of these parks had always been like one signing his death warrant. Arriving home save wasn’t a thing one was sure of at the hand of the driver who must have soaked himself with too much of alcohol and dazed himself with marijuana. But here the atmosphere was different; it blew some air of safety…added some meanings to life.

She sighed for some air of relief but her worry was not orchestrated by the anxiety of travelling on the bad roads which many passengers always had been reported to have lost their lives but fear of what she was going to meet in Abuja…that overwhelmed her. It was a gruesome fear!


“You are a disgrace to your family!”A voice within her taunted her and she jerked, halted. She looked around if anybody saw her, nobody seemed to be looking at her direction. She readjusted herself and walked to the counter where she obtained her ticket. Few minutes later it was announced that they should go on board, she lazily dragged her feet…thinking.

It is possible,but I know for sure as the stories keep flowing one would catch your attention more and at d end you would channel all your energy to it and leave the second one for another time.It is always better to focuse more on one at a time.The result is always better.

I love the narrative,so vivid like a picture in a paint.And the experience,so sad.

Just a short story


SINS THAT ARE NOT THEIRS!
Little she was, but her environment had made her wiser than her age. From the cradle, she had learnt to cry higher enough to gain her mother’s attention from lots of other activities she might be preoccupied with, like tending to the mess the other three children might have thrown the little squalid one-room apartment into.

The world is all about the survival of the fittest, she had acknowledged that early in life, little wonder at age of six Abike was so determined to have all she had ever craved for…she knew how to go by it without ruffling anybody’s ego.

Was it not at school she had escaped the bitter cane of Mr. White who always took delight in flogging children at every little opportunity that came his way. He would flog children who didn’t come to school with school materials, those that came bare footed, those that wore dirty clothes to school and those that made noises in the class. Today he was going to cane Abike for not paying her school fees but before he could land his cane on Abike, she had screamed ‘‘Please, let me say my prayer first’’ loud enough to hold Mr. White to a halt.

Mr. white chuckled and couldn’t believe his hears. So, he let her say the prayer and here Abike went
“Oh father! bless my parents with plenty of money so that I will be able to finish my studies and become a lawyer fighting for the right of children not to be punished for sins that are not theirs. Amen!”
It worked like magic, Mr. White never knew when the cane fell off his hand, he had been wisely engaged in words of wisdom by the little Abike, since then he had resolved not to flog the innocent pupils again but rather he would write to their parents not to bring the children to school if they wouldn’t be able to pay their fees.
So was how the little Abike began to show extraordinariness that stood her out from her peers, no one ever beat her of coming out first in all stages of her primary education. She was not well equipped with school materials yet she was wonderful in every subject. With that she had won admiration of all her teachers and friends who always wanted to bask in her reflected glory.

“I know my daughter would make me proud she would become great and set us free from poverty.”That was the hope her parents had of her. She was their apple eye, though they did not have money to cater for her studies. They had to engage her in hawking fruits by the road side. You know market do sell in hold up, especially at Ore when vehicles coming from Lagos would be trapped in the snarl up, the passengers would be hungry and Abike and other little children hawking different foodstuffs would be there with their goods to sell.

Today Abike just had to sell all her goods to make up money to pay her common entrance into secondary school…just this last bunch of banana in her tray. A passenger had called her at the other side of the road and here she was, jumped onto the road without paying attention to the oncoming vehicle.
“Haa! She is dead!”
Blood splattered…tray into the bush and the banana lying by her mutilated body. She could not become a lawyer fighting for the right of children being punished for sins that are not theirs!