“Don’t sleep yet sweetie. Drink this__.” He said handing her the steaming mug of cocoa.
Her eyes fluttered and then widened as her gaze slowly focused. She took the mug from him and sat up slowly.
“I am so tired__.” She murmured lifting the mug to her lips. The hot drink sliding down her throat made her a trifle less sleepy. Her dull sleepy look instantly became alert.
“Feel better?” He asked casting a worried gaze on her face.
“A little__” She began slowly. “But the pain in my sides and lower back hasn’t lessened.”
His face grew pensive as he searched his wife’s face. Then a speculative look entered his eyes.
“Do you want me to rub Aboniki* on it?” *Menthol heat balm.
“That would be nice__” She began raising a hand to stop him as he started for the wooden chest where they kept it. “__but not right now. You can give me a backrub as soon as I finish drinking my cocoa.”
He sighed sinking down onto the white plastic chair beside the mattress, which was the only piece of furniture their one room self-contained apartment had. The minutes ticked by as she sipped on the creamy chocolate flavored liquid in her cup.
He watched her trying hard not to bristle with impatience, especially when he saw the pained looks of discomfort flitting across her face. The damn woman could be so stubborn. His face grew thunderous. So consumed by his worry and displeasure, it took him several seconds to realize she was smiling at him.
“What?”
“Nothing__” She replied effecting a disinterested shrug. “I read the message your body is sending loud and clear; even if your mouth will not speak of it.”
“Really? And what message o great and mighty sage Joke is my body trying to pass across?” He asked failing to keep the sarcasm out of his voice.
“Never mind.” She said with a loud chuckle as she leaned her head back and poured what remained of the cocoa down her throat. Placing the cup on the linoleum-covered floor, she carefully lay on her side with her back facing him.
“I am ready.”
He practically leaped out of the chair, retrieved the aboniki from the chest at the corner of the room, and strode back to the bed where he knelt down beside his wife.
Taking a bit of the strong smelling cream on his palm he gently rubbed it on her lower back and sides. In a couple of seconds, the whole room was reeking with acerbic scent of aboniki.
“Feel any better?” He asked giving her a worried look. His heart skipped a couple of beats when she did not respond. Leaning forward, he peered at her face over her right shoulder. The worried look on his face quickly turned to one of love and affection when he realized she was fast asleep her chest rising and falling evenly.
Sighing, he took the aboniki back to the chest and returned to his wife, stretching out beside her on the large mattress.
“Sweet dreams.” He murmured his eyes beginning to flutter as he stared at the asbestos ceiling; within minutes he too was fast asleep, their even breathing the only sounds in the quiet room.
Wole sat up abruptly, barely managing to keep the squeal of terror behind his lips. His body was still, frozen as he struggled to calm his racing heart. It was the same dream. It was always the same dream. Flying and then plummeting to the earth at breakneck speeds.
This dream however was somewhat worse than the others were. It felt so real. With the others, he had always been able to tell that he was dreaming. It was not the case with this one. However, that was not all, with the others he always woke before he hit the ground. With this one, he felt the hard slam as he hit the ground.
The sharp pain that came with impact was only just fading from his chest. He rubbed his chest experimentally. It stung for a few minutes and the pain disappeared completely.
Sweat dribbled from his forehead. He rubbed it off as a frown hardened his normally pleasant features. The dreams were getting worse. It was probably time to tell someone. His mind scanned through half a dozen names, but he could not think of anyone of them he was even remotely interested in telling.
His mum would probably listen, but she was likely to insist he went to see the church pastor, and that was something he was not keen on. The man made him uneasy.
He thought of Tunrayo and Chike, Tunrayo would listen, but would be frightened by the new development. That he was most certain of. Chike would dismiss it and probably suggest that he was having flights of fancy. That was something he knew he could most certainly do without.
Then there was Alaba his geography teacher. Wole could not understand why he even thought of the man. It was not as if they were that close. Something on his insides just told him that the man would listen if he told him.
The faint glimmer of light trickling in from his open window caught his attention. It was time to get ready for school. As if in agreement, he heard his mother’s loud footsteps in the kitchen. Stifling a sigh with the palm of his left hand, he rose to his feet.
Chapter Ten
Tee-junction en-route to school
Chike and Tunrayo were already waiting for him. His eyes widened when he saw Chike. This was a first. Chike here before him, two days in a row? Who would have thought that was even possible?
Tunrayo’s soft smile and Chike’s broad grin greeted him as he stopped two feet away from them.
“Why the grins?” He asked, even though he already knew what their answers would be.
“You are surprised Chike is here before you aren’t you?” Tunrayo asked still smiling.
“How did you know?” The grin on Wole’s face was just as broad as the one on Chike’s own.
They shared amused glances for a total of ten seconds before bursting into laughter. They laughed for a long while before their mirth faded away slowly.
“We best be on our way__” Wole began still chuckling. Tunrayo nodded but did not speak. Her eyes were dancing with her amusement. They all turned heading down the long dusty road, which led to the school. Chike as usual brought up the rear.
The walk to the school felt quick for some reason. As if it took almost no time at all, the reason for this was quite clear. Chike was entertaining them with his jokes and tall tales. Tunrayo was not doing that bad herself. She pitched in every now and then with her own quips.
Wole for the most part was very silent. He gave the usual perfunctory response when needed but was otherwise silent. If they noticed he seemed withdrawn they gave no indication of it. Tunrayo did give him some pointed looks at some points. That was usually when Chike came up with another joke and instead of laughing she caught him staring into space. Each time the looks came however, a broad smile from him disarmed her and quickly put her at ease.
The big teak tree to their left came into view. Eze was crouched in front of it as usual. Chike’s eyes brightened instantly when he saw Eze. Before either Tunrayo or Wole could stop him, he was racing towards the tree.
“CHIKE STOP IT THIS INSTANT!!!” Tunrayo yelled in fury. Chike being his usual self paid her no mind.
Wole was on the verge of tearing towards Chike to give him a smack on his face, but for some strange reason he could not get his limbs to move. There was something about the way Eze was crouched today that did not seem quite right.
It was as if he had a dark evil sort of force hanging over him. Tunrayo seemed to sense it too. He could see that from the way her eyes widened, shinning with fear and unease, not to mention the way her nostrils flared. She also did not attempt to move closer to either Eze or chike.
Eze gave no indication that he saw Chike or even noticed him standing there. Emboldened chike took another step closer.
“Mad fool! You do stink don’t you? I am sure even your own parents will be unable to look at you now.”
Caught in the flow of his own diatribe, he did not notice Eze’s eyes suddenly focus.
“Yeah I am talking to you, you mad sick freak.” Chike spat at him coming closer still.
What happened next shocked all three children, chike most
of all. The violence of it made a high-pitched scream burst from Tunrayo’s lips.
Eze leaped forward driving hard blows into Chike’s face. The blows flung Chike to the floor like a stone with terrified screams bursting from his wide-open mouth. Hitting the ground hard, he spun around raising tiny clouds of dust into the air as he struggled to crawl away.
Before he could however, Eze lunged at him grabbing him by his shoulders and pinning him to the ground with his much heavier body. This brought Wole out of the stupefied horror that gripped him, He started towards the pair not really sure what he was going to do to help chike.
He pulled to a halt after a couple of steps when Eze ripped off Chike’s uniform exposing his right shoulder. Before their horrified eyes, he sunk his teeth into his shoulder easily breaking his skin. Chike’s piercing scream was like a knife digging into both of their hearts.
Where the dark things are
Alaba strode to the school with a preoccupied look on his face. He looked smart in a sparkling white shirt, tucked into blue slacks. His large feet encased in brown loafers, scuffed in front. The loafers glistened, sparkling in the early morning sun. As they should, he thought glancing down at them with a critical eye. He had spent almost half an hour getting it to shine the way it did.
A frown roughened his brow as his eyes settled on his slacks. They were a bit faded, especially around the knee area. He could not remember the last time he had bought anything for himself. There never seemed to be any money left over. His salary was barely able to feed them, pay rent and see to Joke’s antenatal checks. Not to mention the fact that he also had to put money aside for Joke’s job interviews and applications.
He hated to think how his expenses would climb when the baby finally came. A shudder ran down his spine just thinking about it. Shaking his head to clear it of his depressing thought he concentrated on the dusty road in front of him.
Ten feet away was a turning to the right. A sigh left his lips as he spotted it. He knew as soon as he made the next turn, the school was just about a hundred and fifty meters away.
He made the turn with slow reluctant strides. Puzzlement surged on his insides at the feeling of reluctance that filled him. Why in the world did he suddenly feel like skipping work? Before he could dwell on that thought any further, his eyes caught the shiny black gates of the school. The slight frown on his face grew harder.
There was a flurry of activity in front of the gate. Security men, teachers and children were running around in circles. For some reason a cold shiver ran down his spine. Something was wrong! He tore towards the gates without another thought.
Chapter Eleven
He drew to a screeching halt four feet in front of the gate, which he could barely see because of the mob racing around in front of it. To his left was a police van parked in front of the teak tree. His eyes widened in shock as he looked at it. He did not remember seeing it as he ran over.
Four heavyset police officers dressed in the black on black uniform of the Nigerian police force were wrestling a rabid Eze to the ground. He shouted and screamed at the top of his voice. It was an eerie sound and it drove fear into Alaba’s heart.
Three of the police officers held him pinned down while the fourth officer slipped a pair of handcuffs on both of his wrists. With the handcuffs secured, they wrenched him to his feet, dragging him still kicking and screaming to the van.
Alaba’s eyes widened when he saw his mouth and jaw covered with blood. Before he could examine him more closely, they shoved him into the back of the van. Three of the police officers climbed in after him while the fourth went to the front. The engine started with a healthy growl, the tires gave a loud screech as the van did a three sixty turn and vanished in a thick cloud of dust and smoke.
Staring at the rapidly disappearing van for a few moments, he turned and grabbed one of the female teachers just hurrying past him.
“What happened? Why did the police arrest Eze?”
“It was horrible!” She gasped wrenching her hand from his grasp and hurrying into the school.
Alaba sighed searching for someone else to ask. One of the security men stood five feet away, staring at the van, which had now completely disappeared from view.
Alaba hurried towards him grabbing his arm as he reached his side. “What happened?”
“Na the mad man oga! He beat one boy bad bad__ he also bite am for hand. The boy don almost quench.”
“Where is the boy now?”
“Dem don carry am go hospital Oga. Some people talk say he don almost die.”
The man’s last statement drove a chill into Alaba’s heart. Deciding he had heard enough, he hurried through the gate heading to the teacher’s staffroom.
The principal was standing outside the staffroom when he reached it. She was a painfully thin woman dressed in a maroon skirt suit. Her skin was a dull brown color with ugly blue-black veins snaking across it. She had her hair tied in a hard bow behind her head and her mouth curved in a perpetual frown.
“Mr. Olorunsogo you are on time I see. I presume you got my summons?”
“No ma! I just arrived. I heard what happened at the gate and I decided to come straight here.”
“No matter__ come in! The meeting commences immediately.”
Nodding slowly, Alaba hurried into the room. There were half a dozen teachers’ present, seated behind large wooden desks. Alaba made his way to his desk that was at the far right hand corner of the room. Three more teachers walked in as he sat down. A satisfied smile lifted the corners of his lips ever so slightly. That meant that the meeting would soon start.
The meeting began exactly five minutes later. The principal quickly filled in the gaps for those who had not heard about Eze attacking Chike.
“This is a very serious situation__ I have already started receiving calls from concerned parents. These are troubling times for the school. The vice principal and I will go to the hospital to see how the boy is faring. The registrar is in charge while we are gone. I do not want any of you to use this incident as an excuse to skip work. Is that understood?”
“Yes ma’am.” They all chorused.
“Ok, back to work.”
She strode out of the staffroom followed by about half a dozen of her staff. Alaba was on the verge of hurrying after them when he remembered he did not have a lesson until eleven. With a dazed look on his face, he settled down to wait.
Oraromi Crown Hospital (30 minutes later)
Chike’s eyes opened to see a crowd of people standing around him. His eyes narrowed as a puzzled look came on his face. Where was he? His surroundings were strange, all white. Some of the faces around him were also familiar.
His father and mother stood on his left leaning over his bed, looking at him with worry in their eyes. The people on his right were unknown, strangers dressed in white lab coats.
Every face seemed relieved to see him awake.
“Are you alright?” The tall man on his right dressed in a sparkling white lab coat asked him.
His eyes grew more puzzled. What in the world, was the man going on about? It took about three more seconds before everything came rushing back.
“Eze!!!” He cried jerking into a sitting position.
The doctor and two other nurses surged forward to restrain him, stopping him from leaping out of bed.
“Relax Chike__” The doctor began slowly. His voice calmed Chike making him turn, looking into gentle brown eyes.
“Where is he?” He asked looking around with alarm in his eyes.
“He has been arrested. You are the hospital now and safe from him.”
That statement made relief surge through his heart. The doctor was talking again. It took a couple of seconds for Chike to understand what he was saying.
“How do you feel?”
“A bit dizzy__”
“Is that normal?” His mother interrupted looking at the doctor with fright in her eyes.
“It is ma__ we gave him a sedative when he was broug
ht in. He was hysterical. He needed to be calmed down. The dizziness he feels, I think is as a result of the drugs we gave him.”
A pause followed.
“How is your hand?” The doctor asked.
Chike was puzzled about that for a bit until he remembered that Eze had bitten his hand. Glancing at it, he was surprised to see it bandaged.
“Does it hurt?”
He shook his head as he rubbed it gently.
“Not even a bit?”
“No__”
The doctor nodded satisfied. “Your son is fine ma. He is just a bit traumatized but that’s nothing a little bed rest won’t cure.”
“Are you sure?” His mum asked looking unconvinced.
Seeing her worried look the doctor sighed and turned to face her. “If you want we can keep him for the night under observation, but there is nothing wrong with him as far as I can see. We have given him a shot for the bite and some antibiotics that he will take for five days. He will be as right as rain in a day or two.”
Chike’s parent’s exchanged troubled glances before nodding slowly. Seeing he had convinced them, the doctor turned to face the nurses behind him.
“See that their bill is prepared quickly and give them his drugs. They are free to go.”
Nurse Susan nodded slowly and herded the two nurses with her out of the room with the doctor following suit. The door slammed shut behind them with a firm clack.
Chike’s mother instantly reached over and grabbed her son’s hand. “Are you sure you are ok?”
“I am ma. I do not feel dizzy anymore. I just want to go home.”
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