I waddled across the tiny bridge that led to where my hostel was situated. The road was very familiar. On a normal day when I crossed the bridge, my hands would hold tightly to the wall supporting the bridge. I would then walk over it slowly, trying my possible best not to fall into the small stream that split the road. But that night, that very night full of gnashing hollowness, I ran over it in a flash like manner, and slipping into the mud-covered road, I brushed my left hand against the elephant grasses that were at the left-hand side of the muddy road. I was unsteady. The race was so intense that I didn't know when I ran passed the church that was directly before my house into the somehow tiny corridor that led to my room. I could have woken some of my neighbors up, I could have disturbed some persons reading in the night, but all these, all those thoughts weren't at that moment my concern. That which most concerned me was the opening of my room with my key which I held uncomposedly in my shaky right hand. However after must struggle, I was at last, able to get the key into the lock and the door was open. In fright I jammed the door and Gbaaaahhh!, it gave a loud sound which seemed like that was it, since I was in, but that was not the end.
The room was a very small one and as usual there was no light. The most intense part of this usual state of lightlessness began on Monday last week when three men from the power holding company came around and claimed we had been absconding from paying of supply bills. But instead of us conceding to this act, which we knew very well it was true, we rebuffed their claim vehemently and this eventually led to a noisy scenario. As the shouting continued, one of the three men who, well, to be personal, I would have thought to be the quieter of the three men due to his unspeaking and silence maintained gesture, went to the pole, erected his ladder and placed it against the pole to relieve us of the stress of waggling our tongues for much longer on a debate we knew our victory was baseless: that was how it came to be; our cable was cut down, but we showed less concern for this act of his. This was, of course, because we knew there were other options to explore in getting back power other than paying the bill. Once they were gone it wouldn’t be difficult to call an electrician to fix it up, but soon the unfortunate occurred. It was as if the more time the supposed quiet man used on the pole, the more trouble he caused.
We stood and watched how each edge of our cable dropped from the pole to the ground; the space usually occupied by a cable which laid between another pole and ours was now empty. One after the other, he took his step down the ladder and on getting down, he pulled out his glove. The supposed quiet man held one edge of the cable and began pulling the cable as we all watched him in silence, unable to fathom the shrewdness that was contained in the man. He did this until he had rolled all into a giant band and was ready to take it away when he said for the first time, “You know where to find us.” And ended it with a smile on his face. Some of my neighbors tried to start a revolt after this but all their agitations were like pouring water into a basket which flows and continuously enters into the ever famished soil; till that night, no repair had been made.
But even without the vacuum of the electrical pole, power supply was a wish-it-well thing: most of the time we would remain without power supply for days and if there was no power cutout from the power company, there would be power failure from the old and untransformable transformer which when damaged always took not less than two days to be repaired.
Since there was no light, all I wanted was to be in bed, coiled together like a smoked fish in my blanket. Despite the situation of the room, I knew the position of my bed, its length, its breadth and the space it occupied but that knowledge did not stop me from nearly hitting myself on the carpeted room floor in an attempt to fall flat on the bed like a cut down tree. I pulled myself together instantly, and started to unclothe my bed with one hand; rolling myself off my blanket to the left, I pulled it with my right hand and in seconds the blanket was out.
I sank straight into the blanket and suddenly, blankness of memory struck me on the head: I was not able to recollect what had occurred in some few minutes past; it was like a mind oblivion. I couldn't remember as much as I should. I knew something much had caused my still pounding chest and heart, as well as my gasping for breath, but it was gone; it or they, whatever! But all gone! All I could notice was myself in bed, with my head thrust into my pillow and that was all. Blank!!! Scaringly blank. I tried to sleep, but unexpectedly my memory came flooding back into my mind like water released into an empty tank and that made me more scared.
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Instantly, my sleep which should have been vivacious due to the race I had undertaken broke its own vows and left me in its opposite. My eyes were widely open and throughout that night, it remained so. What kept on coming was the voice, the terrible voice along with those hurting words that accompanied it. It profusely continued to ring in my head as if I were tormented by some solid solitary sound spirits or some gang ghosts of a ghastly night. I tried relentlessly to focus my gaze on the ceiling which I could barely see due to its surface which was painted in white. My head ended up turning to the left and I saw it hanging between the ground and the ceiling. It was partly dark and partly white, thus making it reflect as if it were grey. This unknown structure somehow appeared tall or long (or whatever description befits its height), but all I knew was that its shape which took an amoebic form was very evident. My heart began to pound highly again. Its indescribable nature even made my heart pound more in fright. The fiend one knows surpasses the friend unknown, but this was neither a known fiend nor an unknown friend, it was an unknown fiend of which I was forced to immediately identify as the voice-bearer which has now appeared in no other place but my room! ‘Oh God, help!’ I screamed as I turned my face sturdily to the bed as if to enter into it, not minding whatever came thereafter; whether this unknown creature, which I assumed to be the voice-bearer would climb upon my back and then speak those hunted words directly into my ears. I did not know what would happen, or what to do except to remain in my position, facing the bed.
I was not able to sleep throughout the night. I only had my face turned, facing the bed to the extent that my lips and eyes were in deep contact with the foam. For long I was lost in thoughts, ruminating on what had occurred the previous night; all the act of running like a headless chicken whose head has been detached to appease an Easter visitors, all the blindness and fear that came with the night, the voice of the unknown, etc., etc., until I turned my face towards the ceiling and noticed it was daytime already. The less florescent light of the sun trying to reclaim its hour from the night was gradually showing its face to the room through my brown coloured curtain. The light formed at the center and this revealed that it was still around the early rise of the sun; perhaps around 6:30am.
The reverberation of the violent and fierce voice that continued through the night had waned but I could still hear it in breaks from time to time as if a dead child experiencing the horrors of a fire disaster and in a small but divided voice it kept on shouting for his mother. That was similar to the situation at that time. Only that I was the one in torment; trying to get rid of the fright that was attempting to burn my boldness in its flames.
But the compound was still very much silent. The voice of my neighbors, those who habitually screamed into the air in the early hours of the day and at the closing moments of the night were still to be heard. This was very strange. Even those who used to fetch water at those times were silent of their normal day-to-day activity. Their usual troh-troh-troooh which was the sound of water dropping into their buckets from the tap and which at the end would give a koh-kohoh sound to indicate the end of the water flow. The tap was located at the center of the compound. It was the tap that ran best in the compound. The ones located in each room were painfully not properly constructed. Once there was water and there was no flow into the rooms, the one outside had to be working undoubtedly, so that was where that particular tap gained its attraction. ‘But why are they still very much silent?’ I muffled quietly. I raised myself up from the bed, supporting my body with my right hand to draw the curtain and look straight outside to find out if anything was wrong. I got hold of the curtain, squeezed it together and trapped it in one of the holes of my windows bar. The light was then able to release itself more into my room, and I looked straight towards the doors of my neighbors who were opposite my room. It was then it became known to me that it was not around 6:30am or at the early hours of the morning as I had earlier thought but around the hours of 10:00am and that the cloud was dull. It was more like it would soon rain. How I exhausted my time till that hour was unknown to me. Perhaps I was not conscious of the time I spent running through thoughts on my bed: whatever had happened, I knew it was strange. Instantly I checked my pocket for my phone and found it. I was right it was some few minutes past 10:00am, which means a larger percent of my neighbors were out, except those who weren’t friends with lecture rooms and would always stay indoors almost through the day, except, of course they wanted water from the centre tap or those who were free of lecture either through out that day of at that hour.
It was time to be up on my feet so I could cover up for the one lecture I already missed which might have commenced between the hours of 8-9am. That was gone and I didn’t want to miss the next one which was to be for 12:00pm. On getting up from bed, I noticed my footwear, which was a palm slippers still on my feet. I felt pity for myself and this made me shook my head in contempt after making out a loud sigh. Last night was not it at all, I was so scared, tired and gasping highly that all I was putting on were still intact. I pulled it off immediately with the aid of my legs helping each other out. I stood up right facing the multi-coloured moveable cupboard opposite my direction and gazed at it for a while then went on with relieving my cloths, except my boxer underwear of the troubles of last night and the rumpling that occurred while in bed. I walked into the bathroom to see if there was still water left in any of the buckets. I was tired. Going outside was a too long journey for me. And fortunately for me, there was water in a blue bucket, which was one of the three plastic buckets in the bathroom. It occurred to be that I had left the water in the bucket previous day after refusing the urge to use the toilet or empty my bowl. I looked around the room, trying to locate where my towel was and looking straight to my cupboard, my eyes met it hanging on the wall where I normally hanged my cross bag. It was the monster hanging on a nail close to my cupboard. It was it I saw in the night, a jiffy before I turned my head to the bed. It was the reason why I turned my face to the bed in the first place. I thought it was the voice-bearer, hanging and trying to torment. Discovering now that it was my towel, my big long towel made me stand for close to a minute, staring at it with disgust and pity, not for the towel but for myself. ‘Perhaps it was all in my head, everything and everything’, I thought aloud. Notwithstanding this new development, I went straight to get the towel and proceeded sluggishly to the bathroom to have a bath.
I stepped out of the bathroom, my body partly wiped. Water dripped from my body to the carpet; from my head down to my shoulder then to my chest and from my chest to my leg and to then to the ground; occurring in a repeated manner. The fear of the night and the voice had reduced drastically. That discovery of the towel was a huge turn around for me. I had concluded in my mind that all that happened in the night were just a mere play on my subconscious mind. It was a trick of the night. I wiped my body properly and went to a table close to my cupboard to make use of my body cream. I got hold of it and rubbed my hands, legs and head. Looking through the cupboard for a shirt and a trouser, I found a polo and jean and in few minutes I was done, ready to go. My lecture note was on the table. I took it and other necessary items, most especially my two twenty naira notes which was the key to my getting to school and my little mouth spray cylinder I took with me everywhere. Soon, I was out of the house.
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On my way to where I would get a bus into school, there was a madman at the left-hand side of the road. My eyes were drawn to him immediately I was opposite his standing position. That was my first time of seeing him there. Perhaps, I thought, he just migrated to the place. The madman was in a dirt buried and badly torn clothe. His lower part was partly covered with a terribly torn trouser which he wore the other way round but this however did not stop his overtly large scrotum from being exposed to the sight of passers-by, who would look and then look away. He had a crinkled hair and it was very dirty too. All these other descriptions I had observed while in the bus which was not yet ready to move until it had a complete set of passengers in its belly. I was drawn somehow to this mad personality who just stood there and looked around. I wondered what went on in his mind, what troubled him, what excited him, what he thought of people passing or perhaps whether to sit or remain standing. All these went through my mind as I kept on staring at him, watching all his every move and attitude towards his environment. Moments later, the bus was filled with the required number of passengers and was set to move. At the moment the bus driver got into the car to start the vehicle, I was still observing the man but later on after covering some distance had to look away so as not to draw attention to myself.
Throughout that 12:00pm class, I spoke to none of my colleagues. It was usual anyway. That had been my way of life for quite some time. The only colleague I used to speak with was Oyinkan who I assumed might not be in class, until I saw her after class and told her of what I went through the previous night and the funny things I discovered of my towel. She began to laugh and I started laughing too, I was happy she was now laughing and at least her sorrow was half way solved. I continued laughing alone without being aware of what I was doing, until she gave me a very painful slap on my back. And I was back to reality then started to wonder what had made her do what she did. She then told what had happened, that I was lost in laughter and was not myself till she had to slap me on the back.
“Thought you’ve stopped doing that stuff”
“Thought you’ve stopped doing that….”
“Thought you’ve stopped doing….”
“Thought you’ve stopped….”
She repeated the same sentence with each one missing a part, until she all of a sudden faded away alongside her voice. I looked around me in dismal and couldn’t figure out what was happening to me. I saw my friend a moment ago standing right in front of me, but all of a sudden she was no longer there. This time I was scared. I instantly shoved my hand in my pocket and brought out my phone. Swiftly I dialled Oyinkan’s line and it kept on ringing but wasn’t picked. I did this thirteen times and after the thirteenth, I stopped calling.
That was my last lecture for the day, so it was time to go home. I put my phone back into my pocket and went to the bus stop to get a bus going to the school gate.
The bus dropped me along with other passengers at the school gate. I was so lost in thought that I forgot to pay the bus driver who after much screeching for his money, got down and went straight to hold me by my shirt. I was almost picking up a fight with him when I released my hand and a twenty naira note fell to the ground. I stared at the twenty naira and then at the bus driver. I bent down to pick the note: “E ma binu” I said to him and handed over the money to him.
From afar, I spotted the madman again, but this time he was speaking aloud and shouting at passers-by. My gaze was fixed at him till I got to where he was and I slowed down a little bit to see if he would say anything to me as he was doing to other who passed him by. When I was at a reasonable distant position from him I stopped moving and he surprisingly all at once kept quiet. It was then I noticed what he had in his hand. It was something I shared dear intimacy with, something which, up to fifteen times, I made use of each day. It was wrapped in a white-turned brownish paper which he took to his mouth, inhaled it and puffed it out again and the attractive smell filled the air. It was as if I should unzip my bag and begin mine, right there, close to him. For there was a section in my bag where I kept those that were already rolled up. What detached me from this thought was that the realization that he was mad and I was not and that if right there before him I could have such a sensation burning in my heart, that I was no different. I walked past him quickly before anyone would think I was communing with him.
I got home few minutes later and didn’t enter into my room, instead, I took a seat outside on a white plastic chair under a peculiar shade. I bent my head and began to think what could have been happening to me. Then the thought of going to visit Oyinkan crossed my mind, even if I wasn’t sure she would be at home. Though I was reluctant and wanted to eliminate the thought of visiting her from my mind, but I knew my rare moments had come. I had to go inquire from her the reason she left me and also failed to pick my calls just because she discovered I was still addicted. When she was not even aware I was now into something else. I stood up, picked up my bag and left for her place.
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This time, I took the normal long road; no shortcuts and after a little walk from my place, I got to her house and went straight to her room. The door of her room was wooden and was in a thick brownish colour. I knocked on it thrice, with each time repeating “Oyinkan! Oyinkan! It’s me!” But no one replied. To check if she was in the room, but just ignoring me, I peeped into the key hole with one eye trying to see if she was in her bed, but she was not: I saw only her reading chair lying on the bed. “Stubborn girl, she has scattered her room again” I giggly said. Since, she was not in her bed, and there was no way I could see the other sides of her room and to be sure she was not hiding, which was a prank she loves to play, I decided to leave her place and go back home and maybe come back later whenever she had picked my call. As I decided to withdraw, my eye went up unintentionally and I saw two legs hanging in the air. ‘God!’ I exclaimed, ‘What is this again? Another mind deception!’ I was furious once more that my mind was at it again, but I wanted to know what it was messing around with me with, so I withdrew my right eye and used my left to gaze again into the room. But again, surprise got hold of my throat and tickled it ridiculously as I saw the same thing and this time I was not only furious, I was scared. I instantly alerted her next door neighbour who was a guy of what I had seen, and of what made me unsettled like a leaf lost in a troublesome tornado. He rushed out of his room and we both forced the door open with forceful kicks. When we entered into the room and discovered that it was a hanging body, I went immediately ahead to touch the left leg with my hand, then I discovered it was already cold and then somewhat taut. It was a shocking and unimaginable scene that made my vision become really hazy. I held the body tightly against mine so as to stop it from dangling left to right in the air, while her neighbour, who acted very swiftly with a knife already in his hand, picked up her chair from the bed where it was left lying and firmly erected it opposite the hanging body. He climbed the chair and reached out to the rope that was tied to the unused ceiling fan holder to cut down the lifeless body that was in a white night gown. And as the rope is cut and the body falling into my arms, I saw her eyes open as if glaring into my two pupils and her mouth was in the same way ajar as if to say something to me, perhaps something that would translate to the reason why life was no longer a comfortable place. I couldn’t hold myself anymore, I went straight on my knees with her body still in my hands and began to scream out loud into the air till every of Oyinkan’s neighbour came out of their rooms and found Oyinkan’s lifeless body in my arms. I looked at each of their faces and saw the horrible look they bore as they gazed helplessly at her face. And perhaps her unbusy but staring eyes was also trying to tell something to them; something they never knew of her despite sleeping and waking in the same house every day.
TO BE CONTINUED ON WEDNESDAY(9th of December, 2015)
Dear Reader, did you enjoy the story? Yes, No, a little, very much? Any advise for me? Guess what, you can express your opinion in the comment box and you will get a reply.
Do well to read other posts: poems, short stories, plays, and motivational quotes all for you @ Temple of Words.
Follow me on twitter:@midebenedict and on instagram: _mide_benedict
See you on WEDNESDAY!!!
TO BE CONTINUED ON WEDNESDAY(9th of December, 2015)
Dear Reader, did you enjoy the story? Yes, No, a little, very much? Any advise for me? Guess what, you can express your opinion in the comment box and you will get a reply.
Do well to read other posts: poems, short stories, plays, and motivational quotes all for you @ Temple of Words.
Follow me on twitter:@midebenedict and on instagram: _mide_benedict
See you on WEDNESDAY!!!
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