Spontaneous Fiction : THE CALL.
Written by Bose La’bos Bamidele.
It was a Monday afternoon, and typical of all my Monday afternoons, I was getting ready for sales, I had been up since 4am, preparing for the market, that Monday morning had been a good one, I got to katangora as early as 5:30am and got a very beautiful bale of children wears!
My supplier Ebube had been very kind that morning, I had 5,000 less of what he charged for the bale but I got it with a promise to send the balance to him, and I would, he knew I would.
Before 10am, I was back home, Hassanat, my only child had gone to school, my brilliant Hassanat. She was just 10 but very responsible, able to take care of herself on mornings when I had to rush to the market. The bus would pick her by 7:00am and she would be waiting, ready!
Hassanat went to one of the best schools around, a school not for people like her but a good Samaritan had promised to give Hassanat good education and he had been keeping the promise until his death a few months ago, this meant that Hassanat had only that term to stay in the school, for there was no way she could pay even a quater of her fees! She was a single mom, very hard working but still, there was no way she could cough out roughly 800K every term. She would find a school within her income for Hassanat, she already had eyes on one, only that she hated the uniform.
That Monday afternoon, I was laying out beautiful shirts and shorts for children when my phone rang, I ignored it the first time, but when the phone rang the second time, I grudgingly reached for it.
“Hello” I said into the phone dryly, my irritation very evident in my voice, I had less than thirty minutes to arrange my stuff and begin my WhatsApp sales… if I thought my response was dry, the voice at the other end of the call was a desert!
My eyes popped, I jumped off the chair and my wrapper found its way down my waist.
***
“Iju Ishaga! Iju Ishaga” Oye was by his korope shouting at the top of his voice, his voice was croaky and his words were breaking, he was barely audible yet he was shouting.
He cleared his throat and looked into his bus, he had two more passengers to go. It was his first trip that Monday afternoon, he had spent a good part of the morning at the bank withdrawing the last of his “egg nest” the money he had kept aside from his savings when he lost his job a year ago.
He had hoped that things would return to normal but one year later he was still waiting for the break back to normalcy, screaming “Iju Ishaga” was not his normal but he had done what he had to do as the weeks rolled into months and nothing was happening… for three terms he had paid the twins’ huge school fees from his egg nest, the present term had had him selling his two cars, but he had been wise enough to buy the korope… now except a miracle happened, Raphael and Rachel would leave their school at the end of that term.
That morning, he had withdrew the last funds in his “secret” account, had stopped at the kids’ school to make some payment and to plead for time, it was past 3PM before he could get to the bus stop. He didn’t feel well, his cough was strong, affecting his chest but he had to do what he had to do. Tonight he would talk to his wife and they would make new plans. It would hurt her to see the kids out of their beautiful school but it was what it was. Just as he opened his mouth to scream “Iju Ishaga ” with his croaky voice, his phone rang, he reached into his pocket and a couple entered his korope.
“E don complete abeg, make we go” a woman shouted at him.
Oye smiled politely as he went into the driver’s seat, phone in hand.
“Hello” he croaked into the phone as he closed the car door.
Oye froze.
“What?” He shouted, but it wasn’t a good shout.
The passengers ears pricked, their hurry temporarily forgotten.
Oye’s phone dropped from his hand.
“God! I am finished” he cried
“Wetin happen driver?” Someone asked.
Rather than reply, Oye bursted into tears, his shoulders heaving violently.
“I’m dead” he cried repeatedly.
***
Emeka looked up from his laptop as the door opened and Alex his PA walked in. Alex was standing before him holding out his phone.
Emeka grunted
“What?”
“It is a call for you sir, he says its from Chimamanda’s school. He wants to talk to you” Alex said, still holding out his phone to his boss who looked angry that Monday afternoon. It wasn’t a good day, hadn’t been a good month to be honest.
Sales had been unusually slow for weeks as the prices of electronics skyrocketed daily, people would rather buy food than home theaters! Their boss wasn’t pleased. And only that morning, some of their goods had been seized by customs officials. Emeka was understandably angry, he had tried to pull strings but so far nothing had worked. He had shouted at every staff that morning, threatened fire and brimstone, but it was nobody’s fault… the country was fucking them all without protection!
He was Emeka’s manager and PA, he bore the brunt of his anger more…he also had his number saved on Emeka’s daughter, Chimamanda’s phone, she called if she couldn’t reach her father, like now, they couldn’t reach him because he had angrily switched off, so they called him.
Emeka looked up at Alex with a frown.
“From Amanda’s school you say?”
He reached out for the phone… Alex nodded and stepped aside.
“Hello” Emeka answered his brows creased in puzzlement. Chimamanda had been fine that morning, he had dropped her himself…
“What!!!” Emeka screamed and jumped out of his chair knocking off his laptop. Alex quickly moved to Emeka who had grabbed his chest.
The phone dropped from his hand. Alex grabbed Emeka who suddenly swayed and collapsed.
Alex screamed for help.
***
The men were not masked, they had huge ammunitions, they were six in number… three of them walked ahead of us, three walked behind us. We were eight in number, four from my class… myself and Chimamanda and the twins. The twins held on to each other as we walked into the forest.
Chimamanda was walking before me, she had been slapped a number of times by the man as she would not stop crying like a baby. She cried everytime something pricked her foot, she cried if she heard a bird cry.
She on the other hand wasn’t crying, she was a big girl, she was 10. She had other things to worry about. They had been walking all morning but that was the least of her worries…
She was going to die.
They would kill her.
She knew it.
The men had asked her mother, Iya Hassanat to provide 20Million in 24hours. She would die.
Chimamanda would probably be fine, her father was rich….she wasn’t sure about the others, but she was sure about Chi, and the twins looked like their father would save them too.
But she, she looked around in that moment at the other kids and in that moment she was a child, she broke down, fell to the floor and wept, pulling at her hair and screaming for “My mommy”
The men were shocked, they looked at her…
“Get up!”
One of them screamed but she couldn’t rise, as if on cue, all the kids began to weep.
The men were confused and angry as they tried to stop the “drama”, they even shot into the air.
One of them angrily walked to her and kicked her with his boots, she didnt stop crying, she was rolling on the floor, having her skin pricked and torn, but she couldn’t stop, the man kicked her continously and spat angry words in a language she couldn’t understand.
The man didnt stop kicking and stamping, Hassanat only cried more until she couldn’t cry any-more…the cries of the other kids replaced hers, escorting her out of that realm.
THE END.
La’bos
#SpontaneousFiction
