FATHER'S STRENGTH.( A short story)
"Ikenna, Ikenna "
Amaka roused her sleepy eyed brother from sleep,
"Please now come and help me remove Mama's goods from the shop. Please hurry."
He was yet to make sense of it all, but he lifted his weak body from his worn out mattress and rushed out the front door with his sister in front.
The morning had woken earlier than everyone else. Smoke from the debris of the demolition at the market place had began to ascend into the skies, clusters of people gathered around the market place.
'Ami' as he fondly called his elder sister, "What is happening here? Why are people gathered and that's a bulldozer over there, ha they are destroying people's shops. Where is Mama?" He demanded.
"Oh! Na leave all those questions, like you do not know Mama has not returned from early morning Mass. Ikenna follow me, let's go through the back, they haven't gotten to our own shop, so we can still pick a few things before they get there."
Amaka implored urging her little brother to do as she said.
They arrived the back of the shop and began to take as much as they could salvage and on their fifth turn to lift the rest of their mother's goods. The market touts blocked them from going towards their shop.
"Oga Cosmos, please allow us carry our things, this one is the last one."
Amaka pleaded as one of Cosmo's boys held back Ikenna from trudging on.
In his sharp raspy voice deadened by hot drinks, he said, " You no see those soldiers for there, they give them order to shoot on sight. To kill anybody wey do kpakan."
While he spoke Ikenna became infuriated the more. He remembered Mama's saving box tucked behind her abandoned sewing machine in the shop. He had to get it, she had been saving his school fees for the new school session in September. If he didn't get it, all that hardwork and starving to help would be in vain. Not thinking about it, flooded with adrenaline, he burst out of the grip of the urchin holding him. What followed next were shouts everywhere.
"Catch am, catch am." Cosmos shouted to his boys and uproar had been let loose at the front of the market place amongst the soldiers supervising the demolition and the market men and women. The soldiers corked their guns and sprayed bullets in the air to disperse the people and as each man ran for shield, little Ikenna was hit by a stray bullet as he made to enter his mother's shop. Amaka saw him fall, a heavy fall, the fall that said father's strength had fallen.
- (In memory of the little boy hit by a stray bullet in Owerri)
Francisca Okwulehie.(2017)
Amaka roused her sleepy eyed brother from sleep,
"Please now come and help me remove Mama's goods from the shop. Please hurry."
He was yet to make sense of it all, but he lifted his weak body from his worn out mattress and rushed out the front door with his sister in front.
The morning had woken earlier than everyone else. Smoke from the debris of the demolition at the market place had began to ascend into the skies, clusters of people gathered around the market place.
'Ami' as he fondly called his elder sister, "What is happening here? Why are people gathered and that's a bulldozer over there, ha they are destroying people's shops. Where is Mama?" He demanded.
"Oh! Na leave all those questions, like you do not know Mama has not returned from early morning Mass. Ikenna follow me, let's go through the back, they haven't gotten to our own shop, so we can still pick a few things before they get there."
Amaka implored urging her little brother to do as she said.
They arrived the back of the shop and began to take as much as they could salvage and on their fifth turn to lift the rest of their mother's goods. The market touts blocked them from going towards their shop.
"Oga Cosmos, please allow us carry our things, this one is the last one."
Amaka pleaded as one of Cosmo's boys held back Ikenna from trudging on.
In his sharp raspy voice deadened by hot drinks, he said, " You no see those soldiers for there, they give them order to shoot on sight. To kill anybody wey do kpakan."
While he spoke Ikenna became infuriated the more. He remembered Mama's saving box tucked behind her abandoned sewing machine in the shop. He had to get it, she had been saving his school fees for the new school session in September. If he didn't get it, all that hardwork and starving to help would be in vain. Not thinking about it, flooded with adrenaline, he burst out of the grip of the urchin holding him. What followed next were shouts everywhere.
"Catch am, catch am." Cosmos shouted to his boys and uproar had been let loose at the front of the market place amongst the soldiers supervising the demolition and the market men and women. The soldiers corked their guns and sprayed bullets in the air to disperse the people and as each man ran for shield, little Ikenna was hit by a stray bullet as he made to enter his mother's shop. Amaka saw him fall, a heavy fall, the fall that said father's strength had fallen.
- (In memory of the little boy hit by a stray bullet in Owerri)
Francisca Okwulehie.(2017)
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