Desperate Moves

1

I woke up to the blast of gunshot at my door. It was a Monday night. At first, I thought I was having one of those nightmares again. But such thought evaporated as briskly as it came. Two masked men stepped into my room. Heavily armed!

My brain froze at the sight of them. I have heard tales of armed robbery, but I’ve never been a victim myself. Many questions travelled through my mind. What was I supposed to do? Call the police? As soon as the thought came in, I dismissed it. I would be dead the moment I reached for my phone. How do I defend myself against two armed men? I thought of going for my kitchen knife. But they were already very close to me. Should I shout? Who would risk their lives to save mine in the bosom of the night? Then I gave up any thought of escape or rescue and clung to the flinching apron of hope. Hope that the fiercely looking visitors could just be lenient.

“What is your name?” one of them thundered, jerking me out from my reverie.

At that point, it was as if my mouth had a mind of its own. No matter how much I willed it to open, it wouldn’t budge. I was trembling from head to toe. The other one moved close to me and hit me on the face with the barrel of his gun. I winced in pain and tried to move away from him but the one who had asked the question was on the other side of me, mumbling. He was talking in a very low tone but I could still catch what he was trying to say.

“This girl think say we dey joke for here. T, make we do wetin we wan do comot for here. Na she!”

My mind started racing again. What will they do to me? I silently prayed that they would just pick anything they wanted and leave but that was not to be! One of them shoved me to the bed, brought out a pen knife from his pocket and ripped apart my night dress while the other tied a piece of cloth to my mouth and pinned me down on the bed. I let out a muffled scream, wriggling. He unbuckled his belt and drew down his trousers. I tried to kick him off with my legs but he held them down with his more muscular legs. He climbed on me. As waves of pain and shock went through my body, I passed out.

I was drifting in and out of consciousness. I tried to open my eyes, but they wouldn’t budge. After several attempts to open my eyes without success, I gave up trying. My eyes went dead. My ears became useless. Yet, my mind got hyperactive. Memories of my recent past replayed.

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The fetcher went slowly into the well. My mind was however, somewhere far away. I was contriving ways of raising money for the publication of my book. My publisher had ‘Okayed’ the work and was waiting for me to bring the first tranche publishing charges for the commencement. As a young lady, full of prospects, I needed to find ways to sustaining myself while waiting to get an interview invite from any of the companies I had applied to.

I was preoccupied with my thoughts and didn’t notice when a young boy snuck up behind me. I was jolted out of my thoughts by a sudden push. I missed the well by a stroke of luck and fell flat on my face, injuring my left knee in the process. I quickly picked myself up and turned to see who had pushed me. The seeming three year old had a confused look on his face.

“Why did you do that?” I asked trembling.

The boy could as well have been deaf and dump. If he heard or understood my question, he didn’t show it. I considered letting him go since he appeared remorseful, but on a second thought, I decided that if I let him get away with it, he might do it again, either to me or to someone else. That person might not be so lucky to have a narrow escape like I did. I spanked him! He just stood there staring at me, his countenance dripping with remorse. I decided that the spanking did not have the desired effect, so I slapped him hard on the face. That was when tears streamed down his face. He turned around and pointed his index finger to a direction. I followed the direction of his pointing but didn’t see anything. I turned back to him with a questioning look but he just stood there. I took a hold of his hand and dragged him as I went towards my room.

As I turned the corner, I met with one of my neighbors, Cynthia. She was a serving corps member, who was, for whatever reason deployed from the Northern region of the country, where she was originally posted, to the school I had served. She was physically very attractive and was highly extroverted. She had a knack for dressing provocatively, which made me distance myself from her. She asked what the matter was, seeing my usually calm self dragging a crying boy. I narrated the incident to her. She expressed shock at the boy’s action, but begged me to let him go, adding that he might just have been playing pranks without realizing the full implication of what he did. I reluctantly released the boy and she took him off, consoling him. Two emotions were struggling to have preeminence in my mind: anger and fear, mostly fear. Still trembling, I carried my buckets back to the house. I couldn’t compose myself enough to try drawing the water anymore.

As I got into my room, I put the containers away and fell on my bed. I couldn’t stop myself from trembling. “What if I had fallen inside the well?” That question kept ringing in my head. I opened my mouth and the only words that came out were “Thank You Jesus”. I was indeed grateful to God that my life did not end just like that. There were no two ways, if I had fallen inside that well, that would have been my end. Probably, by then, people would have gathered, some crying, some apportioning blames. Tears poured from my eyes at the thought of that.

A knock at my door brought me out of my reverie. I quickly cleaned my eyes and wiped my face with a tissue before going to answer the door. I opened the door to see Tosin.

He had moved into the lodge two months back. He was a tall, dark and handsome young man. He was enrolled for his Masters’ degree in the Federal University of Port Harcourt. They had a campus nearby. He also had a large computer institution in the heart of town, which he co-owned with his friend. They had a wide range of specialties including computer training, computer sales, repairs, maintenance and ran a café as well. His physical features coupled with his brilliance made him very attractive to most people, especially ladies. Not that I was interested in him. For two reasons, I was not. First, I was in a serious relationship and secondly, he was not my kind of guy! The first thing that usually would attract me to a guy is his love for God. I have always believed that it took a God-fearing guy, like my fiancé, Sam, to love and respect me the way I wanted.

“Please help me with your matches, mine finished yesterday and I forgot to buy when I went out.”

I didn’t wait for him to finish his explanation which at that time seemed too long and very unnecessary. No need to also let him know I didn’t use matches, but lighter, I thought. I went in and brought my lighter, making sure to avoid eye contact with him and instead, pretended to be busy with my phone. My trick didn’t work!

“What’s the problem?” he asked.

“Nothing,” I shot at him. I didn’t see it as a lie. I felt I was going to be okay and I just wanted him to leave.

“You can’t say that, something is obviously wrong with you, else you wouldn’t be crying.” He gave me a don’t-give-me-that-crap look.

“I’m not crying,” I defended.

“Edidiong, I can see you are not crying now, but you were before, your eyes are all red and swollen. Come on, you can talk to me.”

“This is one of the times I wish Tosin is not so damn caring.” I mused.

I tried another angle.

“Tosin, you want to cook, please don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine.”

“I will cook later.” He said, gently easing himself into my room.

I slowly walked back to the bed and sat on it. He dropped the lighter on the floor beside the bed and then sat beside me.

I related the incident to him and he listened patiently. When I finished, he heaved a sigh laden with concern.

“Why would a three year old boy try to push you inside a well?”He wondered.

“I have no idea, it simply beats my imagination.” I responded dejectedly.

“Do you know the boy? I mean, have you seen him around here before?” he asked

“I have been seeing the boy around here.” I replied.

“Have you ever had an encounter with him before? Maybe sent him on an errand, beat him, shouted at him or anything like that?” he asked with all amount of seriousness, his brows forming creases.

I was wondering where all these questions were leading to and what difference it would make.

“No.” I replied, shaking my head and silently praying that he would stop asking me more questions.

“So why did the boy point at that direction and at what was he pointing?”

I did not bother to attempt answering the question, since I believed he knew what my response was going to be already. Moreover, his expression suggested that he was in deep thought.

For five minutes, we both sat without uttering a word. All that could be heard was my heavy breathing. Then suddenly, he looked at me and said:

“I think we should look for that boy and ask him some questions again.” I could see the look of concern on his face.

I vehemently shook my head in a manner that indicated that I did not want to pursue the matter further.

He was alarmed by my response, but didn’t press the matter further. He was a gentleman in every sense of the word. He respected my decision!

After what seemed like ages of silence and staring into space, he finally stood up to go. He promised to check on me later on. He was so engrossed with the incident that he forgot he actually came to collect something from me.

“You have forgotten to take the lighter.” I called his attention.

“Oh!” he exclaimed and then walked back to where we were seated earlier.

I picked up the lighter and gave it to him. He mumbled a quick thank you and then walked out of the room. I was in that position till I fell into a restless sleep.

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I walked outside holding a book in my hand. I just wanted to sit at the veranda and enjoy my novel due to the high temperature inside the room I was soon deeply engrossed in the book. Then it happened, so fast that it left my head spinning. I heard my name. I looked up but to see someone standing a few feet from me, holding a small bottle. Before I could have a good look at the bottle, I felt a hot liquid on my face. I instinctively lifted my hands to my face. The burning sensation that tore into my flesh felt like acid; I let out a loud scream.

I woke up in a pool of sweat. Cold shivers ran down my spine. Tears once again started to flow from my eyes as I reflected on the events of the past few weeks and in a matter of minutes sobs shook my entire being.

Three weeks and two more horrible nightmares later, I was still yet to get the incident totally out of my mind. It still felt creepy whenever I had to go get water from the well. Sometimes it got so bad that Tosin had to help. The incident could sometimes plague me that I’d have sleepless nights. Whenever that happened, I would lay on my back struggling not to relive that moment at the well but to get something else to occupy my mind.

I was outside sitting under the shade of a tree one of those evenings when I got a text in my phone that I had been invited for a job interview at a media outlet. I jumped for joy and ended up attracting the attention of some of my neighbors. I shared the good news with them and they gave me congratulatory messages. They actually felt happy for me except that I momentarily lifted my eyes and when it met Cynthia’s, her eyes felt cold and distant, I even thought I saw a scowl on her face. When I looked again however, it was gone and she looked happy. I dismissed it, telling myself that either my eyes were malfunctioning or my brain was playing pranks on me.

I woke up on the morning of the interview, bright and early. Took my bath and headed to the metropolitan part of town where the firm was located. The interview turned out well. When the information came, three days later that I had landed the job, I couldn’t keep it to myself. In my lodge, I usually kept to myself most of the time, although I tried to maintain a cordial relationship with my neighbors. Sometimes, they cajoled and begged that I come outside more often to join them in their “gists”, which I sometimes obliged. I felt it would only be proper that I share the news of my new job with them. I once again got tons of congratulatory messages and that evening, I decided to do a little get together with all my neighbors. I bought a few drinks, making sure to avoid alcoholic ones and we all gathered outside. Tosin protested vehemently when he discovered the absence of alcohol.

“The woman no get beer?” he asked in pidgin furrowing his eyebrow.

“Them carry beer do you?” I retorted as well in pidgin, rolling my eyes in the process.

“Ah! She speaks pidgin.” He said with a wide grin on his face.

“Tosin, you are not serious, let me be jare!” I said at the same time jabbing into his ribs. He moved swiftly out of my reach and then put on a serious face.

“Edidiong, man must drink beer. Ok, I understand, you can’t afford it. Don’t worry, I’ll pay for my own drink.” He reached into his pocket to retrieve his wallet.

“Tosin, no way. You’ll survive just this one night without alcohol. My party, my rules!” I said sternly but with a grin on my face.

“My party, my rules!” he repeated, mockingly.

Thank God he allowed the matter rest at that and didn’t press further. The evening turned out to be much more exciting than I had expected, we stayed out late sharing memories and having a good laugh.

Getting the job was a big relief to me as my little savings from my days in service were fast dwindling and I would have been forced to reconsider my stance if nothing had changed. Life back at home in my state was not easy. My parents had pulled all their resources together to make sure I went through school. I didn’t want to go back home after service to continue depending on them, hence my decision to stay back in Rivers State.

Although, my parents had not been very pleased about my decision to stay back there, it was nothing compared to the stiff opposition Sam put up. I used all the logical explanation I could think of, just to make him see reasons with me, almost to no avail. He argued that cost of living was higher in Rivers state compared to that in Akwa Ibom State. Our relationship even got a little rock at that time. I felt he wanted me back to my state just so he could keep an eye on me. He was not a very jealous person, but he still had some level of it, which I think was healthy. He had always been a very understanding guy - one feature that had endeared him to me.

He was from Delta State but had stayed in Akwa Ibom for a very long time. So long that I sometimes forgot he was not from there. His family had moved down to the state when his dad got an appointment with the State University in the capital city twenty two years back. So in all his twenty nine years, he had spent just seven out of that in his State. He was very easy going but a bit introverted. I held tremendous respect for him.

My parents, especially my dad, were skeptical about the relationship at first, being that he was from a different state and were worried that we may have to battle with differing cultures and traditions. Their fears were partly laid to rest when I told them that he had spent most of his life in the state and so was familiar with some of our customs. They had been very supportive since then.

My first few months on the job were rather hectic as I was still trying to adjust to the job schedule. I had to get up before five to start preparing in order to beat the Port Harcourt traffic, especially being that my office was more than thirty minutes drive from where I lived. Sometimes, getting a bus or taxi was not an easy feat. I could not relocate closer to the firm because rentage around there was much more expensive than where I was living. I planned to save as much money as possible so as to help ease the burden of my wedding which we were planning for the following year.

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