No More Running
583 Words
Episode 5
The ride back to the bridge felt like a dream I wasn’t sure I wanted to wake up from.
I kept my forehead against the glass, watching Lagos move backward like someone was rewinding a film. It was strange—the car smelled like new leather, the AC hummed softly, and yet all I could think about was Mama lying weak on that dirty concrete floor under the bridge.
When we finally got there, my heart started beating fast.
The man opened his door first, but I jumped out before him. “Mama!” I shouted, running to the spot where I had left her.
She was still there, curled up, her wrapper pulled tight around her thin body. Her face looked even paler than it did this morning.
“Mama, wake up,” I whispered, shaking her gently.
Her eyes fluttered open, and when she saw me, she tried to smile. “Somto,” she breathed.
I knelt beside her. “Mama, we have to go. Please, I met someone—he wants to help us.”
She looked past me at the man standing by the jeep, and something changed in her eyes. Recognition. Fear.
Her hand gripped my wrist, weak but firm. “Somto,” she said, “who is that?”
“He says he knows my father. He says he’s been looking for me,” I explained quickly.
Mama sat up slowly, staring at the man like he was a ghost from her past. “You…” she whispered. “You finally found us.”
The man nodded. “It’s time, Adaeze,” he said softly.
Hearing him call her by her name made my whole body go still. I had never heard anyone speak her name like that.
Mama’s eyes filled with tears. “I tried to keep him safe,” she said. “I did everything I could.”
“I know,” the man replied gently. “But hiding is no longer safe. They know he’s alive.”
Mama turned to me then, her hands cupping my face. “Somto, my son, everything I have hidden from you… it’s time you know.”
She tried to stand but her legs gave way. The man quickly stepped forward and caught her before she fell.
“Let us take you both somewhere safe,” he said. “You can tell him there.”
I looked into Mama’s eyes. Even with fear in them, there was also something else—a strange kind of relief.
For the first time, I realized that all those years she kept silent, all the suffering, all the nights we spent running from one place to another, there was a reason. A heavy secret she carried alone.
And now that secret was about to break open.
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As we helped her into the jeep, I couldn’t shake the questions boiling inside me.
Who exactly was my father?
Why did someone want me dead before I was even born?
And what kind of life was waiting for me if I survived all this?
The car started again.
This time, as we drove away from the bridge, I knew we weren’t coming back.
One chapter of my life had ended on that dirty ground.
And another, full of danger and truths I might not be ready for, had just begun.
Because tonight, I was finally going to hear the story of my blood.
And I didn’t know if I was ready for it.
- Writer
