Hebo Imorei

“HELP!” a woman screamed. “HE STOLE MY BAG!” Ilai didn't look back, didn't miss a pace as he hopped over the short fence separating the car park from the food market. People shifted out of his way, to avoid getting run over, but he felt a few hands reach out to grab him. The last thing he wanted was to be put in tires and burnt alive that afternoon. But he was hungry and Emung had kicked him out. He had nowhere else to go. No food. And without Emung's blessing, no one around was willing to help Ilai and risk Emung's wrath. So, stealing it was. He shrugged out of his dirty, once-white singlet when a hefty man grabbed it. Ilai rolled onto his shoulder, out of the man's reach, got to his feet and ran up the high fence. He held the edge of the fence and leaped over it. As he landed on the other side, he could hear the crowd in the market gathering. He leaned on the wall, struggling to catch his breath. He was lucky no one had caught him before he climbed the wall because Enusop was always busy and there was always a busybody available to step in and ruin things. Enusop was the biggest market in Usobo. One of the biggest in the country. Mostly because it was close to the border that Usobo shared with Izecha and Izecha was the trading capital of Usehjiki. Anyone coming into the country through Izecha would have to go through Enusop and anyone who wished to trade in Izecha would have to pass through Enusop. From Monday to Sunday, it boomed with life, at all hours. There was a running joke among the citizens of Usehjiki that Enusop was the heart of the country. It housed food sellers, timber marketers, furniture makers, butchers, tech retailers, bookstores… anyone at all. Enusop was a one-stop shop for anything anyone could ever need. If ever Enusop slept, then Usehjiki would seize to exist. A few people took it seriously enough to believe that the old gods resided in Enusop and required companionship at all hours, but those were crazy people. And even though Ilai used to be one of those people, he didn’t feel like getting caught by any of them, with a stolen bag in his hand. The compound he’d targeted was an old fixture in the market. Even though the government refurbished the market with beautiful, color-coded stalls, clean roads and new light bulbs and stands, they never did anything about the compound that stood right at the centre of it. Most people liked to pretend that it didn’t exist but that was okay for Ilai, because it provided the perfect cover. Ilai knew everywhere in Enusop, every market, every road, like the back of his hand, but he’d never been inside this compound before. However, it was just as he’d expected: tall grasses, muddy floors and an uncompleted building. It wasn’t much, but Ilai was running low on choices. “ILAI IMOREI!” a man shouted from the other side of the tall fence. It was a twenty-feet-high fence. Ilai wasn't worried about being followed. “YOU NO GET WHERE TO GO!” Ilai slipped down to the floor, leaning on the wall as he opened the market bag that he'd stolen. “COMMOT BEFORE PERSIN FIND YOU!” Ilai's stomach rumbled as he pulled out the loaf of bread and the foil of busara balls. It had been a long time. The smell of fried beans mixed with minced meat filled his nose and watered his mouth. The foil was hot which meant it had just come off the fire. “ILAI, YOU DEY HEAR ME?” He tore the bread open, put three balls into the bread. He cried when he took a bite. Unsatisfied. He took another bite. And another, till the bread was gone. Then he ate all the busara that was left and leaned against the wall. He took a moment to steady his head before he delved back into the bag. There was a bag of raw pepper, some onions, vegetable leaves and palm oil, as well as a tuber of yam and a bag of potatoes. Off to the side of the bag was a small wallet. “Thank God,” he said, as he opened it. He found money and ATM cards. Ilai took the money out and stood, leaving behind the wallet and the bag. He was going to make a run for it. Carrying a market bag full of heavy foodstuff would just slow him down. He beat his way, through the grass to get to the opposite side of the compound where there was a main road. Once he was out, a keke would take him to a park where he could leave Usobo for good. There was nothing left for him, anyway. And if Emung ever got his hands on Ilai again, he was going to kill him before the police got to him. He heard scraping sounds on the fence behind him, so he moved faster. If the people in the market couldn’t climb the fence, then those scraping sounds meant that they’d fetched ladders and would soon be upon Ilai. In his haste, he didn't notice the hole in the ground till he was tumbling into wet, sticky algae and more disgusting grass. “CHECK THAT SIDE!” he heard someone say from above him. Refusing to get up from the slimy ground he was lying on, he remained where he was. If given the choice, Ilai would rather have a creeping animal walk over him in that moment, than alert those area boys to his whereabouts. Ilai could already picture them, just as skinny and underfed as Ilai was, but very, very capable of throwing a couple of tires over Ilai’s neck and lighting a matchstick or two. Something crawled up the front of his track trousers. Ilai hissed and hit it off before he rolled away. He tried to resume his silence, but he slipped and yelped as he fell back on the ground. “HE DEY HERE! HE DEY HERE!” Ilai cursed and ran deeper into the hole. He could hear the footsteps running around above him as his pursuers flooded into the tunnel. He didn't care. He just kept running. He realised that there was a light coming from the other side of the tunnel. The closer he got to it, the more colourful it seemed, flickering and dancing as it reflected against the water on the floor. As he reached it, he stopped, wondering what it was and if he could risk it. “SEE AM THERE!” Without another thought, Ilai walked through the flickering lights. When he came out on the other side, Ilai staggered back as he was hit by a cold gust of wind. He covered his face and shivered, from the cold, but it vanished as quickly as it had come, leaving the air hot and sticky around him. “HEBO! HEBO! IMOREI!” a man said, catching Ilai's attention as he turned around to find a crowd of men and women, dressed in scarce clothing that barely covered the chest of the women or the loins of the men. On their foreheads, they each had a big, black dot, with smaller, white dots that surrounded the black one. Some of them had white bones pierced into the skin on top their cheek bones that dragged the lower parts of their eyes down, revealing the red parts of the inner, eyelids. “HEBO!” the man in front said as they all bowed before Ilai. “Uh...” Ilai began as he stared at them. As if the people before him were not enough reason to be shocked, behind them, Ilai could see two rows of village huts, interspaced with tall, individual trees. In the distance, Ilai could see a fence that was also made from jagged mud, like the huts. “Where am I?” he asked, wondering how he’d gone from an uncompleted building in Usobo to a village. “HEBO!” the man closest to him said. “HEBO IMOREI!” the man’s companions replied. And once again, they all bowed down before Ilai. Confused, Ilai turned around to see what the men and women were bowing at. The light he’d run through sparked like electricity, causing Ilai to step back. It pulsed from yellow to blue, growing and reducing until it fizzled into nothing. Which was when Ilai saw what was behind the light. A statue. Amid their chanting and bowing, Ilai backed up, looking at the statue, just to be sure that his eyes weren't deceiving him. But the more he looked, the more the statue remained, staring down at him. The raggedy mohawk haircut, the skinny bare chest, the oversize track trousers, the torn pair of sneakers. Somehow, these people were worshiping a golden statue that was made in Ilai's perfect image.