The Burial

Episode 10

“Knock knock knock!.”

it was very early the day they came, no one expected they would come as we all thought all they rant were bluffs but we were woken to our greatest surprise.
When the door was b@nged the first time. N one answered, we said how can someone be knocking on a door this early as at 7:15am but it wasn’t early really to those that came banging the door.

“Knock knock knock.”

“Shey ko si anybody ni ile ki a to Ja ilekun yi kale? (is there no one at home before we break down this door?).”

“Yes!. Who is that?. And why are you banging the door like thieves this early?. Don’t you have houses where u can still be by this time sleeping?.” I said opening the door

“Oh!. Enu e gboro lati soro si mi bo she fe abi?. (So you have a long rooted mouth to talk at me anyhow ehn?).”

The next thing I heard was ‘kpaaahhh’, a slap landed on my face that sent me rolling on the floor as if I were tilling it with my fingers. I tried to stand up to gain balance and ask why I had been slapped, when I was packed with boot off the floor by one of the touts that came along with them.

At that moment, Grandpa came out of the house to ask what was happening when he was cut short by Mr. Taiwo.

“So, you haven’t still cleared all we ask you to clear, it seems you see us as jokers?.”

“See, I have tried a little. It just remains,……..” Papa was interrupted by one of Mr. Taiwo’s siblings who gave orders to the touts to start bringing down every object left standing and to the Mallams, to start packing what might be useful to them.

“Please, give me today to try and sort out some things”.

Grandpa was pushed out of the way, he nearly landed on his butt0ckz when he was rescued by one of the Mallams that had come to pick what they consider useful to them.

“Make you no ‘fush’ ‘Fafa’ like vhat na, e don old and ‘isf’ not good.” Was the statement that came out of the Mallam that rescued Papa.

Before we could realise what was happening, my uncle’s house standing on the demarcation was already down. The touts worked as if they were pursued, they tried moving to the toilet when they asked may be Papa had requested them to come sU-Ck the poo away but nothing came out of Grandpa’s mouth. I was still trying to locate Papa’s lost eye glasses when my uncle arrived with his friends.

He is a well built 6ft, ebony guy with muscles everywhere his body, and a very stubborn guy. I don’t know how he heard what was happening because he wasn’t around when they came banging the door due to his normal early morning register he had to mark at the hemp joint.
With his eyes popping out extremely red, you would know he had combined weeds, hot drinks, ‘S.K’ and the likes together. The odour coming out of his body also left much to be desired. I tried to gaze at his friends and the difference amongst them wasn’t something I could point out. It was obvious they were high and battle ready. They came with cutlasses and broken bottles.
When I tried giving Grandpa’s eye glasses to him was when my uncle spoke up.

“So you people think you can just come and threaten my father anyhow abi?. Iya yin!. E fe kun (your mother, you will nearly die).”

“Let me just see anybody touch anything again and we will show you who is really here for business.”

“Eh!. Ogbeni, ma lo be o, o dabi pe e wo ni oya abi?. O fe ma be! (Eh!. Young man, don’t start spilling out unnecessarily, cause it seems you are the antelope that knows how to jump very well).” A tout threw the words at my uncle.

“Oh!. To ba sure fun ehn, iwo ko try rubbish, to wa mo bo shen lo (if you know u are self-confident, just try rubbish and I will let you know how it is).”

Soon as my uncle spoke those words, I knew something terrible was about to happen. I tried taking Papa out of sight but he refused, trying to beg his son to please don’t let the devil take over him.

But there was no devil taking over anybody here, this people came to find trouble and they even disrespected you by pushing you out of the way. You might as well have been injured when you were pushed away were the thought I had when my brother lifted the cutlass with him as he was about to be attacked by one of the tout.

“Ye! Ye! Ye! Eti mi (oh!. My ear).” Was the loud cry we heard as we saw the cutlass went up and came down in a very rapid manner that got the tout holding his hands to his left ear. He was injured and it was clear his left ear had been cut off.

I was so surprised at what happened, that I opened my mouth wide and at the same time drifted my mind off the scene as I found myself standing beside Jesus Christ at the garden of Gethsemane, at the night he was betrayed and was about to be arrested when I saw Peter horridly pulling out a knife to cut down one of the soldier’s ear. He had finished cutting the ear off and was seized when I saw Jesus moving closer, picking the fallen ear off the floor, to fix it back for the soldier when I was brought back by the clashing of cutlasses.

There was no Jesus Christ, no betrayal, neither was there a Roman soldier here, and I thought there was no form of miracle of ear joining that would happened here today. When I saw about 2 people from my uncle’s gang already losing blood and 3 from the Taiwo’s already backing out holding one part or the other with a cloth to stop the bleeding. My brother was gone and nowhere to be found. Everything just happened in a split second that amazed me.

“Taye,shey o ri nkan to da le bayi, agbara e o ni ka o (you see what you have caused, you won’t be able to handle it).”

I was still holding Papa’s eye glasses as I lifted my head to know may be Papa had seen Mr. Taye before making that statement but I couldn’t see him, couldn’t see a bird too. All the Mallams were gone and it looked as if a curfew was imposed on our compound.
Papa and I were the only humans left in the compound. I gave thanks to God as if it were all over that day not knowing Mr. Taye and the pot-bellied man would come back in the evening to receive beating of their lives from 2 young lads they were old enough to ‘father’.

To Be Continued…