LEAVE MY DAUGHTER

LEAVE MY DAUGHTER

In my vivid recollection, the rifle came down on my head with such force and intent to cause some serious damage. The message was painfully clear ‘stay away from my daughter for good’. He looked at the dent in my head and then cast one last satisfied look into my blurry eyes before he hurried away. At that point I couldn’t feel my legs and the numbness spread across my failing body as I clung to the couch for dear life. I mumbled my last prayer, funny enough it didn’t sound the way I had always rehearsed it.

I’m guessing you are wondering how I got to this stage, the truth is you are not alone in that quest.

I remember dressing up smartly because today I would be meeting her family for the first time, to profess my undying love for their daughter; it was a well planned meeting and trust me I had prepared my speech; the humble introduction, followed by my honest intentions and a grandiose conclusion, ‘Shakespeare hath no lines like Me in love’.

I approached the front door of the green lush apartment walking as steadily as possible, shoulders spread, chin raised and a smile on my lips; all to impress her father and mother who were standing on the veranda, waiting for me with raised eyebrows. ‘Good evening Sir, good evening Ma’ I greeted bowing as low as I could in respect. They just stood there looking in astonishment; I turned backwards wondering if perhaps a mad man had followed me into the compound and was standing behind me dangling his flaccid penis.

“Before I open my eyes, you better evaporate from my premises”, her father retorted rather emphatically. I smiled sheepishly looking in her direction, hoping for some form of help, because I wasn’t sure if he meant it or if he was referring to me. Maybe an in-house joke to test my boldness. But this was no test, as I would soon find out. She stood there in the corner squeezing her fingers and trembling shifting her weight from one leg to the other; the aggrieved man quickly ran to the back of the compound and came back with three muscular midgets who promptly surrounded me.

“Young man oga asked you to leave and you are smiling like a fool abi?” one of them said placing his smallish palm on my shoulder; with some effort I took a step backwards to properly assess the situation. Something was not right, at least I remember she told me her parents were nice people and were anxious to have me.

Suddenly, her dad came out with a rifle and fired two shot point blank into the receptive chest of one of the midgets killing him instantly, surely he should know that tiny precious midgets were scarce as it were. Then turning to me he said “Now you know I mean business”, seriously I had allowed myself to that revelation long before now, so to me the demonstration was overkill.pun intended

He aimed in my direction pointing straight to my heart, shutting one eyes for focus. Her mum quickly shut her ears with her hands to avoid being taken unawares by the loud bang from the barrel. The living midgets moved backwards to avoid the blood splatter. My heart was pounding faster than it ever had and it was beating along with a song, some song I really couldn’t make out. The sound track for my moment of death was rolling.

I pushed aside the barrel and ran past the spectators into the living room and through a dark  passage up a fleet of stairs and ended up in a room; couldn’t help but notice the neatness and order that prevailed in the space. The theme of the room was purple, ah! My favorite color.The ultimate mockery;Heart pounding; fists clenched, random thoughts coming and exiting my head. What was I thinking running into this place, I must really be stupid! Maybe I ran here because of the tension, or maybe I just had to see if their living room matched the one I pictured in my head before coming here today. I was in the perfect location, a neat and serene platform to give up my troubled ghost. Every notion of love had fled from me; I was battling for my life now.

The door knob turns gently as her dad carefully walked in, confident that I was trapped in, nowhere to run, and nowhere to hide. He walked gallantly towards me pointing the nozzle at me as I moved backwards against the couch, somebody had to come to me rescue, the director could yell ‘cut’ at this point in time; but no, nobody came, the world would be one living being short. I had come here with the hope of being accepted into her life as the legal occupant of her heart, the benefactor of her love and the son-in-law to be. To receive their acceptance. But today I would be receiving something  else;something cold, piercing and frigid coursing its way through my receptive flesh.

He hissed when he realized he could take me out without wasting the bullet, so he turned the rifle around and held the nozzle with both hands, swinging the weapon backwards, he swiftly brought it down to my skull; the rifle came down on my head with such force and intent to cause permanent damage. All I heard was a thud, the message was painfully clear ‘stay away from my daughter for good’. He looked at the dent in my head and then cast one last satisfied look into my blurry eyes before he hurried away. At that point I couldn’t feel my legs and the numbness spread across my failing body as I clung to the couch for dear life. I mumbled my last prayer, funny enough it still didn’t sound the way I had rehearsed it.

My phone alarm rang and I jumped to my feet, after a moment of chilling reminiscence, I slowly sat back on my bed and smiled brightly.

"My Growth or Your Life'

I quickly jumped into the green and white bus the typical color of Abuja buses and squeezed my way to the back seat, I had to be fast because the rush for those buses was err...let's just say if you had to go to the office looking all nice and fresh then you probably would want to hire a taxi. A blend of body fragrances and a collage of facial expressions greeted my hurried entrance, they  occupants of the vehicle just kept staring at me as  i went behind and so i thought maybe it was because i was flamboyantly color rioting that morning plus the fact that I  wasn't smelling my best (emptied my bottle of perfume the day before) and so today I was au naturale! unknown to me the joke was on me, i was the ignorant one, the unsuspecting victim!

Anyway I lodged myself somewhere and mentally calculated how much I would have left when I pay my fare, miraculously though the price was halved(incentive for my 'precious' life) The driver engaged the gear lever and much to my utter amazement the bus started moving backwards in reverse instead,then there was a sharp jolt and some murmuring and hissing from the passengers, I felt this was an honest mistake,cut the guy some slack, probably He had a rough night, I smiled about it until i realized the driver  was struggling  ferociously with the gear lever to engage it in drive for what seemed like eternity, I felt it was a mechanical hitch with the gear box, finally after much demonstration we got on our way and we began the journey, I noticed the bus kept swaying from left to right and left again and I scanned the faces of those around me wondering what to make of this anomaly,expecting somebody to say something to the driver, someone with the guts and appropriate breathe odor to come to our rescue, but nothing, no one said anything. Just then the driver shouted apologetically  "abeg make una no vex oh! as i tell una,i sabi but no be well well, small time we go reach wuse". just then it dawned on me that the driver was a learner, a LEARNER! and every one else obviously knew about it and didn't complain at least not to my hearing.I was the only one that didn't get the memo. I wanted to revolt but my shy nature got the better of my mouth and as per usual I did the revolting in the hollows of my mind and so I said a silent prayer and thought happy thoughts.The passengers kept issuing instructions and warning, some of them even looked out for on-coming vehicles;it became a collective effort- driving the car. one man even helped the driver collect the fare, another told him when to turn and what not, it was a pitiable and embarrassing sight as the driver struggled endlessly amidst -his plea for understanding- to make sense of what he was doing or not doing.

I was jolted back to my heart-clenching reality when the bus driver unknowingly cut off another car around a bend almost causing a major accident and jolted a couple of times before we settled into our swaying motion amidst pleas by the more critical of us for the driver to be more observant, I felt like shouting at the young man to be more careful, then I remembered I only just got my license three months ago and I was in a similar fix back then, because I was still 'growing'. Throughout  the journey we went from one close call to another near miss and then finally, finally! we arrived at the bus-stop; we all heaved a chorale sigh of relief and alighted.

Then the lesson of the whole episode dawned on me, the passengers were mainly elderly papa's and mama's (who probably had less to lose in the event of a mishap) who understood what it meant-Patience, Tolerance and Understanding-to encourage a learner to make room for growth, the driver like many of us needed all that and more, he needed room to improve on whatever driving skills he thought he possessed, it could be you in that level of growth, or in the position to tolerate the mistakes of freshers or learner's alike; at that point remember this story and play the part.

In the words of Mr. Plato-People are like dirt. They can either nourish you and help you grow as a person or they can stunt your growth and make you wilt and die. so choose ye those day which you shall be! that being said we all grow and learn everyday( i hope); help nurture that person or thing and someday hopefully you would look back at that almost frustrating experience of growing and laugh, even though i didn't see any thing to laugh about when my life or death was at stake!