Diary of David (EPISODE FOUR)

ONE YEAR AGO It was a spiteful Thursdays afternoon, I and my siblings were on our way home as usual after a very hectic day at school. I didn't eat that morning and I was greatly farmished and dehydrated. The scathing sun of Nigeria didn't make things any easier. I had used my lunch money to pay for mr haruna's project.'The project of BLOCKING' all you had to do to pass mr haruna's physics was to pay a certain amount of money and you'll have an 'A', except if he didn't like your face, in that case you'll be counted among unlucky ones which he always gave a 'C' and sometimes a 'D' even after he had collected your money, as for me I was counted among the lucky ones because I had a really cute face. We finally broke loose from the wrath of the heartless sun as we got home. The front door was locked signalling there was no one home. "Ah ah why is mama not home" I said looking very perplexed "oooh yes she told me she wouldn't be around today, she has gone to the market to get some foodstuff....she told me to tell you in the morning but I forgot" adaobi said "eh? Are you mad, how can you forget such a thing, because of you I forgot my keys this morning how do you suppose we get into the house." I yelled pointing my index finger to the side of my head. It was like the hunger was transferring to my leg. My legs began to shake and I couldn't stand anymore, I laid down in the veranda of the house like a hobo that had no chance of survival. I barely noticed gozie's restless disposition as he strolled to and fro the veranda checking on top of the windows and in flower vases like he was looking for a needle in a haystack. "Oh, here it is" Gozie said with a bright smile on his face. I raised my head from my supine position to find out what aroused such excitement. I saw Gozie stretching the keys towards me maintaining his smile. I flew up from the ground and jumped towards gozie" where did you find it?" Where did you find it I asked with my eyes bulging out with curiosity "mama left it under the mat" "aaah thank God" I hurriedly said grabbing the key from his hand without hesitation. I barged into the house not caring if adaobi and Gozie threaded my path, flung my bag on the sofa and dashed towards the kitchen. I ransacked every cooler, pots and cupboards searching for food. The noise I made with every steel and aluminium that posed a hindrance was like a sword fight in Chinese movies. After much ransacking I didn't even find a grain of rice for the angry worms in my stomach, ripples of sweat formed on my forehead, I released a long held back sigh of disappointment. I reluctantly walked to the parlour dragging my feet on the ground which made a veay annoying sound. I lazily fell on the sofa and crossed my mind that I wasn't going to survive through that day, in no time I snoozed off with my mouth wide open, before my plane fully touched down in dreamland a very pugnacious aroma found its way into my nose and gave my plane a 180 degree turn. I slowly opened my eye with a deadly frown on my face trying to figure out what was releasing this deadly aroma....."GOD!!!! GAS! GAS!!" I shouted as my back up engine fired up, I jumped up from the sofa with my red eyes wide open, I dashed towards the kitchen lo and behold I saw adaobi with a match stick in her hand attempting to fire it up with a strike. I dived like peter cech trying to catch a penalty kick and grabbed the matches from her hand. "Are you crazy? Are you trying to burn down the house?" I flooded her with questions not giving her the chance to answer one before firing the next. "I-I-I-I was hungry" she stammered "you are hungry is that why you want to burn down the house?" I furiously said. Then there came an awkward moment of silence were we just stared at each other doing nothing. "Shift joor" I said breaking the silence. I walked towards the gas and tried to put it off, I was very confused with the gas regulator because all the labels had pulled off, in my course of struggling with the regulator my mom barged into the kitchen with her heart almost out of her mouth. "David what is the meaning of this? Are you trying to burn the house?" I tried to explain but I honestly didn't know where to start from"no-mama-see-adaobi-i-gas" I stammered "shut up jare, big for nothing fool, as old as you are you cannot regulate common gas" my mom furiously said. With the position I took everyone would think I was trying to put on the gas, 'matches in my hand and struggling with the regulator' if I wasn't me I would also think I was trying to on the gas. "And you adaobi you couldn't stop your brother abi?" She added "I tried to stop him ooh! But he wouldn't listen" adaobi said. My mind and my body wanted to kill adaobi seriously but my body was too weak to execute the mission, for all I knew she could be the devil's right hand man. I walked out of the kitchen without uttering a word. Mumsi nor give me food throughout that day, I do by force fasting. But this was in the past and now I was in another pot of soup. PRESENT "David can't you hear me calling you" she said with her heavy red sleepy eyes. At this point I had crossed the Rubicon and I couldn't pretend anymore so I decided to be brave and face my ill-fate. "Yes ma I can hear you" I said in an unusual relaxed voice "why are you this late, do you know that all other children had left more than an hour ago "she stood up and stretched her whole body exposing a little part of her stomach just above the waist level and yawned with her mouth wide open like a lazy dog falling asleep. "So where have you been ehn?" She added "em....em....there was an emergency at my school and I needed to attend to it" I lied. I wasn't a professional liar 'yet'. So you could easily spot a chink in my armour "shut up you liar, do you think I don't know you were playing ball in school again, so you played and forgot yourself abi? Emergency my foot" she said. My silence indicated guilt even if I wasn't guilty. "Come over here and sit" she said while pulling out the guest seat of the teachers desk, she sat me down and started to advice me from disobedience to lying to not following bad company to not joining any cult activity and so on. I nodded at intervals to give the impression I was paying attention meanwhile my brain took the 'garbage in - garbage out' format, her words tripped in through the right ear and fell out through the left. I couldn't help but thank my stars when I realised she was finally done, another episode of nightmare that day was over, my face was remorseful but my mind threw a big feast of jubilation. I stood up, grabbed my siblings by the hand and dashed out of the class without even thanking her for her good for nothing advice. We got to the road and boarded a bus which stopped us at the closest bus stop to our house. we walked unusually fast and got home faster than usual. I barged into the house flung my bag on the sofa and dashed towards my most favourite part of the house (the kitchen). This was the routine that characterised my entering whenever I was very hungry. The day finally began to go my way, coincidentally mumsi just finished cooking my best food 'beans and plantain'. I carried my plate licking my lips and salivating, I could barely balance the plate on my hand because the food was still smoking hot. I got to the dinning and swallowed the food voraciously and flushed it down with very cold water, it was just what I deserved after the long day. I felt very heavy when I was done with my meal, I headed to my room and sluggishly undressed, took a shower and dived on my bed, before long I snoozed off. "I hope you all can list the first 20 elements of the periodic table" mr Nnamdi announced "YESSS" the whole class chorused "ok now who can list the first 30" he added. There was dead silence which meant nobody knew it. I turned back to scan if any hands were up for reassurance but all hands were earth bound. I was the only one that knew the answer- Time of my glory. I raised my hand and wiggled it vigorously. Suddenly 'pWaaa' I felt a very painful and deafening slap land on my ear. I thought Tolu was at it again but I was bolted from the blue to see jane frowning at me. "Why did you do that" I yelled with anger "you are the fool that fell on me abi?" She said and tried to land another slap on my face. I dodged with a reflex flying from my bed and landed on the floor with my waist "AaaAAhh" I groaned loudly. The bulb was so bright that I had to squint to see anything, I demonstrated the sign of the cross and muttered a few words of prayer so that my nightmare wouldn't come to pass. I headed for the bathroom and washed my face, I walked back to my room and fell on the bed and released a long sigh. I reached for my watch and checked the time "11:47PM" it read. All sleep had flee my eye so I decided to put time to good use. I searched the floor beside my bed and reached for my bag, slipped out a random note and opened it, I flipped through the pages searching for the most suitable page to start with. Suddenly power supply was interrupted. I threw the book to the ground with utmost disgust and lay on my back facing the ceiling. I stared into the immense darkness searching for the unknown. My mind automatically began to ruminate on the almost ending day that has been very eventful for me. "How can all these trouble just be for only one person? Why me?"I asked myself rhetorical questions. I didn't understand how my life could change in just a couple of hours, the most complicating part was when I saw folake's face on Jane's body. What did that mean?. The questions bumped into each other in my mind like ants moving in the opposite direction excited about the news of food. Without finding any answers my mind hibernated and finally snoozed OFF........... TO BE CONTINUED ;D