Heaving with annoyance, I eyed the officer,
I knew I wouldn’t talk,
Uncle Pius had warned me in situation like this,
Being the only educated man in my family,
I had taken his admonitions seriously.
A middle aged man walked up to me in graceful gait,
He adjusted his oversized spectacle and scrutinized me from head to toe,
He smiled and shook his head,
“You tiny brat!, So you’re the one disturbing the neighborhood right?
Don’t you know you’re a woman!
What is this generation turning into?
Women turning into men, men turning into…”
He paused when a police officer interrupted him.
Then, I noticed he was the DPO.
My head hurts as I thought of what to do,
How can I be arrested for a crime I know nothing about,
Just like Uncle Pius will always say, “The Irony of life”,
I look around the semi- dilapidated building and wonder what brought me here,
Mother thought I was in the market,
Father thought I was on my way to school,
Little Odili thought I will be coming to pick him up from the nursery in the next thirty minutes
And here I am,
Every attempt to prove to them that I wasn’t the person they were searching for proved abortive,
I wonder how to reach my people and inform them of my present predicament,
In the evening, I was locked up in an empty cell.
There and then, I knew the music has changed.
Related stories:
I was waken up by a noise from the window side,
I froze,
The cell was dark and the mosquitoes were unfriendly,
I noticed someone was flashing a torch,
I shield my eyes from the harsh effect of the light,
There was no place to hide,
I surrendered my self to fate as the figure advanced towards me.
To my surprise,
It was a girl of my age or a bit younger,
When she drew nearer,
She motioned to me to keep quiet,
She raised the torch to her face so that I could have a proper view,
I almost let out a scream,
The resemblance was glaring,
Now I knew why I was arrested,
I have many questions to ask,
But there was no time for that,
She seemed to be on a mission to save me,
But I was afraid of this girl,
How did she knew that I was arrested?
I followed her suite as we walk out of the cell,
She seemed to know the way more than the police officer,
Because they would have properly guarded the secret outlets,
There is something about her though,
The way she walk and flash her white eyes like a cat,
She was so sure that I won’t scream and attract attention as we quietly sneak out of the station,
Passing the overweight snoring guards.
I’m sure of one thing,
I don’t want to be involved with such a person,
Then I heard her asking me question…
“Do you know who you’re?
The question did not just threw me off balance but made my heart beat faster in fear.
“I’m Adannaya Ibeh, the daughter of the great ceramist”,
She shook her head and smiled,
“I don’t think so”, she said and made her way to the route that leads to my father’s compound.
