DEATH AND ALL HIS FRIENDS

One Sunday afternoon in September, I got a call from Chiadika, an ex boyfriend of mine. I jolted up from my bed when I heard the sound of my phone ring. He said he was at Harry Homes and he wanted to see me. I was really tired and reluctant to get up but he insisted. After a while, I convinced myself to get up and go meet him. Harry Homes wasn’t too far off from my house. I walked down; the weather was really hot and I kept on asking myself why I was out that afternoon. I had to see Chiadika before I left for school- That’s why! I got to Harry Homes and he rushed towards me and carried me up. He held me so tight like it was the first and last time he’d do that; not minding all the nosy people watching.
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Another sunny day- It was a sunny Friday afternoon on the 5th of October, we were looking forward to the evening…fun on our minds. I was at Nedu’s hostel talking and joking around with that weird girl who talks a lot. What a noise maker! We were screaming at the top of our voices and laughing so hard my throat began to itch. Whenever a couple of girls are gathered together, there is a lot of commotion. But all that was about to change and change drastically; from commotion to chaos. The news came in; It seemed like a joke. A lot of these Whatsapp broadcasts have been flying around lately. Silly people and their silly WhatsApp jokes. Telling you about fake missing kids and handicapped women and fake cancer stories. Frauds! Frauds I tell you. Always pays to ignore them, but then this was no joke. My heart sped up its pace. This thump was enough to cause an echo. I felt like the walls were closing in on me. My heart went LUB-DUP-LUB-DUP-LUB-DUP-LUB-DUP. No ECG could have been able to measure its beat. I could hear it…It was unbearable…NO! WHY! CHIADIKA! It hit me like a giant elephant falling on me from the now dark skies. I could hear my voice echo as I screamed his name over and over and over again, like he was going to open the door and walk in requesting for the misuse of his name. Me: Chiadika! Chiadika! Chiadika! Chiadika!
Chiadika: Isioma! Yes! Stop calling my name anyhow. Only if that happened.
Thieves they called them…untrue…lies…Not them! And most definitely not my Chiadika. But then again it didn’t mater if it were true or not, My Chiadika was gone! They were all gone! They are all gone! They were just misunderstood; it was all too soon. We make mistakes – Yes! But no man can be said to be guilty until sanctioned by the law. Those brutal murderers, they are barbarians, monsters, evil men….watching as it all happened, forgetting they were once as young as them. Criticising our generation, forgetting who raised it. Then came the pictures. That’s all it took to break me into a thousand little pieces. I felt as though my lungs twisted…my heart beating even faster as my chest became full like it was going to burst. “Fly out of my chest already”, I thought. Human hearts weren’t made to work like this. I reached for my inhaler, salty tear still running down my face as I lay awake reminiscing the moments with Chiadika. The times we spent together and how he spun me around the last time we saw. It was just a month ago. Laid down thinking; trying to feel the pain they all felt. Wishing I could use a time machine to go back in time, but that only happens in the movies. Science ain’t so sciency yet.
Guess there’s nothing I could do but pray. Pray for us all. They’d all stay forever in my heart..till we meet again. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust…..that’s what we all are and that’s what the village of ALUU turned my Chiadika to.