Confraternity
1774 Words
1999
On that Saturday morning, Fateemah came to a standstill in trepidation, her heart racing and her bile rose. It was too late to turn back, and the lonely path seemed so empty shouting for help may not extricate her. It was a reprisal for her obstinacy. Her mom had cautioned her to stop using that lonely route, but she would not hear of it.
Here she was with the devil himself. He had promised to deal with her, and his pugnacious and grim face set in a macabre expression that made her skipped heartbeats.
He smiled dangerously.
“ Dan dan dan!” Danny smirked, alighting his bicycle, “look who I have got to myself today. The one who made me get slapped and she even had the effrontery to laugh at me, telling her friends she made them slap me.”
“ I am not scared of you!” Fateemah made a bold face, unaware that her fear was palpably splashed on her face and her teeth chattered.
“ Seriously?” Danny was now walking towards her slowly but with a deadly expression.
“ I don’t want to hurt you. Stay away from me.”
“Please hurt me. What is that word for it? I heard Uncle Mu’azu use it….yes, voluntary euthanasia. I want to die, Teetee.”
She took a step back.
“ I am warning you.”
“ Okay, why did you tell your friends that you made my mom slap me, and you were even laughing at me, saying you would have done it yourself?”
“ Did I laugh at you? Can’t I laugh with my friends again?”
Danny made a move like he was going to smack her and she docked, now at the verge of crying. He laughed, enjoying every bit of the action.
“ Okay, let us be rational or democratic. I love fair play.” Danny clenched his hands and pushed them forward, almost touching her.
“ You will touch one of the two. The right fist stands for peace, the left stands for fight. If you touch the right one, then we don’t fight, but if you touch the left, then we fight.”
“ Are you not ashamed to fight a woman?’
“Who is a woman? Small girl. But you said you don’t want to hurt me, so…..choose.”
She looked at both fists.
“ You know I am a Monotheist,” she touched the right fist,” and Monotheism means peace.”
Danny burst into laughter.
“ Thank God for Monotheism. I am saved from your powerful hands. Peace.”
“ Peace.”
“You can go then.”
She heaved a deep sigh then quickly walked passed him and walked briskly. When she was sure there was a long distance between them ,she turned, “ who is scared of you? I would crush you!”
Danny turned.
“ Me?”
She stuck out her tongue, waggled it, then spread her fingers at him, in a gesticulation meaning Uwarka. This was an African insult.
Danny climbed his bicycle but she had since scampered. That was how fourteen year old Danny and twelve year old Fateemah related. This was just one of many of such encounters. There was a day he said he would one day marry and , saying he loved her.
She cried her life out. How could a boy say he loved her. She said she would never get married. She was a very prim and prudish girl. And she hated Danny the more.
All of a sudden, he stopped seeing her and when he learnt they had moved out of town, he was happy. Good riddance.
2004
Danny walking through an ambulatory part with maize plants on both sides when he bumped into a young boy, obviously younger than he was. The boy wore combat baggy trousers and boots. His anorak was red and he pierced his ears , fixing an earring, his neck had bling-bling.
“ Watcha doing here?” the boy asked roughly.
Danny did an ocular assessment. He could crush this boy within seconds .
“Who the hell are you? Guy, I chop craze o!”
“ Really? Come here, I like your wristwatch, bring it,pronto!”
Danny nearly laughed.
“ You want to snatch my watch? Ten of you cannot do that and if you make such a statement again, I swear you will eat raw grass here.”
“ I think your father is a bitch.”
That was not funny. Now Danny was going doolally. He just crossed a line and he had to express his anger vehemently.
“ I will teach you not to watch your stinking vocal cavity, you i***t!”
Danny made a mad rush for the boy who took some quick steps into the farm. Danny chased him before coming to an abrupt stop.
There were about seven brutal looking guys sitting under a tree, smoking pot, sachets of drugs scattered all around, bottles of alcohol, while two were roasting a ram, probably stolen from the locals.
They all wore red berets, and the vicious eyes that pierced into him sent a chilling sensation crawling up his spine.One of the guy, wearing a goatee , with eyes almost closed from intoxication, red and thin, gave Danny a dangerous glare.
“ Are you sitting on the fence or sitting by the fence?” he asked, inhaled pot and puffed out a thick cloud of smoke.
“ I was not even close to the fence.”
They laughed.
“ This one na jolo! Okponu!”One of them said.
“ What is your name?”
“ Danny Adam.”
“ I know you got an ID on you. If you lie to me….”
“ Oyooh!” Exclaimed one, “ arrangement into ashes.”
“ And spread out for the air to disperse,” another said,” into vanishing”
“ Into forgotten specie, another torn blanket.”
“ You wan try?”
“ Enyi boys,”said the one with the goatee, “ into hush. He then turned back at Danny.
Danny was now jittery, all his guts drenched, his anger vanished and the sight of the guns two of them put on their laps scared the hell out of him.
“ That is my name, sir.” Danny said again.
“ Level?”
“ Two hundred.”
“ Department?”
“ Chemical.”
“ God punish your papa, say amen!’
“ Amen.” Danny said without hesitation.
“ God punish your mama.”
“ Amen.”
“ Good. Now what do you have for the boys?’
“ I was just going to school?”
“ Make we smoke this guy now.” One of them suggested.” Into roasting him with that ram.’
They laughed.
“ Why did you chase Smalls?” Goatee asked.
“ No, I was only playing with him, he misunderstood me. His face looks very familiar, he looks someone I used to know in KD….”
“ What do you have for the boys?”
“ I have just Two huns on me.”
“ Bring it for blessing.”
Danny quickly gave it to them.
“ Your wristwatch.”
He gave it to them.
“ What is that blinking light?”
“It’s –it’s my phone.”
“ Eyoooh! Arrange it into Taliban setting.”
Damn!
He reluctantly gave it to them.
“Please can I have the SIM?”
“ Your Papa! Bring it!”
He gave it to them.
“ Nnamen! This is Samsung Blueface. Chai! I love this phone.” One of them said, “ into arrangement into breast pocket and the girls will see it blinking. “
They collected all the valuable items on him then the last thing done to him was to make Smalls slap him six times before he was asked to run away which he did.
His first encounter with the cult boys.
Fifteen minutes later, he was inside the school, where he met some of his friends.
“ Where have you been? We tried your number to no avail?”
Said Ibrahim, his close friend.
“ I was busy at home so I took the farm route.”
“ What? That road is dangerous. The Pirates hang there fa.”
“ So what?” Danny frowned, “me, I am buccaneers, Viking, Roundtable, Ake put together. Maza, bawani shege fa!”
“ Hmmhmm Danny. Banda bakifa(no boasting) .Just avoid that place.”
“Listen to me banza. I saw them . One called me, I glared at him and showed him my middle finger. So, he got up and came to me. I swore that if he touched me enhh! He looked into my eyes and something told him that I am dangerous. My guy, the guy chill one time. Me I don see devils in black, blue, red ,Eyoooh!”
Then one of his friends winked at him.
“ See this one winking. Do you think I am joking?”
He winked again and pointed his mouth to the left. Danny glanced and saw a jumbo block sitting alone with a red beret. His sight alone was enough to make one pee in pants. He may not have been among those who extorted him but he was part of them.
Danny felt a something moving his bloodstream.
“ Well, but I thing those guys are misunderstood sha.” He went on, “ I was just joking. I did not meet them.”
The jumbo got up and walked away without looking at them
The friend burst into laughter.
“ Danny the Capone!” Ibrahim mocked.
Then he saw her. She was still slim but with more prominent female features. She had grown more matured and beautiful. It then dawned on him that he had not forgotten her, he kept wondering where she was and what she looked like now. Seeing her now made him understood what he had been feeling all these while.
“ Excuse me guys.”
He said and walked towards her. She was standing with two of her friends.
“ If she bounce you ,we go laugh tire.” Ibrahin said but Danny was out of their place. All he could see was her, an excitement exploding inside of him.
“ Teetee.” He called softly.
She turned swiftly and gaped at him.
“ SubahanGod! Danny? “
He clenched his hands and pushed then forward.
“ Choose one.”
- Writer
