Emeka held his bag close to his chest as he slowly trekked home by 11 am from school. This is the 3rd time he is being sent home for not paying his school fees.
His stomach rumbled and he remembered he had not had anything to eat since the morning of the previous day, apart from a bit of this and that from other pupils in school. He doesn't want collect edibles everytime from others so they don't start insulting him. At 7 years, he had his pride to protect. He doesn't want anyone saying more things behind his back. He already felt that they look at him in an unusual way, disadvantaged.
He got close to home and tears filled his eyes. Is this how his schooling will end? He wondered. Emeka loved school, so many things to learn and it was an escape from his reality. Dad is crazy, literally. He stopped working because he said God told him to. He beats his wife all the time because he said, she provokes the man God has chosen to liberate the earth. They eat strange combinations so that the world will not defile them. He neglects his son because he feels he is a mistake and his mom couldn't conceive again.
How did he manage to land in this kind of family? He wondered as tears silently flowed. Mother doesn't even fight or resist, she lost the right since the day he was born. Oh yes, he knows because she reminded him everyday that he is the reason her husband doesn't love her and beats her every day. My crazy father is always a different person in public. Who will believe my mother or me? Emeka thought.
He didn't Want to go back to the old routine. He has never been home this early. What will he do? Inspiration struck. He needs to start using his free time now to work. Someone will definitely need the help of a 7 year old to carry bags or something. All these myriads of thoughts flowed through his mind till he got to his house, a small bungalow his father acquired before he became crazy.
The house was eerily quiet so he tiptoed to his room and felt stupid for sneaking into his room. Then he heard faint cries of pain. His dad was usually in church with mother so who could be making that noise. He followed the cries and saw a wall yet the sound seemed to be coming from the wall. He saw the wall move and hid behind drums in the hallway. He saw some men come out of the hallway followed by all the elders he used to see in church and the community. He saw the orphan boy hanging from the ceiling, his blood dropping into a plate and his father wiping his bloody hand on a towel.
How did I become a boy who was sent from school to a boy who witnessed a horror he cannot forget? Emeka wanted to cry but he instinctively knew that he would experience the same fate as the orphan boy.
-Victoria Ukpaka
