Living In The Ghetto - Episode 37

 

It was 7:15AM and Iyawo had taken Emma to the school bus that came earlier than usual. Iyawo adjusted her wrapper tightly and walked back to the house dragging her feet on the floor.

A lean old man held a cup of water on his hand and a brushing stick on the other hand. He walked to the gutter and made to bend slowly before Iyawo walked by, whisting.

"Hey, Iyawo, how you dey?" he asked.

"I dey fine," Iyawo said, bending down to prostrate before she walked into the house.

She walked towards Mr. John door, but the door was slightly open . Trying to peep through, she didn't see anyone and sighed. Mama Oyinda walked out from her room. She stared at Iyawo who was rather acting uncomfortable. Mama Oyinda freed the net her hand was gripped to and it closed slowly. She rubbed off the particles on her eyes with her palm. "Good morning Iyawo, I hop—," she said

Iyawo shook immediately, and held her chest. "You scared me," Iyawo said.

Mama Oyinda facial expression changed to a confused one. She rolled her eyes. "I hope you dey fine? How your night dey?" Mama Oyinda asked. 

"E dey fine. Hope your own dey fine too?" she replied.

Mama Oyinda answered, then nodded as she walked out from the corridor

All episodes of this story can be found here >> https://www.ebonystory.com/story/living-in-the-ghetto

. Mr. John lived on the down floor while Iyawo lived upstair. Iyawo climbed the stairs and searched for Chimaobim's number she had stored on her phone. She saw it, dialed it and did a sign of the cross, and placed it towards her ear. It rang once, twice and someone finally picked. She got the notification, and stared at the phone. "Hello," the voice said before she placed it back to her ear.

"Hello," the voice said again.

It sounded like Chimaobim's voice but she wasn't so sure if he was the one. She smiled and tried to stiffen her nervousness. "Hi. Is. This. Chimaobim?" she stuttered.

"Yes? Who is this?" he answered.

Iyawo smiled. "I stay in the ghetto where you live. There is fire on the mountain at home. You are needed at home," Iyawo said.

"Wait. Who is this?" Chimaobim asked.

Iyawo remained mute. "Hello. Are you there?"

"He—," Chimaobim said, panicking.

Iyawo terminated the call. "Yes," she rejoiced. 

Happiness filled her face and she gestured, clenching her palm, clipping her teeth and moving her elbow backward in an ecstasy. She made to climb up to her room, but was stopped by a screech.

"My God!" the voice shouted. "Mr. John. I am dead."

***
Chimaobim kept dialing the number. Iyawo tiptoed down the stare slowly. She stared at her phone, while it rung and switched it off quickly.

"Wetin be that?" Mama Oyinda asked as she ran out from her room.

Some of the neighbors ran out from their rooms too. "Shey he dey beat am? Abi wetin happen?" one asked in a rhetoric.

"Beat am bawo? I been dey think say she go don go school. I see Mr. John go out early in the morning," she said.

Some neighbors stood at their doors and peeped while Mama Oyinda ran to the room. The door was open and she pushed it forward. Getting inside the room, she screeched and fainted. Everybody ran to the room. Their legs hit on the floor noisily and people shouted in a shock. A woman hit her teenage daughter not to follow them. She beat her softly. "Shola, no go anywhere. If na thing wey dey kill now, wetin you go do when you get there? Abeg dey here," she said, dragging her back.

Some men used a bucket of water to revive Mama Oyinda.

Iyawo stood somewhere and stared in a shock. "I am so in for it," her body quivered. "Chimaobim is going to investigate about who called him and it has coincidentally clashed with this. They'll link them together."

Chimaobim had dressed for a class before he received the call. He dropped his tote bag and sat on the bunk while he thought about the phone call that had just happened. Dialing the number again, it said number switched off. The voice sounded like Iyawo's own but he couldn't assume. He thought it was only Iyawo that would have spoken nothing that's not a pidgin English to him. His mother's phone number had not been reachable for a while and his last night dream was scary. Goosebumps sent shivers down his spine.

He wandered into the forest searching for his sister — after she had lost while they went to play in the forest — until he got to a cave. Everywhere looked deserted. He bent slowly to peep through the cave but it was dark and he couldn't see anything. Standing up, he saw a white flash wandered in the cave. He bent down again but he couldn't see it anymore. As he stood up again, a white apparel appeared. It had no human image but just an apparel floating in air and defying the law of gravity. He gasped and made to run but his leg stuck. A body appeared into the apparel and it was his mother. She gestured for him to come into the grave but he couldn't mutter a word to reply. His body stood still and immediately, blood started dropping on his dead mother's white apparel. He looked up and on the tree was Adanne's dead body.

He shook quickly, standing up from bunk he sat on, and tears trickled down his eyes while he wiped it off with his hand. Waking up from the scary dream, he had prayed fervently and thought that would be the end but the phone call had destabilized him. He walked to his cupboard and packed some of his clothes into his bag.

Throughout his journey back home, tears kept trickling from his eyes down his cheeks, while he was inside the bus. He bent his face slowly to prevent people from staring at him. After paying the conductor, he did not look up till the conductor called his bustop. He repeated it till he got home and would always squint his eyes whenever he was walking on the road.

Arriving the ghetto and then, their house, he saw a crowd. His eyes lit up immediately in a fear and he looked clearly, and saw a man carrying Adanne on his body. All her body was soaked with blood. Everybody was shocked to see Chimaobim. He dropped his bag on his ground and ran towards them.

"What happened? Where is Mama?" Chimaobim asked in teary eyes. 

His eyes had been reddened, and the sides were swollen. They were all surprised to see him and they took glances at each other. Iyawo had climbed the stairs and ran into her room. Chimaobim walked towards Adanne immediately they were about to place her into the back of the car. Adanne tried to open her eyes slowly and it moved like a dying candle. "Mama. Is. Dead. And. Mr.

Read " She Did It " by the same author ( Obinna Tony )

. John. Raped. Me," she said lifting her lips slowly in a calculated sequence.

"What?!" Chimaobim screeched.

Adanne eyes blinked and closed. Her lips cracked and her leg fell languishing on the car's carpet. She stopped breathing, and earth knew it had missed a gem.

THE END

A very big "thank you" to everybody that followed up with the updates. You guys are amazing. I love y'all. Thank you for the time invested in reading, liking, rating and commenting on my episodes. We move! I don't know when I'll write here again. This story exhausted all my energy and strength and I don't think I'll ever be invested. I love y'all.