THE ROBBERS

Fish is bad for the soul. Anyone who eats fish would become a slave to other souls when he crosses to the Other Side. This is because fishes swim beneath the Earth. Baa mi knew it. Maa mi knew it. Everyone back in the village knew it. But Aunty didn’t. She always forced me to eat fish. Anytime I protested, she would raise her spoon to my face, with the peppery flavour oozing from it burning my eyes. I would then rush it in my mouth and then pretend to swallow it. After the meal, I would gently walk to the toilet and spit it out. I was very smart.

The day she caught me, I was rather lucky. Because it was the same day that thieves came to our house, raped Aunty, stole all her jewellery and ate the whole pot of Jollof rice I had been cooking. It was a very cold night. Aunty had come in very late. It was not unusual for her. She was a prostitute. Yes, Baa mi told me. He had said that she worked until late at night and she had a unisex “boutik”. Baa mi did not know what that meant but I assumed it was a code name among prostitutes. Most of her men were customers. All of this made me know that she was a prostitute. The words ‘sex’, ‘customers and ‘men’. Those three words were not uncommon among the prostitutes in our village. Don’t ask me how I knew that!

Anyway, she came home that night and saw that I had cleaned the whole house. I had bathed her two five-year old twin boys and fed them. She seemed really happy with me and she brought out something from her bag. It was roasted fish wrapped with an old newspaper. She handed it over to me and told me it was a gift. I faked gratitude and headed straight for the kitchen to throw it away. As I cast it into the bin, I felt my Aunty’s presence. She was behind me! In no time, I felt a huge slap land on my face and my sight was unclear for four seconds.

“You ungrateful food waster!” She kicked me and pushed me to the wall. She rushed at me and hit her bag on my head. I pretended to be hurt and I started crying. A loud rough knock was on the door. In her rage, Aunty dashed out and headed for the door. “Who is that bastard that is knocking at this time of…”As I heard the door open, she finished her sentence with a scream. I ran out to the living room and I saw three masked men carrying big guns. Aunty knelt on the ground, her head bent. She held her sons with both hands and ushered them to be quiet but the boys wouldn’t stop crying. I also knelt down and bowed my head.

“You, what is your name?”

“My name Ajani, I come from the pride village of Igbajo village.”

“What!” The robbers began to laugh hysterically. “Omo, see this bush boy! You, woman! How much do you have in this house?”

“I—,we do..n-n-ot hav–ve any..” Her voice was trembling horribly. Her head remained bowed. “There is no m-money here.”

“Liar! All liars shall do what?”

“Perish!” The thrid robber finally spoke. I wanted to do like Jackie Chan did in one of his movies I had just watched.

“We know you have money in this house.”

“I swear to God! Ajani tell them.”

“My name Ajani, I come from the pride…”

“No, fool! Tell them that we do not have money.”

“Okay. My Aunty did not had any monies since last year when she goes bankruptcy. Please don’t not kill us. Us did not had monies in this house.”

“Are you both playing games with me?!” The robber who had spoken first placed the tip of his rifle on my head. I could feel the fatal heat of the disastrous weapon burning my hair.

“No sir,” Aunty spoke, with more confidence now. “I have only 500 naira. It is in my purse on that chair behind you. Please don’t kill us.”

“What do you have for us then?”

“I have nothing”

“What about a death wish?”

“Sir?” she was puzzled.

“Do you have a death wish?” he snorted. “because we are going to kill all of you if we go out of here empty-handed.”

“Ha! Sir, I have jewellery. Plenty of them! Ajani, go bring them!”

I sped down to her bedroom. I took longer time than I should have, plotting a rescue plan. But I came up with no reasonable idea. So I humbly carried her jewellery box down to the living room. As I got there, the sight was nauseating. I saw two of the robbers pouncing on my Aunty. They were raping her. The third one was eating the pot of rice I had been cooking before Aunty came in. Taye and Kehinde were sobbing. I wanted to run and cover their eyes to this injustice being done to their mother but the robbers pointed their rifles at me.

In an hour, they were gone with all the jewellery and my Aunty’s dignity. We never spoke of the event again. Ten years later, we are yet to mention it. We still pretend as if it never happened. I wonder if her sons even remember the happening.

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