SILVER LINNING I

It was a stormy night, the darkness so thick one could almost feel it hovering in the air as if looking for someone to choke the life out of. It was difficult to see through it, the wind howled threatening to remove the roof from the head of the buildings, like a scared child the buildings quivered as if they could read its mind. It was the dirtiest part of the city, buildings stood in clusters, old and dirty with age. Due to the poor drainage waters from the houses emptied into the streets making them dirty and marshy even in dry season. As the rain came down heavily on the roof of the houses that night, the night became still, unlike the usual noisy night. It was as if the angel of death was passing through the night.

Kolapo adjusted the pile of clothes which he used as a pillow on his mother’s head, just then his mother went into a fit of cough, he raised her head so she could spit saliva with a taint of blood into a worn out bowl which was already filled to the quarter of it.

‘Mama sorry’, kolapo said as he raised her head to drink from an old and dirty plastic cup. Adunni nodded, and beckoned to her son to move closer. She said in a low voice almost in a whisper; 'kolapo, your children will take care of you too'.
‘Amen mama’, kolapo replied hurriedly
‘I’m sorry for not taking care of you as a mother should, hmmn' she sighed, 'but I want you to remember all I have taught you, even though I might not be around, you will always be a son I am proud of and almost importantly someone you’ll be proud of’.

‘Mama I promise to be all that you have taught me to be, but mama you will always be there for me’, he said in between sobs.
‘My son, do not cry always remember that there are better days ahead’.
Adunni coughed violently as kolapo raised her head to give her water, she gave one last cough that raked through her body then she went still. The cup fell from kolapo’s hand as he shook her violently, screaming, Mama, Mama, Mama.
He dashed outside like a mad man and ran to Mama Nkechi’s house their closest neighbor; he pounded heavily on her door.
Mama Nkechi stood close to the window and motioned to her children to keep quiet.
Kolapo pounded, screaming, 'Mama Nkechi please help my mother, she’s dying'. After a while he slumped to the ground and started crying silently exhausted he cried on and on, the rain beating heavily on him and washing away his tears like the only one that understands his pain. After a while he stood up and walked in a daze to his house, then got on the other side of the bed where his mother lay stiffly, wrapping her hands around himself he laid his head on her bosom hoping in his heart that she will wake up the next morning screaming his name on top of her voice scolding him for not waking up early with everything back to how they were, then he drifted off to sleep

As a blow hit him in his head he slumped to the dirty floor, then they began to kick him all over his body he raised his two hands to cover kicks to his face but it didn’t make any difference when he made no movement, they left him and went back to different corners of the dark cell. Kolapo lay sprawled on the floor becoming less conscious of his surrounding; a tear trickled down his right eye as he laid unable to move gradually sinking into oblivion.

The next day he woke up unable to open his eyes which was swollen from the beating, he tried to stand but a stab of pain to his ribs stopped him he moaned and laid still, preparing himself for the pain the second time he sat up the pain made him dizzy, he dragged himself to a corner his back against the wall then he closed his eyes trying very hard to fight the pain.

After the mother died, the landlord sent them away, homeless he took up petty jobs to feed himself and send himself to a public school. When he couldn’t afford the fee for his final exam in senior secondary school, he took a job at Mama Yetty’s beer parlour, loading and off loading crates of beer. Mama Yetty , a fat woman in her early fifties very popular in the area.
It was one hot afternoon, his stomach growled as he carried the crates of beer into the shop, it was the last round of crates, as two crates were lifted to his head, he balanced it as he was about to step into the shop, he staggered and lost his balance he held on tightly to the crates but his attempt was futile as he landed on fours, broken bottles flying everywhere its content spilled all over.
She screamed her eyes bulging from her fat face,  ‘yee ori mi o’ she said and started to rise from her chair.
By then kolapo had started to cry, his hands on his head, Mama Yetty gave him a sharp slap which sent him reeling, hitting his head on the wall.
Mama Yetty told her two of her workers to grab kolapo and take him to the police station instructing them to tell the officers to release him until he pays her debt or punish him severely.
Kolapo squirmed as he was being dragged away, he begged and cried at the same time all his pleas falling on deaf ears.

TO BE CONTINUED…………………