The thing about 'loose-ends’ is that, no matter how much you might seem to tighten them, 'loose ends’ will forever be loose ends. The only metaphor that qualifies my life is something I often describe with a 'rope’, at the beginning of its life it was a strong long rope, but over the past few years, I can see my life fading away, the string getting shorter by every pull, getting weaker by the day. It seemed to me as if my life was as though a tug of war battle between God and the Devil, and it seems to me that the current stage my life has gotten, the devil was winning, the cause of the war, I had no idea.
(Present-day)
I could hear the many crickets, the cries of other prisoners in this wretched prison cell. I could barely sleep as the mosquitoes feasted on my flesh, for every bite of the mosquito I could feel my blood being sucked out, there was no point trying to smack them anymore, I just sat there, allowing them to do their worst, I’ve finally resigned my fate, such horrible fate. It was pitch black here, and I was alone in the cell, it’s the second day already, my last cellmate was a 12-year old boy who I heard was charged with stealing his master’s money, the boy had been almost unconscious when I was brought in, he just laid there, breathing slowly, I suppose from numerous torture bouts, his fingers losing nails as I could see, till they came to a while ago and whisked him off, the officer said to me sternly, ‘You’re next.’ Not that I still understood what crime I was charged with, but always I feared and wondered the worst possible things that could happen to me here, some of these things sending shivers down my spine. I had dozed a bit, when I heard the keys rattle, in fear I jolted up and saw two ragged policemen approach me, I protested asking to be let go, a dirty blow landed across my face, followed by another slap, I saw stars, and fell to the hard floor. I was grabbed by each arm by the two police officers, into a poorly lit room, I was seated on a metal stool, my hands and legs chained to the floor, the officers flanked me on both sides, and then the lights were switch-on, standing before me, was the DPO from 10 years ago, a wicked grin across his face.
(30 years ago)
Typical love stories usually have two separate plots; the Prince Charming always runs away with the princess charming. They live happily ever after, or the second; Always end in the tragedy.
Bolatito wasn’t the kind of lady, you might fool with flowers or few cocky lines of bad poetry, she was a realist who believed that for love to find you, you also have to be equally ready for love, but when she met, James, she wasn’t prepared for love, James was the kind of guy that takes over anywhere he went just by his presence alone, he didn’t need to say any words or do anything, he just needed to sigh alone. Girls fell love-struck for him, that wasn’t the same for Bolatito. Instead, the reverse was the case, she had caught him staring at her, across the aisle in the university library, which made her uncomfortable, so she went to confront him, and sway him off, but by the time she was a few metres away from him, her shoe heel betrayed her. She could feel herself falling on the floor, but James was there in time to help her, from falling.
For the next few seconds, they both stared at each other’s eyes, buried in a million thoughts, while in each other's arms. The whole library was silent, with several loud faces, watching what had just happened as if they saw a cliché scene off a romantic soap-opera. Bolatito was so embarrassed that she stomped out of the library angrily holding the bad shoe in hand, but by the time she went back to the library they went back in together, this time she was already laughing sheepishly like a schoolgirl, who has just been asked out to prom.
By the time Bolatito could get any control of herself, she had already fallen totally in love with James, but to preserve her dignity, James fell in love, first. By their second date, Bolatito couldn’t wait to gist her best friend Uche all about James, but unknown to her, Uche didn’t want to be her best friend. Instead, he wanted to be her lover, but to his utter dismay, she had fallen for his godforsaken older step-brother and arch-rival. He had been nurturing his crush for Bolatito for years, hoping it blossoms into a beautiful love story, but she had always said ‘No’ to him, but still, he persisted. They became inseparable and now his brother James had come to steal her from him like he stole everything else from him. Now the battle line was drawn on the sand, and he was done playing nice, it was time to play dirty and cunningly. He was determined to break them off.
To Bolatito, James was the perfect man, he had everything she had ever imagined a lover having, and their chemistry was the one of a kind which made him absolute ideal person, sometimes she also found herself daydreaming about their future, for someone who didn’t believe in fairy tales she was sure living in one. But she had just one problem, which was convincing Uche, James was the best man for her, the day she told Uche about them, he had been enraged although it wasn’t her fault, because she did not know the bad blood that existed between both of them. But she was optimistic that after talking it out with him the second time he’d come through, and reason things from her perspective, they had been best friends for years. She genuinely cherished their friendship, although she never saw the company evolving into something other than that. But Uche was persistent, and she had thought it wise, to better make him a more intimate friend than a lover, Uche was a great guy, but he didn’t just have the spark that existed between herself and James.
Uche never trusted his brother, to him, Bolatito was just another 'register’ to mark in his step-brother’s book of many girls. He had tried talking her out of it. Still, of course, his charm had worked on her, correctly, the smooth talker, the handsome one and the intelligent one, he, on the other hand, was always in his shadow, which made everyone feel he was jealous of him, whenever he tried pointing out how cunning James was, even when he attempted to reasoning things out with James about his relationship with Bolatito, the conversation had metamorphosed into a full-blown argument which ended in both of them exchanging a few blows.
A family meeting was called, as usual, Uche became the antagonist, the envious little brother. Even Bolatito wouldn’t hear him out, James had managed to convince her that he had mental problems and he would ruin their relationship, right now, she avoided him. That was so hurtful because even after he lost everything to James if he didn’t act fast, he was going to lose Bolatito too. He got a tip from one of his drinking partners who was frat buddy with James as it wasn’t a new thing that James was aiming to lead the fraternity by the year’s end. Uche figured out the only way to know James true intentions was to fish out one of his closest allies and use it against him, but this particular ally came willingly, he had drinking problems; which made him spill all his secrets when drunk, so that evening while they drank Uche made sure he made him as drunk as possible, then began asking him questions, that night he figured out one truth, in the words of his drinking partner; 'James needs to bed a young virgin, and she must be in love with him, that way she uses her virginity to cleanse him before he emerges as the president.’ He couldn’t believe his ears, as he ran off, to tell Bolatito what he had just heard, but by the time he got to her place it was too late, she had already been with James.
The sex with James was different because he was her first everything, that night while they laid on the bed naked, he had made a promise to her that he was never going to leave her. That night she slept with her head on his chest, listening to his heartbeat, she had the weirdest of dreams, a young boy on a life raft, alone on the sea, he looked scared and alone then she saw a shark swim towards him, then she saw another till several sharks surrounded the boy she saw herself on shore screaming at the boy to paddle fast, she tried running towards the sea, but a firm arm held her, she tried continuing screaming, till she couldn’t feel her voice anymore; still the arm was firmly around me, the sharks had already begun tearing the raft and just as the child was about, to be eaten by a vast shark she woke up. That night she saw a letter on her bed lamp, from James, he was gone.
A few months after, their son was born.
(Present day)
Bolatito was still asleep when her phone jolted her awake, and she glanced around to be sure what was wrong, she was having this dream again, the same one she had been having for the past 30 years, no one seemed to know the answer to the dream. She suddenly reached her phone, and on the 3rd ring, she grudgingly picked and sighed into the receiver, 'Hello who is this?’ The next words she heard jolted her wide awake, she felt her throat dry instantly, 'Mummy help me, please.’
(Police-Station) Present
After what seemed like endless days of torture, for the crime in which I had no hand in, the police officers finally allowed me place two calls, after I promised them under duress that I was going to confess if they allowed me the call, I had to take the gamble because I was sure the officers weren’t ready to let me off the hook, they needed a confession, something they can use to lock me in forever, there wasn’t any tooI that wasn’t used to torture me, but still I remained and reaffirmed my innocence, which infuriated them the most, they exhausted all their physical torturing skills and moved to mental and psychological manipulation. AlthoughI didn’t break because I wasn’t guilty.
Then I began making my demands, and I was weak, I knew my body was about to collapse, so when my wish was granted, I had to call the two people I trusted the most, my mother and Isaac, both seemed alarmed at what had happened, and promised to come to my aid swiftly, against the wishes of the officers to tell them where I was held, but I was ready to face the punishment for that, at least everyone knew where I was. The last thing I saw before I shut my eyes that night was more like a dream, or illusion, I saw a young boy, on a raft among several sharks, the only weird thing about the dream was that the boy was me.
(3 days ago-Almost midnight)
You might be wondering how I found myself in a police station. But I must assure you that it wasn’t my own doing let me tell you exactly how it happened. The night of the fight between Simbi and Iya-Toheeb, I left home. I began to wander about, at first I just wanted to clear my mind, because I was disgusted by what my life had just turned into, a mother and daughter fighting because of the selfishness I inflicted on both, I had walked several miles without even noticing where I was when I began to hear gunshots, at first I thought it was a car tyre burst or probably knockouts as it was just a few days to Christmas. Still, the continuous gunshots didn’t seem like knockouts or car tyres, so I decided to find a place to hide, inside an incomplete building, so when the shots reduced I would navigate myself back home, it was apparent that I was lost. I dozed off for a few minutes when I began dreaming about the sea again, a young boy on a raft, trying to paddle through sharks but as I was to see his face, I saw a bright light followed by a deafening slap. Before I knew what was going on, I was whisked into a police car, and I couldn’t even say any words because all I could feel were blows and slaps, till we got to the station. When we got to the station the officers pushed me behind the counter, told me to strip my clothes to my underwear and handed me a sheet of paper to write on it, ‘I was caught for armed robbery.’
Please, what's this character's name?? How can one person be so unlucky