Spilled Blood

by A. Achaka

  Dead in the night she dozed off on the chair beside him, and was having a dream, that his hand was on her head touching her hair, she was enjoying it and was singing to him suddenly her eyes went open, as she thought she heard someone talking and when she raised her head up, his hand fell to the bed from her head, she was still confused because his eyes were still closed, when he moved his hand again she jump to her feet unknowingly the reach for it saying “Thank you Jesus”

  “I thought you have gone home” he muttered under his breath, she could not scream but tears fall from her eyes and laughing

  “I thought you are leaving me” with crying under her voice, which refused to come out, he slowly open his eyes and tried to speak but coughed “Please just rest we will talk more’ she rushed out and called a nurse who went and called a doctor, they came in and the doctor examined him with some question that he said he should nod to answer it.

  After the check up, he was asked to rest for a while, he will feel better in the morning and they left, he kept his eyes on her until he felt dizzy and fell asleep.

  His children came in as early as six o’clock on the news, but he had not waking up from sleep yet, and they dare not tell Diana to go and rest at home, She neglected their words, she would stay with her love, they tease with the word lover girl and laughed, they are like one big happy family still talking when they heard the word

  “Can’t no body ever sleep in peace” they turn in excitement, as their dad was fully awake and was trying to seat up, when they stop him, Ahmed ran out and called the nurse that his father was awake.

  The news had gotten to the barracks and around there wasn’t space come afternoon in the ward, people came visiting to greet and to rejoice that he had survived a bullet in the chest though they said that was not the first time he was being hit by a bullet, may be he was just a lucky man as some would say cheating death for the second time in his life, but he should probably be careful for next one but he said the third won’t do him any harm.

  He was discharge two days later, with influence about the case but the doctors said he should be closly monitored and he should be hindered from doing hard things for now he agreed but as soon as he got home the next day he sneaked out of the house and went for work.

  At the office he tried as much to settle what he could do, then hand over the rest to Ahmed to continue because the hardest has been done. Ahmad called the commissioner of police to inform him of the captured criminal and to his surprise even before he could see them the commissioner was on the television making a victory statement it was then he realise why the commander was treating him like a child, he even feels a sudden hate for the police force entirely calling them a bunch of show offs. The commander had left the office some minute after two and got home to find Diana at the sitting room, she kept her face on the television pretending she had not noticed him, he knows better than to disturbed her because he would receive the biggest snob, so he walk past to the bed room and changed and remain there.

  His children came back and saw his car they hurried to his room and found him on the bed reading a news paper he bought

  “Daddy, do you know how she cried today?” Aisha said, He droped the newspaper and sat up right

  “You won’t understand this case has been sloved already but they are waiting for me to proceed all i did was to finanlised and give the go ahead, i feel like am reatired already, because this is my last mission, before i say my good by to uniform”

  “But you should at least explain it to her, before you go, knowing that you just came out yesterday” Ahmed spoke up

  “What should i do? I just passed without saying a word to her” they were all surprised their dad had never asked any one that question before

  “Well you are the dad, you should know what to do” Ahmed said and left the room while Aisha was sitted by his side

  “You have to be honest to her, just tell her the truth and expect the worst” She also got up and left the room, He climb down from the bed and just about to go out, when both of them on the door, her face was full with tears

  “Baby am sorry” he was trying to hold her but she walk past him, he turnd and closed the door “I know you will not allow me to go, even if it tell you” he had never felt guilty in his life about doing something but this time, he was feeling very much guilty and very sorry for her, she turned and look at him

  “Did you try” she was crying now “You got me all scared, the bullet shot was enough to send one crazy and now this, what have i done to you” she bursted into a full cry and buried her face in her palm, he move closer to her and gathered her into his arms

  “You have done nothing wrong, please stop crying, i will explain everything” suddenly she stopped crying and was wiping her tears with her hands “These case has been solved already, it was just a document i just nedded to sign and hand over the case to its owner, i am no more needed again” she raised her head and looked at him

  “You haven’t given me a reason to believe you, because that document can be brought to you at home to sign, you just want to punish me” tears has gathered in her eyes again, he has totally forgotten that she was not an illiterate, he just felt tired and concided

  “To tell the truth, i just missed it, i will retire soon and i want to put everything in order before i leave, am sorry”

  “That’s better, please I hate losing people, i have lost enough, please help me” she buried her head on his chest

  “I promised, i will be with you at home till you let me go” she raised her face and smile at him and they kissed.,

  The document was handed to the police and the prisioners as well, they were advised never to allow them remain in the same prison least they disappear as the last time but the military men kept Seth at the request he had made.

  The next day, after the transfer of the criminal the news had circulate the country at large and the picture of the thirteen people caught and the picture of two people who were caught with the daughters of the late deputy speaker.

  A summit was orginized after a month and the commander was given an awards of excellence and strategic planning followed by his retirement from the military service. His children and Diana had organized a retirement party of the centuary attended by almost all of collegues and many more, his biography was read and history given, and He was such an honoured man with dignity and respect. It was actually a surprise to him they had planned it, all behind his back when everything has been set, he was invited as prank that his son had been captured as a hostage and he should come for negotiation, he never played with his children lives, He was very furious and hurriedly went to for the unseen negoitition, only for the story to be different.

  His speech was written for him by his daughter and narrated the whole prank issue it, which make it more fun. After the briefing, was the party and dinner that was only for the young once he and his love had long gone home, he was telling her how surprised he was and happy that he would now settle down and enjoy his life with her, when they got home he asked her to wait in the sitting room while he goes in and came back, a slow music was paying in the background, he came out of the room wearing only boxers and a tie, when he appeard she started laughing, because he looked very funny but when he came to her, he place one of his knees on the floor and up his head to look at her, she was breathing heavily and her eyes filled with tears when he brought one of his hand out from the back it was a small box, he opened it to her then the tears had started flowing out of her eyes already

  “Diana, you have brought me so much happiness and joy in my life, since i have known you, will you do me the honour of being my bride” she could not help it but cry and shook her head in acceptance

  “Yes, yes, yes yes, I love you” she stretched her hand and he put the ring in it then roused up on his feet and kissed her and they went inside.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  Two month in police custody I was already a friend to a man named Gideon, I have written songs and poems and
even started writting a novel, no one had visited me except for Gideons friends Erica, i recall her as Emmanuella’s sister, she begged me not to reveal who Gideon was, I recognised him from the incident but since we became aquinted I have no reason to say a thing. The place was a dead end, the only time we get to see outside was when we were taken out to be totured.

  I have even forgotten I knew somebody like Emmanuella since her younger sister could come to visit why won’t she. My body was covered with heat rash and mosquito bites, and the cold had form a thick layer on me, that i don’t feel it any more, I only reharse my poems and my songs to my friend alone and newest family which was Gideon. The guards had stop supplying me paper to continue the novel, so I just majour on freestlye in there, beside none of my family had set his foot there to visit me.

  A month later i was appointed a lawyer, there has never been a court session for once but now i had a lawyer, i never knew what is it about the system, i was getting fed up in there, when the lawyer came he told me my account was frozen as well.

  I got sick one time and no one paid any attention to me or made an effort to take me to the infirmary, i was struggling with it, sometimes get beaten with my condition, for not carrying out my duty. I recovered on my own. The lawyer said that the bullet wound in my arm, was taken as when the army were shooting at us in the forest, when i adopted the girl.

  Since the first four times the lawyer came, he had not shown his face again until eventually when the case came up in the court. In the night before the court case, i had a dream i was locked in a jungle bars, a cage in the jungle and monkeys were jumping and laughing at me, I woke up confused and found Gideon fully awake to, I told him I had a dream and he also told me the same and it was funny how our dreams were the same only, his were people and mine was monkeys laughing at me.

  We were taken to the court the next day, i looked around for any one i could recognised but found none not even my family or Emmanuella, I felt like the whole world had left me to die and get rotten on my own, then come the stupied lawyer who was telling me to plead guilty, so that they came make an appeal, I refused to plead guilty, which makes the case worse. The judge himself was angry with my lawyer and I was sentence to twenty-five years in prison on the charge of kidnapped while Gideon got one year term because his lawyer was a real deal as they called it.

  After the case brfore i was arraing, i got angry and punched my lawyer on the face “What the worst that could happened” I felt the world empty for me, no body for me, i started questioning my creator, I was the one that save the girl but I was in to spent a misearable years with them.

  My first day at the Jos state prison got me into a fight with a man, he was the first to approached me after the beating, I received before giving a room from the guard, I wasn’t walking properly my left hip bone was hit by a batten that got me limping into the square, where everybody relaxed. It was more like what I watch in the television, the exercise zone had been caged with a direct path into the pens or cell as they call it.

  I got in in my fresh uniform limping, when a young thick man average in height approached me and pushed me, I almost fell but turn around, he was not there he was walking deep into the excerse zone I followed him behind, every one was just watching what will happen. One thing i told myself i wouldn’t want to be tossed in there and the anger i held could kill a lion, although i don’t know how they do things in Nigerian prison, I followed him to a bench when he settled down, i was in his face and straight to the face, I land a punch and straight he went to the ground and jump on him, I got this advantage and kept him on the ground punching him, before I could do anything my hand was suspended in the air by another person who punched me in the face, and i fell on the other guy and was struggling to get up when a batten got my head, the pain kept me on the ground the only thing I remembered i was dragged out.

  The first month in the Plateau state prison, the name Sam no longer exist but i was called Pino-x my stage name, I have a friend as young as i am probably the only young people in there, his name was Benjamin but we call him Killer, most of the activities we run together Pino and killer was the title when we pass by.

  It all started one night, they informed us there will be a free show for the inmates, everything was set but the people never showed up, it was the first time actually something like that had happened, so to make it interesting I asked one of the guard if I could perform, at first he laughed at me until the second one heard what I asked him by then the inmates were angry for the event, so he agree I should go on, he got a beat for me in his cell phone and was attached through an aux and soo was up there, the inmates were seriously booing, then i started rapping and the whole place got quiet as they listen to me, even the warden came out to see who it was, I got there attention since the first night and the susquent that was when i knew killer.

  In there it is easy not to notice someone because everyone was looking out for himself and mine since the first fight i had with that guy brought me up to speed with respect, i run my thing with no disturbance, I saw him rapping at one corner alone, when someone passes by he keeps quiet, then i approached him and told him I like his rapping

  “No, its nothing i was just playing around”

  “Yea i know me too, but it will be good when we do it together on stage” he looked at me in disbelieve but i encourage him that it will be fine, from there we started reharsing together, i write for us and we reharse, he told me he was in for murder, he killed a man that raped his sister, it just took me back to the bush when I knock that man to death for trying to rape Emmanuella.

  Our first show together was organised by some group of people which say they do prision evengalism to reached out to educate and show love to inmtes, when the sermon and theirs were over, the inmantes started screaming out my name and the gurads allowed me to come up, which we went up with Killer, we killed it as they will say, so since then it was Pino and killer together.

  Our fame got intense thet we are taken to the officers mess and we performed it was more like, i was geting more acceptance now that i was a prisoner.

  I was doing well before i decided to leave home, but it wasn’t paying any bills for me, so i took a decision to go for the big one that’s exactly where i was caught up to. The warden even promised that we are going to be given an opportunity to record a song and if it is good enough we will be going to other prisions to perform. When the music thing was going on well I abandoned the book for a while and was concentrating on writing more songs, and poems which was going on well until, one day we wake up and found Killer dead.

  He was been strangled to dead, i felt like my world has come to an end, the only friend I had since no body care to visit me or show their concern, I retire from writing music to writing the book with pain in my heart.

  The whole inmates felt it, since I stopped performing even with the threat to pin his murder on my head I refused to comply, I had lost interest in it compelety.

  Deep in the third month, it was reported that his cell mate did it, they were arguing and everything went dirty, but I think there was more to it, he was trying to tell me something every time we are together but some one keeps up interrupting, i wander what it was but never got to hear it till his death.

  We watched the firing squad giving to the murderers of dupity speaker, I never saw Gideon who was among them, He got away with it. I just lost interest in everything, i get into more fight even when i don’t want to, more inmantes where trooping in and the number kept on increasing but my novel has become my companion, I wrote and wrote until my hands felt like not mine.

  I turn into a solo monster inside the prison, no one big or small threaten me and go free, i turned wild fighting well to get respect and keep me from being some ones boy, instead of Pino-x they call me the monster, I beat out a man almost dead with no remorse or feelings for no one, I felt myself being hunted by demons I invited into my life, i felt the dark inside growing. If blood won’t flow it wasn’t worth fighting for it and
my dreams became terrible, i never find my self it was always a nightmare.

  Five months int prision, i was isolated and kept in a different cell, where I don’t get to see the sun, or another person to hurt, I feed on the dark talking to myself all the time my nightmare hunt me, sleeping has become a commodity, I was willing to buy, I kept myself reading and writing all the time and anytime I step out i feel like i was a new born baby in boundage, i was constantly kept in chains both hands and feet, it felt like i don’t know me any more, I always cried myself all throught the night, yet there was no peace from where i stand.

  I was dining with the shadows with a short spoon but couldn’t get caught, I have forgotten the way out, I never prayed and my hands were disfigured from punching the walls.

  Evey day I tried every thing possible to see blood either nime or anyone’s to keep me calm. Then one night towards the end of my fifth month, I had a dream and I saw myself in a deep dark pit wide enough to fit my body I couldn’t turn to either side, I was stuck in there, my feet were tired of standing and i can’t bend. Then i was covered by a ray of light, it shine hard on me, it almost got me blinded, i heard my self screming “Help me please” then my body started lifting up but my shoulders were hurting and bringing out blood from the brushing, until i got almost out of the pit. My eyes were kept shut because the light was really blinging and finally I felt something liquid with my feet, i tried to open my eyes but it was still bright and I heard a voice

  “Open your eyes am here to help you” the voice sound familiar, so i slowly open my eyes and I sprang up from the bed sweating with my shoulders hurting and bleeding, I never had any idea of time but it was still dark my joy was that I finally slept at least for once but the dream was what I never got to understand until the next day.

  It was the first day i was taken to the infamary and bandage my shoulder and hands, I was looking like a dejected man, my hair has grown tall and beard all over my face. No body talks to me in fact, I was still in chains and always in the company of guards when I come out.