in the rise of the dark

spittle of the rock

Nigerians have this attitude of adding up idea to solving a physicians equation, instead of allowing the equation be solved by the professional. Like history had it that when a certain ailment Ebola struck the world, Nigerians brokered among themselves that, the cure of Ebola was  bathing with a bucket of water mixed with one cup of salt, and before one could scream mama, the price of salt hit the roof, skyrocketing beyond the reach of an average citizen. And also when a certain pandemic bedeviled the world they also said that the cure is the sun, when you feed on the sun regularly, the covid19 will be far away from you. At the end they concluded, that because of the weather being always naturally hot, the news of the pandemic being in Nigeria is fake, and so ignorantly many joined the land of the great beyond, because of what others had caused the cost of their lives. Some a time, the prize of having over educated people if not sanitized, is these that they do. Just like the common saying, that every Nigerian is a football coach, Nigeria is so much into football that most people claim to know more than any coach of their team, as far as such coach's team can concede a goal, and if by chance lose a match, he is in trouble, and the worst of all is, if his team lose a match and did not play a entertaining match.
So we woke up the next day to the news, we have to mix our water with an alkaline soluble, with an ammonia presence, before bathing, to avoid contacting this new dreaded disease. My father will not have any of such cock and bull story, and asked that we immediately to our home town, while we do, the gullible bought handsomely this liquid substance. To sum it up, it was also said that one will have consume a local gin otherwise known as kain-kain, mixed with lime. As soon as we set out to continue with the journey, after exiting the hotel. It was then that we realized that this young ailment has become more popular than anything. Right right from the doorstep of the hotel we encountered the child's play of what was actually happening outside. A woman met with us offering us the readily prepared concoction, as my father called it.
- who knows what and is contained in that poison they are displaying -
What is more serious is the name on the bottle. ( THE UNKNOWN mixture). My dad told the man that we've had ours, not only so, we do also have in our luggage some for tomorrow. Just when we thought we have escaped a clown, we stepped out of the hotel to be met with a circus, the street was flooded with, different bottles and different sizes, different colours and different types, different names and different hawkers, but how on earth did and why at all did the hotel management decided and concluded among themselves to allow anyone with such a  thing come into the premises. Well probably they succumbed to a demand by some funny fellow to allow it.
My dad has been communicating with my cousin Ike to come to Lagos, so to pick us up. And because of the way things are the past hours, he lodged at a hotel there in Ikeja, and when we were freed to continued with our journey, he called Ike to come pick us up. There are series of names to suggest to you that all this drugs are all but a lambastes false, from, know the unknown mixture, to the unknown is known mixture, you better know the unknown mixture, the unknown knows the unknown mixture, I know the unknown mixture, the unknown knows mixture, knowing the unknown mixture, that is to mention but a few. One will be gullibly forced to believe, because they all have the same common ingredients, which are, kain-kain, and lime liquid, and the only difference is whatever the individual decided to add after kain-kain and lime. Trust my father in such as this discovery, he'll want to know more, he took time out to go through the bottles label, before Ike arrived. Naturally in Nigerian market, when they found such a person out, they distant them from their goods, but my dad kept telling them that he is looking for the one that is mixed with taw'am. The first person he said that to was subjectively lost, because I busted into a sharp laughter, at the same time, Sarahdina threw up saliva, gasping for air, while baba screamed aloud, and was like.
- what! Mr Samuel, you didn't just pull that stunt -
- am sorry I did, if didn't who will ? Nigerians are too wise, you need to yourself a serpent to get around them, if not, sorry is your case -
-But taw'am? -
- yes baba, they must show me Somadina and Sarahdina, the taw'am, in their ingredients, before I purchase from them any of this their, home grown poison -
We were flabbergasted, by babu's stunt, as baba put it stunt. Baba, is more than ten years older than babu, according to what babu told me, and st that, he some a times calls him baba, it was actually from babu that I learned calling Sarahdina's father baba, and not to be st a lost call my father babu, they both are of the same meaning anyways.
My dad, have this phobia for flying, whatever they calls that, and would seize at any slight excuse to avoid flying, if not we could have board a flight to Imo state, instead of sending for Ike to come pick us.
Maybe my dad would have bought a bottle of one of those substance, if not that he weary a lot about anything that has to do with drug. You can't blame him, his wife did not just die as a result of the fact that she was sick. After the burial which was done under 24hours as was instructed by the hospital in Morocco, sighting a poisonous decay may erupt, and at such avoiding a major disaster, her burial took place almost immediately. My dad returned to Morocco with all the drugs as was instructed by her doctor, where they were able to detect some foul plays, three of the drug were fake, and to make matters worse, the penicillin was a complete mess, the supposed capsule was empty, and at the time it's the major drug for the treatment.
The hospital, and almost everybody encouraged my dad to sue the hospital, but he did not, arguing that the woman have been down for many years, and thus should be allowed to rest on well. So whenever it's drug, babu is the most careful.
The journey to Ede my home town is quite a long one, and because we did not sleep the better part of the night, I woke up myself from my position at the front seat, to discover that every other person but Ike have slept off. Baba, threw his head backward on the seat, releasing small air and snoring, his mouth left open, forming a egg shape, Sarahdina, resting her head on babu's lap lying sideways, and my dad hanging his left hand on the seat, his right hand on Sarahdina, and his head unbelievably straight, I don't know how he does that, sleeping. The Jeep's air-conditioning was superb, and did it's work perfectly well. I looked at Ike and discovers his eyes red, and asked him what's happening, why his eyes are stone red, and stuttered some freaking awkward to me answer.
- the news said while you guys are asleep that 2.3 million people died yesterday -
I gave him this look that I don't still get it, I told him that his eyes are heavily red, then he offered me a bottle with a inscription on it, oyinbo unknown mixture. I was disappointed, someone close to me fell for those charlatans, he told me that he bought two bottles, so that everyone would have enough, but he was reserved to offering it to us when he found out that we are indifferent about it, and knowing his uncle, Samuel, that is my father, he would say ancient and model to him, if he found such with him. He threw the remaining content off the window, at my demand, and it began to happen, Ike began to stool at every opportunity given by his anus, hours later he was shrinking, we all became worried, his energy draining, my dad has to take over the handling of the wheels. We all were worried, and asking him what he ate last night. And because he begged me not to tell my dad I kept my cool, and Ike was going, you could tell that he is dying as he is drying up. My dad had to branch in a hospital when we got to Asaba, they accepted him to our surprise, because he looked gone, so pale, and stale like. Before we know it government officials arrived from nowhere, the hospital management had called them, and being a well respected hospital, they all arrived in their numbers. It created big tension, and people began to cry, the unknown has entered the country, by the next minute while seating in the hospital reception watching the news, report came in that the first victim of the unknown in Nigeria is found in Nigeria, then the number start to increase, but when I told my dad what I found with Ike, a angered man narrated it to the hospital about the substance and all that surround it, then his treatment changed, Ike, began to recover, the government officials, and media houses, who had come to witness first hand, the six o'clock chain reaction of the victims of this the unknown sickness, were totally disappointed, some media houses have build tents, analyzing the situation of things, both what they saw and that they did not see, asking people what they expect to see, the government officials made sure to overtake and run every shows with the media houses some already claiming, that they helped in detecting it, a politician claimed that, he was at the hospital to visit a helpless widow who's child was sick, when he saw the man, and pointed him out to a doctor, because he was showing symptoms of the unknown, right there we could see transfers made to various media houses to air whatever a moneybag has to say, how incompetence and unprofessional people are, though some were just there, others reporting the right thing, but most making quick money. None, but about very few, I think three of them, came to us to actually verify from us, what happened, how it all began, when we told them, they did not stay up to ten minutes and left. Others were surprise they are leaving such a selling story. At about 8am the next morning we left the barrage of human, set up there, without them knowing it that, what brought them is leaving, some were just looking on, and a lady did say it, pointing at Ike, that this one looks like someone who have the ailment, because of how shrunk he looks. There's this believe that anybody looking shrink is sick, but this new sickness you'll look normal but not okay, your senses will just be coming on and going off. Though, Ike is recovering, but series of death was reported in and around Lagos. When Ike asked that my dad stopped, we panicked.
- should we go back? -
- no! I just want to pee -
Few minutes after crossing the Niger bridge, the breaking news was that a vaccine was discovered, and ready few hours after it was discovered, that the ailment was a chemical reaction of the ozone layer being weak. The report also said that over ten million people died over the night, and that the world mourns them. There's this great joy around the world international bodies and governments of the world donating handsomely, so that the vaccine could go round the world to everybody, in the next 72 hours, we arrived at Ede-ukwu to the warm embrace of everybody. People gathered in our compound, and the main topic was what we went through in the hand of Ike, and there's this general conception about how a vaccine has been found. But it all turned out to be a spittle from rock.