You Can See Them

6

I run inside as soon as Fiyin rounds the corner.

My heart beats as I complete the psalm.

Imagine that and the lord's prayer being the only thing you know in the bible. Don't even have nothing to hit the devil with if a battle comes about.

I walk past my mum who is sitting on the couch, just staring into space.

She doesn't even look up as I round the couch and enter my room. I break down and cry my eyes out on my bed.

The boy

A face hovers in my mind's eye

Who was he, tall handsome boy I should know, he must have come when my memory was all blurry, but what's his importance.

Two died.

I know this voice isn't talking about my family, It can't be my family, but the two who died are close to my heart, I know, but I'm sure the voice is not talking about them.

Dad and favour. Where are they. It can't be them, can it?

Sometimes I hear dad's voice. I never hear Favour's. Only dad's, but I never see him anyway.

There was so much. So much I didn't understand. The boy. The 2 who died. Dad. Favour. Grandma. Aunty Bolanle.

The cars. Why are we living in grandma's house. What's in the BQ, why's she here. Why's she carrying the opaque IV bag and the IV stand everywhere, I can't even see the fluid that's feeding into her veins.

What does she want.

Why me,

Why us.

We were friends in secondary school, in junior secondary, we were seat partners for a year. In senior secondary I sat behind her for a year. We used to be so close.

Why's she doing this to me and mine.

What is she doing to us?

I hear a stomp

Stomp

Stomp

It's coming from the floor above me.

I shiver and cover myself fully with my duvet. I cry myself to sleep.

**

I woke up in the evening. 5pm.

With my hands clutching the papers in my pockets I walk outside.

Mum is staring into space. In the same spot I left her.

I run out of the living room like I'm claustrophobic and I can't breathe anymore, I can't watch my mum just waste away there. She isn't even putting any more effort into keeping a pretence up for me.

I had to leave, I had to get help. I ran for the big black gate. I kept running. I kept running. I couldn't reach it.  It was like running in one spot, on a treadmill.

I try running saying the psalm 23. It doesn't work, It feels like something is trying to crawl up my throat. My throat closes as I choke on my psalm. I squeeze the papers in my pocket as tears run down my face.

I stop running.

I'm standing under the grey gloomy sky, at the end of the duplex. I don't know how I went backwards instead of forward.

I sigh and sit on the ground. I rest my back on the wall and face the damned storey building. Searching the windows for a sign of the girl.

I see what I'm searching for.

We stare at each other, saying nothing because we both know we're stuck. I pray she gets out alive. I pray I and my family do too. She doesn't even try to beg me or plead with me. She just stares. Her eyes dead and emotionless. Her expression blank.

We stay there, watching each other for hours.

7pm. I heard a stomp.

Her IV stand.

The girl hurriedly hides behind the curtain. I don't see her again.

I sigh.

Silence. I close my eyes and drift off against the wall.

When I wake up. It's 11pm.

I stand up, my body sore from the horrible sleeping position. I dust my behind and make for the house.

As I wobble like a drunk person. My hand in my pocket squeezing my paper. I hear a noise. The only noise in this dead silence.

I look up.

"Eni-". She whispers. It's her. The girl in the window. She just rounded the corner

She starts walking to me hurriedly, and like flash, the parasite and host appear. They block her from getting to me. She looks at me pleadingly, but she knows I'm helpless. If anything she's the one who's been with them for long, she's the one who should be helping me.

As they pull her and round the corner. She doesn't struggle, but I hear her sob right before the door that disappears and appears closes behind them.

"I'm sorry" I whisper.

I walk into my house.

My mum is fawning over Fiyin.

"Sit with us" Fiyin begs with a pout, more like commands. Her voice is cheerful. Mum laughs as if what she says is funny and agrees with her immediately.

I squeeze my papers harder and start muttering my psalm, but I sit anyway.

I just sit, and watch my mother fawn over her.

"..Thy rod and the staff, they comfort me..."

My mum giggles at something Fiyin said.

"My cup over flows-"

"I'm tired mummy, I feel weak, I'll see you tomorrow ma" Fiyin groans out and stands up. She looks at me and gives me a strained smile. She squints at my moving lips, which I stop immediately.

She turns and makes for the door.

"Surely, Goodness and mercies shall follow us..." I say smiling. It worked.

"You'll get tired soon" a soft voice rings out tiredly.

I look away from Fiyin's departing back to see who said that. Nobody is in the room. Just me and my mum. 

She isn't even looking at me. Just staring blankly at the wall.

She stands up to leave, and before she disappears behind her curtains, She repeats herself.

"You'll get tired soon"

"...all the days of our lives..."

**

980 words
4.9.2021
Shorter but well, we are coming to the end

Love,
LA.