Alacrimia | √

Chapter Five

07:56 pm, September 6,
Kogi State.

The first most interesting thing since she'd arrived at the damn village happened to her today. She had been feeling bored, Taiwo had gone to visit a friend and it was too late for Lastborn to still be at their place and she'd slyly avoided the village children, not interested in talking to anyone. She'd been taking bored pictures with her digital camera but even with the camera's flash and her batterry-powered torch , the pictures still came out dark. There had been power outage since afternoon and Taiwo was not around to turn on the generator, much to her grandmother's disgruntlement. Also, there was nothing breathtaking worthy of being photographed, especially in this gloomy darkness.

So there she was, seated on a bench on the porch, armed against mosquitoes in a long sleeved T-shirt, long denim trousers, socks, and, of course, mosquito repellent. Gratefully, it was cold in the nights (although it was just early in September).

Bored, she went back to sit on the bench and munched on one of the boiled maize Grandma had given her before coming outside. Abado, the older woman had called it in Yoruba.

Everywhere was relatively quiet save for the deafening chirping of the unceremonious cricket choir and a house or two that had their generator on. Eniiyi was sure this deafening sounds, coupled with the blindness were going to kill her very soon, if nothing else would. It was a wonder the village children were not deaf and blind, having to squint and strain their eyes on black nights. Why, the poor girl had never been exposed to this ear-bleeding noises before, both the generator and the choir's. It made her wish she'd added earplugs to her luggage, Mommy did have a packet of them at home.

Through the murky darkness she could make out a large yellow eye staring at her and she jumped, it was making this most dreadful noise as it moved closer. She stood up from the bench, camera hanging from her neck, flashlight turned off, maize forgotten, scared.

'Grandma?' she whispered shakily, afraid the yellow-eyed monster would pinpoint her exact location with her voice. 'Grandma.' Her voice was a little louder now, nevertheless a whisper, and insistent. She fumbled blindly for the door handle, not daring to turn around to get it for fear of having herself at a disadvantage.

Just when she found the door handle, she started to hear voices and then the bark of a laughter coming from the side of the stealthily approaching monster and in surprise she took a closer look and realized, to her dismay, that she knew exactly what the yellow-eyed monster was. When the first wave of fear had creeped over her, she'd lost all rational reasoning. Because why else had she not realized that the monster was, in fact, an approaching motorcycle with yellow headlight? Maybe because she'd never seen one at night and in the dark before. She was not even sure she'd seen one up-close-and-personal. The dreadful noise was the sound of the engine.

Soon, as if to confirm it really was a motorcycle and not a monster, she started breathing in exhaust gas and she coughed, fanning away the invisible carbon monoxide.

And it was a wonder how the villagers hadn't died from air pollution.

The motorcycle — popularly called machine or ọ̀kadà by the people — had stopped in front of Grandma's compound, she realized. She turned on the torch and watched a tall man dismount the motorcycle and hand the motorcycle rider what she presumed to be transport fair. There was a little chat between them, and then the motorcycle moved off, leaving the choke of it's exhaust in it's wake. The tall man adjusted the strap of his oddly shaped bag over his shoulder and turned towards the porch, towards the light.

Even though knowing it was rude, Eniiyi raised the beam to the stranger's face, she had to know who was coming to her G.ma's house, the man immediately shaded his eyes with his free hand and squinted, but the girl had seen who it was.