Doctor Richard kept haunting me with missed calls. I kept suffering insomnia and over time, I developed the habit of stealing. I stole when my money got exhausted. My money got exhausted but my appetite didn't.
I was already in need of food like I was an ulcer patient. So I had to steal to feed since my green account was dependent on when Deacon Obi or Brother Solomon were in the mood.
I continued smoking weed and Chalk. I had no choice because I soon discovered I couldn't go a day without it. And Chalk? I couldn't study for my exams without it.
Dianne continued to isolate herself, moving about with her hood, acting sad yet humble. I continued to chase after Lotanna. In the toilet, at the back of the school or at his house.
There was a time I smoked so much weed that I blacked out. After what seemed like hours, I woke up to a rain of cold water! It was the hood girl!
"Please! Please! I have left your brother...!"
The hood girl began to hit me. Slowly, I began to recognize where I was. I was able to notice that I wasn't in my room. I wasn't wearing any clothes. I was outside our gate, naked on by the gutters.
"Stand up!" Hood girl, which I finally recognized as Dianne, commanded.
I couldn't stand up. It was as if I had no legs!
"They've stolen my legs! They've stolen my legs! Help!" I began to cry, eyes shut. Dianne hit me continuously to stand up. I couldn't!
"You're making a fucking embarrassing scene, you fool!" she scowled, not for once stopping the continuous hitting. She even began to hit more powerfully!
"Stop!" I shouted at her.
"Stand up!" she ordered, slapping my naked body.
Vexed with frustration, I stood up. She threw a wrapper at me immediately to cover me up then left without saying anything.
With the corner of my eyes, I noticed that people had been watching us. Some were even taking videos. I hoped within me that my face had not appeared clearly in the videos.
***
"Your mother is still with my brother!" she hollered from the other end.
"He is the one holding her" I told her, fidgeting and sobbing.
I don't know how but she tugged onto my ear and it really hurt!
"Listen to me young lady and listen very good. Leave my brother alone or else...!"
"...I've left him alone. He doesn't want to leave us alone"
She pulled my ear even more.
"You have bewitched him!"
"Ah, no, ma'am. I swear, I didn't bewitch him"
She let my ear go. The hood girl appeared before me in a flash with a gun pointed to my face.
"Save your stories!" she advised.
I heard the shot and woke up with a start!
Nightmare!
I leaned my aching head on bed side wall, tired.
Weed!
With that, I reached for my bag, got my baby and began to sniff.
***
Insomnia, anxiety, insecurity was what governed me throughout both in the morning and in the night. I reacted to every slight touch or sound.
YOU ARE READING
Handling Grief
Teen Fiction"Leave me alone, Dianne!" I protested, shaking my cousin's hand off my shoulder. "Mirabel, I'm only trying to help. Think about it na. Your dad is dead and your mother is insane...!" "...my mother is not insane...!" I screamed at her, raising my pre...
