Balogun

WORK

"Sometimes you don't realize your own strength until you come face to face with your greatest weakness."
        – Susan Gale

"Courage isn't having the strength to go on -it is going on when you don't have strength."
        —Napoleon Bonaparte

xXx

Murewa dressed slowly; his black ensemble, a physical representation of the dark mood he was in.

He heard a rustle behind him, an indication that Jamal was still waiting and he buttoned up his shirt with a sigh before turning to the door.

"Ready? We don't want to be late," Jamal said with a small smile.
Murewa nodded once and followed him out of the room.

The hallway was busy, but very quiet and all the servants walking the hall were dressed in black.

Murewa could hear the solemn melody of a trumpet being played as he walked down the stairs with Jamal.

As he reached the down floor, the melody became very loud and deafening, he couldn't hear any other thing but the sad, lilting tones.
Who was playing such a sad song?

Immediately Murewa stepped out through the entry way, he came to an abrupt stop.

Muyiwa's coffin was placed on a brightly colored pedestal, with a bright poster with his picture on it. The name Muyiwa Adeola was splashed boldly across the poster and on every other banner people were carrying.

It made Murewa wonder if the people had made the correlation that Muyiwa was answering the Royal Adeola name.

The crowd wasn't much, but it was a highly emotional crowd and Murewa figured it was the effect of the depressing tune the trumpeter was playing.
The recruits were huddled together in a corner, holding up a banner of Muyiwa, their shoulders shaking as they cried.

The level twos to fours were in their uniform, huddled in little groups around the compound.

Overall, the arrangement was very lovely and Muyiwa turned to Jamal.
This couldn't have been possible without him.

"Jamal, thank you," he said quietly as he walked down the little steps that took him into the compound.

"It's alright. Let's get this started."

Murewa just hung back and let Jamal handle everything.
He was so surprised with the amount of care and energy Jamal had put into the planning, but what surprised him most was how Jamal managed to find the time to do it, seeing that they were always together.

The coffin was finally opened and the recruits went first.
They each held a bunch of flowers which they placed on top of the coffin.
This went on for almost an hour.

After the recruits, Jamal went to pay his last respects.
He was standing there, looking into the coffin for a long time and Murewa wondered what he was doing, so he walked up to stand beside him.

"The embalmer did a good job." Jamal patted Murewa's shoulder and then left him alone.

Murewa sighed and tuned all the noise out till it was just him and his little brother.
The body was slightly swollen, but asides that, Jamal was right. The embalmer had done a good job, Muyiwa looked just like he was sleeping.

Murewa smiled, shifting all the guilt and pain and finding a common ground within him.
He could lie to everyone else, but he couldn't lie to himself. And that alone was a big relief.

He had liked Muyiwa a lot.
He didn't know why or how, but the affection had been there.
Though, they had never sat down to have funny conversations or just laughed or talked like brothers, Murewa knew it wasn't his fault.