It had been two weeks since the night Mrs Anene was stabbed and strangled, Dr Christy surprisingly was a young woman whom except for her voice, was very feminine,

she was dark skinned and beautiful in a subtle way, and the top of my head only stopped around her biceps.

She had a commanding presence. She had come that night, while she checked the wounds, I also took a look at it.

There was broken flesh right under her left collar bone. She didn't have any stab wounds any where else. She said she felt the person stab her in the stomach. But the skin on her stomach was unharmed.

I couldn't stop Wondering why the person attacked her and left her alive, If their intention was to kill her.

Doctor Christy had insisted on taking her to her hospital, apparently she was a close friend to Mrs Anene, and aside from the general hospital where she worked, she owned a private practice.

Mrs Anene was refusing to go. But Dr Christy won mostly because I helped her carry Mrs Anene to her car despite her weak protests.

So for the past two weeks, I've been burning all my savings on food and alcohol. I couldn't wait for my suspension to be over , my bank account was blinking red already the month had ended and my salary hadn't been paid, since I was on indefinite suspension.

I was standing in the market, dressed in brown combat shorts and an oversized sky blue tee shirt that I kidnapped from Chizzy and black undersized slippers that actually belonged to my neighbor mummy John, but she had left it at my house after she slept over one time when her husband locked her out of their house, and since she never came back for it I never returned it, and if I didn't tuck the Hem of the shirt in, the tee shirt would stop below my knees.

So needless to say, I was dressed so haphazardly, breaking chunks of sugarcane into my mouth and chewing and sucking the juice loudly, while trying to purchase beans and pepper.

This was how I usually looked whenever I went broke.

" Salama Dennis" a voice called me from behind I turned sharply only to find Chizzy and a young well dressed man, walking up to me.oh my God, why do I always turn the moment I hear my name? I turn back to see the quantity of beans the teenager selling the beans was giving me.

" Bros, add jara abeg" I chided, he looked up to me and smiled

" Aunty you were not looking ,I added jara for you, nearly half measure sef" I glared at him just in case he was lying, then he fetched a little more beans and added to my black nylon, I gave him the money and he gave me my change before I turned back to Chizzy and the young man who were near me already.

" So you're still alive" Chizzy asked.

I know, I felt guilty for neglecting her calls all this while. I never picked her calls since the day I fought with Steve. And she had given me almost a hundred missed calls and a good number of texts. It was good that she didn't exactly know my house, she would have gone there to attack me.

" Why weren't you picking my calls?". She asked, I go to answer and she interjects

"Two freaking weeks Sally, two freaking weeks, you fight with Steve, disappear from work, and you don't pick mine or anyone's call's, what is wrong with you? If I didn't find you in this market.... And why the effing eff do you look homeless?"

She was frowning hard and looking down at me from the black ancient hair net on my head to the dry tears that coated the outer corner of my eyes, but I didn't care to wash before coming to the market, down to my exposed legs that were as white as chalk, I hadn't moisturized them in days.

I didn't really feel embarrassed about them until the young man with her laughed while keeping his eyes on me. I eyed him

" I'm sorry for not picking your calls" was all I could manage to say.

I had been too ashamed of my actions to want to talk to anyone from work. Most especially her. Even though I knew she would be understanding moreover that whole day was a nightmare for me from the beginning to the end of it. I didn't want to relive it by explaining anything to anyone.

" That's all you can say?" She asks while looking deep into my eyes. I really wanted to respond but when I'm broke, it doesn't just affect my dress sense, it affects my sense and sensibility in general.

She grabbed the guys arm and walked away from me. I broke another chunk of the sugarcane in my hand and loudly sucked in the sweet juice that leaked into my mouth as I chewed. And tried to find pepper to buy.

I got home and tried to insert my key into the keyhole, but instead, the door creaked open and I froze.

For goodness sake, was I the only one with a door? why isn't anyone else suffering from buglers. It wasn't even 2pm already and some bold faced thief already was in my house. Why else would a door I locked before going out, be open? .

I thought of going to call mummy John to accompany me into the house in case the buglers were still inside . But I knew mummy John, she would just ignore me. She didn't like me at all. After thinking for a while, I decided to go in. If I perish, I perish.

I have no money to live for anyways
I tip toed into the house, clutching my nylon to me, my house smelt like a decaying animal. From that smell alone I could already guess who my intruder was, so I relaxed a little, hoping to find another evidence. I got to the door of my bathroom and there, right outside the door, was a pair of silver coloured sandals, a black jean and a red top. Strewn.

I dropped the beans. I knew who my intruder was.

So I snatched the door of my bathroom open and there she was, seated on the pink water system in all her naked glory was my sister, the only person I know in this world who has to be naked before she can excrete.

"What Is the meaning of this Daria Dennis? Who asked you to enter my house without informing me?"

It was a miracle I didn't die from the smell while opening my mouth to speak

"Please abeg go out and close the door. When did the government put restrictions on using your toilet" she frowned. Did this girl just talk to me like that? I didn't have time to stay and process my sisters rudeness, I ran out to get a bit of fresh air.

The smell of her shit was always so suffocating. After taking in enough air to last for two to three minutes I walked back in briskly. And opened all windows wide. I went out and sat at the verandah, leaving the door open so that my house wouldn't explode from the smell.

Mummy John my neighbor, walked past me , in her stay at home clothes but spiced up with dark sun glasses as she walked with a white plastic bucket to the lines where we usually dried our clothes. I shook my head as I noticed her limp. Looks like her husband is home again.

Minutes later, Daria was at the door dressed only in her inner wears.

"Madam, come inside the smell is gone" .
I waited a few more minutes before going inside, she was sitting on my brown couch balancing a plastic tray of the beans I just bought on her lap as she picked it. Daria wasn't the type of person to willingly do manual labor for anyone, unless she was trying to butter you up before asking for huge favors.

"I don't have money oh" I told her, just in case that was what she wanted. It was what she wanted most times.

"You don't have to tell me you always look like a hungry ghost whenever you're broke" she said without looking up at me.

" Thank God you know. So what brought you here.?" Now that question had her snapping her head up sharply to look at me.

"Was there an announcement on the radio that your house is off limits to me?"

"Can you just give me a straight answer? What are you doing here why are you not in school?"

" Don't you work in a radio station, you should be the first person to know that universities are on strike"

"Again? Since when" I asked. It wasn't an uncommon thing for public universities to be on strike here in Nigeria, less than a year ago, she had spent four months at home, all thanks to the government refusing to pay the lecturers and the lecturers, refusing to teach unless they were paid.

"Last week, but I only left school today, you won't believe the stampede that took place, they asked task force to come and force us out of the hostels"

" But why would they force you guys out of the hostels? "

Daria kept the tray of beans beside her, getting up to demonstrate and

" Hmm you don't even that they came and shot at us, even though it was rubber bullets, but it injured people, my friend Erdoo, the thing got her on the arm. It injured her eh, they threw teargas , Sally that thing is peppery I swear I wasn't seeing road, I couldn't breathe, if you had seen the way we were running eh" she shook her head while erupting into laughter .

This was shocking to me
" Why are you laughing? Go and sit down before you run mad here"

I didn't even know why she was laughing "Were you injured?" I grabbed her arm inspecting it, she pulled it back

"No serious injuries, only this" she turned her elbow for me to see bruises "from when I fell when they released tear gas and I couldn't see"

I stood up inspecting the rest of her body incase of any other injury. After seeing that all was good, I went laid back on the couch, but it was all too confusing

"Why would they ask task force to come in and shoot you guys and even drop tear gas when you were just in the hostel?"

She looked at me questioningly.

"Sally, do you still work at the radio station at all? Didn't you hear the news about the students protest we held? That thing was all over the news. I even saw myself on TV."

"Wait, you guys were protesting?"

"No, we were dancing shaku shaku.. but seriously, it was a peaceful protest at first, then yesterday some students decided that the peaceful protest wasn't working so they came out en masse and decided to block the express way in front of the school, and since it's a major road and it was causing a serious ruckus in town, they sent soldiers to come and talk to us and.."

I jumped up from the couch Did she just say 'us?'

"you were part of those who blocked the road? Daria have I not told you to stay away from any form of conflict in school that thing can affect your future"

"Jesus! Sally calm down, they already blocked the road, my friends and I only went there later later to see what was happening, it's not like we were the ones holding the barricade on the road"

"But still" I was raising my voice now.

I didn't want to, a few hours ago, I thought I didn't have the strength or energy for anything, but here I was, already beginning to yell.

Where did the strength come from? My sister's idiocy thats for sure.

"What is wrong with you? If your name enters the schools black book do you know what they will do to you? Have you forgotten how hard it was for you to get admission into that school, it took you three years , three years of nearly running mad from beeing at home, and then you decide to join this?"

" See calm down now, I wasn't the one who blocked the road. After we saw what was happening, we left me and Erdo. We didn't know that they refused to free the road untill this morning after the task force people had exhausted all manners of peaceful negotiations with the students, we were in the hostel when they came and started announcing that we should all leave the hostel, before we knew anything, we were already doused in teargas and bullets were flying every where. My name couldn't have entered any color of book because I wasn't even there"

"You just said you saw yourself on TV"

"I only saw the cap I was wearing yesterday nau, nobody will even recognize my face. Just calm down" she walked back and carried the tray of beans trying to avoid my laser eyes.

" Instead of you to be thankful that the bullet didn't hit me in my eye or that I didn't die, you're looking at me as if I was the barricade that they put on the road"

"I wish the bullet hit your eye, so that you will learn lesson"

I hissed and sat back in the couch

"just go and cook that beans please. Im hungry". She walked away silently.

God knows my heart froze when I heard bullets and teargas, I couldn't express my relief for her safety, I didn't want her thinking it was okay to be caught in the middle of such protests,

Two guys, Terry and Dareng fellow students from my time in uni, Terry was our department's comedian , were arrested during such a protest, Darengs father managed to bail him out a month later, he had to pay three times our school fees for vandalized school property, and still clean up the school, but Terry, Terry never got out last year, a classmate of mine, during our sets reunion, told us he had been moved from police cell to prison.

He had no one to fight for him, it has been four years now, it bothered me that Daria saw this as nothing. My stomach growled reminding me of my hunger. I decided to go take my bath to while away time before the food would be ready.

I slid my feet into my slippers, turned the TV channel to MTV base, turned up the whole volume so that my apartment would feel like a night club, I catwalked my way to the bathroom to Camilla cabello and Charlie puth's senorita, singing along trying to put a lid over the worries Daria had caused to spring up in my mind.

I was still in the bathroom rinsing off foam from the walls when Nicki Minaj's chun-li came on,. I knew the rap lyrics word for word but I had never seen the video.

Abandoning my bathroom, I dashed off naked to the sitting room, Daria had told me earlier that she was going to buy some vegetables for the beans, so I was alone and, this wasn't an uncommon thing for me to do, I squealed at the TV happily until someone behind me shouted

"woah",

I turned back so fast, almost slipping off since my slippers were still wet, my heart beating all over my body, And I realized I spoke too soon. I was not alone in the house. That Shimba guy who had broken into my house some time ago, was seated on my couch, staring at my nakedness,

"Why did you come in here naked?" He asked. I quickly ran back into my room, without bothering to cream my body, I shoved my self into a jumpsuit, and sat on my bed, to regain as I heard him reduce the volume of my tv. I punched my bed so many times And went back to the sitting room

"What are you doing in my house again? What is your problem with breaking into my house? How dare you even-"

"Can you just, calm down Fenty"

"I will slap you if you call me Fenty, now get up and leave" I stretched my arm, showing him the door, he stood up from the couch.
"I did not break into your house"

"Get out" . So that I can burn well well in my embarrassment and anger

"You can shout all you want, but im not leaving. I didn't break into your house, your twin let me in"

My twin keh?. I want to grab his arm and drag him out, but that would be over kill.
"Why would you just come into somebody's house like this? What do you even want? Was it a crime to help you? Was it? I feel like it was"

" See, im just here to offer you again, the set of couches I made for you, David said to let you cool off for a while before bringing it again. You know you need it, your couch squeaks Everytime someone sits on it"

Oh my God! Help me. Help me Jesus. I don't want to be a murderer but someone is pushing me. I move from one feet to the other, agitated. I decide to take deep breaths and calm down, before I traumatize Daria with a dead body.

"My couch is none of your business. Thank you for your offer, Please leave my house."

I patted myself on the back, that was good, that was a mature way to handle it Sally. You cannot do wrestling smack down on everyone and every situation sally. You're growing Sally.

"That's fine." He smirks as he sits and looks at me from head to toe,almost as if he was still seeing me naked I was about to ask him to leave

" Let me take you out for lunch"
I was shocked. This guy was a new type of mental illness and I have he displeasure of meeting him

"Please get up and leave. I don't know what's going on in your sick mind but please, don't let me loose my temper"
"Has anyone ever told you that you are dramatic"

" Has anyone ever told you that you're a disgusting douchebag?" I didn't mean to go that far, but I did. Maybe I meant to. But his brows immediately came together. He was offended

"I was only telling you the truth, and, I didn't do anything wrong, your sister let me in. I didn't ask you to run in here naked, you did, i really want to show gratitude to you for helping me that night I brought a set of couches, you rejected them im asking for you to come to lunch with me, so that I can thank you properly. But you're calling me a disgusting douchebag."

" I didn't ask you to thank me did I?"

"No you didn't. But thank you still.and I am sorry, ". He got up and walked out of my house, as I had wanted, but not without making me feel bad about it. He's crazy. I perceive a strong smell of something burning.i gasp My beans!

A/N :. Okay I have never written any of these before and I don't know if anyone wants to hear my rambling, but. In my school days, we had a protest similar to what Daria experienced. It was interesting, they played drums in the middle of the road where we the students were crowded and yes. 🙈I danced happily, my friends bought drinks and shared for us while other students were drenching staff members in water. I happily watched, till the day teargas and rubber bullets permeated the air. I thought I was going to die. Honestly those rubber bullets being shot sounded exactly like actual bullets and at that time we didn't even know they were rubber, I packed my bags and baggages and ran for my sweet life.
Sorry if this was too long but... I love you😘😘 oh! Stay away from protests they're truely dangerous