_Tega_

He went back to work. Finally after what seemed like ages, the carpenter put his son to sleep. The little boy was asleep on a mat at the rear end of his workshop.

He used his wife's spare wrapper to cover the child to prevent him from mosquitoe bites.

He had made an order for more wood for his workshop. Even in the quarantine period, his carpentering business was still thriving pretty well. He needed to go and direct the truck drivers to his workshop. They had previously called his cell saying that they were on their way.

The carpenter told his close neighbor to keep an eye on his son while he made his way to the truck drivers.

The weather had changed rapidly, the wind was billowing furiously, carrying gusts of sand that were stinging his eyes. The wind was howling, chilling him. But part of the chill didn't come from the wind.

A voice kept telling him to go back, but he was pushing against the wind.

"Turn back Gbenga.." said the voice. "Turn back before it's too late."

He felt it before he heard it. He hadn't gone too far away, when he heard the wires that were connected to the concrete poles that lined the streets cut.

He evaded a falling one on time. It sparked as it hit the ground.

The feeling of dread came over him again.

"Run!" It said.

He got there in time. The pole a stone throw away from his workshop was falling.

"Tega." He gasped.

And then, he ran like the wind.

|'|'|

_The Devil_

They had just been back from the movies. The screening time had been delayed. They had booked for a movie by two so that they could be back by four, but the movie was delayed till three.

The quarantine protocols were the cause. They had to make sure everyone wore their masks and had a normal temperature. They left by five plus a thirty minutes drive back home. They were exhausted.

The kids and his wife's sister were already fast asleep. She was in the bathroom.

He thought of going to join her, but he remembered that he had planned it all.

His glorious exit from his world. His world were he was king. Where everything worked according to his plan.

Where every woman was his slave, his toy.

The others never really did fit being his queen, just mere things for him to practice with till he gained perfection in his art.

His mother had been his first test subject. He remembered that day like it was yesterday.

••••

"Mama, I want to wear masquerade for the mmawu gbudu festival." He had said.

"Mba, Uche. We members of the Okorobia clan do not do mmawu dance." His mother replied.

When repeated his wish, he was rewarded a hot, stinging slap. He went to his hut in tears that would not stop flowing.

Wiping the tears furiously, he decided he would go anyway, against his mother's wish.

He hid himself well as he made his way to the village square. It was bustling with excitement. Masquerades of different shapes and sizes were displaying one crazy, wild unbelievable act or another.

Eze urie(the one with the rotten teeth), Mgbeke (prostitute), and the òkònkò.

Men filed in and out. In Igboland, women were not allowed to be around during the masquerade festivals, so there was none in sight. If any were, they hid themselves well to avoid being flogged (sometimes to death) by the masquerades.

He made his way to the Mgba dike.

The mmawu that was feared by all.

Everyone ran for their dear lives when the Mgba dike was in action. One swing of his cutlass and you're gone. He also held a cane in the other hand.

It seemed that fate meant for it to happen because the wearer was absent.

As he put on the masquerade, his world changed. His life changed. He went wild, flogging anyone on his path, climbing palm trees without harnesses, challenging Eze urie.

Then, he saw her. His mother. Then she was just like any other woman.

Irrelevant.

He flogged her. She tried to run. He wiped out again.

On went the cycle. The devil was loving it, loving seeing her shout, thrash and cry.

The thrill...it was exhilarating.

••••

She came out breaking his reminisce.

With her, he would be slow. He would make sure he savoured every second.

He would end with her.

|'|'|

_Mama Chisom_

Mrs Nneka had to stay at the isolation centre. After she had collapsed she couldn't remember a thing.

She had woken up to see a tube connected to her hand that was connected to a drip. She got up with a start.

She was in a hospital gown on a hospital bed. She heard someone sobbing by her side. It was Chisom.

He looked up startled when he saw her. His eyes were red from too much crying. He wore a mask.

"Mama,jiri a nwanyo." he said trying to get her to lie down.

"Take it easy please." He repeated with a plea in his voice.

"Why....why am I here?"she had said.

"Mama please....." Chisom started.

"Maka?" She repeated.

"You collapsed mama. I came back and saw you on the floor." He said in a broken voice.

Then, it all came back to her. The unbearable pain. It was like a sword in her chest. Her fears had come true.

She gasped in pain.

"Mama!" Chisom said in alarm. He laid her down.

She drifted.

••••

The other two had flown in from Lagos. Approximately an hour's flight. They came to see her the next day.

Chisom did not leave her bedside. Chidi, her first born son and Uloma, her one and only daughter, had left their busy lives in Lagos to come be with her.

She didn't want this. She didn't want to be on this bed, looking at her children's sad eyes, her children's tearful eyes.

Who would be there to love them when she was gone? The doctors refused to attend to her for fear of contacting what she had.

They had to tear Chisom away from her. He couldn't stay with her.

"I want to stay!" He had protested. "I want to stay with my mother!"

"You could risk contacting the virus!" They said speaking reason.

"I don't care!" He spat. She had tears in her eyes as she heard his screams float to her through the halls. All joy was being taken away from her.

Then, Chidi came in wearing a mask and rubber gloves.

"Why didn't you tell us, Mama?" He asked hurtfully.

"We could have gotten you here earlier and..we could have..saved.." He was fighting back tears.

'It wouldn't have made any difference' she thought. They hardly attended to them. She inhaled deeply. Every single breath had become a challenge. An oxygen tank had been placed by her bedside.

"I love you... I love you my children so much..I just wish I had more time." She said tears flowing freely. She drifted off again. She heard Chidi scream for the nurse.

All she could do was drift in and out of sleep.

Sometimes, she saw Uloma, head bent, crying. Sometimes Chisom, sometimes all three of them and sometimes, none of them were around. This was one of those times.

It was dawn. She woke up. She tried to rise, but a pain so brutal shot through her. She relaxed.

'Why?' she thought.

'Why me?' hot tears exited from her eyes.

The pain was getting stronger, overpowering her. She remembered everything and nothing. She remembered her husband, the love of her life. He was beckoning to her, telling her to come, to come to him on the other side. Paradise.

She wanted to go, wanted to be free of this suffering, but she was fighting.

'My children, they need me. Chisom still needs a mother. Uloma couldn't have the responsibility on her head. She would never see Chidi bring home a wife. They need me. I need them.'

She felt herself slipping. Where were the nurses and doctors?.

She was slipping.

She was hurting.

Then, she heard a voice.

Calm, serene, loving, fatherly.

"Rest.." the voice said. A calm she had never felt before radiated from it.

"Rest, my child."

And then she closed her eyes, and slept with a smile on her face.

|'|'|

_Chinenye's Pain_

She had stayed in Lagos for a week now. She was lodging at Eko Hotel on Victoria Island.

She had gone to everywhere someone on a vacation in the city would go; Lekki Beach, Four Points by Sheraton, Nigerian National Museum in Onikan, Fela Shrine, everywhere. All, were places she had been before.

She had just finished having her bath. She sat on the bed and looked warily around the well decorated and furnished room.

Chineye thought that if she travelled enough, saw the world enough, the pain and hurt would go away. She thought that if she travelled, she would forget, she would heal.

That if she travelled, the ugly truth wouldn't catch up with her. But, it was always there. The loss she had suffered, the pain she had gone through, made her close up like a shell.

Her relatives that acted like they still cared, said that she needed love. But who would love her as cold, mean and distant she had become? She shed tears of pain, the pain of remembering the past.

She had been a lively girl once, when she was younger, when she was loved. Full of surprises and joy and laughter. Yes, she had been able to laugh then.

Then, her life was free and happy, devoid of sorrow. Until tragedy struck.

She lost both her parents in a ghastly car accident. They died on the spot.

Being the only child, she had no one to share her suffering and loss with. Her relatives didn't help matters, all they cared about was who and who her father's fortune went to. Unfortunately for them, she got it all. No one could get to her, she buried herself in despair.

Only her best and only friend Adora.

In those days, Adora had been her rock the only thing stopping her from ending it all. She had a sense of humor that could make her forget everything that happened.

But then, she left too. Everyone was leaving her.

Sometimes during those days, she sat in her bathroom, the tears flowing freely, wondering what the hell was wrong with her.

She had tried to kill herself several times, but her housekeeper always found her.

She had only one thing left to do. She threw herself into her studies. She never went to parties or clubs, she had lost her power of association. When she had left school, she started her trip around the world.

She scarcely visited home. She spent her money with trifle things trying to find pleasure and purpose, but it never worked.

At the end, she was still that sad, little, lost girl.

She still was.