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Essays, Writers

Revenge List by Emmanuel Enaku.

  The night is thick and hot. The sounds made by owls, insects and other creatures of the night seem to have an ominous rhythm about it. All around, evil hangs heavily in the air and breaths down with sinister energy on Kocy Nku’s neck. Kocy Nku’s eyes blazes with wicked intents as he moves through the darkness with deliberate stealth and calculated steps. He is dressed in tight fitting black jacket, black baggy jeans and black combat boots. A hood extends from his jacket and covers his whole head, completely overshadowing his face. He is a huge man. His hands are huge and covered in thick black gloves and in his right hand is a huge glinting wicked knife. As he makes his way through a lobby, Kocy Nku is aware of his accelerated breathing and the thumping sounds made by his chest as his heart pumps blood through his veins. His eyes darts swiftly in the darkness, analyzing his environment and looking out for any form of movement and possible threats. Kocy Nku, is on a mission, howbeit, a dark one. Following a mental direction based on the house plan he had studied the day before and committed into memory, Kocy Nku makes a left and moves to the end of the hall where he stops in front of a black wooden door. He reaches carefully for the door knob and turns it slowly but the door does not open and he grimaces in the darkness. Kocy Nku puts the dagger away and takes out two needle-like metal instruments from his pocket which he uses on the keyhole of the door.  He works for a while, applying pressure on the metal tools held firmly in the fingers of both hands and then, the door gives a subtle ‘’click’’ sound as it unlocks. As the door opens, Kocy Nku takes out the dagger from its scabbard and approaches the bed in the centre of the room with lithe steps. And in the same room, just above Kocy Nku’s head is a pair of demonic catlike rheumy eyes; huge and evil, glowing with a terrible sickening amber coloration as they watch the approach of Kocy Nku with evident hatred and wicked malice. Dada Balogun gets up from his bed with a worried expression. He is a handsome man with a neatly cut thick black hair and well kept beards. He is in an expensive tunic and there is a bracelet made of cowries on the wrist of his right hand. He takes a look at the wall fitted mirror to the right of his huge bedroom and makes a sudden but swift movement with his right hand and his mouths moves rapidly as he incantates inaudibly and then, quite suddenly, the mirror gives a series of ominous sounds and becomes cloudy as thick black smoke emanates from it. And when the smoke clears, there is an image on it. It is the image of Kocy Nku moving stealthily in the darkness with the sharp dagger raised above his head. There is a swift movement of kocy Nku’s hand and the dagger slices through the throat of the lady beneath the duvet of the expensive bed, spilling thick blood. The mirror turns crimson and Dada Balogun has a single tear rolling down his right cheek. His eyes are closed and his body bristles as rage seeps through him and when he opens his eyes, he is no longer handsome. His eyes are red orbs that projects blue flames and fire burst out of his mouth as he incantates wildly. His voice is mechanical and ancient, painfully abrasive in the ears and there is nothing human about him now. Dada Balogun points a stiff finger at the mirror and says in that horrible voice; “I WILL SIFT YOU AS WHEAT!” And then, without warning, he levitates into the air and when he takes his hand down, the mirror cracks into eight uniform zig-zag pieces and crashes to the thick marbled floor. Kocy Nku opens his door and walks in dejectedly. He is obviously affected by the heartlessness of his action. It is his first kill. True, Kocy Nku is a hardened criminal but had only engaged in smart-stealing and burglary on establishments with high state-of-the-art security system, missions seemingly impossible to accomplish and which earned him the name “invisible man” in his circles but killing was what Chief Okonkwo Edoche had wanted and the price tag on the mission was very attractive. Kocy shakes his head to rid it of the gruesome image of the lifeless lady with the bleeding throat playing in his head. She was beautiful even in the darkness of the room. Omolara was the name chief Okonkwo had given him but the chief had kept the reason for wanting her dead from him. Kocy Nku sighs. And then, he takes out his handset and dials a number. “Yes, my boy?”  The gruff voice from the other end of the line says. “The job is done, send the balance”, Kocy says briefly with an icy voice and cuts the call. He tosses the phone on the cupboard to the right of his, rather scattered, room and reaches for a bottle of whiskey on the side table of his bed. He takes a deep draw from the bottle, tosses two pills into his mouth and swallows. The luminous clock above the head of Kocy’s bed strikes 1:00AM. There are horrible evil sounds playing underneath the bed and Kocy Nku is having a terrible nightmare. There is a man dressed in red tunic and holding a red tusk in Kocy Nku’s dream. He beckons to Kocy Nku and leads him to the dining table where there is a serving of pounded-yam and “egusi” soup in small calabashes. “Eat”, he says to Kocy Nku with a smile but his eye holds a wicked glint. Kocy Nku takes the first lump and it is the most delicious food he has ever tasted.

Essays, Writers

My Priority List by Esther Oluwatuyi.

  It was so early to be on a queue that was similar to the one which led me to a state of pain and regret the last time I had to stand with some others who had same outfits as mine. I waited impatiently, having no idea why a queue was created in the first place. One thing I sensed around the corner was discomfort- a painful discomfort. I tried asking some others whom I thought knew the reason for the queue. No one said a word, but the expressions on their faces spoke in a way I understood, as that was my facial expression too. Although we were all on queue for same reason, some still had entirely different faces from ours, some were calm, and some others were strong and hard, sort of. Not too long after my questions, Mr. Tony came around, and in his hands was the object known to cause the pain we feared- the cane. “Oh! no!”, I exclaimed. “Not this time”, I cried. I was still recovering from the brain-touching, painful strokes he gave the previous week, and here I was waiting to receive more. Now, the reason for the queue became not just known, but clear: his assignment was long over-due and after several pleas, he reduced the intensity of our punishment- according to him, extended the deadline for submission, and then, we still did not meet-up. Maybe the queue was actually needed. Okay! Whatever was going to happen, I just was not ready to get flogged- at all. Something had to happen and yes! – At that very instance. So the chase began. I had left the line to run for my tender back as the flogging started. Soon after, I noticed some prefects running too and, of course, they were after me. I was so sure Mr. Tony did not join the chase because he was the one using the cane, but somehow, my next turn around the school compound ended the chase as my Physics teacher, Mr. Tony grabbed my arm, ready to use some Newtonian-physics laws on me with the object in his hand, and then I jumped out of bed. “Phhewww! Thank God”, I said, holding my arm. It was a dream, and so much fear gripped me. It seemed like I had escaped, but in milli-seconds, it dawned on me that I just saw the future. Thoughts ran through my head so quickly. “His assignment”, I screamed. It was Friday morning and I had way less than two hours to prepare for school. My parents were on a family and business trip. My prep for school included my two little twin siblings as I was the oldest of four.  My immediate younger sister could handle herself so, I had to get three students prepared for school- counting me. I stood, trying to prioritize my morning activities. I could not even sit, and then I recalled a quote by Mark Twain which my dad usually gave whenever he was not happy with our attitudes: ‘if you want to change the future, you must change what you’re doing in the present’. Just then, I recognized that I could change my future which I had just seen by changing my priority in the present. I needed to work out something. I picked up my physics books, tried working out the exercises, as I thought of my other activities. I did all those unsettled. As secondary school students, we refer to our homework as assignments, and we were made to understand that they improve academic skills as they were designed to reinforce what students had already learned, and increase knowledge too. In a way, those were true facts about assignments, but as my knowledge of physics increased that morning, so did my anxiety. Some hours earlier- late last night, I had dozed off as I worked on my Maths and Economics assignment, that was after I had coordinated and assisted my younger siblings with their assignments, asides the chores and issues I had to sort out at home.  One shocking scene I witnessed much later that day was the complaint a concerned parent came to lay as regards these same assignments. The parent complained that her ward was not given enough assignments to hinder him from playing video-games, and there I was, knowing fully well that grades from homework were just for the books we took home- they never reflected in our overall grades, I wished I had less or no assignments from school, especially from Mr. Tony. Back then, our teachers reiterated their researched-facts that researchers had proven that teenage students who spent somewhat more time on homework generally had higher grades than students who spent less time on homework. What we never knew was that same researchers also proved that very high amounts of homework caused students’ academic performance to worsen. As regards the question which I have always wanted to provide a positive answer to- ‘should teachers give less assignments to students?’, I have come to understand that there are several factors to consider and it is a good thing that results of homework studies vary based on multiple factors, such as age group and the measure of academic performance. Considering my life as a student, during the time I recalled earlier, another factor I would love to add is the set of activities on my priority list.   Esther Oluwatuyi wrote in from aniketuyi@gmail.com

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