CHAPTER 2
The sky becomes clearer and clearer revealing in my fathers compound Mr zakka, its nothing serious just some old stuffs littered everywhere; and old local wooden kitchen on the left side of the compound and then to the right its where we bath at least it looked like it i think! its the dawn of a new day and all i can do is pray that today God shows us his mercy but i cant help but think about how happy we use to be.
We don't used to have so much but at least we had the basic necessities; food, shelther, we wore good clothes, and we went to good schools e.t.c i remember what changed our story immediately of cause i cant forget somthing like that at least not so soon.
we were so happy, my mother and my father had a beautiful chemistry they said they were each others sweet heart in school, yes! they both went to school at least but because of the country wahala they were forced into farming, but they were not lazy people and they wanted the best for their children so farming they did happily. My paternal grandfather was a farmer himself so it was very easy for him besides he was the last child and also a boy so getting a farmland was the least of their worry as he inherited so much farmland from his father, My grandfather was one of the must wealthy people then in fan village of brakinladi LGA of plateau state, so you can see that we weren't really lacking much ranging from farm produce to livestock to a wide range of things. we must say life was good.
But like they say "good things don't last" It was on the 30th September, 2021, i was in school when i saw on social media that our village was being attacked. what! i shouted, i couldn't breath "my mottttthhhhheeer, myyyyy fatherrrrr, my brotherrrrr i said faintly; then my sister Feng was in school so its was safe to say she was safe! i picked up my phone and tried calling my fathers phone but to no avail, "am deaaaaad" i told my friend miracle but we fondly call her Mimi, mimi tried to convince that they are fine but i was sooooo scared. shortly i started getting calls from family and friends, that made me panicked even more.
"Please God help me" i mutttered please save my family, that attack lasted for at least 5hours with no help from security agencies even though our village was far from the town itself but at least someone should have showed up. our people were killed, injured, beaten, rapped, kidnapped; our houses, churches and schools were all burnt down.
The numbers of people that were killed kept on increasing but i still haven't been able to reach my parents, this was around 2am Nigerian time, i had made up my mind to go to brakinladi as soon as its dawn. i couldn't even close my eyes, i kept pacing up and down, left and right. "Please simi calm down" mimi kept on saying please.
As soon as it was 4am i went to take my bath as mimi encouraged, she said that would make me feel better but deep down i knew the only thing that was going to make me feel better was hearing from any of my parent; so i obliged her and i went to take my bath as soon as i went into the bathroom i just poured the whole water on my body and came back out, i could see the look on my friends face but i didn't even care at that point.
Anytime my phone rang, i would run to get it as though my life depended on it and yes it actually did! finally i got a call from our neighbor Ngo zere "hellllllooo simi your friend zere is gooooonnnnne theeyyy killed her, theyyyyy killlled my child she said crying and ended the call, i was dumbfounded i didn't know what to say seriously, was it the shock from hearing that my childhood friend was murdered? or the fact that i don't even know the fate of my mother, my father and my brother. "ohhhh Gooood" i said as i collapse into the hands of my friends at this point they were about 5 people in the room, some of our neighbors and friends that heard and showed up.
They rallied round me and helped me up, some of them suggested i called that woman back to hear if she had any information about my parents which i did but she didn't pick up. i suddenly saw on social media that buses were provided to go and bring people out of the village to brakinladi junction so i said we should all go there i was definitely sure i was going to get some information when i got there, so we all dressed up and headed out.
As the car drove from pla-poly to brakinladi that was like 30-40minutes drive all i was saying was "lord have mercy" am sure i said that like 200times or more. shortly we were almost at brakinladi, the smoke in the air, the people running halter-shelter looking for safety, injured people looking for medical help, some were dead already from lack of medical help. i almost passed out; if this was a dream i just wanted to wake up and never sleep again! seeing people i knew in so much pain broke not just my heart but my entire being.
"siiiiimmmmmmiiiiii" i heard a voice softly calling my name, "Niiiiriiiii" i shouted and jumped on him, he was laying on a mat with blood all over him; "are you okay" i said again with fear in my voice, were is muuuummmy and daddddyyyyy? i asked further with hope in my eyes, "your mother left him here and went looking for your father" said a woman i barely recognized because of how burnt her face was! "its okay babbby" i am here now i said, Only God knows how scared i was but i was trying to give my baby brother some assurance here; are you bleeding? are you hurt? what is wrong with you niiirrriii i said softly as i was try to check him out to see why he was bleeding but he said "its not my blood, its mummy's blood faintly! "its finnneeee" i assured him and held his hand because i seriously didn't know what to do, i just sat there holding my brothers hand and crying.
Another car had arrived and people were running to check if their family members were among, i couldn't leave Niri alone so i waited and was hoping that somehow a miracle could happened and my parents were going to be inside that same bus, fortunately for me my dad was among them as they had initially left the men to clear up what was remaining in our village, the taught of the world village being burnt down was my worst nightmare but at least let us reunite as a family first before thinking of any of that, i saw my mom struggling to meet my dad at a distance and i took a deep breath and said finally i had eyes on everyone even though i didnt know their situation at the moment.
My dad helped my mum to were myself and Niri were and we all hugged and cried at the same time but i wasn't the only one who showed up! feng did too. Now, what next? was the question on all of our faces, since we were left with nothing; no house, no food, no clothes, no money, absolutely nothing! this must be a dream but no it wasn't, it was our new reality.
My mummy who was injured quickly suggested we go to her own village Du which wasn't so far from brakinladi, after much hesitation from my daddy because apparently they don't like him and that was not a so good an idea at the moment but considering my mother and brother's condition something must be done so we all headed out to Du my maternal village.
Simi! simi! it was feng "mummy said you should come let's pray, "hmmmmmm" i took a deep breath snapped back form my taught and stood up to go inside, this whole thing happened 4years ago but for every single time i remember it was just like yesterday, at least now you know how we got stocked in this village with nothing of our own and now you also know my parent are so many things but they are not lazy! life happened to them like it can happen to anyone else.
"Lord please show us your mercy and heal our son" my father prayed "amen" we all chorused! prayer is something we don't joke with in this family, despite all the challenges life has thrown at us i don't know how my parent still remember to pray because i myself gets tired most times.