01:32 pm, September 7
Kogi State, Nigeria.

Eniiyi's shoulders slumped in dejection as she looked away from the computer screen she'd been staring at for fifty seconds. It wasn't as if they didn't deserve her anger towards them, she just couldn't help wishing it hadn't ended like that. She'd have loved to hear reassuring words from them after she was done venting. She sighed. Now she'd never get to see them again till October. What with Uncle Felix leaving in two days. This made her miss her poor tablet more.

'It's alright, don't cry now.' Her uncle pat her back.

She turned to glare fiercely at him. 'What makes you think I'd cry?' She stood up, slightly cheesed up.

'I'm going out.'

'Suit yourself, niece.' Uncle Felix was blasé about it but he looked amused.

The sun had managed to get hotter and more scorching than minutes ago when she left it. Even from beneath the shade of the porch. She winced, wishing she hadn't come out at all but she wasn't going to go back inside and face Uncle Felix's sickly sweet, annoying smile.

So she braced herself for the worst from the sun and stepped down from the porch.

Going to Lastborn's place was probably the best option, since she didn't know any other person close enough to go visit. So she went towards his house, hoping she'd catch him at home without his prick of a father.

She hadn't walked for five minutes when she noticed that her surroundings were unfamiliar. Yes, she didn't know many places in the village, Lastborn mostly took her around, but this place was definitely not where she'd seen before.

The smooth untarred road had given way to a scanty path with fluffs of short grass at irregular intervals. And ahead lay acres of forest. She turned around, there was actually a clear path leading away, so that must have been the way she'd come from.

'Gosh, how could I have missed my way?' She planted her palms on her waist and looked around, confused, and a little scared, though she wasn't ready to admit that second fact.

Thoughts flitted through her mind. What if she was really lost for good? No one would find her! Or . . . she gasped, what if she got childnapped?! In this kind of place, no one would find her! Or what I'd she was near those shrine things the children had told her of, where they keep idols?

She tried not to panic and started making her way back, creeped.

As she was retracing her steps, a wooden signboard with chalk scrawling captured her attention.

'Balo Alra . .' she tried to pronounce the wordings but she could hardly make out the smudged letters. But she did see one sign that was an arrow point to the right. She followed the arrow with her eyes. There was a footpath that stopped at the entrance of a cross-bamboo fence.

Okay, that signboard meant there were houses to that side, after all why else would someone put a signboard there? She could go that way and, hopefully, get directions back to the main road.

She reached the gate and tried to knock on it but it just swung in. Startled, she jumped back.

'Oh,' she said on noticing it was unbolted.

Should I go in? she asked herself. Was that really the wise thing to do? What if she was walking into the lion's den on her own with her own two legs. As a sensible child, she knew she shouldn't enter a strange place, but she had to get back, and this was the only place to turn to for help.

She mentally reprimanded herself for getting lost in her thoughts and subsequently, herself. Taking a deep breath to calm herself, she pushed open the wooden gate and peered in. Everywhere was dead quiet. So, she stepped in, holding her breath, waiting for a dog to spring on her for trespassing. And did she hate canines!

'Hello? Good afternoon?' she called out tentatively. 'Ẹ̀ káàsán,' she repeated in Yoruba.

Silence met her greeting.

She shrugged and stepped in completely and almost got the shock of her life when the gate slammed back into it's frame with a loud bang. It sounded like a clap of thunder to her ears.

Eniiyi took proper stock of the compound. It was mainly a set of ugly huts arranged around the compound in a somewhat semicircle. The courtyard was all clay earth - although neat - and potholes. Calabash and water drums and pots lay about, most seeming to contain something. Eniiyi shivered involuntarily. What if she'd stepped into those places where they put and worship bizarre figurines that the village children had been telling her about? Would she be used for sacrifice for trespassing as the kids had said?

She decided she'd had enough of it and was reaching for the gate when she heard that sound. It wasn't very loud, it was so short and quiet a whisper that she almost thought she'd imagined it. The sound of someone in pain.

Eniiyi paused with her hand midair and contemplated going to find that person. Should she really risk her life for what she wasn't sure she'd heard? Another short aborted sound reached her ears, confirming that, indeed, she hadn't imagined it. It had come from the hut nearest to her on her left side so she went that way.

A lithe light-skin woman lay on her back on a high bed that - to the girl's shock - seemed to be made of mud and she looked to be in pain.

She stood frozen to the spot, was that real? Was this a trap? Was it really wise to go to the stranger even if she looked to be in pain?

The woman turned her head to look at the intruder. The eyes that met the girl's were filled with pain. The young girl stared on, her mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water, for once in her life speechless.

The door opening jerked her away from the woman's gaze and she jumped around startled and scared. Now she was trapped!

A stout sinewy man glared scowlingly at her. He was dressed in native attire that the girl suspected hadn't been washed for a while. Red beads adorned his neck and wrists and ankles. She thought he looked like a decorated Indian bull. In a palm he balanced a small covered gourd and in his right was a dark object that she couldn't put a name to.

'Kí lòń wá ní bí?' The man wanted to know.

'I . . . I, I just . .' she stuttered, her heart fluttering all over the place in fear.

'Shut up!' The man bellowed. 'Get out now, kin tó la ojú mi!' The man shut his eyes and pointed out the door.

Eniiyi didn't need more telling, she scarpered out, grateful she'd gotten out with her life.

'A child doesn't recognize a deadly herb he calls it vegetable. Ní bo lóti jáwá ná?' She heard the man say as she got out the gate.

The clear path leading away was what she should have simply followed, she later discovered, for it led back to the main road she'd come from. She went home, grateful for her life but never forgot that look on the woman's face.

Which was why, two days later, escorting her uncle to the park, she still had the woman on her mind. Despite herself, she'd felt the urge to go back to that place and help the woman, but she hadn't had the chance to leave the house since that day.

She'd just have to forget she ever saw anything.

'Eniiyi, are you okay? You're unusually quiet.' Lastborn observed.

She looked at him. 'I'm okay.'

'Are you sure, maybe you should go back home?' Uncle Felix looked worried.

'Uncle Felix, I'm okay.' She frowned up at him.

Uncle Felix chuckled. 'Oh, I see. You're going to miss me.'

Eniiyi looked blasé. 'It's not too late to take me along.' She'd spent all morning begging him to take her with him but he'd refused.

Then she'd gotten mad at him and avoided speaking to him. The only reason she was escorting him now was because Gma had forced her to.

Uncle Felix didn't reply at that. This made the girl angrier and she walked faster away from them to Taiwo who was ahead, lugging the heaviest of Uncle Felix's luggage.

He'd come to the village with just one bag, but trust Grandma to want to send him stuff to his family. Eniiyi wondered why she hadn't just packed the whole house for him to take along.

When they reached the motor park the sun was out and high overhead. She was already tired, the park was quite far, a little on the suburbs of the village.

'Finally,' Jumai said and stretched and yawned.

Eniiyi turned to roll her eyes at her. Jumai lived along Lastborn's street and had come along with him to bid Uncle Felix goodbye although she'd never met the said person before. This was the second time Eniiyi was meeting her, herself. And she wasn't sure what to think of the girl.

'Thank you, guys.' Uncle Felix said.

Taiwo put down the heavy bag and stretched his back.

'Pẹ̀lẹ́,' Uncle Felix said and pat his shoulder.

'Maybe I should go and inquire about the bus going to Lagos?' Taiwo asked.

'Ah, no, don't worry, I've got it from here, you guys should start going before it gets dark.'

'Come back soon, Uncle,' Lastborn said, hugging him.

Eniiyi felt a stab of jealousy at this. Lastborn was Uncle Felix's nephew, too, because his mother was a cousin. But she was so used to having her only uncle to herself that she felt threatened having to share him.

Uncle Felix laughed at this and pat his head. 'Not that soon, maybe one day I'll invite you to lagos.'

The boy brightened at this and his face almost split into two with the smile.

Eniiyi glowered, thinking of many ways to get her own back at him.

Then he pat Jumai's arm and turned to Eniiyi, expecting her to come for a hug, but hell if she was! She was angry at him already for refusing to rescue her, now he prefered Lastborn to her. Wasn't she the real niece? Was she not the one related by his blood brother and not cousin?

She gave him her very best scowl, the one she'd practiced many times in front of the mirror for her Primary Five class teacher. It didn't seem to work on him as it'd worked on the teacher and most adults.

She turned away from him, frustrated, and pained deeply. Good thing she was not a girl to cry or she'd have seemed like a big baby. 'I'm going back,' she announced. 'See you when I see you.'

'Hey, where are you going? Come back!' Taiwo pulled her back, refusing to release her wrist.

'Leave me alone!'

'Hey.' Uncle Felix sounded really serious and for once he let go of his perpetual blaseness.

'Don't talk to me, I hate you and my Daddy and Mommy! You're no different from them. You're going to leave me alone in this horrible village like they did and rather take him with you? Okay, just admit that you never liked me, afterall you've known him longer than you've known me!'

'Eniiyi, this is not the place to have hysterics. And it's not fair saying horrible things about your parents like that, when you've calmed down you'll realize you didn't mean anything you said.'

She didn't say anything at this but was still fuming and struggling against the idiot that won't let go of her. And to think that he was her friend. The whole lot of them were betrayers!

A scruffy looking man, seeing them with luggages came over. 'Oga, shey na Ondo you dey go? Na just four yansh* wey remain,' He said in Pidgin.

'No, I'm going to Lagos, thanks. And it's just me.'

'Ok,' the loud man said. 'Lagos, e dey there. Bastard!' he called to a colleague.

The children, including a certain angry one, winced. What a nickname to give someone.

The one called Bastard came towards them.

'Èkó**, one yansh,' the loud guy said.

'Ah, oga, you enter luck, o. Na only one yansh remain take Èkó. This na ya luggage? Make I start pack them,' Bastard said, already bending down.

'Okay, but careful with the bags, there are fragile objects inside.' Uncle Felix winced when Bastard swung the heaviest bag carelessly then picked up the remaining bag.

'Okay, I'll be going now, you guys take care. Eniiyi, ṣe jẹ́jẹ́, o.' His advice was graced with a scowl.

He dipped his hand into a side pocket and brought out a wallet. 'Tóò, Taiwo, You guys use this to buy biscuits.' He handed Taiwo Three one thousand naira notes and then gave one note each to the others who collected it and prostrated flat on the floor in gratitude - Jumai going on her knees, except of course Eniiyi who hadn't taken the one thousand naira offered to her.

'Ẹ́ ṣé gan ni, sir, thank you very much, sir.' They chorused.

'Eniiyi, take the money now,' Taiwo said.

'I don't want his money.'

'If you don't want it, I can have it.' Lastborn grinned.

She turned to scowl at him. 'Is that not what you've always been after? Money. You think I don't know why you're being overly familiar with him?'

'It's okay,' Uncle Felix quickly said to stem what could have been a verbal exchange. 'Eniiyi, you're being petulant.' He stuffed the money into her closed hands and pat her head. She went perfectly still and rigid.

He pat her head once more and smiled at the rest, going after the bus conductor who had now come back to see the cause of the delay.

'Eniiyi, what's wrong with you?' Taiwo asked.

'Don't ever talk to me again in your whole life, okay? I feel like murdering you guys,' she said, mad. 'Ganging up against me the way you did, that's no way to treat a friend. Now y'all excuse me, I have better things to do than dawdle with a bunch of hypocrites.'

She was still fuming when she'd gotten far away from them, making a mental note to feed the naira note to the neighbour's goats. Good thing she remembered the way back or she'd have gotten hopelessly lost as she wasn't going to go back and walk with them, let them rot in hell!

Thinking of getting lost she remembered the incidence of two days ago and decided to go back there.

The compound was quiet as the last time she'd been there. She quickly made her way to the woman's hut, hoping that she was doing the right thing.

She was still lay on the mud bed and unmoving. The young girl rushed to her side. 'Are you okay?' She gasped as a thought crossed her mind. 'Or . . . have you been adultnapped?'

The woman raised her gaze to the younger girl's, her eyes were filled with pain and tears. She sniffled. 'Not really, it's just the pain coming back.'

'Are you okay?' Eniiyi asked again. 'Why didn't you go to the hospital?'

The woman smiled at the girl, her right eye leaked a single trail of tear down the side of her face at this. 'It's no use, I'm going to die soon, anyway.'

Eniiyi gasped at this. 'Don't say that, ma!'

'It's okay, I know. I've had cervical cancer for a long time now, I only came to the village to die peacefully.'

'Where have you come from?' the girl wanted to know.

'I used to live and work in Abuja. So when it was discovered I had cervical it was already in it's late stage and I won't survive it, I decided to come back to the village to die in peace. Only those people won't let me, they brought me here to be healed by the shaman. As if!' She winced at this and then cried out as pain took over her whole body.

Eniiyi stared on awkwardly, wishing she could help ease the woman's pain but knowing there was nothing she could do. She placed a small hand over the woman's. God, she's so young! she thought. The woman looked to be in her early forties, if her estimation was correct.

'But a hospital is better!' she said. 'Who's a shaman, by the way?'

'A native doctor, he . . .'

'What! Not one of those people who dress like mads and kill people for sacrifice and worship sticks and stones and idols!' she relayed all she'd heard about them since her stay in the village.

The woman smiled sadly, Eniiyi could tell it cost her to do that. 'I didn't know you would say that. I'm a Christian myself, so I don't believe in things like that, but it's not like I can take myself away from here.'

Eniiyi frowned. 'I'm not a Christian, but I don't believe in voodoo things. I wish my parents were here, they'd know what to do.'

'Where are you from?' the woman asked.

'My name is Eniiyi, I'm not from here, I'm from Osogbo, but I'm staying with my grandmother here.'

The woman said nothing at this, she looked strangely still and Eniiyi thought she'd fallen asleep.

'You probably shouldn't bother yourself with me, kid. Don't worry, I'm going to die very soon, I can feel it.' She finally said.

Eniiyi started to shake her head but light footfalls caught her hearing. She did have very sharp sense organs than normal.

She knew it must be the man. She stared in horror at the woman.

'Go.' The woman gave her hand a light squeeze and released it.

Eniiyi gulped and knew she must obey, she had to escape before the man got too close.

'I'm sorry,' she said solemnly and made for the door.

'Thank you, Eniiyi.'

It was whispered so softly that she almost didn't catch it. She turned back and stared at the woman,  feeling intense pain and anger for her then turned on her heels and left.

* The Pidgin word for butt. Used in this context means one seat ( for one butt) left.

**Synonym for Lagos State.