Chapter One

"Dele. I am shocked you came", Tunde said.

"Why won't I come?"

"What do you have in your hands?" Wale asked.

"Are you blind? Can you not see it is a knife?" Dele exasperatedly answered.

Dele began to toss the knife, throw and catch. He made exaggerated moves with the weapon like a warrior wading an incoming enemy. His friends laughed at his tricks.

Just then, Dele moved closer to the group of dancing young girls.

He threw the knife once again, and it landed deep into the earth. Amused at what he had done, he wanted a repeat. He tossed the knife once again, but this time, it did not land unto the ground!

Dele could only watch, eyes wide open, as the blood oozed.

He listened to his instincts.

RUN!

__________________

Kunle had just left for his farm. His children usually escorted him, but not today. He was a father who did not overwork his children.

Unlike other men who would bear many children to work on farms, Adekunle was not polygamous. Adekunle had one wife. The mother of his four children.

'Baba has gone out.'

Dele was overjoyed. He could go to the village square. His friends were waiting there for him. He had been waiting for his father to leave the instant after the cock's first crow.

He was tired of the farm, and he longed for his childhood. He was the first and only son.

Moreover, some did not consider him a child anymore. He was thirteen today. His birthday was the main reason his father let him rest at home.

Dele stalked out of the thatched hut he shared with his younger sisters. Outside he saw Damilola, Fisayo, and Bolaji playing a game. They were jumping and clapping. Dele was keen with interest.

"What are you people doing?" Dele asked

"We are playing," Damilola said with her angelic voice. She was the youngest of the family.

"Can I play?" Dele asked. He did not want to play with them, but he knew mimicking rejection would male his sisters think he was inside.

"No. It is a girls' game," Fisayo said with a scowl on her face and her hands folded against her small chest. Dele's interruption made her angry.

"If you do not want me to play then I will go to the village-square"

"Go, we do not care," Fisayo said

Now all the girls had their hands folded, all except Bolaji.

Bolaji was his immediate younger, just by two years.

'Dele, you can play with us.' Bolaji was tender towards her brother.

"Do not worry. I don't want," Dele directed his reply at Fisayo. He made his gaze stern, but Fisayo was unfazed.

Relating to the girls was strenuous most of the time.

Dele never tolerated Fisayo's dramatics. He wanted Fisayo to eat her words. After all, she was just seven. She did not know anything.

I'll show you how boys play.

Dele walked into his father's room and took a knife. He recalled his father saying it was one of the sharpest of its kind. With it in hand, Dele strolled to the village square.

At the square, other children were playing. There were many groups according to age and gender. Throwing and catching the knife in his hands to make his presence pronounced

Dele sported his clique. Tunde, Wale, and Kola were sitting on a log not too far from some girls who were jumping and clapping. Those girls were playing the same game his sister had been playing.

That was how his dilemma began.