Ebube Anochili's blog

It began as a practical joke, but at the end, no one was laughing. It seemed innocent enough at first because Ama and I have a history of playing pranks on each other. But we had never really considered playing pranks on a group of people, or family members. Well, not until this morning. The day started off normally, when I mean normally, I mean the day was freaking hot as hell. So, yeah, it was a normal Saturday morning and Ama came over to my house which was close to his.  My parents knew him, so he could come up to my room whenever he wanted. My mum had just returned from Mass. Apparently she had been having nightmares about her elder brother who died a few months ago. She didn’t tell me about the nightmares that morning. She welcomed Ama and ushered him upstairs. Ama and I wanted to go visit the family of my deceased uncle; which meant my four cousins and their nanny, their mum had travelled.  “Wake up sleepy head”, Ama said, dragging my pillow from under my head.  “M...

“I am dreaming of a white Christmas Just like the ones I used to know… Where the treetops glisten and children listen.. To hear sleigh bells in the snow…” Irving Berlin’s popular song filtered from the speakers of my phone and filled the airways. Christmas songs were always beautiful to me. I heard this one first when I saw Home Alone the movie and heard so many others for the first time. It got me thinking deep, yeah. Well, not just thinking, it got me nostalgic. I couldn’t help but remember when Christmas was the most important time of the year in my life. As a kid, a lot of things should have been more important to me, but I chose Christmas. Maybe because I always got new clothes, something every kid in Nigeria termed Christmas cloth. I didn’t just get one, I got two; the one I wore on Christmas day and the one I wore on New year’s day. It started with the funny gowns that had hats and bags, then it got to just gowns, then blouses and skirts and finally jeans. Each ...

The days usually went by fast, but since the police discovered Simi’s body, the days wriggled slowly like an earthworm. With every waking hour filled with dread for Phoebe. She counted the seconds each day and felt at any minute she would be hurled out like a criminal. She couldn’t concentrate at work. She was a bag of nerves.                                                                   *** The police had taken Simi’s body and kept in their own morgue for the moment. What they had deduced from the death scene was that she probably fell and hit her head. A terrible accident! At least that’s what they thought, they would investigate a little more. But they hadn’t sensed any foul play. Except Sergeant Tiwa. The whole thing was fishy, a brother and an ex husband report a lady missing without knowing where she wa...

Monday nights weren’t totally bad. The thrill that the day’s work had ended was enough reason to be happy, if you weren't  stuck in traffic. This Monday night however, was a little gloomy. The only flicker of happiness Cheta had was that he had his daughter. Someone was missing and had to be found. Cheta had gone to pick Gbenga as planned. On their way to the police station, they did not say much to each other. Gbenga tried to remember all the details of his last conversation with Simi. Where could she be? They got to the station soon enough but making their complaints was taking forever. “We are here to file a missing person’s report”, said Cheta, once it got to their turn. “What makes you think he/she is missing?” asked Sergeant Tiwa, the policeman on duty. “I never see her since Saturday”, Gbenga replied, “she suppose come back yesterday but she no come, she no dey pick calls too.” “Did she say where she was going?” asked Sergeant Tiwa. Gbenga thought for a while before re...

Phoebe looked at the ceiling as it started to rain and hot wrenching tears flowed freely from her eyes. She had to get out of there immediately. She went into the house to know if she was alone and realized there was a kitchen, another room and a bathroom which had a bath tub and she was alone. An idea quickly formed in her head as she saw the bath tub. She had to stage Simi’s death. Adrenaline flowed through her as she managed to drag, lift and drag Simi’s body to the bathroom. She kept her body in such a way that her head was at the edge of the bath tub while the rest of her body was on the floor. She turned on the tap and sprinkled water close to Simi’s feet and around. She found a cloth and a bucket which she filled with water and went to the living room to scrub off the blood on the floor and the table. She went on her knees and scrubbed till her hands hurt and no trace of blood was found. She went back to the bathroom, poured the water in the toilet and flushed it. For the fi...

Lightning flashed, thunder struck, rain poured. One would think she would be dragged out of her thoughts. But she wasn’t. She stayed, glued to the ground as the scenes of the night danced in her head, like she was seeing a movie. But it wasn’t a movie, it was her pathetic life. Cheta had called her practically all day, she didn’t know how she’d face him with what she had done. She prayed to be struck by lightning, but of course, it only struck people who still wanted to live. She looked at her hands, the blood stains had been washed by the rain, but it hadn’t washed her guilt.                                                     ***                                               6 hours ago Simi took out the last stick of cigarette from the ...

The rain didn’t stop. It poured like a child crying for its mother’s breast. It pounded on roof tops so fiercely, threatening to bore holes in them. The wind complemented it, the leaves on the trees kept whispering sweet nothings in the cold, dark night. The sound of running water couldn’t be left out, as the gutters overflowed with it. Still, the rain didn’t stop. Not that it mattered, she could care less. She didn’t mind the rain drenching her, soaking her clothes and the cold sinking dangerously into her bones. She clenched her teeth and stared at nothing. If people died of frostbite like this, she’d gladly die. She was standing all alone in the middle of the night hoping that the rain would wash off her guilt. What had she done? She cried silently, without tears, for even her own tears had deserted her. What had she done? Normally, she would have watched the dark clouds gather, she would have gasped at the flashes of lightning and shuddered at the sound of thunder. She would hav...