Chapter 3: The Panel.

The lockup at Gwagwalasa police station wasn't as bad as I thought. You hear all kinds of stories about jail and prison, but as it turned out, I had my own cell and nobody bothered me.

Seeing as how I was still a minor or 'juvenile' as those officers called me at the counter , they probably kept me separated from the older thugs. I stay there uncomfortable, overnight with a serve of fifty Naira bread and a sachet water for dinner.

The next morning the police men hauled me into a Blue Hilux truck after giving me a very salty intestine cutting Noodles and fried eggs that I presume the aboki that fried it must've been in conivance with Samson. Before I could say 'what's up', I landed in a court premises. They ushered me into the court-room. An arraignment they called it.

They sat me down at a long table next to a fat, advanced man in suit who stared at me over the top rim of his medicated glasses.

I asked, "Who are you Sir?"

"I'm your attorney. My Name's Mr. Ojukwu."

Glancing around, I saw my Mom and Ayo

enter the courtroom. They took a seat behind me. Mom smiled at me with her lips but her eyes wasn't . I could tell from that look she was sore worried. Ayo looked scared. I wondered how Mom could afford an attorney.

But I learned later that she couldn't, that

Mr. Ojukwu was a court appointed lawyer for juveniles.

"You're going to get me off this mess, right?" I asked.

He just kept mute. He shuffled through some papers and studied them for a few minutes.

"Here Says, you assaulted your classmate

with a scalpel, a dangerous object and inflicted injury on him"

"But Samson is twice and half my size. He started it. I was afraid he'd kill me" I protested.

Mr. Ojukwu stopped reading what was on the papers and gave me another condescending look from over the rim of his glasses again.

"Did you do it? Did you cut him?"

"I was just defending myself" I protested further.

"Then we'll try pleading nolo contendere." he said.

My knowledge of court proceedings was

limited to what I saw on TV and Nollywood. I never heard those words before.

"What does that mean Sir?"

"It means no contest."

"What does that mean?" I asked again looking more confused.

"Look, my son, I know this judge. He's a busy man and appreciates expediency. If we don't make waves and throw your case onto the merey of the court, he's likely to go easy on you."

Expediency? That was an important

sounding word. Anyway, I had no choice but to trust that Mr. Ojukwu knew what he was doing. I hoped to walk out of there a free man.

An older lady who reminded me of Mama G

pounded a stick against the table in front of her and told us to, "all rise for the honorable judge so-and-

So."

I forget his name but remembered what he

looked like. The judge entered the room, a big old guy too, wearing a long, black choir robe with a firm-bossy expression on his face as if to say, 'I'm not here to smile with anybody."

The judge motioned for us to all sit. I have to admit the ceremony of it sort of impressed me to my bone marrow. It made me feel like I was starring in a movie.

My case came up third after a case of fraud and divorce. The judge sat on his

tall chair all stooped over, his forearms

resting on the big desk in front of him. He

peered down at me after reading a leave of A4 paper.

"Son, you're charged with aggravated assault. Do you understand

the charges?" his voice thundered with echoes.

I didn't, but remembered what Mr. Ojukwu

said about expediency. "Yes, sir." I answered belatedly.

"Have you been informed of your rights and do you understand them?"

"I believe so, sir." I answered. To my surprise he nodded, which he never did to the two cases before mine.

He then asked me a bunch of other tricky-random questions that just sounded like bait and blah-blah-blah to me. I told him

what I thought he wanted to hear so I could

get it over with and get out of there.

Finally, he asked, "How do you plead?"

About time we got down to it. I expected to give a detailed explanation of how Samson harassed me and ruined my bio experiment. I'd finally be able to tell how he came at me with that scalpel and I had knocked it out of his hand and got

to it first, was only just defending myself, and the cut on his chin was just an accident of fret.

Before I could get any of that out, Mr. Ojukwu stood and spouted those fancy law words again.

"Nolo contendere." he baritoned

The judge looked at me. Now maybe it would be my turn to speak. I thought. But then he said,

"Courtdocuments says you're sixteen."

"Yes, sir."

"I don't see any priors here. Ever been in

trouble with the law before?"

"No, sir." I said and was hundred percent sure of that.

"I understand that you're a good student and that you earn decent grades. You've been in the top three category right from your JSS1"

"I guess So, sir."

"And according to school record, you're 80 to 95 percent good in all school quiz, debates and sporting activities."

"Maybe so Sir. " I said

The judge shrugged. "You seem to be

intelligent and might do well in a more

structured environment where you'll be very useful. Since this is your first offense, I'm sentencing you to.......

I saw my Mom putting her hands on her chest with popping eyes.

......... to attend the Roygbiv X. Academy for adjudicated delinquents at Kaduna State. You'll stay there until you graduate. You will be housed there and will not be allowed to leave the campus except on weekends, and only if you behave yourself. Weekend passes will be issued at the discretion of the school's director, Dr. Dogonyaro Guntu."

He pointed his gavel at me. "Ordinarily I'd

have a personnel drive you straight to the

academy, but there are no intakes on Fridays. So, I expect you to self-report to the Roygbiv X. Academy first thing Monday morning at nine, the descriptive address will be forwarded to you and other documents that will be required. If I have to issue a warrant because you don't show up, you'll forfeit this special school privilege, and I'll have no choice but to send you to a real Juvie prison. Don't make me do that! "

" Alright Sir! " I said. Disappointed and excited at the same time.

The judge scribbed something on a notepad then banged his gavel and said, "Next

case!."

"Wait a minute," I blurted suddenly. The words jumped out my mouth.

Mr. Ojukwu clamped his hand on my shoulder.

"Shut up, kid." He hustled me out of the

courtroom.

After we made it outside, I turned to

him. "something isn't right here Sir? That's not the way it happens on TV. Why wasn't I allowed to speak? What's that suppose to mean?"

" Yes, that's because you pleaded nolo. When you do that, you don't get to speak." he cleared.

I pointed my finger at his chest. " I sense you're scamming me in some ways I'm novice to. You pleaded no go or whatever that is. I didn't have a chance to

say dot."

"As your legal representative, I spoke for you. You're really lucky that you aren't going to Juvie prison. Aggravated assault is a serious charge, and it was only because of my experience with cases such as yours that I was able to get you an automatic scholarships instead of prison. You should be grateful!."

Well, that's to him. He did me a big favor.

"But it wasn't my fault"

Mr. ojukwu waved me off. "That's

inconsequential now, Runso." He looked at his watch. "I have to go now. I have other cases to attend to in minutes time."

Not even bothering to say anything more, he turned on his heels and disappeared back into the courtroom.

Mom and Ayo caught up with me, and

each gave me a hug. I wanted to cry. It wasn't fair. There wasn't any fair hearing in my case as far as I'm concerned. I felt I've been denied real justice. Samson ought to have been in prison by now if it was fair.

"It's okay my boy," Mom told me. "Life is hard. Sometimes you just need to stagger with the punches."

Mom knew all about how hard life was and

how to roll with the punches. She'd suffered

plenty, and I wished right then and there

that somehow I could take both of them,

Mom and Ayo, away from our

neighborhood and start over someplace

where we'd have a better chance of good life.

At least Mom wasn't upset with me. To

make me feel better, she took us to a cafe for ice cream. That helped to take my mind off of things for a few hours until later that night when Ayo and I went to bed.

Ayo hadn't spoken much about my

predicament, but I knew that he was going to have a real problem with the change that

was about to take place in our lives.

The man who fathered me was chocolate in complexion, so is Mom. Ayo's father was somewhat Albino, which meant Ayo

was Albinic White. Didn't belong in

either camp. Very few of his classmates

would give him the hard time of day. They also didn't like him because of his learning

disability. Ayo was slow. All the kids his age

bullied him physically and emotionally, except when I was with him. I felt it's my duty as a big brother to walk him to and from school to keep him from getting

beaten up or taken advantaged of.

Who was going to be his big brother now?

That Roygbiv X Academy was in Kaduna State, all the way far from Abuja, about 188 kilometers from Gwagwalada, also about three hours journey in moderate speed. I needed to prepare Ayo, to get his mind right about it. Before switching off the lights to go to sleep, I said,

"Hey, Lil-bro, we need to do something about finding you a new bodyguard."

He turned toward me under his duvet and

scrunched up his face. "You're my posse.

Don't need anybody else."

"But I won't be able to stand up for you

anymore walking to school."

Ayo rolled on his back and looked up at the

ceiling. "Why don't you want to walk with me anymore? What did I do to you?"

His words pinched my heart. We had just gone over how I was going elsewhere to school, hut it didn't register that fact would

change his life.

"You didn't do anything to me, Lil-bro. I'm not angry with you. It's just that I'll be taking the bus on a longer trip of three hours straight now, and won't see you as often."

He kept looking at the ceiling, and when I

could see from his expression that the light

bulb had finally gone off in his head, he

mumbled, "Oh."

"Are there any kids from your class that you

can hang with, who can walk with you? Kids

who live here in the neighborhood?"

"I think so."

Wanting to make sure, so I asked him, "Who?"

After a pause, he said, "I don't know yet"

Frustrated, I blurted out, "You're fourteen.

Shouldn't need anyone to look out for you

anymore. You're old enough now to take care of yourself! ."

The words sounded hollow to me, because I knew they weren't true. All the same, there wasn't much more I could do for Ayo, and that worried me.

What was going to happen to my little brother?

"Yeah, I'm old enough," he said, after many seconds.

Maybe so, but not smart enough, especially

not street wise. Ayo would do anything to

get his classmates to like him. He was easily

influenced.

"Look, remember the time one of your friends dared you to pick up dog dungs and fling it at passing cars?"

"Yes."

"Why'd you do that?"

"They thought it was cool that I did it"

"What about you? Did you think it was cool?"

"No." His answer was immediate. No doubt

Ayo knew the difference between right and

Wrong. He was just too eager to please.

"When you know that doing something isn't

cool, don't let people talk you into being

stupid and cowardly, okay?"

"Whatever, El-bro."

"Whatever" I echoed too.

I flicker off the lights and plopped onto the bed, listened to Ayo's breathing from his duvet.

After a few minutes of silence, in the dark, he asked,

"How long until Mom gets rid of me?"

Swiveling my head in his direction I asked,

"What're you talking about now?"

"Popsy left me when I was barely two, you're leaving me now, so I figure Mom will be getting rid of me soon, too. What'll I do then? Will I have to sleep outside this window on the streets or beside the stinking Dumpster?"

I groaned and said, "Mom and I aren't

leaving you, Lil bro. I'll come home every

weekend. We'll still both be sleeping here

together in the same bedroom."

"Promise?" he asked, his voice pleading.

I promise, lil-bro."

That seemed to satisfy him. I was just about

drifting off to sleep when Ayo called me, "El bro.? "

"Yeah, What's it?"

"I figured it out," he said in an excited voice.

"I figured how we don't have to be apart."

"But I will have to leave you, Ayo, and it

isn't my doing. The judge is making me go to

that special school. He's the one making me

take the bus on Monday morning, and I'll be leaving as early as five am. "

Doesn't matter," he said. "I figured it out. All I have to do is cut someone in my class as you did. Then the judge will make me go to that special school as you too. Then we'll be together."

Mini mini mani mo! Talking about my dumb Lil-brother. There he goes again!

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