INSIDE LIFE I

FUTURE

***

Blessing stepped back from the table, then moved closer to fuss with a napkin again. The crystal goblets stood at attention, the spiral ham curled introspectively on its serving platter. The fancy china that hibernate in the butch with the expectation of Thanksgiving and Christmas had been arrayed in full regalia, gravy boat and all. As Blessing left the dining room to call everyone in.

"Okay." She yelled. "Dinners ready."

Esther, Precious, Dainel, Mercy, Emmanuel, Ayomide, Peter, Joy and Kingsley came in from the parlour where they'd been celebrating my birthday.

"Uh the birthday boy is here." Joy said as I walked in.

"So I have made sure everything is perfect." Blessing said.

"Thanks, the cake looks beautiful."

"Yeah I used coconut frosting with strawberry filling."

"Really?"

"Yes."

I glanced at all the dishes on the table, the ham and the carrots, the sweet potato pie."

"Okay bro, we have waited long enough, it's 10pm, it's time to cut the cake." Kingsley said.

"Yes cut the cake." Peter added.

Everyone started hailing me to cut the cake.

"Okay guys, but where is the matches."

"I'll go get it for you." Precious responded, going into the kitchen and now handing me that matches.

I took the pack of matches from her and lit the candles.

"Happy Birthday to you." They sang.

The doorbell rang.

"I'll get it." Esther said.

It rang again just before she reached the door. She swung it open, the porch light falling on two uniformed police officers. "Good evening," The taller police officer said, "Is Micheal Samuel at this house"

"Well, yes... This is his best friend's house, how did you know he was here."

"Well we were instructed to follow him, always to spy on him and arrest him when we've caught him by the president."

"Do you have a warrant for his arrest."

"President Buhari has a warrant for his arrest."

Esther gasped, the air knocked from her lungs.

"Emmanuel." She managed, and he appeared. "On what grounds." He asked tersely.

"President Buhari charged him with words used on him and people in power in the first degree." The policeman pushed past Esther, toward the lighted dining room.

"Emmanuel," Esther said, "Do something, his your best friend."

Emmanuel grasped her shoulders. "It's in the hands of the president to decide his fate." He rushed toward the dining room. Mercy was sitting at the table, crying. I was pulled out of the chair where I sat comforting my lover. One officer was cuffing my hands behind me.

The policemen each took one of my elbows to escort me out of the house. I stumbled between them blindly, my brows draws together, my eyes unable to light any of the familiar furnishings of the house. At the threshold of the dining room, where I now stood, the officers hesitated, waiting for Mercy to step aside. In that brief pause, I looked directly at her. "I love you." I whispered, and then I was yanked away.

She tried to touch me but they'd moved too quickly. Her hand hovering in mid air, clenched into a fist which she pressed against her mouth. I could hear Dainel racing around the house, thinking of what to do next, and some crying for my sake.

In the back of the police car, I shivered. They had the heat turned up full blast but I had to sit sideways so that my handcuffs didn't cut into my back and no matter what I did to get my bearings, I found myself shaking.

"You dey fine." The officer who wasn't driving asked and I said yes, my voice cracking like a melon on that single syllable.

I was not alright. I was not even marginally okay.

The car was redolent with the scent of Tea. The radio chartered in an Hausa dialect I did not understand and for a moment that made perfect sense. If my world went to pieces, didn't it stand to reason that I'd no longer be able to speak the language?

Suddenly the car lurched to the left and I saw light flash by the window. I'd completely lost track of time and direction, seems like I just arrived at Kirikiri prison.

"Is this a federal prison." I asked.

"Idiot can President Buhari send you to a state prison." The taller policeman said as he opened one of the rear doors.

There were high metal fences around the prison capped off with curls of barbed wire. I scooted to the edge of the seat, trying to keep my balance with my hands all houndined behind my back. With one foot on an embankment, I levered myself from the cruiser and landed flat on my face.

The policeman hauled me up by my handcuffs and unceremoniously dragged me toward the prison. I was carted in a back door I'd never noticed. The officer locked his gun in a box and radioed an intercom, then a connecting door buzzed open. I found myself at the booking desk where a sleepy eyed sergeant sat. I was allowed to sit while they asked me questions about my name and age and address that I answered as possible, just in case I got brownie for good behaviour. Then the policeman who'd taken me in stood me against a wall and had me hold a card up, just like in TV movies, with a number on it and the date. I turned right and left while a camera flashed.

On command, I emptied my pockets and held out my hand for fingerprinting. A correctional officer unlocked the heavy steel door to admit me and the taller officer. The taller officer handed over a plastic bag, inside which were items I recognized. My wallet, with my stuffs inside. The shorter officer took it. "You have to do the paperwork? I'll have it from here."

The taller officer left without even making eye contact with me.

"Hands out to your sides." One of the officers said. He stood in front of me, patting his hands from my neck down to my waist and then up each of my legs. The correctional officer began to catalogue my personal possessions.

I sat down at the single table, rolled my fingertips in ink again for prints. Then I was handed a cloth to wipe my hands off, and slid a piece of paper across the table.

I glanced down at the questionnaire as the officer scrounged for a pencil "Fill this in" He said.

"Do you have AIDS?"

"Do you have any ongoing medical problems?"

"Do you wish to see a doctor while here?"

The question read and I answered.

The officer led me upstairs to a control area filled with tiny TV monitors. He exchanged some information with the officer on duty, which made no sense to me, then guided me toward another small room. As the gate locked behind me, I shivered.

"Are you cold." The officer said dispassionately. "Luckily for you this room comes with free clothes."

He waited until I stood up and then handed me a blue jumpsuit. "Go on." He said.

I stripped naked and changed to the jumpsuit. He escorted me down a hallway into the maximum security division. With every breath, my lungs had to work harder. Was it my imagination, or was the air inside a prison thinner than it was outside? The officer unlocked a heavy door and led me onto a narrow gray catwalk. There were individual cells, two side by side along the catwalk, but the barred doors were open. At the end of the pod, outside the bars, was a TV. The nightly news was on.

Suddenly there was a call through the air, which rippled through the open bars and hollow catwalks. "Lockdown." The voice yelled, and I heard the pounding of feet as prisoners slowly returned to their cells.

"Here you go." The officer said, leading me to an unoccupied cell. "Bottom bunk."

There were three other people in the pod.

A small man with tiny, deepest black eye and a goatee walked into the cell beside me and sat down on the bunk. At the end of the catwalk, the TV blinked black.

The officer slid home the door of my cell. The lights dimmed, but did not go out. Gradually the entire prison hushed, save for the collective breaths of the prisoners.

I crawled onto the bottom bunk as my eyes adjusted to the dimness. I could make out the form of an officer walking by on the other side of those bars, the flash of the man's smirk.

I rolled over so that all I could see was the cinder block wall that confined me.