Like A Maniac

Lanre sat down on the couch watching TV. It was still early, and for the first time since she has been locked in here, Lanre just wanted to know how the world out there has been surviving without her. So she has been watching the news since she woke up. Even talk shows were not omitted. As much as she has been doing that, she has been switching channels. Once she gets tired of one, she would switch.

Lanre decided to change the channel to Television continental since they would be broadcasting news by that time. The news Lanre met on the station was about a young man that has been murdered in the street of Lagos. The police had said they would investigate what happened. From the way they described the young man’s death, Lanre believed the young man could have been one of those agbero (louts) or someone who had issues with one of those louts. Nobody who was responsible would die that way or be killed in such manner. Unless he or she was involved with those louts.

They soon switched to the reporter’s side of the story where the dead body of the young man was captured. Lanre shuts her eyes close. Blood was the last thing she would want to see now, whether from the screen or not.

“Why are you covering your eyes with your palms? Simply change the channel if you do not like what they are showing”. K’s voice reached Lanre. A frown crept into her face.

“I want to go home! You won’t let me go. You won’t let me see Eno. You won’t even let me go to my work place”. Lanre said.

“Isn’t that Ify’s boyfriend?” K said with his eyes on the TV screen. Lanre turned to look if K actually saw Odenigbo. But the person was not Odenigbo. It was someone she knows all too well, better than she knows Odenigbo even though they have not know for long.

Lanre screamed upon seeing that the young man who has been murdered was no other person than Ebube.

“Ebube! No! No! No!” Lanre kept screaming “no” repeatedly. K had to hold her. She felt her head was getting too hot and she wanted to escape. It was as though she was losing her senses. K had to hug her to himself until she became calm. Only this time she began to cry. But he thought it was better than her screaming like a maniac.

K continuously stroke Lanre’s back. He moved her to the bed and tried to put her to sleep.

“Ebube does not have a family here in Lagos. He has been living alone. He is like the bread winner in his family, training his younger ones in school and assisting his older brothers. He was my friend. He was my senior in senior secondary school”. Lanre said. The tears kept pouring from her eyes like an erupted volcano.

“Is he not Ify’s boyfriend?” K asked her. Lanre shook her head.