Ghost of 49 Melbourne Road

49, Melbourne Road, Ikoyi was our new house. My mum had been excited for months about the new house we were moving to. I had told her I didn't want to move – I wasn't ready to leave all my friends.

I loved our former house, a flat in Bode-Thomas, Surulere. There were four other flats in the house and I had friends in all four. Bobo was my friend in the adjacent flat; we had grown up together and attended the same schools. He was my big and strong best friend and every potential bully stayed away from me because of him.

The flats on the ground floor had had Biodun and Bukky whose parents had moved in a year before we left the house.

Chichi was my first girlfriend who lived a few houses away, and she was the one I had my very first kiss with.

Moving meant that I was not going to see them again. My mum had promised we were going to pay our old neighbors visits from time to time, but after we moved we never did.

Life in Surulere was fun, much fun than where we were now. During the holidays, each day after breakfast I would ride my bicycle down our close with the other kids and after hours of relentless riding, we would all move to either my house or Bobo's house and take turns in beating each other in a combat video game we both had.

When school was in session, it was mostly studying, more studying, and a lot more studying. I would get back from school, and have lunch just before my lesson teacher arrived to take me through more studying, I would then do my school assignments and assignments from my lesson teacher, I would watch a little bit of TV, then go to sleep before 9'Oclock. Early to bed early to rise, my mum would say. The vicious cycle would continue the next day- though as the smart kid as I was; I always found a way to break through what was fast becoming torment.

I really missed Surulere and everybody there. My mum told me we were going to make new friends in Ikoyi, I wondered how. Each day I looked out the street from my bedroom window, and it was virtually deserted except for a few cars that passed once in a while. I could hardly hear a sound, I did hear sounds sometimes, of birds cooing and rustling leaves, Ikoyi was like a grave yard.

I had gotten used to the sounds that made me know I was alive, sounds of honking cars in the Bode-Thomas Traffic, the call for passengers by the ever relentless bus conductors scouting for limited passengers, and the voices of numerous excited kids hanging out in front of their houses, chatting.

Melbourne road was an aberration of what Bode-Thomas was.

Our new house on Melbourne road was large and spacious, almost three times the apartment building we lived in Surulere. It had lovely gardens around concrete pavements that formed a beautiful network of pathways around the house. It was a beautiful house, but I didn't like it. My friends were not in Melbourne, they were in Surulere.

Sometimes the house felt really lonely, these times I wondered how having a dad like my other friends would feel like. My father had been late since I was a kid. My mum told me he died in a Car accident a few months after my second birthday. I barely remembered him.

My elder brother, Kunle and Sister Doyin were both in England. Doyin was doing her A-levels, while Kunle was studying Engineering at the University of Manchester.

I looked forward to when they would return, at least, the new house would be livelier when they came home for Christmas. For them, it was the bigger, the better, and Melbourne road was just perfect, everyday was going to be a party for Kunle and Doyin when they returned to the country.

Our first day in the house was a very busy one. The house was never empty, visitors were always coming in to congratulate my mum, that same day, a new house help came to work at the house. The last one had absconded with a few valuables when we were moving from Surulere. The case was reported to the police, but they were yet to find her.

I liked the new one. She had a funny name, Dina, and also had a funny accent.

'Aftanoon ma,' she had greeted in her funny accented English. It was going to be fun playing pranks on this one, I thought.

It was until Ten thirty in the night when I was asked to go to my new room that I was totally sure we were in the new house to stay and there was no going back to Surulere. That night I stayed awake for hours just staring at the ceiling, everything seemed totally strange. A part of me had wished we had just come to the house to check it and we would return to Surulere like we had done for a few houses before this one.

I felt so sad that night. We had finally come to stay. Ikoyi was now home.

I tried hard to sleep, but I couldn't. Something didn't just feel right. Everything seemed different, the bed, the room, the view from the window, the ceiling, the sound that came from outside the window. Everything was just different and I felt I was in another world. A world I might never get used to.

There were sounds of birds and the wind instead of cars, sometimes the serenity was almost disturbing. I hated the house as each minute passed.

I didn't know when I dozed off. I had been awake forever, so sleep had become a haven that I welcomed with open arms.

When I woke up, it was early in the morning, 3:00am to be precise, and right in front of my bed, standing there motionless and staring down at me was a boy about my age. He looked sickly with a blank expressionless look on his face.

I stared back for what seemed like forever. The boy didn't say a word. I wondered how he got in.

'Who are you,' I asked him.

No reply came from him, only a blank distant melancholy smile.

The smile hung on his face like a mask. The smile gradually faded, and then he turned his face to stare at the wall behind me as if viewing an invincible screen.

Then the boy suddenly vanished.

Right before my eyes, the boy that was standing in front of me vanished.

A Ghost?!

Terror rushed into me gripping my whole body, I gasped for breath as I tried to process what had just happened in front of me. From the top of my head down to my spine I felt an electric like current move through me. I wasn't sure whether it was my imagination or I was really feeling like I was being electrocuted. The shock jolted me out of my bed and without thinking I raced out of the room, at what seemed like an instant I had ran through the long corridor to my Mum's room, screaming my throat out.

I had totally gone berserk, my head pounded and I could taste bile in my mouth. I almost ran through the door of my mum's room, but remembered there was a door knob. I fumbled with the door screaming and kicking at it, as I opened the door, my mum was already close; she had also jumped out of her bed. I dashed past her, to her bed and immediately buried myself under the sheets.

My mum ran after me, quickly pulling me to herself, 'Oh my God! Sweetie! Are you ok? What's wrong? Ehn! What's the matter?' She trembled as she held me to herself. I could feel her tremble, 'ehn! My darling, what's wrong?'

I was shivering and crying at the same time. I had seen a boy vanish right before my eyes. I tried to catch my breath, but I couldn't.

'A…'

'G-host…'

'Ghost…' was the only word that I could manage to mutter.

'Darling, there are no such things as ghosts,' my mum tried to calm me down, tears ran down her eyes, 'ehn, there are no such things as ghosts,' she held me closer to herself and stroked my back.

'But – I – saw – one. It – was – in – my – room,' I said between sobs. I hadn't totally gained composure of myself.

'Okay tell what you saw?' my mum switched to her usually caring, I-believe-you self. I told her all that had happened.

'Maybe it was just a dream,' she said in a soothing voice. I loved my mum so much. She was the sweetest mum in the world. 'Sometimes, we have dreams that seem very real. When they are scary, they are called nightmares.'

I believed her in that instance. I believed it was a dream. I had seen the boy in the dream and was so scared I thought it was real. That is what I wanted to believe.

We went down stairs and she made some hot tea, we both drank and talked about life in Surulere. I slept in her room that night right next to her. Right there with my mum right by my side, I was sure everything would be okay.

By dawn I had forgotten about the whole incidence. It was nothing but a dream I assured myself.

While my mum prepared to go to work, I got ready for School. For several days everything went on without incidence.

Seven days later, I saw the boy again. I had returned from school and had lunch. I was watching a cartoon on TV, waiting for my extra lessons teacher arrive. Dina, the house maid had gone to the market to get some food stuff, and I was all alone. I was about to start playing the new game I had gotten, when I heard a rustling sound coming from the store. I thought it was the little rats around the house, so I paid little attention.

I was already engrossed in the game I was playing when I heard the same sound, this time louder, coming from the store. I halted the game and headed for the store room. The closer I got to the store room the louder the sound became. I was beginning to get scared. I could feel the Adrenaline rush, as fear surged through me.

As I opened the door of the store room, the sound that came out was almost deafening, like the sound of a large drum being hit continuously, it went on and on. A part of me wanted to run out of the room, but something kept drawing me in. I could not explain it, I just wanted to go inside and see what was making the sound.

Then the sound stopped…Abruptly, as soon as I stepped in. The whole room was intact; there was no sign of disturbance. I wondered where the sound must have been coming from. Was it just my imagination? I wondered.

I locked the door and headed for the sitting room, what I saw in there sent ice down my spine; I couldn't move, scream or run. I just stood there petrified. The boy I had seen in my room a few days ago stood right there in the middle of the room, staring at me.

My head seemed to expand and everything seemed unreal.

The boy stood there, staring blankly at me- pale, speechless, motionless and eerie.

Then he raised his left hand and pointed at me.

I kept staring at him. I couldn't move a muscle no matter how hard I tried.

'I want you,' the boy spoke in what was only a whisper.

I had reached the threshold. I felt my heart explode in my chest as I turned around, screaming at the top of my voice. I ran towards the kitchen to escape through the back door. My senses ravaged me, I didn't know what was real anymore, and I just wanted to keep running and never have to come back to the house.

I could not think…I could not feel…I had lost my self.

Right there in the middle of the kitchen, the boy stood. The suddenness stopped me cold in my track; I crashed into the door and fell hard on the floor. My world was beginning to spin. There he was, pointing, staring…that blank eerie look. That pair of suffering eyes.

'You', he whispered.

My senses imploded becoming a corrugation of madness, fear and the reality of what was in front of me. My only escape was darkness. Everything went blank…into the blackness where I could be safe for the moment. Where I could escape that stare and that suffered whisper.

'You…'

When I woke up, everything around me was white. The walls were white, the floor was white, and even the bed sheet was white. I immediately knew where I was.

The people around me were all in white, a man and two ladies. The only person that wasn't in white was my mum. She sat next to my bed, a worried look on her face.

'Mum, am I in the hospital?' I asked her, a question which I already knew the answer.

'Yes you are,' she patted my cheek, 'how do you feel? Are you okay?'

'Yes,' I lied. I could still see the boys face in my mind. His deep, dark eyes and pale face…his stillness…his voice. I couldn't shake the voice out of my mind. 'Where is Aunty Dina?' I knew my misfortune would have been blamed on the maid. She wasn't at home when the boy appeared.

'She had to leave. She has gone back to her house,' my mum replied in the nicest way she could.

I could picture what had happened. Aunty Dina returned from the market and was shocked to find me unconscious on the kitchen floor. She had tried to revive me to no avail and she ran out of the house screaming for help. Some concerned neighbors came in, took me to the hospital and called my mum. My mum had rushed down to the hospital to meet Aunty Dina and the neighbors. She had over reacted and screamed the roof down blaming Dina for being so negligent. She had asked the driver to take Dina home, allow her pack her things, and take her to her house. Her appointment was terminated on the spot.

'It wasn't her fault,' I couldn't let the blame fall on her.

'You can't understand at your age. People should be held responsible for their actions. She was responsible for you, and she was absent when she ought to have been in the house,' she replied in a calm I-am-older-than-you-and-you-won't-understand-until-you –are-also-older voice. 'So what exactly happened?' She asked.

I was silent. The events that led me to the hospital were too shocking to describe or believe. I felt fear grip me as if the boy was still right there. The voice… I burst into tears. 'I never want to go back to that house, please,' I never wanted to return to Melbourne road. I had had enough of the haunting.

'Why? My mum held me in her arms. Why don't you want to go back home? What happened?' she said holding me tight to herself, stroking my head.

The pale look…the eerie voice – 'You', the fear that gripped me. 'A ghost mum, I saw a ghost.'

My mum looked at me with a disbelieving glance, 'there are no such things as ghosts. You might have just imagined something. You know at your age, it is not too difficult to imagine things like that.'

'Mum, I saw a ghost. I saw it! I saw it! I saw it! I wasn't imagining things. A little boy…he could disappear and appear again mum. I saw him,' my head was spinning, the memory was still fresh….haunting, I burst into tears again.

My mum was beginning to look worried. She looked like she believed me, but she also had the worried look of a mother who thought her little boy was going insane. 'You saw a ghost?' she asked.

'Yes,' I replied.

'Did it say anything?' she seemed to be pondering on something as she asked the questions.

'Yes,' I answered.

'What exactly did it say to you?' she looked more worried with each passing moment.

I want you…I want you…I want you…I couldn't seem to get the words out of my head. 'I want you.'

'God forbid,' my mum screamed. 'Want you ke. It must be a demon. I've heard of things like this,' she burst into tears and held me closer to her self, 'God why me…Why my son?'

We stayed like that for a while, just crying in each other's arms. 'I'll call Pastor Kenneth; he will come and pray for us and the house. Everything will be okay. No weapon of the enemy fashioned against us shall prosper. The Devil is a liar. He just wants to scare us, but he has failed. Everything will be okay, Sogbo,' she cleaned her eyes and wiped the tears from my eyes with her handkerchief.

'Sogbo, kpele,' she said in Yoruba, meaning, have you heard, sorry. My mum sometimes liked to mix English words with Yoruba.

'Yes mummy,' I replied. I already felt better. If my mum said anything would be fine, then I believed it would be.

When I got home, my mum had already arranged for the pastor to come to the house. He was clad in the usual black suits pastors wore. He had a large gold chain around his neck and his hair was curled in a perm.

'Don't worry he said. His voice sounded like he had four other people chorusing his words. 'Everything will be alright', he smiled at me and patted my back. He had a gold tooth.

I looked at my mum and she smiled back at me. 'Pastor Kenneth will take care of everything, don't worry. He's a powerful man of God.'

I hoped she was right. I wasn't ready to see the pale boy again. Not soon, not ever.

'Let us pray,' Pastor Kenneth said stretching out his hands.

'Behold your deliverance has come!'

'Amen,' we chorused.

'I said, your deliverance has come!'

'Amen!'

The prayer session went on for almost one hour and after that, the gold toothed pastor left in his E-class Mercedes Benz. I've been delivered, I believed, or at least I tried believing what my mum said about the pastor. He was a powerful man of God, and if he really was, then God will listen to what he had to say.

The prayers seemed to work because I didn't see the boy for almost six months. I had even forgotten what he looked like. I was happy and I was beginning to like the house on Melbourne Road. I had made friends with the kids next door and even started wishing we would live on Melbourne road forever.

One night, all of that changed. The nightmare started all over again. The past that haunted me for so long crept out of its hiding. If I had known, I would have pleaded with my mum with all I had to relocate us somewhere else. 

I guess the haunting never stopped…it just receded, waiting for the right time to return. Waiting for the time I wouldn't expect it the most. 49, Melbourne road was haunted and there would have been nothing we could do about it.

It was about twelve thirty after midnight. I was a little thirsty so I got out of bed and went down to the kitchen to have a drink. I opened the fridge, took out a bottle of water, and poured myself a glass. Then I saw the boy, ghostly and pale, standing right at the entrance of the kitchen. I was too shocked to even move. The glass dropped from my hand and shattered into tiny little shards, like my sanity just did.

I stared back at the boy. We both stood there, staring at each other for almost a minute.

A minute passed into two, then three, until I didn't know how long we had stood there staring at each other. What I realised was that I was no more afraid, I was angry, angry at this ghost who had made life miserable for me since we moved to the house. Why me? I asked myself. 

'What do you want from me?' I asked the boy.

The boy smiled and pointed at me, 'You. I want you…I want you.'

'What do you want from me,' I repeated. I couldn't understand what he meant by me. What could he possibly mean?

'I want you,' the boy repeated, this time in a shriek.

'You are not going to have me. Leave me alone!' I darted towards the kitchen entrance, not minding if the boy was standing there or not. It was the only way out, and a part of me just wanted to shove the boy out of the way.

A pot suddenly just left the cabinet and rammed itself into the back of my head. I fell with my face forward but I was able to cushion my fall with my hands. I was dazed, but I managed to get up.

'I want you!' the boy screamed. 'I want you!' the gas cooker suddenly came on, the fire surging toward the ceiling. 

'I want you!' the cabinet went up in flames.

'I want you!' the whole kitchen went up in flames.

I tried to get to get out of the kitchen but a force pushed me in the opposite direction from the door. The whole kitchen was now filled with smoke. I was choking, fighting for breath; the kitchen was beginning to spin. I focused on the boy, and he was right there in the middle of the kitchen, staring at me, smiling.

'Thank you,' he said, 'it's the only way.'

Thank you? What was that supposed mean? What was the only way? Thank you?

My mind drifted farther, and farther, until I was in the land of dreams, then I understood everything.

The boy's name was Ade, and he had encountered a ghost in 49 Melbourne Road, the house had been razed and his family had moved out of the house, and another had taken his place. Okechuku had also encountered a ghost, and his family had moved, and another had taken his place, and then Abu had also encountered a ghost and another had taken his place, then Babatunde, then Lami, then Jennifer, then Sulaimon.

It had started with young Obadele, the son of a prominent chief, whose father was never around, and his step mother always maltreated him. Home alone like so many other times, he had accidentally set the kitchen on fire, and had suffocated before he could get out.

The house was razed to the ground with the young chief's son, but the boy's ghost lingered on, waiting and hoping for a happy life with a happy family. It always ended with fire.

It was the only way. It dawned on me…I was now the lingering ghost.

They were all desperate to have their lives back, if not theirs, then someone else's.

49 Melbourne Road was still haunted. It will always remain haunted. It was the only way.

Except now…it was haunted by me.

*

The fire service had put out the fire. The house had been completely razed.

She had sniffed something in her sleep and had quickly gone downstairs to check, the whole place had been on fire. She had darted to Dapo's room, but he wasn't there. She searched all over for him and finally found him in the kitchen, unconscious.

She was so glad he was okay. She couldn't imagine what she would have done if anything had happened to her little boy.

'Dapo, are you okay?' she asked him.

'Yes mum,' he answered, a little absent minded, staring at the razed house.

'Mum?'

'Yes honey?'

'I never want to come back to this house, ever.' He was never going to set a foot in 49 Melbourne Road, Ikoyi…ever.

'Okay. We won't come back here. I'm just glad you are okay.' She had never seen him so cold and…the look in his eyes. It must have been the experience. 'Do you know how the fire started?'

'No.'

The eyes, 'Okay.' He must have been traumatized, she thought.

'Promise me we won't come back,' he asked again.

'I promise,' she hugged him. She was glad he was safe.

There's no going back he thought. Sorry Dapo, but it was the only way.

It is the only way.

*

Ade, I'll be waiting for you. I promise you won't be there for too long. I promise. He saw himself with his mum at a distance. Ade had now taken his place, but he was going to find him and take what was rightfully his.

'I Dapo will find you and take my place, I promise,' the ghost said to himself, staring at his body occupied by another being held by his mother at the distance. 

'I will take my place,' he whispered to himself.