Perfect Little Angels by Vincent Anioke

Author:Vincent Anioke
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Arsenal Pulp Press

EKENEDILICHUKWU HATED GOD

For the Smallness of Hatred’s Origin

Because months after the gunmen’s bullets tore through eighteen youth choristers in nearby Akpor, Reverend Ejike said that endless mourning disrespected the Most High’s design—they were reunited with Him, after all. The Communion wafer tasted strange that morning, a brittle, melting thing. Still, Ekene rose with the congregation on every piano note, singing and clapping.

Because when Pa passed away, Ma tore through her clothes at the midday funeral and sullied her hair with fresh-rain mud. She knelt long enough for the stones to draw blood and begged the unrelenting skies for Pa’s return. Ekene did not miss Pa, not the worsened temper that had plagued his final months, nor his unshowered, bedridden musk. But for the cessation of Ma’s tears, he crouched beside her long enough for his thighs to burn, imploring the heavens too.

Because he did not recognize the long-standing simmering in his chest until the night of his fourteenth birthday. Despite his pleading, Ma had not excused him from working the overheated kitchen at Crunchies, Uncle Ikenna’s café. Either in defiance or self-celebration, Ekene had reached for the smallest piece of a customer’s gizzard on the sizzling pan. Uncle Ikenna caught him, made him spit it out. “God hates thieves,” Uncle Ikenna said, not unkindly. A thought burned clear and sharp in Ekene’s mind, freed at last: I hate Him too.

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