Sterile Sky by E.E. Sule

Author:E.E. Sule [Sule, E.E.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781803288765
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

14

Baba Does Not Return

Baba had not returned from night duty. Could something have happened to him on his way back? Where had he gone afterwards?

By 3 p.m. I was really worried, not knowing what to do, when Sergeant Abu came. His appearance alone conveyed his message. I greeted him. He did not sit down. Rather, he asked me to follow him outside. Standing by his Vespa, he looked into my eyes and spoke to me in our language. ‘Your father is in trouble.’

‘What’s it?’ I heard myself exclaim.

‘Yesterday, he was late to work. Our DPO went to his outpost on patrol, searching for policemen who couldn’t do their job well. A new DPO who thinks he knows discipline better than anybody in the world. He didn’t see your father and there was no excuse. He ordered that your father be locked up.’

‘Oh my God.’

‘He said to inform you. Tell your mother.’

‘Thank you.’

I watched his Vespa disappear.

I told my siblings. They wondered how Baba, himself a policeman, could have been locked up by a policeman. Ajara giggled and said, ‘That man is telling a lie. Baba is drinking beer in Sabon Gari.’

Imatum hissed loudly when she returned from her outing. ‘We’ll rest from the disease of poverty in this house.’

I told Mama what had happened to Baba. She remained calm, as if used to hearing such news. She sat down opposite me and said, ‘It’s nice the police can discipline him.’

‘Not a kind thing to say, Mama.’

‘There’s a consequence for every sin. Did he not drink and forget to go to work?’

I heard Imatum giggling from the inner room. Emayabo and Oyigwu were engrossed in the TV. Ajara and Anyaosu were inside the inner room, eating. Yakubu was not at home. Perhaps he was at his best friend Denis’s house.

I implored, ‘Mama, I want to go see Baba. Please help me with the fare.’

‘I can’t waste the little money I earn by sitting under the sun on a man who has lost his senses to beer.’

Mama kept her word.

I went to bed sad. Now and then I awoke, pushing Yakubu’s legs away from mine. He slept heavily and moved restlessly on the bed. I heard the faraway howling of dogs and crickets chirping nearby. An owl was hooting somewhere in our compound. I stopped my mind from wandering as I wanted to think. Then I became conscious of the movements of the mice in our room. I heard their rushing motions, right on the springs of my bed. They were racing, fighting, shrieking. They scratched the plates on the floor. In the quiet of the night the noise was incredibly loud.

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