20/12/2023
BESIEGED
PART TWELVE
We called it a day when the park was beginning to thin out and the few people who loitered around could no longer look at our haunting faces.
We rejoined with the woman at a spot quite far from the motor park.
Immediately the lad on my back climbed down, the woman landed a heavy slap on my cheek and violently wrenched the bag from me.
She hissed loudly and rolled her eyes when she stared inside the bag and when her head came up again, she landed a heavy knock on my head.
As usual, the others poised to whimper but she shushed them to silence with a steel glare.
We got home at twilight and she furiously barked an order which the others quickly acquiesced.
I concurred as well lest I incur her wrath and we lay down on the floor and shut our eyes.
She tarried outside and when she eventually came in, she coughed hoarsely to see if any of us can twitch a muscle but when we remained still like embalmed co**se, she nodded satisfactorily and spread a scarf where she turned the money.
After counting and recounting, she placed the money in her apron and went out leaving us alone.
The youngest amongst began to whimper brokenly, and the others soon followed.
I sat up when the buzzing in my ears became unbearable and violently nudged the others to get up as well but they ignored me and continued to sob.
I needn't any soothsayer to divulge what ails them hence the way they writhe on the floor, holding their stomach has given them away.
My heart bled and the image of our life together before circumstances tore our family apart flashed and I queued into their bitterness.
We abruptly stopped the weeping session when the door creaked open and the woman came in.
She stood like a ghost and stared at us for eternity before hitting us with a broom which made us to scramble on our feet.
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Just then, a knock sounded on the door and my hope soared for I was still believing that my kinsman will come to fetch me.
When the woman answered the door and returned instead with a plate which she laid on the floor, my heart which mounted in anticipation plummets into the pit of my stomach.
The boys upon sighting the covered plate began to react like a starved dog which finally saw his owner after a long time of separation.
Before she doled out the hot food in our hands, two of the older boys has already been dished with a heavy slap for losing their manners.
We ate the food slowly and she was generous enough to offer another when we consumed the ones in our hands.
For several days, I patiently waited for my kinsman to turn up and take me away but I was disappointed at the end of each day for he was nowhere to be found.
We continued in our business and wandered from one place to another, disguising and altering our form to elicit more sympathy from the populace.
Our situation slightly improved when a girl in our age bracket was brought in by someone who claimed to be her uncle.
The first day she followed us out, the woman did not alter her appearance and neither did she allow her to mingle with us.
From where I stood with the burden on my back, I saw the woman conversing with some motor park cad who devoured the girl with their stare while smiling sheepishly at whatever she's telling them.
The girl was whisked off by the men one after another and the woman was all smiles when they came back and deposited something into her palms.
The girl could barely walk by the time we walked home and the woman shouted and screamed at her before dragging her forcibly along.
I reconciled myself with the situation at hand but my heart was not at peace for it has dawned on me that my kinsman has sold me to the woman and would never return to claim me as I hoped.
We lived together in the same house but could not communicate effectively amongst us for the woman forbids it.
We were all victims of circumstances, thrown together and dared to thrive or wither like a delicate flower.
I wanted to run, to try my luck elsewhere but I was only a timid boy without a dime and neither could I communicate in the strange language which the people around me speak.
I was tottering in indecision over what to do when something remarkable happened, forcing me to run or possibly wait for my own to grill in the ember of adversity.
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