Freeborn!

“Ole! Ole! Ole!” the shouts were getting louder as Dapo began to tire and weaken. He could feel the blood dribbling down the back of his neck from a bruise he had received when a stone someone had thrown had hit him.

His legs were trembling from exhaustion as he slowed down to catch his breath, but he knew he couldn’t wait for long; they were just around the corner. Someone threw a stone at the back of his head but it missed by inches and struck a tree trunk as he passed it by.

How did he get into this mess anyway? But he had no time to reflect, only to run for his dear life for if he was caught it would be certain jungle justice for him. He had simply been a victim of being found at the wrong place at the wrong time.

He had seen what they had done to Wale before giving him chase and it was horrible! Fear lent wings to his feet anew and he ran but suddenly from the corner of his eye he saw some people running parallel to his course; they were trying to block him or surround him on all sides!

He slowed down gradually…not willingly but because he was too exhausted to run anymore. As they caught up with him he braced himself for the beating of his life that would probably end in his death…like Wale’s.

“Father oh please don’t let them hurt me please Father!” he prayed desperately, weeping silently but more from fear and terror than sadness.

Someone clubbed him on his back with a thick long stick and Dapo yelled in pain and woke up.

He took a minute to calm himself down, for he was breathing very fast and sweating profusely in spite of the AC. It was the same dream he had been having for three straight nights in a row now.

He knew he had yelled aloud when the door of his bedroom burst open and his parents stormed inside.

“Dapo kilode? What happened?” his mother said in fear as she rushed to his bedside to cradle him in her arms.

Dapo’s dad looked shaken but tried to keep his fear out of sight.

“Did you have a bad dream or something?” asked his father.

Dapo nodded his head, his breathing was still racy.

“The same dream again?” asked his mother.

Again Dapo nodded his head, not trusting himself to speak.

“Jesu sanu fun wa o!” said his mother again, drawing her thirteen year old son closer to her bosom.

“That’s alright” said Dapo’s father, clearing his throat and still trying to remain calm.

“In the morning we will take him to see the pastor okay? In the meantime you stay here with him till then,” he said to Dapo’s mum and slowly he bent down to pat Dapo on the back reassuringly.

“Everything will be alright Dapo okay?”

“Yes dad”, responded Dapo, though he was full of doubts. The dream was a recurring one. They had ‘looked’ into something they shouldn’t have…he and his sister…but they dared not talk about it; their dad would probably give them the flogging of their lives.