Corpers' lodge

Chika woke up to the sobs of his mother in the ward. He tried to reach for her face to wipe her tears but he felt a sharp pain. A drip was attached to his left arm. He sighed. "Mother what happened? Why am I in a hospital? " "Just rest Chi nwam, doctor said it's just rest you need." " I was with a wedding card mama, the card-" He cut short his statement as his mother pointed at the card on the table beside his bed. A good Samaritan  brought him to the hospital when he collapsed in the middle of the road. He spent three days in the hospital. On the way home from the hospital, his mother drove. The envelope was lying on the dashboard. He glanced at his mother and sighed. He couldn't be mad at her. Even though she told him she did not know about Trustlin's wedding, he wondered if he was not expecting too much of the woman.  What widow in the world would call his only son, far away at camp in Oyo, to tell him the great love of hi...

After arguing and fighting with people for many years now, I can proudly say, and without regret that I love to sleep. The rigorous and unorganized schedule of camp didn't change that. It didn't matter to me if I had to skip parade - skipping parade sounds rather permissive, the right word being "duck" parade. I strategically hung my mosquito net and covered myself in my blanket in a way that my roommates had a hard time telling if I was on my bed, except of course for my bunkie who always complained of how much I shook the bunk, which I blamed on the age of the bunk, when in fact it was an indices of how much I was enjoying my sleep - talk more of soldiers who came into rooms to chase us out. On the last day in camp, my bunkie, thinking he was doing me a favour woke me up by 3am! "3am?! Common! You should've given me an hour more"  was my thought, but my consolation was "It is the last day".  The day all the fears that lingered in my...

Chika staggered from side to side down the road, oblivious of his immediate environment. To passers by he could be judged as heavily drunk, but it was 4:00pm and he was sober. The soft evening wind gently harassed his unbuttoned khaki shirt. He was in his full NYSC uniform, the 7/7. His cap on his left hand and a wedding card on his right hand. He barely lifted his orange jungle boots, digging them into the red earth as he staggered home. His heart was shattered, his world was crashing. The day dreams and pictures he nursed in his mind since childhood, all broken. How it all went wrong, he couldn't have seen it coming. If their love was real it was difficult to explain and accept this turn of events but, If it was fake, then what have they been doing since over a decade ago. He needed answers but his grief was most persuasive.            * * * Chika walked into a class accompanied by his mum in 2005, after enrolling at the proprietor's office. This...