Abby:
“Abby, Abby!” I heard my name, but I was too dazed to truly comprehend what Chief was saying. He knelt beside me, his face tight with stress.
“Abby, my darling, there is a situation… the government is after me for something I didn’t do. They’ve seized all my properties and frozen my accounts. This apartment is the only one left because it was bought in my wife’s maiden name. I’m sorry, but my family will be moving in here. And… the money in your account, I need it. Please, that’s what we’re going to survive on.”
His words felt like punches. That luxury—the chef, the flat, the car, the travels—was all a house of cards. And now? He needed the money in my account. The jeep? Gone. The allowance? Stopped.
He continued, barely letting me speak. “I’ve told my wife you’re a friend’s daughter. He’s based in America and pays rent, but he can’t keep up right now. I told her you’ve invited us to stay.”
I sat there, numb. He spoke about bunk beds. Sharing my room with his three children—15, 16, and a 13-year-old boy—as if it was a camp retreat. “You’ll all manage,” he said. “After all, he’s just a boy.”
I couldn’t even process it. Not until the next day when his wife actually showed up, carrying luggage and dragging the kids behind her. I heard their argument as soon as she stepped in: either I leave, or she goes to the EFCC and tells them Chief owns this property too.
And that was just the beginning…
Chris:
Seventeen started. Ten left.
By day 23, I was half my original weight, covered in insect bites, and my gums ached from not brushing. Thomas looked skeletal. The dinghy’s motor gave out and we drifted, baking under the sun, freezing under moonlight.
The guides said we were near Europe, drifting into a shipping lane. That was our only hope.
The nurse, her lips swollen and body dotted with sores, whispered prayers at every sunrise and sunset. She was hanging on by faith.
Three days later, in the dead of night, we heard a loud horn.
Lights.
Shouts in another language.
Then figures in orange jackets appeared, abseiling down ropes. They wrapped us in foil blankets, strapped us to harnesses, and lifted us into a ship. I barely registered it. I drifted in and out of consciousness as warm liquid pulsed into my arm through a drip.
I remember thinking, “Am I dead? Is this heaven? White men, flashing lights, and injections? Maybe heaven is warm and fuzzy…”
And then everything went dark.
…hmmm
