Behind the Closed Wall

Isaac Benjamin

Description

This literary piece is a fiction. The setting is in Maiduguri the capital of Bornu State in Nigeria. The Protagonist is Ahmed. The story line is about a young graduate whose mother took over the upkeep of her two sons after her husband Mr Peter lost his job and took to drinking ‘burukutu,’ a local drink in Northern Nigeria. At the height of abject poverty, the family struggled and survived with the petty trade of Mrs Peter who sold the local beans cake known as ‘akara’ or ‘quasai’ for the survival of the family. Meanwhile, Mr Peter lost control of himself as he went into depression drinking excessively. Then came the tragedy. Their locality was attacked by the die-hard Boko Haram terrorists group killing almost all the inhabitants. Mrs Peter and her two sons hid in the ceiling of their house. Mr. Peter was killed along with his friend the second day. Ahmed tried to break the chains of poverty after his father’s death by working very hard on his gift. He met Alhaji Sani who became his destiny helper and friend. Ahmed had some divine encounters with the Supersensible (God Almighty) through His Angel of Divine Presence. He was given several revelations from the realm of the spirit. It is these exposures that portray; Behind the closed wall.

Sujets

• Suspenso
• Suspense
• Fiction

Informations

• Publié par: AuthorHouse UK
• Date de parution: 15 mars 2023
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9798823081375
• Langue: English

Extrait

BEHIND THE CLOSED WALL
 
 
 
ISAAC BENJAMIN
 
 
 

 
AuthorH5ouse™ UK
1663 Liberty Drive
Bloomington, IN 47403 USA
www.authorhouse.co.uk
Phone: UK TFN: 0800 0148641 (Toll Free inside the UK)
UK Local: (02) 0369 56322 ([phone] from outside the UK)
 
 
 
 
© 2023 Isaac Benjamin. All rights reserved.
 
No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.
 
Published by AuthorHouse 03/15/2023
 
ISBN: 979-8-8230-8138-2 (sc)
ISBN: 979-8-8230-8137-5 (e)
 
 
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
 
Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
 
 
 
 
 
Dedicated to:
Maj Gen SA Adebayo
CHAPTER ONE
I woke up from a terrible stream of sleep, although it was a nightmare of some sort, it was more of a deep slumber. I stood up from the bed to visit the toilet, then I checked the wall clock. It was a few minutes to 5 a.m. I put on my phone and to my surprise, I saw many goodwill messages. So today, is the beginning of new month! I exclaimed to myself and then Nigeria’s independence. My heart skipped a beat, what was it? I was seemingly dumb.
“A minute prayer,” a silent voice from within told me.
“Oh! Yes, I have to be thankful for the gift of life.”
Then it started raining making the weather a little bit cold. I instantly got back to sleep and had my body completely wrapped up in the duvet. In another one and a half hour, I was in what I could not physically described in plain words, maybe an astral world of sleep. I woke up feeling very strange and sad. Then, I pondered over what seemed like emptiness. So I am an entity, I can move from one place to another, I can even drive a car? So, I am an entity that can have kids who are life matters like me? In my euphoria, I wondered. So I can move without any support? So, I am an entity of a divine creation? How did He do it? I imagined. One day too, this body would be of no use. Where will it be? Imagine if there are no heaven and hell? If that man will live forever. Dad would have been here. But what of the wickedness in the world like killings and crimes against humanity and nature? The world will probably be saturated without space. I can only imagine that life is a part time on earth with the Supersensible as the creator who allows varied trials that follows one to the end of one’s time. With truth that is fallen on the streets. It is certain that human sincerity hangs on the tree of hope. How wonderful would it be to have the serenity of a blissful transition from a chaotic sphere of our uncertain earth. For sure, my conviction would take me there. Like Elijah, at the fullness of my time I will gone to heaven at ease. I stood up from bed and knelt down to pray. The things of life require putting God first before w begin the day’s hustle.
It was 25 Friday, July 2017, I graduated from the University of Maiduguri and had completed my National Youth Service Corps Programme as obtainable in Nigeria. I decided to take up a job with a private firm as a secretary rather than doing nothing at home. We were very poor as Dad hardly kept any of his paltry jobs after the termination from his pensionable one. He always got drunk out of frustration and sometimes fell into the gutters and slept there or led home by a Good Samaritan. Life was like a nightmare of survival for us. Mom’s petty trade kept us going as we had no financially buoyant family member in Maiduguri to depend on. My little brother who was ten years old was still in the secondary school. Mom would fry the local bean cake known as ‘quosia’ in Hausa and take it to the primary schools around to sell. The business was able to keep us going. We could eat once or twice a day depending on what Mom had as little profit. My job had not started paying me. The management complained about low turnover and profits, then later began to talk about downsizing.
“How could they do a thing like this?” A man with a family of eight children asked me.
“They shouldn’t have employed at all if they were not ready to pay,” I replied as we stood outside the gate of the company watching many frustrated people like us.
I thought of stopping the job but Mom encouraged me to continue that there might be a change of mind from the owners of the company. Then later, they retrenched almost everybody including me paying me only one month’s salary out of the six months I had worked with them. I didn’t know what to do and had to resign to fate. Life can be so hostile and uncomfortable to people who have nothing other than doing some form of menial jobs for a living.
I joined Mom in her akara local bean cake business moving our sales from one primary school to another in more distant places. It was very helpful as we could get something to eat on a daily basis. Besides, my input in the business added a lot of encouragement to Mom. My junior brother was also very hardworking. Each day after school, he will go to a car wash company and do a part time job with them. He was paid a percentage for each car that he washed, although not much. After each day’s work which was always 6.30 p.m, Bala would get to a night market and buy some food and other items with the little money he made. He told me that on weekends, he could wash up to twenty cars before evening. I admire his determination and willingness to accept our situation. His passion was amazing very unlike some children who do not consider the realities of poverty challenges.
Then one fateful day which was on a Sunday morning, we were preparing to go to church. Mom was the one delaying us as she had to get her Bible and other materials for the local Sunday School Service for children. She was one of the teachers. Then suddenly and thank God none of us was outside the house, we heard the sound of a big bang followed by sporadic gun shots that were certainly at close range. Mom wanted to run outside but I held her not to attempt to do so as it must be something very dangerous. Unexpectedly, we heard the shouts and screaming of people in pain nearby. Hell must have been let loose by the devil, I told myself. We were terribly scared and thankful to God that the danger did not come close to us.
Instantaneously, I bolted the front door of our two rooms apartment. Then an idea came to my mind that we should hide in the ceiling as the terrorists might be entering houses. I discussed this with my family and in unison we decided to hide in the ceiling. I told my junior brother to climb up first. With a long stool in the house he climbed up the ceiling. Mom followed but it was quite difficult until after three attempts. Then, I hid the stool and struggled to climbed up to meet them.
The shout outside became more audible and fearful. From a little opening within the ceiling, we could see what was happening outside. Armed bandits were everywhere stopping and killing residents in cold blood.
“Boko Haram, suyin shiga Maiduguri,” meaning, Boko Haram Terrorists have entered the city of Maiduguri you could hear people shouting aloud.
Our hearts were in our mouths. This was quit unexpected. We began to pray quietly. Then suddenly, we heard some voices by our door. A man used his seemingly military boot to smash the door of our house. It yanked open then we heard them as they entered the house and searched everywhere.
“They must have gone to church,” one of them said of us.
“We would go to the churches and kill all those Infidels,” another terrorist added.
We were terribly scared. They left immediately to the other houses in the neighbourhood. Shrills of pains and gun shots were heard within the houses around. Some of them were known voices of neighbours in pains. And then silence pervaded a few minutes later. We heard the noises made by the criminals as they passed by our house the second time. Then one of them hit the broken door of our house and entered again then left. Mom almost sneezed but together I and my brother tightened our grips on her mouth. The roof was very dusty at that time of the year. Again, we saw the terrorists passed in their numbers, moving towards the highway that was a few kilometers away.
Like what seemed to be a form of counter attack, we suddenly heard fighter jets bombardments, then sporadic shootings from the distance drawing near to our locality at a fast speed. Armour Personnel Carriers began to comb the entire place. Their heavy metal weight shook the ground affecting the walls of the houses, killing the terrorists as they attempted to flee. We could see the terrorists attempting to counter attack from the highway and getting overpowered by the superior forces of the Nigerian Military. A lot of them looked foreign and could not speak our local Hausa dialect. Military presence began to fill everywhere. Unfortunately, the terrorists had infiltrated the town quite unexpectedly and had caused so much mayhem.
By 4 p.m that evening, we were still inside the ceiling as our neighbourhood was very quiet. We could see from the opening military presence everywhere. I tol