June 20

The boy who was wearing a black cap with an adidas logo knew he was not supposed to keep quiet when he saw a man with a gun running inside a compound close to Mrs. Uju’s house but he did. I didn’t know what to do. My heart was beating as fast as I could remember. Even my pulse was rising. Mrs. Uju was not yet back home. According to her daughter, she was in her friend’s house, discussing about the politician who was granted bail despite his crimes, despite all the amount of money he had looted from Nigeria. I stood outside Mrs. Uju’s house as I watched the man who recently entered her neighbor’s compound come out. He was looking tensed. His eyes resembled a deep black hole sucked in its own void. He looked from left to right. He left before I could raise an alarm.

*

It was afternoon when Mrs. Uju arrived with her friend. The people who lived across the street a