The Devil in the Night

Ndukwo and his parents lived at Maduka Street in Aba. In that part of the world, there was usually thick darkness whenever it was night. Even when there was a supply of electricity, darkness still kept its mat and slept in that part of the world throughout the night, for most people usually turned off their electricity bulbs before going to bed. People did that to avoid being attacked by thieves or burglars who lived among them. In Aba, especially in that part of the world where Ndukwo and his parents lived, people hardly used their mobile phones outside their houses at night or in the daytime. People's phones were taken by 'known rubbers', and their money was taken from them forcefully. Those were people who tried using their mobile phones in the daytime while walking in neighbourhoods. 

It was that very time that Ndukwo woke up, brooding about the mystery of his birth. His birth was mysterious because he hardly believed the story explaining how he was a comeback child. How did that happen? Why? He asked himself. He could not find any answer in his head. In what other knowledge could one explain why one was born with incomplete fingers? His little finger, was it not an answer to the questions? If it was, were those born with incomplete fingers or body parts Ogbanje? These questions cropped his mind. He still did not find any answer in his head. He did not like that story. He had tried all he could to get rid of it from his head. But all his efforts proved nothing. Each line of the story kept coming, and each line had held meaning in his head, that he was Ogbanje. He was still lying in bed when that thought cropped up his mind. Then a sudden sharp sound sundered his mind into worries and panic. It was the cackle of his fowls.

Ndukwo was in his room when that sound came. Fear seized him. But he overcame it by faith - the faith that little children had overcome the world. That was the teachings of his Sunday school teacher, Uncle Ben. He was tall and dark. He had three children, two daughters and a son. His wife died while being delivered of a baby boy, who died in the course of that. So, he decided that he would remain unmarried. The story had it that the nurse, who was delivering Uncle Ben's wife, pulled out the baby's head leaving its remaining body inside his wife's womb. When his in-laws told him to sue the hospital or the nurse, he replied to them that he had left everything to God. 

That was Uncle Ben! He was a peaceful servant of God. He often admonished little children, like Ndukwo, in the children's department, not to fear anything. Indeed Ndukwo was not afraid that night. He overcame that fear with the sermon of Uncle Ben.

"Where is my torch?" He asked himself.

He reached out his right hand to take a torch on his bedside table. He threw his duvet to the other side of his bed. He placed his feet on the floor and glanced around the room. He searched in vain for a heavy or sharp object with which he could defend himself. He knew the coop was under attack by one of the wild animals that preyed on fowls and other domestic animals at night.

Nothing in the room satisfied Ndukwo's desire. He wanted a rod, a shovel, a rake, a wood or anything that could be used to kill a wild cat. Yes, a wild cat! That was likely the animal that preyed on domestic fowls, he thought. The only object he saw in his room was on his bedside table. It was a glass cup of water he left on the bedside table before nodding off. He reached out to the cup using his left hand. He drank the water and returned the cup on the bedside table.

Ndukwo's room was magnificent, unlike a few students in his classroom. A television set was by the bedside table. A long rectangular mirror hung beside a small wardrobe. Two yards away from the wardrobe was the bathroom. On top of the wardrobe were many pairs of shoes and sandals. The floor of the room was built with marble tiles. Above his bed was a big calendar which bore the image of a white man. His parents told him that the white man was 'Jesus Christ'. Before then he had heard Uncle Ben talk about Jesus Christ, as 'the Lord of lords and Saviour of the whole world', but he did not see any picture like that one hanging over his bed.

From the look of Ndukwo's room, his visitors would agree that he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. His knowledge about fowl and wild cat behaviours spoke volumes of his intelligence and brilliance. Indeed Ndukwo was a brain child. His principal applauded his inquisitiveness, which he said was above board, especially as a child at his age. None of his classmates had ever seen his back in academic works, for he was known to be the class' first position. His father's relatives said that he chipped off the old block, just like his father. 

Hardly had he finished the water when one of the cocks cackled terribly. Ndukwo identified the cackle to be that of the oldest cock. The oldest cock was a gift from grandma. The time he received it as a gift, it young cock and had not started crowing. It was in the same year he received the cock that grandma's husband died. Now that it cackled, it meant that the coop was obviously under a terrible attack, he reasoned.

He dropped the cup and nibbled out of his room. He walked out in that manner to avoid waking his parents. If they were awake, they would not allow him to attend to the coop at that time of the night. His parents disliked rearing fowls. They saw fowls, especially native ones, as dirty and noisy creatures. That was the reason why they both hated fowl and never ate chicken. Ndukwo was not an exception; he had not tasted chicken since birth. His parents allowed him to keep fowls because, in his early childhood, they saw in him the intrinsic passion for fowls and other friendly animals.

He was already at the frontage. The whole world was quiet and thick darkness covered everywhere. The only sounds he heard that night were the sounds of his footsteps. He told himself that he had risked his life by leaving his room in the still of the night. Fear grabbed him another time but he overcame it with the words of Uncle Ben, the Sunday school teacher. He switched on the torch and then moved towards the coop behind their house. He felt happy that the torchlight was as bright as day - it travelled far, so far that he could see the wild cats.

There were two wild cats beside the coop. When they saw Ndukwo approaching fearlessly, they ran away. Closed to the coop, he discovered that two four-week-old chicks were lying dead on the ground. Their feathers scattered everywhere. Truly it was a violent attack, Ndukwo told himself. Tears gathered in his eyes, waiting for the blink of eyes. When his eyes eventually blinked, the tears flowed like the Udennamokai. He knelt on the spot where the chicks lay dead, and he wept and sobbed bitterly.

While he knelt, sobbing, he did not notice his parents had come to him until they touched him. He startled terribly. He tried hiding his feelings but it was late. His parents had realized that he was badly hurt.

"Get up, Ndukwo," his father said, waving his head in pity.

"Papa, they are dead!" He said and cried.

"Stop crying, Ndukwo," his mother consoled him. Her hands were in his armpits. She raised him and cuddled him warmly. "Stop crying, please. Biko nu! Even if you pour your tears on the dead fowls, the tears would not bring them back alive," his mother added.

"Stop crying, Ndukwo. I will get you a trap, and I know you would like it. You will use and kill many wild cats or animals if they ever come near your coop," said his father as they consoled him. 

Still sobbing, his mother pulled him up. They helped Ndukwo walk into the house. No sooner had they moved in than the cock-a-doodle-doo of the oldest cock came and went. That time was very, very, and very late in the night of Friday.