Udinyinwe Malaise.......Episode one.

Udinyinwe walked hurriedly but surreptitiously, his head turning as swiftly as his heart was racing.

His eyes were trying as hard as possible to pry through the thick darkness that enveloped the street, only some rooms occupied by students in the street had their rechargeable lamps on, most of them were dim now, considerably so, it was almost midnight. He cursed the ever unreliable PHCN, even they didn’t want to be on his side this night; the enormous haze of darkness enveloping both he and the road could be repressed if they could just do their job, at least for this night.

The night wasn’t windy, the air was dry coupled with the deafening silence on the road. He trudged on, he wasn’t going to jinx himself with fear, his daily devotional had ‘’overcoming your fear’’ as the theme that month, or did it? He hadn’t opened the devotional for months, Mena had told him the theme, she always encouraged him to read it, if he had read it there might be a catchphrase from it he’d be reciting quietly now, he thought.

Why didn’t he just stay at school ?

who walks Boyo street at almost midnight ?

Ok, students did walk it, but not under the circumstances enveloping the neighbourhood right now, not when it was making the rounds that kuala boys were mourning Obiaka.

The past three weeks had been very tensed at Boyo street, it was largely deserted once it got dark, the usual suya and meshy spots closed very early nowadays, an uneasy quietness had befell Boyo, there was no ‘’turn ups’’ and the usual lively and popular Boyo in the past few weeks had become a huge departure from its former self.

FUUA students as vivacious and outspoken as they were understood that once it came to an issue concerning system men, the kuala boys, they had to tune down, nobody wanted to be the one who would be used as an example. Well this wasn’t just any other issue nonetheless, it was Obiaka, the famous and dreaded Obiaka, Obiaka of Boyo, he was popularly called. Obiaka had been shot in a police raid , or so people had been saying, mostly in hushed tones though.

 He was dead alright, but the manner and circumstances were not lucid, everybody had heard something, everything was hearsay. A school of thought even alleged that there had been a huge crisis inside the kuala boys camp, that there was a form of coup d’etat, Obiaka had become unpopular with some top members of the kuala hierarchy, and he was summarily deposed , they opined.

There was one vivid inference from Obiaka’s death, one that was all too clear for Federal university, Umuahia students, the Kuala boys were to be dreaded more at this point as they mourned their fallen leader. For unsuspecting students, especially the ‘Freshers’’, who always seemed to ask unending questions, they learnt this ‘’tradition’’ the hard way.

Unsuspecting, eager to read or show off, carried along all their sumptuous gadgets to their evening studies or ‘’ nightclass’’ and they would subsequently be harried, robbed off their phones, wallets and whatever valuables they had . For the unlucky ones, most likely the one ones who tried to resist they were unceremoniously beaten up.

Udinyinwe noticed two dark figures approaching him, they were still some distance out, his fist clenched apparently to stop his fingers from trembling unending.

His apprehension grew, just then he paused, and for a split second he was relieved . They were not the people he was expecting they would be, they were like him, he could tell from the way they walked or ran, he couldn’t conclude which they were doing, it was somewhere between both, between running and walking. The very familiar walking steps of people scared out of their wits. He almost laughed at them, then he shrugged the feeling, he was invariably going to be laughing at his own situation, he was no different from them. They had passed him now, two boys, they nudged their heads at him when they passed like they were silently acknowledging their similar fate of sorts, giving him the sort of look that screamed ‘’fellow compatriot’’.

Minutes after he had passed them, he heard a scream and a struggle behind him, his pace naturally increased now. He panicked.

Why did he even offer himself to accompany Ronke to Boyo this night?

  He had planned to return from campus in the morning. She couldn’t come back alone and she was not feeling well, she had asked him to accompany her.

Not feeling well ?

 He thought again and hissed simultaneously, now it was he who  wasn't "feeling well" .

Certainly not under these conditions he was now would any one "feel well" the voice mocked. Now he had to walk all alone to his room at the end of the 4th lane in Boyo street, Ronke's hostel was just at the entrance of the street, it was at Boyo junction .

He wasn’t a people pleaser and he hardly assisted people, but karma was funny, he thought, trying to repay him for his hard heartedness on the same night he decided to help someone. The sheer vicissitudes of life, he thought.

Distressed and frightened about the ongoing behind him, he made utmost sure he was not going to care, or get involved he wasn’t even going to turn his head to look. Immediately, so close to the bend on the 4th lane, he heard whispering, and footsteps approaching. Instinctively he ducked into the dark shade by the side of a nearby kiosk. Almost simultaneously he heard hurried footsteps coming from the path he was walking from.

The "whisperers" were talking now and they were more visible under the dim light, they were policemen! He felt utmost relief which evaporated almost as soon as it came, what he saw next shocked him to the marrows.

Three boys, who looked like hoodlums, stopped running as they met the policemen on the bend in front of the kiosk. They exchanged quick pleasantries and discussed about the boys who he had passed on the way, the same boys whom the hoodlums had obviously just robbed. It was their screams he had heard.

‘’hope say una nor too beat them?” the stouter policeman quizzed.

“no nah, dem loyal when we ambush them, them nor give us problem’’ one of the hoodlums, one of the kuala boys, he guessed, replied.

They then exchanged something, most likely monies stolen, he was struggling to see under the thick darkness. Udinyinwe was awe-struck, and he shivered at the scene he was witnessing, just then he kicked a resting bottle unknowingly, it flew and crashed on the bindings of the kiosk, making all the noise he would have wanted to avoid. He cursed, and at that moment he thought of the worst, the lights came almost immediately too, PHCN had answered him, albeit at the wrong time “Jesus’’ he screamed………….

’’Udin, udin, wake up, you just slept throughout the night, its already 6am, I wonder what you’ll write in Dr Ozie's test’ Ronke's screeching torchlight was piercing through his sleepy face and dreamy eyes. He dropped his head again cleaning any saliva that could be on his face. “let's  head back to Boyo, I don’t wanna be late for class because of you’’ she said as she trudged , he trudged behind her, half annoyed, he had slept through and through again . “Ronke , please i'll seat close to you today oh, he muttered…..