Harmattan in august

So I started a short story collection- karma. I’ll post the first on the collection. I’ll release others later on

Karma: my short stories collection
Harmattan in August

It was the first day in August, and it started with Harmattan. Why would there ever be Harmattan in august? It was meant to be rainy. I was really amazed by the weather and the temperature. My desk and my room was already graced with the brown powdered dust. That dazed me even more. “So, it’s really Harmattan?” I thought to myself. I thought there was just a little change in the atmosphere, but all I saw spoke harmattan. The compound was already littered with flowers that fell from the cocoa tree by the time I woke up that morning. The whistling air was constantly reoccurring too. Undoubtedly, it was harmattan. The only question I wanted an answer to was ‘why August?’ There’s this idiom about august visitors which I related it too. Harmattan was the august visitor, and it coincidentally visited in august. I sensed a bad omen.
It was very difficult for me to get out of my bed, and it made it really difficult for to prepare for work too. I kept on snoozing my alarm, until I saw the light that peeked in though the blades. It was morning, and I was ready to be petitioned for being late. I hurriedly got dressed and munched on my favorite cereal. I was going to open the door to head out for work when I got a notification from whatsapp. I was really surprised when I saw the sender, but what shocked me more was the content of the message. The message was from Tola, an old secondary school mate. No doubt, she got my number from the class whatsapp group. We barely talked when we were in school and even after we left secondary school.
The content of the message read- “I met peju’s dad at the bank today. He gave me a sum of one hundred thousand naira to take a bike back to the hospital. But he added that I must extend his regards to you. What surprised me was how he got to know I was headed for the hospital.”
“it couldn’t have been Peju’s dad,” I kept on reassuring myself. “I guess it was someone else.”
Peju was my best friend while I was in secondary school. When she came to school the first day, everyone wanted to be her friend because she looked like a cool rich kid. She was a rich kid and she was cool too. I was not going to force a friendship with anyone because they had money. Never!! I don’t know how it happened but we ended up being really cool friends. People called us BFFs. My parents loved her and her parents loved me too.
Abruptly, Peju stopped coming to school. The first day she wasn’t in school, we all thought maybe she was sick. Three weeks went by and Peju still wasn’t back. I tried checking up on her at her house, but it was locked up when I went there. I asked their neighbors if they knew where they went, but they all said they didn’t even know when they left. I kept calling her, but it never went through. When the term was over and peju still wasn’t back, we all gave up on getting in touch with her. One fateful evening, I got a call from Peju.

When I got to work, kate swayed her wide hips to my office immediately she saw me. I thought she was going to feed me the latest news in office, but the gist she had was shocking, it was not an interesting gist about the office lovers. She told me that she saw Peju’s dad a night before that day. She said he offered her a ride home when her new boyfriend threw her out of his house. Kate knew Peju’s dad because we attended the same secondary school. She was a junior but we were pretty close. People thought it was coincidence that we worked at the same firm. What they didn’t know was that with strong connection, linking up is not very difficult.
What baffled me more about Kate’s report was the fact that she emphasized on the fact that Peju’s dad sent his regards to me. You want to know why I’m baffled? I’ll sure tell you. When Peju called me suddenly that fateful evening, it was to inform me about her father’s death. He was murdered by her mum. She told me that her mum killed him in her(peju) defense. He attempted to rape Peju, so her mum stabbed him from behind when she caught him about to perform the gruesome task. She took care of it with her mum and her brother, then they eloped. She called on that particular day to inform me that she would be travelling out of the country with her mum and her brother.
I was deeply hurt when she told me about it. Hurt, not because my friend was gone but because my lover was gone. Peju’s dad was my lover. He promised me the world, he promised to make me feel heaven on earth and he promised to treat me like a queen that I was. I thought it was going to become reality, I didn’t know he was going to abuse me as a child. He was not able to abuse me as a child, I guess he came back because i was older.
I was not myself throughout that day at work. Immediately the day was over, I rushed out of the office. On my way back home my car got spoilt. I didn’t know what I could do, that shouldn’t add to my problem. I was battling with it when a handsome gentleman packed by my side. He convinced me that he would get someone to repair my car, and he also offered me a ride home.
I though he was supposed to leave when he dropped me at home but he didn’t. He hopped out of his car and followed me to my doorstep. At that time, I was already shivering out of fear. I couldn’t control my bladder, urine was gently making its way out.” What if he is an armed robber? Or a hired assassin? Or a rapist?” I had a lot going on in my head. I was already making a vow to myself that I would never let a stranger help me. When I looked into the glass, I noticed that I was the only one standing, but I could feel the presence of some other person. I slowly turned my head to look. Boom!! It was Peju’s dad. He had his signature smirk plastered on his face, then I thought I was doomed.🙆🏻

Harmattan in August; chapter two

I was stilled by panic. Everything between us was supposed to have been quenched the moment he was murdered. What have I done wrong? He stared at me with so much serenity in his eyes. At first, the look in his eyes almost made me forget he was not human. His look was so peaceful and accommodating. The fact only remained that he was a ghost.
It took me few minutes before I could successfully get the key into my apartment. Fear had taken the best of me. He, on the other hand, looked so calm and collected just like he was when we were lovers. He didn’t look bothered whatsoever. He didn’t even shrug when I couldn’t get the key sooner. I was scared that he wasn’t scared of someone sighting him. Eventually, I got hold of the bunch of keys. I opened the door, and just like I expected, he followed me in.
For hours, I sat down on the couch in my living room, still confused by the situation. He sat across me, staring intensely at me. I couldn’t get myself to look at him, so I bowed my head all through. At first, I thought I should go hide away from him in my bedroom, but the big question is “could I hide from a ghost?” A lot flooded my head- what would he be eating? How long will he be here for? Why did he come back to me? Is he back for revenge? Would he speak with me? Is he back so that we could continue with our relationship? “Oh no!! I can’t handle this situation.” Before I knew it, tears were already flowing down my eyes.
Unexpectedly, there was power supply. Under normal circumstances, I would have been exceedingly excited, but reverse was the case that night. Apart from the tension that was dumped in the utmost percentage of my body because of the ghost’s presence, I was also scared owing to the flickering lights and the other technological glitches I was experiencing. The television automatically turned on itself, which was weird. Instead of staying on, it was fluctuating -it would turn on, then turn off, on, and then off…. I grabbed my phone with my shaky hands, so that I could call the engineer that could fix the technological glitches, but the phone suddenly shut down. “Oh no! Not now. What is he doing to my house?”
I don’t know what triggered me to do it but I did it- I looked him in the eye. I looked into his crooked sunken eyes. Well, it was crooked and sunken, it was sweet and beautiful. I thought I was supposed to feel like a super hero or something like that, right? Well, sad news, that didn’t happen. Staring at him only fuelled the initial fear. The speed of light took me out of the living room. All I know was that I made it to my room. I locked the door behind me, then and there I fell to the ground. And for the first time that night I burst into tears. I was done for. I wanted to find somewhere safe to stay, but would he ever let me be? I needed to be comforted, but would he ever let me get comfort.
I don’t know how, something kind of erased every thought I had for a moment. I forgot about the ghost and I felt at peace. I felt a presence that stood in for the safety and the comfort I wanted. Then, the hand was on my back, patting me and luring me to sleep. I could feel cool breath that calmed my nerves. Just then, I heard a whisper, “why did you do it?” I was jerked back to life immediately. I took the bottle I got a hold of to attack him, but he swept away like the sea. My sanity was trading itself for insanity. My heartbeat was going up and up…will peace ever be mine again? I screamed.
My windows were all locked, I made sure of that. I was then tiptoeing in my house. What an irony? I couldn’t get myself to sleep, I was looking there and there for him. Where was he hiding? Would he come back when I’m sleeping? I folded myself in a blanket and hugged myself tight. I could not bear any risk. I dread to think what it would look like if a ghost raped me while in my sleep. That made me remember what it felt like to pray. Good lord!! I had forgotten I could pray that well….In the long run, I fell asleep.
What kind of a sleep would I have if I didn’t dream the usual dream…more like nightmare? In the dream, I would kneel beside a dead man, cry, and then run away. I never got to see the face of the man but he spoke. He would say, “It’s hot now, but it’ll be cold later.” The statement baffled me every time I had the dream. Till that moment, I still could not tell what he meant by that. I’ve tried to bring out the Leonardo Da Vinci in me, but I never succeeded
Before I knew it, it was dawn. I woke up dazzled that I actually slept off. I scrutinized my body meticulously, as if to check if a part of it was missing. To say the fact, I was even surprised that I wasn’t a ghost myself. I thought maybe he would have attacked me during my sleep or maybe he would have done even worse. I roamed my brain to tell whether I made it to my bed before I slept off. Certainly, I know for a fact that I was still sitting on the floor when I slept off. How did I manage to get on my bed? I didn’t have to stress my brain before I got an answer to that. Obviously, the ghost helped me. At a corner of my mind, I found it really weird that I was not as bothered as I should be about having a ghost in my home. I found it really weird that I was even looking out for me. What had taken over me? Had I been hypnotized?

It was the second day in August. Just like you guessed, there was still Harmattan. The only difference from the initial day was that the august visitor had visited without an invite. I got out of bed, prayed, then I went in search of the ghost. As I was approaching the kitchen, I could perceive a really nice aroma. I don enter one chance. He was not ready to go anywhere. The door to the kitchen was not ajar neither was it locked, so I could peep in. I don’t know how but he felt my presence immediately. I instantly hid behind the door and watched him cook. To say a fact, he looked really good for a ghost. Weren’t ghosts meant to be cladded and covered in white like in movies? That ghost was actually wearing a pair of trousers and a t-shirt. That was really funny to me. He was a handsome ghost.
No one needed to tell me that I would not make it to work that day, I already knew and concluded. I decided to call in sick at work. But as I was about to try power on my phone to call the office, the ghost talked, “I sorted that out already mi amour.” “Did he just call me mi amour?” I thought. Obviously, he had come to stay. When he was done cooking, he dished the meal and brought it to me. He sat across me, and stared at me earnestly. Somehow, I was starting to feel relaxed with him. The ghost was playing the host. He wanted to satisfy me with all he could. At that time, I had almost forgotten that he was a ghost. As much as I feel relaxed with him, I could not decide if I should eat the food he cooked for me. What would the food taste like? Will it be ghost-like in its taste? There were too many questions I couldn’t provide answers to. I used the spoon to sweep the salad and the rice from one side to another, almost making it seem like I was piling a heap of rice for construction.
“You can eat it, it’s not poison. It’s just your favourite food,” he said, with a little tone of sarcasm. I don’t know what came over me, but hearing him speak made me smile.
“Thanks,” I whispered. I was supposed to be frightened by a ghost, why was I thanking him for cooking for me? A ghost cooked for me!!!! I managed to eat half of it before I dropped the remaining. When I was done eating, I went into the bathroom to have a bath. I didn’t have my morning skin care routine, I just bathed and wore a long maxi gown. Makeup? That wasn’t in mind at all. When I was done, I locked myself in my room. I tried to look through all the recent events that unfolded in my life. Those also took me to the past events. The thoughts of the past events brought back guilt and pain in to my heart. And that made me wonder, why wasn’t I so scared of the ghost? It was during the course of the meditation when I looked behind me to see a smiling Mr Bakare(the ghost). I wanted to smile back at him, but some thing in me made me ask, “Are you back for revenge?” I expected him to reply instantly, but there was a minute of outright silence.
“You know I’ve always told you that that it’s hot now, it’ll be cold later. It’s time, it’s cold now.”
“Was that you in my dream? Please…don’t hurt me. I’m sorry for everything. Are you back for me?” I sniffled through my speech.
“I was never gone…I was just waiting for the right time.” He said, still smiling. I was scared, I was really scared. For a moment, I was the overly scared lady. My inner temperature was increasing, I was suddenly nauseous and I just wanted to get out of there, if only it was possible.
“Don’t be scared mi amour. I’ll never hurt you. I’m just here for us to foster our love. I’m gone but not gone,” he said. Deciphering his words was really difficult, probably because I was scared to decipher them. “Don’t be scared! Never be, I’m here for you. I’ll make sure to treat you like a queen that you are. Let’s leave the past in the past. Love conquers all. You mean to me more than every other person,” he continued. History was about to repeat itself, his words were getting to me again. I watched him say each word earnestly. He said them like he meant them, I could tell through the flow of his lips. One way or another, our lips were locked. He kissed me like he owned me and like I owned him too. He poured out his love for me into the kiss. Just then, Denrele barged into my room and shouted, “I’m back ho.…..” What shocked him was the scene before him. I was kissing myself…

Look out for the next episode to unravel other mysteries: find out who denrele is. Find out what transpired between Mr Bakare and the author before, apart from the love affair.
Thanks for reading……muah.
Love,
Dora to the world.