Let Him Sleep Forever || 𝑏𝑦 πΆβ„Žπ‘’π‘˜π‘€π‘’π‘’π‘π‘’π‘˜π‘Ž 𝐴𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑧𝑒

FS Review
2

I WILL GIVE BROTHER CHIMEZIE some sleeping pills. 

Mama used to buy one down the street, from Oliver, the Chemist. 

She said it was for Papa, that he would be needing it until he recovered from the major surgery he had. When Papa had swallowed the pills, he would sit on his recliner, telling me stories until he became exhausted, weak and drowsy. I would watch him sink gently into the recliner, his mouth still agape, spewing snores. And Papa would always wake the next day stronger. 

I will give brother Chimezie the same sleeping pills which Chika, the one that enjoyed our sandcastle play the most, had brought to the playing ground. 

Unlike the beautifully patterned braids on my head, Chika loved to have the curly waves of her long hair cascade down to her back. Because of this and because her father was a doctor, she always took the role of a physician. The boys were mostly the drivers and hunters. And when they hunt down lizards—the ones with red heads—they would bring them to us in a make-shift ambulance, whistling the siren with their mouths. I was always there to receive them as the nurse. 

"I came prepared today," Chika had said and brought out something from her pocket. "This powder is called Cyanide. I overheard my father telling someone that a pinch of it could make one sleep forever." 

A smile crept into her face as she dissolved the salt and began to administer it to the lizard.

Now, I used to be a sweet gentle soul until brother Chimezie walked into the picture. 

First, he started growing fond of me, buying me biscuits and plantain chips. He said he liked me but I shouldn't tell anyone. That people would begin to see me as a bad child if I did. Like he knew that I'd always wanted to be the good girl. Then we started seeing films alone in his room. He would send Chika and Ezinne away. 

"Go and bathe. You girls are smelling," he would tell them. 

One day, I was sitting on his bed, watching a movie, and eating the meat pie he had bought from ShopRite. He rose from the couch and came to stand in front of me. He was clad in nothing but a thin undie. Beads of sweat had gathered on his face like the AC wasn't there. He took hold of my shoulders, pressing on them as he stared into my eyes. His lips spilt no words, but there was something like uneasiness messing with his countenance. 

He let go of my shoulders and now stood bolt upright. I watched his fingers hooked at the rim of his boxers and then he pulled it down, revealing a massive fleshy organ, hanging down his thighs. I gasped, and almost choked on the pie. I had seen that thing, but it was a tiny one, in the tiny body of Emeka, which dangled as we ran around, playing under the rain. But this one in front of me was as big as a banana and arched like a sausage. 

He grabbed my tiny hand and handed me the thing as though it was a baton. He said I should fondle it and then asked me to lick it like the lollipop he used to buy for me. Moments later, I would leave his apartment with the instruction that I shouldn't tell anyone or risk it and die in the act. 

Done with injecting the substance into the lizards, I somehow found myself laughing.  

"You shouldn't be laughing, because we are losing our patient," 

Chika said, oblivious of the darkness that had shrouded my mind. Her misty eyes glistened in the mid-day sun. I didn't expect her to understand my pain. If she knew, she would keep all the salts for Chimezie and none for the lizards. 

Chika glared into my face when I asked for the salt. "This is dangerous, so you've to be careful." 

I nodded, wondering if she had ever felt a severe pain lodged in her vagina, and knowing it wouldn't stop until he quit forcing himself into her. 


Brother Chimezie already downed the bottled water on the table and began to pull off his pants as usual. I had taken the time he went outside to slip in enough dosage of the powder.

Now he paused, completely immobile, like he had seen a ghost. He then grabbed his neck, face crumpled in a grimace. He was choking, I knew. He started jerking the moment he crashed to the floor, whitish foams bubbling out of his mouth. I eased to my feet and shot him a sneer. 

Like the lizards, now he will sleep. And unlike Papa, I wished he wilk never wake.


MEET THE AUTHOR:


CHUKWUEBUKA HARRISON ANINZE is a Medical Laboratory Scientist who likes to think himself a writing freak. He is writing from Enugu, Nigeria. He has written a whole lot of well meaning short stories and flash fictions. His works 'By Yourself' and "Tamed by the Gods' have appeared in Fiery Scribe Review. He is the first winner of the Writer's Academy fiction contest. Romance and Thriller are the two genres he readily finds home with. He counts it an honor helping young writers carve a niche for themselves. If he's not writing or reading, he will definitely be playing video game.

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2Comments
  1. Such a beautiful story, I love everything about it

    ReplyDelete
  2. The narrator did the narration as if murder was a normπŸ˜€
    Justice well-served, though.

    It's the voice for me.

    ReplyDelete
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