My New Year story

New years are a constant reminder of the pain and loss that I experienced some years ago. It’s a sad time for me and as much as I’d like to wish it away, it is a sad reality that I always have to face.

When I was a child, my mom used to run an orphanage home. For reasons best known to her, I wasn’t allowed to visit except on very rare occasions like the Easter and Christmas parties. But as I grew older, I was allowed to come in to work as a volunteer during the holidays. I enjoyed working at the orphanage because it gave me the opportunity to get to see my best friend Festus. He was the oldest child there and I liked him a lot because he was one of the most brilliant minds I’ve ever met.

One time we sat beside each other at the Easter party and we became buddies afterwards. We didn’t get to talk or see ourselves often, but whenever we met, we always found a way to pick up from where we left off.

Gist had it that Festus was the only surviving member of his family. He was brought to the home by his uncle when he was just four years old. The supposed uncle promised to visit him from time to time but never came back. The people in the home were the only family he had.

There was also gist, that he had tried to commit suicide a couple of times.

When he was taken to see a therapist, he told the story of a recurring vision he had and voices in his head. He spoke about a man who always told him to jump off the building. The description he gave of the man in his vision was exactly like the uncle that brought him to the orphanage. At this point, our African minds knew that this was a “village people situation”. Everyone had a suggestion or a solution and my mom was open to all of them as long as he was going to get the help he needed. From one prayer house to another, from prophets to diviners, from dibias to babalawos name it and he’s been there but nothing seemed to work.

On his own, Festus decided that he was going to do everything possible to avoid being alone in any storey building and for a long time, this seemed to work just fine.

He graduated from the university, got a job and moved into his own flat but he never forgot his roots. He was still a big part of the home and mom even made him a director. We all called him small oga. Everything seemed to be going on well as the voices in his head and the visions of ‘that man’ had become a thing of the past.

So I woke up one morning, on new year’s eve with constant twitching in my eyes. I thought nothing of it but it just wouldn’t stop. When I spoke about it to small oga, he told me that grandma at the home would always say that if your eyes twitched, it means you should expect something positive or negative depending on which eye it was. I told him that it was my left eye and he said it was a bad sign. I laughed and shrugged it off as superstition. “Abeg I will see an eye doctor if it persists jare”.

It was New Year’s day and small oga was nowhere to be found. We had a lot of activities planned for the day and he was running late. His number would ring out and he wasn’t returning calls or replying my messages. By midday, I was getting worried. This was unlike him.

I remember just like yesterday, how things began to unfold later on.

At 1:47pm, my phone rang, it was small oga. I didn’t give him room to speak, I started to scold him but the response from the other end was not his voice.

The caller said my number was the last dialled on the phone that’s why he was calling. Small oga was brought into his hospital by some people and he was the doctor attending to him. He didn’t say what the situation was but he asked that I inform his family about it.

The drive to the hospital was the longest drive of my life but we got there anyway. I went with my mom and some members of staff from the home. We got to the hospital and met small oga’s immediate boss and the doctor that called me earlier.

His boss explained that the information he got from the security men at the office was that small oga had come in to pick up something but when they noticed that he was taking too long, one of them decided to go check on him. He alerted his colleagues when he noticed that he was nowhere in the building. His car was still outside, so there was no way he could have left. They decided to look for him everywhere and that’s when he was found sprawled on the floor at the back of the office building. He had jumped off through the emergency exit at the back and landed six floors below.

I was glad that the security men found him. Once he got better, I’d never leave him by himself ever again. It was obvious that the voices or the visions were back. I took a mental note to look for permanent help for my brother. But in the meantime, can we see him now? “I asked the doctor”. He took a deep breath and sighed.

“Mr Festus suffered a broken skull and severe internal bleeding, we lost him”

Lost him how? Oga go and find him, what do you mean you lost him”. The shrill cry from my mother was the last thing I heard before I passed out.

As we lay him to rest a few days later, people gathered at the home to pay their last respect. One particular man stood out, he looked quite flashy for someone that was attending a funeral gathering. I pointed him out to my mother and she shrunk in fear… Her lips didn’t move but her eyes spoke the words. This was Festus’ uncle, the one that brought him to the home…the same one in his visions.