By Mimi Obi
It looked at me across the table with point blank eyes full of evil,
consummating me with its hatred that sent a burning feel through me.
Water droplets fell from its body the same amount of drops of sweat my body released with every gaze I gave, I desperately wanted to look behind me, to hold on to someone or something but the voices cut through my myriads of thoughts. Kola brushed it with the tip of his thumb and his eyes fell on me accusingly and with scorn.
I tried fixing my travelling gaze on his piercing eyes but instead they wandered and rested on the spot on his forehead, it was a big black spot that ran in a zigzagged manner from his forehead down to the space that divided his eyebrows, I found myself lost in that spot that lay on his head and intrigued to know what lay behind those lines.
“This guy na ju, ordinary alcohol you dey look like monster”
Kola accused with a deep stare that made the lines on his forehead look bigger, they felt strained, if only I could straighten the lines and run my hands through it to feel its warmth and its pain, perhaps it would feel the same pain I felt now. “Kola I no be ju but I no want drink today” I answered Kola in the best pidgin I could speak, at the sane time feeling strange at how it sounded in my mouth. I had been trying to convince these boys I took alcohol for close to an hour but I knew it would not work if I did not take a drop of it in their presence.
The first drop I took stuck in my throat and I almost puked but I saw the judging eyes of Kola,
Segun and Tofarati, without a glance I downed the remaining contents of the cup ignoring the bitter taste and continued till I finished the bottle which no longer looked at me with eyes full of evil anymore but with love and acceptance. I relaxed and started another journey of friendship with another bottle till I got to my fourth, which by then the four bottles were dancing to the tune of the song in my head.
We had danced for a long while before I looked for Kola, he sat there drinking and laughing with Segun and Tofarati I wondered why they did not dance with the bottles that danced on their table.
Suddenly the bottles started moving but still swaying their waist to the new song that played in my mind.
I rushed to stop them from going into road before the music stopped and the dance ended.
My head ached and I felt a sour taste in my mouth,
maami sat on the edge of the bed staring at me, wondering what happened,
the bottles I tried saving, where were they. Maami had on her a sad strange look,
I thought she would be mad that I was drinking,
I was just 14 and maami was a prayer warrior who hated alcohol. I tried talking to her but I could not say a word before I drifted into unconsciousness, what was happening to me.
The day to leave the hospital came at last and I fastened myself on my wheelchair I had come to get used to. After I downed four bottles I started dancing in the bar,
an eyewitness said I tried chasing something invisible before I ran into the road and was hit by a vehicle, I was brought in by the driver and my parents were called by Kola who was already looking for me.
I was paralyzed neck down and could use just my hands and head, life had just started for me,
I wondered why now it had to end, who would know it was just my first time.
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