Kamara- The reunion

She felt the hard cold surface beneath her and there was a stale unfamiliar smell in the air as she opened her eyes and to take in her environment. She was in a room which would have been bare but for the filthy cotton sheet which was used as a curtain to cover a little window of light. She did not know where she was. It was not a room in the palace because she had hidden in all the rooms during her games of ‘hide and seek’ with her little cousins. She looked down at herself and saw her dress, that’s when it all came back to her. She remembered her birthday party with the town’s people and her grand-parents. She remembered that she was missing her father so she excused herself and went to her bed chamber to wait for him. She slept off and then was awakened to this nightmare. Her grand-parents must be worried sick and her father must have arrived and frantically been searching for her. She tried to get to the window but as she got up to make a run for the window, she fell back to the ground. She looked to her feet and saw that one of them had been shackled to the wall. The sound of the chains echoed around the empty room and a few seconds later, the door opened.  A little boy who looked a little older than her and was dressed in tattered clothes came in. He held a tray and slowly placed it on the cold ground about two steps from the door. As she tried speaking to him, he turned and left not forgetting to close the door behind him. From where she was she could perceive the awful smell emanating from the tray and refused to look at what was in the plate. She was confused and angry. She had no idea what was going on and there were many questions she wanted to ask, but there was no one to direct them at. So she screamed. She screamed as loud as she could and for as long as she could manage, but then no one came. Her throat was sore and she could scream no more. Having no choice in the matter, she let herself be dragged into a deep unpleasant slumber.

She woke up to the sound of the door opening and it was the little boy again with another tray. He dropped that right beside the tray he had dropped earlier and picked that one up. Kamara tried to speak to him, but he just left the room like no one was speaking and so she screamed. Screamed as out as she could at the shut door but no one came. This was the cycle for seven days; the little window was her clock.

Until one evening, she heard a scuffle outside her door to which she opened her eyes. It sounded like a thousand men were right in front of her door. She then heard the sound of another door right beside her open after which there was a heavy thud of what sounded like a body hitting the ground. She then heard a soft whimper of pain. So soft she almost missed it. She recognised that sound, it was her father.

She jumped up forgetting the chain around her ankle and she fell back immediately. This brought her back to the reality that if this was indeed her father, her captors were not about to reunite them. So she settled in her warm spot on the cold ground and told herself to wait patiently till the time was right. The little boy as usual brought her meal for the night. She had willed herself to begin to eat the content of his tray knowing that she needed to keep her energy levels up if she wanted to escape this place. She tried talking to the boy as she usually did and got no response as usual. Once he left, she stretched and pulled the tray to herself, gulped half of the porridge down along with the cup of water and pushed the tray back to the door. Then she sat and waited.

When it seemed like hours had passed, she called out in a quiet voice.

‘Papa Papa, is that you?’ no response.

Feeling her heart drop a bit she called out again, but this time she heard a painful grunt after which a small coarse but familiar voice came, ‘My baby girl, is that you?’

She almost jumped for joy and responded in a loud whisper, ‘Yes Papa, it is me. What is going on here, I am so scared. I have seen only a young lad since I have been here and he has not even spoken to me.’

‘You haven’t seen her?’

‘Seen who?

‘Your mother, it is she that has kidnapped us and brought us here’

Oluwaseyi Lawal