ORANGE SKIES AND BIG BIRDS

Egobe! Come down from that tree and help me gather these corn. ” papa yelled from a distance. I pretended not to hear him and kept climbing higher. “Don’t let me come there and get you, else, you’ll be having your ears for supper.” he said. I giggled at how funny that sounded. Papa always promise to feed me my body parts when I act stubborn but he never really goes through with it.
I couldn’t keep still. This was my first day at the farm and I was happy that papa finally let me follow him. Our farm was large and had several crops growing on it. Papa always said that the farm was our source of living. I did not understand this because he one time said that the God in the sky was our source of living.
Papa and I live in Bukai, a small community of people that was several miles away from other communities. Papa was one of the five chiefs in our village, but he didn’t have plenty wives like the others did. He had only mama. When mama died of what the native doctor called “yellow skin” , papa did not marry another woman. I cried and cried when they put mama inside a hole in our backyard. I only stopped crying when Papa told me that mama was being planted and would grow into the sky to meet the God in the sky. I told him I wanted to be planted too but he said that I wasn’t ripe enough to be planted. And that, I was mama’s only gift to him. I did not understand a lot of what papa said that day but I always went to the backyard everyday to water mama’s grave.
I climbed down from the tree and ran towards papa. When I got to him, I stretched my little tight fist forward and opened them. Inside, was a little dead lizard. I was so proud of myself and my catch. Papa collected the lizard and said to me “well done Egobe, you’ll make a good hunter one day, just like your mama’s father, Samoh, the great hunter.” I was beaming with smiles. “Don’t worry, I will use this to make lizard soup today.” he said. He never really used them for anything, he always said that to make me feel better about my catch.
“Papa Egobe, I greet you this sunny morning.” Mama Domuju said. I didn’t like mama Domuju. She always drags my ears and tell me that papa spoils me too much. She was very fat in her tummy. Her tummy was very big like a large coconut. When I asked papa, he said she was carrying a baby. I do not understand this. I kept wondering if she ate a baby. This made me dislike her more.
Today was papa’s turn for farm work. In Our community, people took turns to work on each others farm. They helped each other since the lands are always so large. After a while, our farm was filled with several villagers. Some of them brought their older children along and most of the women backed their babies. It was a very happy day for me. I saw my friends, Kodie and Jodie -brothers who looked alike and Domuju. Domuju and I fought once when he went and pee pee on mama’s grave. But, papa told us to be friends again for the sake of mama and to help mama grow into the skies. I did not want mama to be disappointed so, I became friends with him again.
It was mid-afternoon when I decided to leave papa and go look for more lizards or even a bird to kill. Kodie followed me and went further from the farm. We saw a group of birds on the grassy floor and started to chase them. We used stones and as they flew, we threw stones into the air to get them. Kodie threw a small stone at one of them and it hit the bird on the head. The bird seemed to be falling from the sky. That was when I saw it.
I saw the largest bird I have ever seen in my whole life. It didn’t flap it’s wings. It just seemed to be floating in the air.

“Egobe! run!! ” I heard papa say. “run! Now!” He yelled. I suddenly felt afraid. My chest felt like a hundred needles were pricking my heart. I started running. I didn’t know where I was running to but I felt the need to run as fast as I could. The big bird seemed to be getting closer to the ground, it then dropped large looking feaces. The feaces made the sky turn Orange and when it dropped on our farm, I felt the earth shake. There was a big fire. From where I stood, the skies were orange and the fire seemed to make the place more colourful. I felt the sand beneath my feet vibrated violently and I fell down.
The noise from the bird was so much I could barely hear anything else. I tried to get up but I felt the hairs on my body rise. My head was ringing and the earth seemed to be shaky. I lost my balance, fell harder and all I saw were orange skies before the darkness took over.
I woke up. The skies were no longer orange. I got up and the memory of what happened rushed back. I got up and ran to the farm. The farm was gone. In its place, a large black area and people sleeping in strange positions. Their skins were not brown But black like corn roasted over a fire. I walked slowly through the black covered area. That was when I saw mama Domuju. She looked so stiff. Her face had no lips so I could see her teeth. She still looked fat in her tummy but this time, there was a large tear on her tummy and I saw the contents of her insides on the floor beside her.
I was distracted by Kodie’s cry. He was bent over a body. A body that was once identical to him. He cried and kept saying “Jodie, Jodie, wake up. Wake up so we can look for mama.” With tears in his face, he looked at me and said “He doesn’t want to wake up. Why doesn’t Jodie want to wake up? ” he sniffed and pointed to a far corner of the farm.
My heart skipped a beat as I looked towards that direction. I ran there as fast as my tiny legs could carry me. Then I saw papa. Papa was covered in soot. I could barely recognized papa. I sat close to him and a single tear fell from my face on his face and rolled down his chin. That was the first time I ever saw tears on papa’s face. He looked so worried. His face held a certain look. Like he died worrying, scared that I too would look like this… Stiff, cold, burnt.
“papa, I’m here. Wake up.” I said. “papa, please wake up.” I shook him for emphasis. I used my little hands to clean the soot on his face. It was at this point I noticed that people were walking along the road with their load on their head and their children by their side. Some men who wore uniforms were walking with them with rifles in their hands. “papa, let’s go.” I touched papa’s face like I see him do to me when I’m sick. Papa didn’t wake up. “papa, papa, please, get up. Get up and I promise never to climb another tree again.” the tears didn’t stop falling. I cried until I felt a warm wetness seep through my little shorts. I just peed on myself. Papa would be so ashamed of me. I pulled away from Papa and pulled off my shorts. Then I started calling out to people to help me. I cried so hard tears refused to fall again. Some looked at my way and shook their head. Some I even recognized just turned their faces away.

I looked behind me and saw Kodie Struggling with one of the unfamiliar men with strange cloths. He was fighting and kicking and scratching the man’s face. The man held Kodie’s hands back and from where I was I heard a snap. Kodie started screaming and writhing in pain.
I must have screamed too because the man looked towards my direction and started coming towards me. I wanted to run but I couldn’t leave papa behind. I didn’t want him to wake up and not see me by his side. So I laid down and held on tight to papa’s body. The man came and started tugging me but refused to let go of papa. I kept screaming “i can’t leave papa. Please, leave me with Papa.”
The man left me and then reached for his pocket and took out something that looked like a small rifle. He pointed at papa’s head and BANG! “Your father is dead! Little boy. ” he said with a look of victory. Beside me, papa’s head was bringing out smoke and I could see the inside of papa’s head. I remember when he use to say that nobody could see what he has in his head. I stared at Papa.
He was gone for sure now. This man had killed papa. I felt blinding rage. I charged towards him with all the anger my little body could produce and bit him on the leg. He kicked me and aimed the small rifle and me. I knew I would share the same fate as papa. From where I was, I looked him straight in the face and spat. That, in my culture was the highest form of disrespect.
“solider, what are you doing? ” I heard a voice say. A fat, short man with similar uniform and shinny things on his shoulder Said. “sir, I was about to rid the world of this runt, Sir.” I wondered what runt meant. I didn’t find out as the men started speaking a language I didn’t understand. All I knew was that the fat man was the elder and he was shouting at the man who killed my father. After a while, the solider gave me a long look, saluted the fat man and left.
“Come here boy…” the fat man said. Those were the words that welcomed me into my new life.