THE STRANGER'S VISIT (a true life story)

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On this particular day, the sun visited the earth in it sore displeasure. It glowed in it blazing fury upon the surface of the earth. notwithstanding the blazing sun mercilessly scorching our bare skin, my sisters and I played nonchalantly and vigorously under it red bloodshot eyes as if it was our last chance of recreating in the clinging arms of mother earth. Perhaps it was what fate intended. Not even the prying eyes of the stranger sitting at the balcony could deter us.

Our house help wouldn't let the stranger in even when he claimed to be my mom's kinsman from the village . "Please you have to wait outside for my madam to come, sorry I am simply following instructions" she explained looking at the man frame of untrustiness.

When the moon caved in on us, our house help, Katharine order us in and gave us thorough bath scrubbing off the dark patches clinging to our bare skin as hard meat stick in between teeth.

Peepeee, peepeee, a car honked continuously outside the gate. "that's the sound of your dad's honk, they are quite early today, you all should go to the sitting room while I set the dinning", Katherine thundered in her piercing monotony voice.

Dad and mom usually come home from work at same time not because they work in the same office but my dad made it mandatory to pick mom from her work place since the day she was nearly attacked by robbers while waiting for a taxi to convey her home.

mom alighted from the car and saw the stranger, she immediately ushered him in. After much description and familiarization by the stranger, mom still insist she has never met him before but allowed him pass the night in our house.

As usual we all had dinner together and the stranger was served in the visitor's room specially set apart for guests but there was a deathly cloud of silence that enveloped everyone after dinner. Gone were the regular banter between dad and mom and the chatters between I and my siblings. Perhaps the stranger caged it in his ungraceful presence.

The heavy thud of raindrops hitting our rooftop spontaneously brought life to our nearly dead night but also ushered us into utter darkness as our source of light gave in to the claps of thunder and flashes of lightning accompanied by heavy downpour. In the midst of darkness, I and my siblings scramble to our room for a long peaceful night rest. So, we thought.

At about 10:00 pm, three hours after the rain sent us to bed earlier than usual, the atmosphere changed. My nostrils wrenched in desperation as it could only take in sulphur instead of fresh air. With my mouth widely opened I gasped for breath only to be choked by balls of smoke directly rolling into my lungs. I could feel the heat of fire scorching My bare skin. My eyelids battled in pain as it try to survey it surroundings.

Is this the end?

Could this be a revelation of the biblical hell fire?

Could this be a nightmare?

In the midst of the puzzle, my neurotransmitter did a perfect job of sending me a fright signal. "You are in a burning room, run before you end up like a burnt wood", my sense screamed at me. As if awoken from a teribble nightmare, I jumped on my feet. The cemented floor wasn't spared from the wrath of the inferno, as my feet touched the floor I shrieked out in pain. My bare feet felt like I was standing on coals of fire.

Ibha, odia, oti. "Wake up, our room is on fire", i emphasised touching them respectively. Ibha and odia stood up instantly as if they have been awake the whole time trying to ascertain whether it's all happening in their dreamland just like I did. At this time the fire has spread to our bedside.

Now the bedspread was on fire.

We quickly scurried out of the room screaming at the top of our voices "mummy, daddy, our room is burning" meanwhile oti was still in the room.

"Oti, can you hear me"? my mom cried out in a throbbing voice. my mom stood at the entrance of our room held firmly by my dad . thrice, she had attempted to enter the burning room to save my younger sister who was still in the room. This time we could hear the ceiling caving in and the fire intensively spreading that those standing outside the room couldn't bear the heat emitting from the room.

My dad and some of our neighbours who came to help tried to quench the fire. The more water they poured into it, the more the fire intensifies.. Oti was still in the burning room.

"Oti, can you hear me"? my mom cried out again trying to look into the room that have been blackened by smoke, there was no response from the room and there was no movement inside the room except for the sound of falling ceilings and corrugated iron sheets. The conflagration refused to succumb to any form of fire extinguisher. All hope was lost.

In tears, we stood helplessly and hopelessly outside the room mourning our dear oti who wasn't fortunate enough to escape the inferno.

Great was our mourning that we care less of the whereabout of the stranger who we innocently offered a room to pass the night. Not a little was our grief that we ignore the genesis of the fire.

Just as we thought nothing else can be done to save oti, Then, we heard someone screamed the name "oti" from behind, without wasting time, we all looked behind us. Lo and behold! It was oti standing on her two feet staring down at us.

"She is alive"! We shouted unisonly in an amusingly uncertain way.

How she got out of the fire and even stood behind us, we can't fathom it till this day.

Miracle sure exist.