One afternoon, we were playing football with other children. Seun had gone to fetch the ball from a corner, not far away from the playing field. He took longer than usual to return with the ball. Alas, there was a broken sewage pit at the corner. Seun fell into it with the ball. We ran for help.
Life is rigged with many events that every man must experience one way or another at least once in a lifetime. Some of these events are the acts of men. Some are natural and beyond human control. Death, sickness, and pain are a few of such events. They are also the greatest fears of many. A category I belong to.
These three events, besides being beyond human control, are the ultimate test of humans. Every man and woman, rich and poor, white and black, accepts their faith in awe of God and fear of them.
I saw death snatch beautiful souls, break promising lives, and wreck peaceful homes. I witnessed sickness test the strongest wills, shake the best of families, and tear the wealthy to shreds. The two left pains concealed with scars and sour memories
Tutu was my cousin, a glittering gift of light. We were eating from the same plate that faithful afternoon on a short visit to our aunty at Ode Aje, Ibadan. We were having light children’s chats as we ate the eko and vegetable soup garnished with several proteins. Suddenly, she started vomiting foam-like substances from her mouth. Next, she was on the floor with her eyes all turned white. Terrified. I screamed. Tutu was taken away by my aunty and some elders. That was the last time I saw Tutu. There was silence and whispering afterwards. Whatever had happened to Tutu, it took the glitter, the gift, and the light away too!
Seun’s mother had insisted that he play only with me. So that he could be better in his academics. Gradually, he was catching up. He was thankful and proud of his changes. I knew because he always said it when sharing our snacks after our revisions together. Also, we were waiting for midterm tests. He was certain he would make his mother very proud.
One afternoon, we were playing football with other children. Seun had gone to fetch the ball from a corner, not far away from the playing field. He took longer than usual to return with the ball. Alas, there was a broken sewage pit at the corner. Seun fell into it with the ball. We ran for help.
After some minutes, he was retrieved from the pit, lifeless. When Seun’s mother got to the scene, I remembered her wailing, cursing, and asking why such an unfortunate incident happened to her. She reminisced about their hugs and her insistence on combing our hair for us that morning as she dropped him off at our hostel.
Seun and Tutu’s deaths were wrapped in many events before and after. I became aware many years later.
Tutu was her father’s fourth child. Seun was her mother’s only child. I did not know anything about his father. I stopped seeing the mother at the school shortly after the incident. She owned the school. ‘’Perhaps what took Seun had taken her too’’ I had wondered every time I passed the front of her office after-school lessons at her school.
Since then, I believed whatever took Tutu and Seun was fearless, unfair, and feared by people.
These were my experiences with what was to become one of my greatest fears: death! I was just six years old at the time.
Adebayo Adekola
Team Lead/Founder, Taitum Legal Practitioners
+2348165299774