“What is this place? Where is here? I don’t see anything, I don’t hear anything,”

As he walk through the space, he sees nothing, feels from the space nothing, but absolute darkness and emptiness. Hears nothing, but the thoughts in his head, wanting to understand, asking questions.

As he walk in this space of absolute darkness, in a state of confusion, for moments that feels like an eternity, he soon begin to feel the presence of another Being. He could feel Its energy. Something so unique, It swept him off his feet, as he tremble in fear, like a little boy. Of course he is a little boy after-all, little Cosmos of 10 years old, and 4.3 feet tall, woke up screaming out loud;

“Jesus christ!!!!!”

He noticed that his siblings were asleep, as he could hear Astra and Ascella snore softly, except Archer who is the first child of their parent, his snore is as the sound you get from trying to start a faulty domestic generator. He is lying above him. Cosmos has three siblings, two are girls. He is the last child of his parents, who are of Igbo ethnicity, but almost never speaks the igbo language to their children. Cosmos could be shy around individuals he isn’t very close with, one could say he is very reserve, always in his thoughts, so could be very slow sometimes. And yeah, he is weird, but also a genius, so he get uncomfortable around people he sees as dumb. Cosmos has an imaginary friend he named Morningstar, his alter ego. He is a young boy just trying to find his path after all, he derives inner peace from making sketches, and paintings. And, you can say he was damn good at it.

In a moment, his mom walked into the room. The door was wide open, as they do not shut it. She is a very religious woman with lot of talents, one could say she is a jack of all trades, master of non. She is a light skin black woman, 5.5 feet tall, has a black long hair, which is very beautiful. She is wearing a long white night gown, few inches below her knees. She is slim, and curvy. One could say she is a pretty lady in her late thirties. She put on the switch to the light in the room, which is on the wall, exactly 10inches to the left, away from the entrance. The walls are painted blue, but the red light made it appears to be purple. She met Cosmos in a state of confusion, laid in his bed. She walked up to him and sat by the bed. It is a bulk bed. He is at the bottom. She looked at him, with a gentle face, while rubbing her left palm on his head. She asked, if he was okay;

“Are you okay? Same dream again?”

“Yes mom, but this time it was a bit different. I felt something strange,” He replied with a calm tone.

“It’s okay, we will talk more about it after sun rise. It’s 4:05 in the morning,” She said giving a gentle smile with her sleepy face.

This is not the first time Cosmos is having a similar dream, he has told his mom about it before. His family is of the Christian faith, so his mom would always pray with him each time he tells her about it. In-fact, she did the same, before asking him to go back to sleep. She than stood back up. As she is walking out of the room, she noticed that the rest of her kids are asleep, she wouldn’t want to wake them. Cosmos then closed his eyes with intent to go back to sleep.

Its 6am in the morning, Cosmos is waking up. He could tell because he hear the tv in the sitting room, it is pastor Sirius Kuti, the founder of their church; The Way Christian church. And his dad plays tapes of his preachings every Sunday morning, while they prepare for church. It’s the first Sunday of the month of December 2005, almost Christmas. Yes it’s a big deal, at least for his dad. But then again, when is a Sunday not a big deal for him?

      He could perceive the aroma from the kitchen, that’s definitely his mom making her delicious yam pottage. She would cook, but they would only eat when they get back from church service. Besides, Mrs Obi is always the last to bath on a Sunday morning. He could hear her voice, she is singing to the rhythm of the Igbo Christian song coming from downstairs, the flat exactly under theirs, a two bedroom flat, and a sitting room.

It’s a storey building with lot of kids living there. The surrounding floors are made of concrete, mostly littered as a lot of kids comes to play everyday. It is located at, 101. Chinua Achebe, St. Anthony, Lagos, Nigeria. An old house, with it’s brown paintings fading away. It is fenced, and has six flats in total. Each flats has a toilet, and a bathroom located at the end of the passage, which leads to the rooms. Each flats also has a visitor toilet, and a kitchen located in the sitting room. It’s a middle class neighborhood. Cosmos is used to the noise, including the ones coming from his sisters in the bathroom, except he most often doesn’t interpret it as noise. His brother Archer is still in bed sleeping, doesn’t seem like he is going for church service again today. He hasn’t been attending in two years now.

      Archer is an high school senior, at the apex class of The Upper Chamber Junior and Senior high school. He is 19 years of age, very brilliant academically, notorious for breaking their parents rules. He loves soccer, so it’s easy to punish him, by banning him from playing soccer. But, of course he can always disobey. He is quite stubborn, and can be very controlling, when it comes to his siblings. There’s definitely an unwritten chain of command in the household.

Cosmos was waiting on his siblings, Astra and Ascella to step out of the bathroom so he could bath. Astra his eldest sister is a reserve young girl. Mostly in her shell, but loud when she wants to be. She is two grades below Archer, and can be a bit shy because her peers often make fun of her, so she would stay indoors, her safe zone, where she can be dominating. One would think she put up same energy outdoors. Well, she has a big heart, which makes her the second mommy of the house. Ascella on the other hand, is very slim, and curvy, she is the copy of a younger version of her mom, but she would wish she was prettier.

Ascella is two grades below Astra. She is quite confident, feels she is smart, very playful, jovial with a free spirit, the baby of the house. But according to numbers, Cosmos is the real baby of house.

His dad is all set, in the sitting room. He is always the first to bath. Cosmos can’t recall him ever missing a church service, even on week days. He was sitting on the long sofa directly opposite the tv, backing the passage. He wore a black suit, a white shirt, and a red tire. He loves to dress corporate and neat for every occasion. Yes, work is also an occasion! Mr Obi is a professional taxi driver. All of his kids maintained a three years gab, in ascending. He is very organized afterall, and can be authoritative. He loves to read the news. And if there is a living being he adores, its not is wife, it would be pastor Sirius Kuti. Well, that doesn’t mean he doesn’t love his wife, he just has an awkward way of showing it. Mr Obi is a very reserve person. But his awkwardness isn’t limited to just his wife, every member of the family gets a taste sometimes.

It’s 7:30am, now the sun is out, and everyone is all set, except Archer of course, who is still sleeping in the room. It’s a busy morning, people trying to get to their various places of worship. It is a neighborhood with different religious places very near by, so one would always hear them whenever there is a service in session. Mr Obi is downstairs waiting on his family in his taxi car, a mellow colour car, Mitsubishi galant 1994 model, an old car. He has a thick voice so from two buildings away, one could still hear him yelling out….. click to continue reading

Click here to get a copy of the novel.

©️ Victor E. Ojei, 2023.