The Woman

 Rebekah had never had a problem with her job before, sure when people asked her why she chose her job they were left surprised when they learned no great emotion pushed her to her job as a councellor to people struggling with depression and/or sucidal tendencies. In fact they were even more bewildered when they found out she enjoyed her job. But it so happened that particular Tuesday with grey skies hanging low with rain Rebekah wished she had been anywhere in the world doing any other thing, maybe because it was raining fervently and Rebekah so despised the rain, or maybe because she had a fight with Miriam the closest person to her in this world and had left it unresolved, whatever the reasons were Rebekah wished she had not agreed to come out to speak to the obviously broken woman before her. Yet she knew no matter how many times she wished she didn't agree to take the case she would never turn down any opportunity to help save a life.
Coming out of her musings Rebekah cleared her throat as she prepared herself to talk to the woman 
  "so.. she started, my name is Rebekah Aliyu"
she paused to see if there would be any reaction from the woman only to be met with a silence so loud it wailed of despair, but Rebekah didn't mind she respected her space because experience taught her nobody wanted to leave this world without telling their story, almost like a final attempt to leave some kind of mark on the universe; but she doubted the universe ever noticed.. Rebekah moved slowly to the ledge where the unknown woman perched, an attempt to make sure she didn't scare the woman. Rebekah didn't know how long she sat there as the rain fell with a vengeance, she tried to suppress shivers as she felt cold creeping through her. As if the woman felt her discomfort she spoke out loud
   "nothing you say today will stop me, Rebekah recognized her accent  but couldn't place it she thought maybe she was from the Brumm tribe in Jos but couldn't be sure.
   "today i will do what i've not been able to" she continued in her lyrical accent
   "and maybe my sister will forgive me for being a coward" Rebekah saw silent tears fall down her eyes and wished with all her might that there was no evil in the world, but Alas it wasn't so!
   "what happened? Rebekah asked timidly. The woman was silent for a long time she thought the woman didn't hear her question over the pounding rain or she heard it but chose to ignore it.
    "I was born in Jos  once, again the woman startled Rebekah, my parents died one day when some gunmen who were part of the Boko Haram terrorist group invaded our village and started killing- the tears that were once falling was now pouring 
     "it was on a Sunday, we had just come back from church when we heard gunshots followed by shouting and crying, it turned out some gunmen had entered the house of our pastor who had just preached that afternoon and killed him putting his head on a stake and burned his house down with his family inside as soon as my parents heard it they immediately panicked telling me to pack clothes for my sister and i, i think i was sixteen then and my sister Rejoice was twelve we ran outside to see masked gunmen enter the compound, and simultaneously like it had been planned from the beginning my parents threw themselves at them while screaming for me to carry my sister and run and never stop. RUN! KEEP GOING!! my father screamed, i did as i was told, i ran and didn't stop, not even when i heard the sound of a gunshot followed by my mother's scream, i didn't stop when i tripped over the corpse of Usman a young boy who often helped my mother in the market. I ran till i could run no more arriving at the city by three in the morning"
  Rebekah's heart twisted, she had heard of the atrocities committed by the terrorist group but had never seen anyone personally affected by their actions since she didn't grow up in Nigeria; her mother having whisked her out of the country to study in England. 
   "When we arrived at the city i went to my aunt's house, she haboured my sister and i and did her best by us, God bless her soul" Rebekah wondered if her aunt's life was taken by the terrorist group but didn't know how to ask, as if reading her thoughts the woman answered her
"she died of stroke some years back, leaving rejoice and i truly alone for we were now with no living relatives. I tried my best for Rejoice, making sure she continued schooling, as i started buying and selling tomatoes. Things seemed to be going well finally for rejoice and i when one day Rejoice came back from school with a friend whom she introduced as Khadija , i don't know why but the moment i met Khadija i felt uneasy, she was a nice girl but her lifestyle was too fast she had too many male friends, i kept telling Rejoice but she refused to listen, so finally i decided to stop talking. One day rejoice came to me and told me Khadijah was pregnant for a boy called Abdul; a lowlife thug in her street, but he rejected her and the baby, she told me she was going to talk to him on Khadijah's behalf. I warned her against it, i felt Khadija should clean her own mess, but Rejoice was no longer a child and i could not force her to do anything . Three days later.. i think, i was just coming back from the market when Aisha my fellow market woman came screaming, i couldn't understand much but i heard my sister's name and that was enough for me. I followed her out dread immediately making my stomach churn. We ran to a compound and there lay my sister's body her head severed from her body... Rebekah heart broke a million times as she heard the raw pain in her voice and could do nothing but stare at the woman as she cried,her veins straining against her forehead, mucus running down her nose into her mouth..She closed her eyes trying to block the pain, she felt cold but it wasn't from the rain now abating. As Rebekah opened her eyes she found herself staring into the woman's eyes being swallowed by the immense sadness buried in there
    "her body was just there- the woman squeaked, her body was just there. I didn't know what to do, my life had just ended right in front of me. When i asked what happened it turned out that Abdul got into a fight with Rejoice over Khadija and used a cutlass to attack her plucking Khadija's eye in the process. She turned to Rebekah and asked " tell me what kind of anger leads you to take a life? A life you can never recreate. TELL ME!! she screamed anguish. Rebekah looked away in shame for she too had been asking the same question all her life and had never received any answer. HAHAHA Rebekah looked up in surprise to see the woman laughing wildly  aan- and do you know what? A man killed an innocent woman and plucked the eye of another and he's been in jail for twelve years still awaiting trial!!!   NIGERIA WE HAIL THEE!! she mock saluted wildly.
Rebekah couldn't move and she didn't know why, she couldn't move when the woman stood up, she still couldn't move when the woman looked at her one final time before she jumped. And she didn't move until an officer she didn't know came to get her from the ledge. Someone wrapped a blanket round her but she didn't, couldn't feel. As she slowly passed the woman's corpse her body bent unnaturally the only thought that went through her mind was that she never asked the woman her name.



Hey people.... so i decided to put this up. The sad and heart breaking thing is this story is actually true. This happened to someone who decided to share this with me so hopefully i can share with the world, Shitty and violent things are happening and just because we've never witnessed it doesn't mean it isn't. It is.