THE STORY OF OSBORNE

In a land far away, but not so far away, somewhere in Edo state, in one of its most remote villages. There lived a very obstinate boy called Nosa. Nosa was a pupil of Uwelu primary School who was always arriving at school late, not doing his assignments and most of the time rude to his teachers. Just like his father he was a bully too, harassing other pupils and
taking their lunch money from them.

At that time, there was an influx of youth corps members into the area of which most were deployed as teachers into the public primary and secondary schools. Wale was one of the corps member deployed, an intelligent, tall dark handsome young man known for his womanizing character and at the same time a tough as nails kind of guy.

Corps member Wale was deployed to Uwelu primary school as an assistant classroom teacher, but , the assisting corps members/teachers are usually left to do the job alone. One day during class half way through the school day, a dirty looking and sweating boy walked into the classroom and straight to one of the sits pushing off the occupant he sat down

“Why you si- don for my shiar, you tin say I no go come. Abeg sharap.”

He reached out grabbed a female pupils water bottle (an eva water 60 cl bottle), without hesitation chugged down the content.

“weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee” cried the little bottle owner.

“Uncle corper he drin my wa-ter, him” pointing at the dark, smelly sweaty boy siting and starring at the new teacher at a corner in front of the class.

“Hey! You! stand up my friend!” Yelled the teacher at the boy who remained sitting and starring at the young man sitting at the corner with his white and green corps member shirt.

“Are you deaf? I said stand up!”

Reluctantly, the boy stood up from his seat looking around at his classmates.

“Ahn ahn wetin I do. I jus dey si-don my own oh!” said the sweaty boy with outstretched hands as is if speaking the truth.

“Come out here, kneel down and close your eyes. You will explain to me where you are coming from, why you are so sweaty and dirty-looking and why you are such a liar. I said come out now!” said teacher with a stern voice.

The boy then slowly and sluggishly came out. Took him almost a minute to completely comply to the teachers’ command.

While on his knees and his supposedly raised hands directly on top of his head, he was busy making funny faces at the other pupils who laughed at the shapes his face took when he squeezed his lips and made a crossed eye. The laughter from the pupils disturbed the young teacher who was busy grading a math test he had conducted earlier that day.

‘Hey! Big head, what is your name?’ asked the teacher who suddenly took interest in the boy kneeling down in front of the class. The teacher stood up and walked towards the boy who remained silent to the question.

‘I said what-is-your-name? or are you deaf?’ the boy refused to answer, seconds later someone from the class said his name.

‘Uncle corper, his name is Osborne’ said Onome, the pupil he had earlier taken water from forcefully.

‘What a nice name for such a stubborn boy. Oya! Give me your hand. I will give you 12 strokes of the cane for coming late to school and taking from someone without asking.’ ‘didn’t you hear me?’ Asked the teacher almost angrily. The boy stretched out his hands, and down came the already raised cane, six times but the boy did not flinch or grimace in pain. One would say he took it like a man. History has it that he was always getting whipped by his teachers for his truancy and rude behavior. While the cane was doing its damage to his hands, his gaze was fixed on the poor girl who had said his name. I wonder what kind of terror he was conceiving to inflict on the girl.

‘Now go to your seat, I don’t want to hear pim from you’ said the teacher who rushed to pick up the ringing cell phone on his desk.

Osborne already sitting in his desk was fuming with rage, breathing heavily like a raging bull. He turned and looked at the girl who was already scared and said,

‘you call my name, hmm… you don die...’

With his red eyes, he was staring at the dusty blue and white clock hanging on the wall opposite the teacher’s desk, the clock said seven minutes before two that afternoon. Minutes later, a skinny boy came out to the open field with dying out grasses carrying a big gold colored bell with a brown handle.

‘Gbagam! Gbagam! Gbagam! Gbagam!’ rang the bell for close to thirty seconds. Immediately pupils rushed out of their class rooms running and screaming for joy, from where I was standing it felt like the gates of a prison yard was opened and the inmates were making their way out with so much joy, but it was just another end of a school day.

Osborne ran out of the classroom before everybody else, scared Onome was slowly packing her books and looking around at the other pupils who were also running out of the classroom.

Slithering by the outside walls of her classroom was Onome looking around to spot Osborne in the diminishing crowed to plan a route out of school without being seen by her antagonist. On her face, you can see the disappointment of being in a class that was the most farthest from the school gate. Seeing that she was some meters away from the exit, she made a dash for it, mid-sprint a dark sweaty boy closed in on her and bashed on the back of the head with an empty dry gin bottle, and down she went not knowing what hit her.

‘You ge- bi-mouth, you dey call my name. I don catch you now. Talk na! talk! I go scatter your small head for you’ growled angry Osborne trying to catch his breath.

‘Osanobua! That evil just hit that little girl on the head with a bottle’ exclaimed an elderly teacher who was on her way home. The other teachers who heard her shout came out to see the boy who was busy kicking the young girl while on the ground crying with blood gushing from her head like it was the fountain of youth.

‘Catch that boy! Catch am!  Catch am! Catch am!’ yelled corps member, Wale who was already running towards the scene to get hold of the bully. The boys who were playing football on an open space near the school gate ran after the bully who already sprinted away out through the gate, across the busy high way, through the small market comprised of small lock-up shops, the other pupils on the chase. Osborne being a fast runner out ran everyone chasing him, he ran and ran without looking back until he found himself in the middle of a thick forest, known by all to be a forbidden place. It was marked forbidden by the elders of the land after several disappearances of women and children who had gone in the forest to get firewood.

Osborne then realized he was far out from human habitation and out of fear began running back the way he came. As he ran he would hear human voices at a distance and run even faster to see if they can direct him on the right path but saw no one. He was lost. He wandered the forest for hours until he saw a huge mango tree with a lot of ripe mangoes on it. With a smile on his face he climbed the tree and ate as many mangoes as he can.

It was now getting dark, strange noises filled the air, from the cries and calls of strange looking birds to calls of human who he did not see each time he ran to the direction of the call. As he roamed the forest floors he stepped on something cold under the bushes that wriggled away quickly, on a clearer view of the object, behold it was a pregnant snake. Scared out of wits he ran like deer being chased by a tiger with an uncontrollable speed that he swung himself on a tree face first and knocked himself out.

Hours later when he slowly came to, he could make out a strange shape of what looked like human being but when his sight became clearer he could see a ghostly man with his face scraped off, no eyes and nose, just bloody flesh covered in maggots.

‘You ate my mango’ said the ghostly face. ‘Now I will eat your face in return’

as the phantom opened his wide mouth filled with scattered sharp and decaying teeth to bite his face off, the perplexed Osborne let out a loud scream.

Till today people still say they hear his screams when they pass by the forest.

Rumor has it that if you call his name three times on very dark night on the villages masquerade day, that he’ll appear and eat your face off.

THE END

By

Madubuike Nnaemeka Michael