“Madam na weekend we dey. No bail. Come back on Monday.” The metal bars of the prison cell shook with the deputy’s voice. I saw the dissapointment on my mother’s face, but it was background to the real emotion that played on her features – fear. Her son was going to spend two nights in a prison cell, and she would not sleep or eat for as many nights. Suddenly, my own fear lessened in comparison and I felt shame wash over me.
Tunde was passed out on the floor. His parents didn’t even know he was in a prison cell. I tried to rouse him. We had to keep our wits about us, especially now that it was almost night. He didn’t wake.
The metal bars shook again, “Tobi I will be here first thing Monday morning,” my mother called out as two officers forcefully escorted her from the counter. With my mother gone, and with her any hope of bail, reality dawned on me. I gripped the prison bars and pulled, half hoping that I would pull them free from the ground, but all I got for my trouble were sore palms. I fell to the ground, drained of hope. Tunde stirred and I turned to see if he was awake, but he wasn’t. He’d had too much to drink. I scanned the rest of the cell for the other inmates but darkness answered my enquiry. It was night and they had retreated to the recesses of the cell, hiding in the dark like the evil men I had no doubt they were. I could remember quite a few of them from before it got dark. There was a fat one whose neck seemed to pour from under his head, and he sat on a stool near the back of the cell. A boy, no younger than Tunde and I, stood next to him. There was also a muscular one with a tattoo on his arm.
I sat by the bars, with Tunde on the floor next to me, and tried to recall what had happened. I had also had some alcohol and my memory was foggy. The past kept coming to me in patches. I remembered I was in the car when Tunde brought in Angela to the backseat. That was all. The next thing I remembered was Tunde and I being arrested.
I heard a grunt, and then another. The sounds emerged from the darkness and soon the cell filled with a foul stench. My guess was one of the inmates was taking a shit. The smell replaced the air in my lungs and my breath smelled of shit. My eyes even watered. I turned, facing outside of the cell, with my head between two iron bars. The air was fresher on that side. I closed my eyes and I remembered a little more.
Tunde was beginning to force himself on Angela when I left the car.
What was I thinking? I should have stopped him, or at least not let him do it in my car. I tried to remember some more, but I got nothing. Tunde stirred again and I turned to look, but he wasn’t awake. It was the fat man and the boy. The boy put a finger across his lips and mouthed, “shush.” My muscles froze. The fat man turned Tunde onto his stomach and stooped over him. He pulled down Tunde’s trousers revealing his buttocks, and then he started to pull down his own when he turned to me and smiled showing blood red teeth. “You’re next,” he said.
kingsleysays 