Captured

It must have been around 12:17 am that I came to and the hammering was still intense. I found it difficult to discern the direction the noise was coming from. I was hearing woman noise raving as she hammer on the iron gate. I had thought it was the same drunkard living on the first floor Mrs Steller or some name like that her husband never allowed inside once it's 5 to 11 pm. But it's their opposite neighbor that behaves like her but not from alcoholic induced reactions but evil spirit attack according to the story going round. The lady is being courted by the demons she must have been at home with but no longer needed and they are refusing to shift an inch.

She was not late from anywhere, she hardly went anywhere once it was 6pm. She is into those church things but the demons are not giving her breathing space. You can even feel it on her face and eyes once she is invaded like she must have been last night. The husband was having an issue with her and her tantrums started. The husband decided to establish order but the raving spirit wouldn't hear any of the shouting and threats from the husband and was raising their voice through her voice.

The man tried harder to use force to establish orders without success. The woman and her daughter were chased out and gate banged on their faces. The raving spirit inside her might have felt slighted and flared up more and her strength as usual returned and she started hammering with something solid on the iron gates to break it down and that must have been when I came to.

The noise was deafening, you know, I was hearing the woman's voice saying : "the house I paid six thousand naira each month, I can't even sleep in" as she was hammering with reckless abandon and her voice rising an octave each passing minute as her hands got busier. 

Some other voices were joining her by then, I heard voices I believed to be that of the area security people, some other apartment women and the lady was not hearing any of their suggestions. She was busy hammering away. I think those voices instead of mellowing her down gingered her up somehow and she was at it like crazy. 

On my bed, I was wondering if it was her husband that refused to open the gate for her believing that it's the drunkard at it again. I never knew it was the captured church woman.

I was saying that her husband should have gone down to open the gate for her. "Who did he think  will go down that time of the day from the comfort of their beds to open the gate for the woman?" I never knew it wasn't even at the down gate, the central gate the noise was coming from but the flat one. 

Then, after about twenty minutes of the noise, it subsided and died down. I went back to sleep with annoyance. Wondering why that couple will take it on themselves to be disturbing the peace of the whole building each month. In the morning, I heard a raised voice on the back balcony of our flat. It's my mother's voice and that of the same lady last night arguing it away.

I went there out of anger to see the mad lady. I was speechless when it turned out to be one fair skinned lady sitting there arguing, not who i was expecting. "Let me understand. You were the one hammering at the gate last night, right?" She eyed me like a snake and said yes sir. "I can't believe it. I thought it was that drunk again. Why didn't you call your husband on the phone to come down to open the gate for you?" That was when I even knew it wasn't on the central gate the noise was coming from but at the flat back gate.

"Do you know how much that gate cost now to make?" I asked in anger. She was there knocking her head on the floor asking for forgiveness. "It won't happen again Mr landlord, it's satan at work, it won't happen again" that was when i focused on her well. I started noticing what I had not been noticing. Surely, there must have been some elements of demons truly at work in her that period and those demons have not yet entirely left her that moment she was using them as reason. 

I was giving my mum a sign to shout just to frighten but allow the lady to be. But I am sure it will happen again. After all, she is not in control of her actions. That type of creature is what you carry along, not the type of humans you will trust not to react out of order if invaded after a few minutes of heartfelt apology. So believing her excuse that it won't happen again is what you do to pass over the incident. She was still there kowtowing and bowing, seriously promising all over and over that it won't happen again. 

I wanted to see her husband. I don't even know the couple well and that was when i heard the story well. They were all inside their flat that night when the husband started a story that did not sit well with the wife and when she refused to do what he asked her to do, he decided to use her muscle to cajole obedience and when it wasn't coming, he chased the wife and her teenage daughter out of the flat and lock the gate on then. Imagine. Where did he want the two to go that time of the night? This place isn't a city that doesn't sleep. In Fact it's one that goes to bed around 8pm and all the major gates from street to apartment and flats are all well locked for security reasons. Chasing your wife and daughter away by 12 midnight is like offering to them to the wolves. How will you claim such a mind is healthy too? The teenage daughter faced south and was marching towards God knows where. No one saw again till morning.

They were intentionally put on a tentative state for such seems to be the message many understand best when in such an invasion state. "Find accomodation somewhere" I said, eyeing her. "You want to knock down my building or what?" She was eyeing me like a hawk eyes a chicken her mother was alert. "How much do you pay monthly, and how much will I use to repair all this damage you have done last night?"  She reacted. "I have looked at the gate, it's okay, nothing happened to it. It's okay Mr landlord"  that answer alone told me that the lady is not home yet. I never knew that the husband had found a house somewhere else and was staging that little drama as a sendoff drama. Something to remember their days here by.

       Five days later when I heard that they were packing out, I wished them, especially the husband the best. I think he is carrying a load that warrants encouragement to see through somehow.

#Reedsyunknown