There were two things Steve hated; sleeping early and waking up early.
Adults were funny, they always felt like they knew everything.
But they didn’t.
At least, it was clear to Steve that his parents didn’t understand.
His mother, especially, was always talking so much about how he needs to sleep early as she dragged him and his sister to bed every night by 8pm
He understood if Alena was made to go to bed by 8 since she was just 5, but he couldn’t understand how his mother didn’t let him stay awake till 10.
He was 9, for God’s sake … Soon to be 10. He’d be going to secondary school next year.
When will they see that he is a big boy and should be able to determine his bed time?
Adults just made him angry.
He loved his mum; to God, he did. But she was also the most annoying woman ever.
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Sometimes, all she did for him and his sister wasn’t enough to take away how annoying she was.
Like she was this morning when she had woken him up early to leave the house with dad because dad had to take him to the sitter’s house
He had a playdate with Paul, his best friend, later that day and mum had an event in another side of town, so she wouldn’t be able to take him.
The playdate wasn’t even until 12pm but he had been forced to get ready by 5am to leave with dad.
Alena got the best out of the deal; she was going to work with mum.
Mum was an event planner and dad was a nurse.
Of course, he preferred going to work with mum than he did with dad.
He had so much to eat when he was with her, and her workers always doted on him.
He liked it when they did, but usually pretended like he didn’t. He was 9; big boys didn’t enjoy being hugged and kissed.
But he really liked it … He just had to make sure his friends at school never found out how his heart grew warm when his mum’s workers called him, “fine boy.”
Dad worked at the hospital and the hospital provided a daycare that dad used to take him and Alena to.
He really hadn’t cared for that daycare and he had told his parents so.
But had they listened? No.
So, he had done what he had to do. He started disrupting the daycare until his parents had been forced to listen.
Adults!!! Urgh!!!
Sometimes, you had to force their hands. Sometimes, that was the only language they understood.
Now, he was sitting in his dad’s car in the underground garage of the hospital.
Dad quickly went to get something before driving him to a sitter, who will then take him to Paul’s house.
Yes, they finally listened. No more daycare, he was too old for that.
His mind drifted to his best friend, Paul. Paul was a good kid. They had been friends since kindergarten and it had been great since then.
He liked going to Paul’s house because Paul’s brother, Kevin, had the best video games and he always let him and Paul play.
And for a boy, Kevin was very patient with them. He hoped one day he could be that patient with Alena. Or maybe Alena could help him out by stopping her snitching.
Yeah, he had learnt that word from dad when dad told mum he stopped letting Uncle Jacob know his business because Uncle Jacob was a snitch.
Alena was the biggest snitch – probably bigger than Uncle Jacob. And if dad stopped dealing with Uncle Jacob because of that, he believed they’d understand why he was never patient with Alena.
His impatience was what she got for telling all his business to dad and mum.
But he loved her. Demonstrated that by beating up that bully, Jide, at school. And he had no problem doing it again. He was the only one allowed to bully Alena, even Paul wasn’t allowed. And thankfully, Paul got the message early; that was probably why they were still friends.
Steve was still musing on all these when he noticed the two men come out.
They were both walking just like Baba Rukeme.
Baba Rukeme was their estate drunk; at least, that was what mum called him.
Anytime they passed by him walking funny, Mum usually hissed and said, “here goes the estate drunk again.”
But these two men were dressed well and they didn’t have injuries on their body unlike Baba Rukeme. It was really still dark though, so he couldn’t be too sure.
They looked like doctors to him, maybe because they wore shirts tucked in their trousers like the doctors looked anytime he came into the hospital.
Steve continued watching them as they walked to their cars because he was fascinated. There was a time he had wanted to be a doctor, that was before he found out he hated the smell of the hospital.
Now, he didn’t know yet what he wanted to become. He was still deciding between Engineer and Banker.
He felt like both professions would make him a lot of money. And that was all he wanted when he grew up; a lot of money – to take care of dad, mum and Alena. So, he didn’t know yet but he would decide.
As he continued to watch, he noted that both of them were lighter than him but one was even lighter.
Steve figured they were friends because they were talking and smiling at each other.
He couldn’t make out what they were saying even though the garage was deserted, they seemed to be whispering like mum and dad did when they didn’t want him and Alena to hear their conversation.
Then, he heard the voice of the lighter one, “men, we are dead on our feet, these hospital calls will be the death of us. I can’t wait to go sleep for hours and I advise you do the same, because I know you. Don’t go trying to do any work when you should be resting. In fact, I will call your wife to make sure she puts you straight to bed.”
As the other man laughed, Steve wondered what “dead on our feet” meant. Is that why they are walking funny? Is that what happened to Baba Rukeme too?
He couldn’t know for sure. He would have to ask mum. She was always open to answering questions. Yes, his mum was as annoying as she was cool.
Later, Steve would think that it was almost like those action movies that he watched with Paul’s brother because mum didn’t let them watch anything but cartoons.
One minute, both men were smiling at each other, the next minute, the lighter one looked around furtively before covering his friend’s nose with a handkerchief. Then, he pulled a small knife from his pocket and stabbed his chest.
Steve gasped quietly and quickly covered his mouth as he bent down so he would remain unnoticed.
He peered at the man from his position and watched as the man dragged his friend, took him to his car and positioned him down properly on the driver’s side.
The man stood up, cleaned the knife with the handkerchief, moved to his own car and drove away, without seeing Steve.
Steve sat down in that same position for what seemed like hours. He wondered if he was dreaming because every time he watched one of those movies, he had a dream where he was fighting bad guys.
But this was not a dream. He had definitely just seen a man killing his friend.
This supposedly normal day had started with him being annoyed with his mum for waking him up early and just a few hours later, it had turned into his worst nightmare.
He didn’t think his life would ever remain the same after this.
He was only 9 and he had witnessed a murder. No, his life would definitely never remain the same again.
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