I felt the hairs on my back of my neck stiffen as Oscar advanced towards me. Next thing, he pushed me to the ground. The boys nearby quickly gathered around us, including my teammates, in anticipation of a fight. Let him think I was at his mercy - which was so true, ironically. I decided not to try to stand, as this would've prompted Oscar into thinking I was in for a fight - I wasn't, not in this lifetime or the next. What effect could a boy of my frame do to a gorilla like him anyway?
He glared at me for like forever then glanced in the direction of the ball I'd mistakenly kicked out. Unfortunately for me, the ball hadn't only gone out for a throwing; it had ventured out of our makeshift field into an adjacent property belonging to a fiery tempered landlord.
Well, to everyone's surprise, the ball suddenly flew out of the forbidden soccer land, rose high, then got caught up in the fence's barb-wire. While the sight of the ball made some of us cheer and applaud, some cursed the poor crazy man. Some boys scrambled to the fence for the ball - Oscar, who also happened to be the owner of the ball was among them; he got to the fence first.
I watched as he climbed, and carefully inserted one hand in between the barb wires, and hit the ball onto our side of the fence.
Someone chested the ball as it approached, and did a sangalow
(scissors-kicking the ball backwards) and everyone, including me, went after it. I was about to nod the shit out of the ball when I heard the wails. It sounded atavistic, the wails; you know, that kind of cry that refuses to leave your throat in the process of being engulfed by endless darkness in your dream.
I still managed to nod the ball after I had turned mid-air to see what was going on. I landed awkwardly though, and then I hurriedly stood, ran and joined the gathered crowd to see what everyone was looking at.
I stopped at the front, and held my breath at the sight before me: There was a dead body on the ground.
Dead. Smelling. Boy
His face was a mess; there were two black holes emitting smoke where the eyes were supposed to be; one cheek was sunken and out of reach, while the other was just squeezy and badly coloured; the lips...there were no lips, just smoke rising out of the hole supposedly called mouth
Slowly, my eyes drifted to the stiff body body; the charred palms of each hand were opened upwards with fingers like claws.
Oscar....
Someone shouted his name the same same time realization hit me, as he settled beside me violently.
The stench in the air was terrible.
As on cue, a dry harmattan breeze arrived and went by, depositing sand on him. Him!
I glanced up at the barb-wires, poised in position as if nothing had taken place at all. In my mind, they twisted like snakes, and sparkled in the unforgiving sun overhead. I imagined how they'd lured Oscar, before disposing him off when he was useless. The way I'd through away an orange after sucking all the suckables.
My neck felt the weight of my head, just like an explosion rocking the pit bottom of an endless mine; the fire rising upwards, destroying every pillar holding the mine in place.
My breath became hot, my lungs couldn't take in oxygen anymore as the fire rose. I couldn't hold it any longer, so I let it out, the smokes, and screamed.