This is my post on #freewriters2979#dailyprompt correspond hosted by 
The newsroom in Uyo smelled of wet newsprint and burnt beans. Every morning, Ekemini sat at the last desk by the window, watching rain trace nervous lines down the glass while he typed the same three sentences over and over.
He was the correspondent for the state edition of The Tide. Not the glamorous Lagos beat. Not Abuja press conferences. Uyo. Where the biggest story of the month was usually which politician’s convoy blocked the flyover or whose borehole mysteriously dried up after the campaign posters came down.
Today the tip came through WhatsApp at 6:47 a.m. A one-line message from an anonymous number:
“Check Ibom Hall gate by 8. Something big.”
He arrived soaked, shoes squelching, only to find a small crowd already gathered. A young woman in a faded NYSC vest stood holding a placard that simply read:
THEY PROMISED LIGHT. WE GOT DARKNESS.
Behind her, twenty-three children held empty kerosene lamps above their heads like tiny protest lanterns. They were pupils of Government Primary School, Ikot Ekpene Road. For six months they had studied under moonlight because the transformer promised during the election had never arrived.
Ekemini’s phone died before he could record the second chant. He scribbled in his small notebook, palm shielding the page from rain.
Later, in the newsroom, the editor glanced at the story and sighed.
“Beautiful writing, Ekemini. But who will read about children and lanterns when the governor just commissioned another flyover nobody uses?”
Ekemini stared at the blinking cursor. Then he deleted the polite headline the editor wanted—“Minor Protest at Ibom Hall”—and typed instead:
Twenty-Three Children Hold Empty Lanterns to Protest Six Months of Darkness
He hit send before anyone could stop him.
Outside, the rain continued. Somewhere in Uyo, twenty-three children would wake tomorrow still reading by moonlight. But tonight, at least, their story had travelled beyond the wet window.