The Yard

Ugo

“Baby ..you’re okay. It’s alright, ” Ugo whispered as he patted Anuri’s back, who shook violently from her crying. “Let it out baby girl….It’s alright”. It was more than tears this time; it was some exorcism of pent-up anger, pain and guilt. Ah emotions!

She was so vulnerable, so fragile, so hurt. It made his heart boil, but he also felt needed emotionally. Wasn’t he a mad, selfish prick for feeling that way? Was he insane for feeling a sense of fulfilment to see her break like any other proper human? She had dared Thomas! She insulted him and yelled at the top of her voice. A man twice her size! She had yelled for 20 minutes when they entered his apartment while he sat and watched.

He loved resolving conflicts peacefully, but this was Anuri venting! It never happened.

He loved her too much to pressure her, and when he had raised issues about her emotions in the past, she had always been evasive. Maintaining a calm and calculated appearance, never wanting to show how she felt. Their relationship was a working one, and they complimented each other in most ways, but the little boy in himself always sought the joyful childhood he had watching his parents with her.

She was a child at heart, one who was probably forced to grow up too quickly because of this hidden trauma or grief that she harboured.

“If you want to cheat, you tell me, and I’ll take a walk. It doesn’t have to get messy” Those were Anuri’s words when she caught wind of him flirting with a female colleague. It was a stupid dare by his colleagues, and he felt like a fool after he had ended it. He shouldn’t have accepted in the first place, knowing that he had a lady, but to assuage his masculine ego, he had jumped at the offer to prove he still had game.

There were no arguments, screaming, tears, or drama! It was more like a mother scolding a child with love. Her expression as she spoke those words was indescribable.

Had he been insane for wanting some good old feminine rage? Had he been crazy for wanting her to cuss him out, scream? And call him names like his exes would have?

They never again discussed that incident after he explained everything to her. She had served her pastries and saw a movie before retiring. It was in the early stages of their relationship, but he knew deep down that she would be his wife someday. His heart knew she was the one, but he often felt locked out of her heart. She loved him, he could tell, but she was guarding herself. Love required complete submission, a level of trust that was insane from a logical view but a necessity in love.

Anuri always maintained a strong front. She tried so hard to show him she was self-sufficient and emotionally mature. Anuri had a side to her that terrified him more than he cared to admit. She had perfected the act of indifference when it came to her emotions. It made him remember his mother and the toll the death of his father had taken on her.

His mother grew numb overnight. She forgot how to live, and the once bubbly house he grew up in became a shadow of itself. There were few echoes of laughter, and when there were, they never reached his mother’s eyes. Grief did that! Which was why it was terrifying when it came to Anuri.

She had never known grief like his mother’s. None that he knew of, but deep down, he knew he could tell the signs. He could see the shielded cracks when her mind drifted away. The squeezing of her palm and eyes mid-conversation, the random nightmares, the need to be constantly updated on his location, the irrational fear that she was going to die, the self-loathing that crept up with compliments showered on her. They were recognizable patterns he had seen in his mother. To move on, she had to bury both his father and herself, and in doing that, she learned to think of herself as less.

But who had Anuri lost? And why was she so hesitant to share? His investigation, which he had launched on her through her family, failed as they had little to no idea what he was talking about. They knew Anuri to be skeptical about things and kept to herself.

“I love you more than you know,” she would always say each time they made love, but with each climax came a fleeting sense of vulnerability that he held so dear. She was fragile, open and very vocal about her feelings and wants in his arms, but there was a sense of reticence outside that. He felt loved, but he wanted more! He wanted all of her.

He was surprised the first time the children visited because they always avoided his place. The children were right to, their mothers would have advised them not to do so. The teenagers amongst them were Jude and Sandra. He still felt quite taken aback seeing Sandra with the rest. He knew his mother would let the ground swallow her twice before letting his sister out, a rational fear that was justifiable.

When the children had each introduced themselves to Anuri, he felt a sense of pride watching the admiration in their eyes. Or was it just pure longing for the cookies she was baking? Whatever it was, the five children were suddenly bewitched, and nothing he would do in the future would keep them at bay.

Ugo noticed how Anuri’s eyes widened in disbelief, the sudden tenseness of her body, the slow gasp just before she recovered quickly.

”Your name is Sandra”

“Yes, it is! But you can call me Sandy,” the teenager told her, wearing the cutest braids she had ever seen.

There it was! Ugo had thought to himself in that instant, her secret.

His attention was drawn back to the 6-year-old Nnanna, who had asked a serious question: “Brother, are you a Yahoo boy?”

The shushing from the elderly peers did not deter the interrogator, but it cracked him up.

He loved having the children at his house; they made Anuri break character.

Her jerky sobs brought him back to the present, and he wiped her tears. He carressed her cheeks gently as she tried to calm herself.

Although her eyes were red and puffy, and her cheeks were somewhat swollen, she still looked as beautiful as ever.

“Ugo she killed herself” He paused, clueless about whom she spoke about

“It was all my fault…she died because of me”

The Incident

Anuri

Uchechi Akude seemed motionless as she stared at a visibly disturbed Ugo. She could feel the vibrations as he handed over the device that harboured the gory image of her niece in a pool of blood. Her sister, Adanne Akude, slumped the moment she saw the same picture and had to be carried to the hospital immediately. Everything that happened after seemed like a blur to her; it was as if she lived in a reality that was not supposed to be hers.

Anurika had raised the alarm after she heard groans while spreading her clothes behind the Eze’s Bungalow. The voice sounded faint, calling for help, and she knew something was amiss. She had heard what sounded like a struggle earlier but mistook it for a movie soundtrack as everything went quiet afterwards. The Amadis habitually left their television on and headed to the Market.

“Please…..p..please.” The voice came again, weaker than before. Anurika’s eyes scanned the area but could not find anything. Were the children playing hide-and-seek with her? She made her way to the front of the apartment but was distracted when she caught wind of the open window outside Jude’s room.

That was odd! The yard was usually empty this time of the day

The Ezes were traders. They were always at the market until 7 p.m. when Jude went from school to their shop. Was it a burglar? Why would a burglar sound so weak? Were they her intrusive thoughts, or had she become a nosy neighbour?

“Jude! Jude! Are you home? Hello! Is anyone there?” Anuri did not receive a response when She called out to the Ezes,, so she decided to check things out.

She tiptoed to the window and peered into the room from the opening. Anuri gasped as she caught wind of Jude in the room. He was shirtless and seemed distraught. She noticed the red stains on his blue shorts, which looked like “blood!” Anurika screamed mentally. Had he injured himself? she wondered as he paced in the bedroom with his hands above his head.

It was then she saw Sandra lying at the edge of the bed in a pool of blood. Anurika let out an ear-piercing shriek as Jude caught wind of her. She staggered off the pavement and almost lost her balance with the horror she had seen registered in her brain.