Running Is A Reflex

BOOM!. The roof shook and I was running out of the door before I had even thought about what I was doing. I was at the arch of the first gate and I was well on my way to the freedom of the road outside my house when my cousin - I have loads of them- X (I will call her do because of certain embarassing scenes later to be related) screamed 'Will you get back in here. How do you know they are not dropping things from the sky. The first thing you do when you hear a noise is stop and think.' I reluctantly slunk back into the house. BOOM, BOOM! The roof shook; the windows rattled. I was about to run out again but Cousin X glared at me so hard I decided to run up to my dad's room instead of running out.

There were three more booms before I had ascended the stairs. One for every eight stairs I advanced. My father was looking out of the window and staring into the distance. I went to join him. Some of his calmness was transfered to me and I was able to ask calmly what all the hulluballo was about. 'I don't know' he said. We stood in silence side by side and looked. We could see people running across the bridge near my house; bright coloured specks moving quickly. Finally my dad said thoughtfully 'Maybe its a coup'. At these words my heart jumped into my mouth and I said breathlessy like I was one of the runners on the bridge 'Let's put on the T.V and check what the news channels are saying.' I hurried over to the T.V. I half expected there to be a man in military uniform been shown on all the channels saying 'This is a coup. Remain in your houses and you will not be hurt. Armed men are patrolling the streets, all civilians seen will be shot.' I pushed the knob and held my breath. The T.V screen came to life but there wasn't much life being showed. Static, I changed the channel to AIT, static, I changed the channel, more static. I decided to give it one last try and switched to Channels News. They were the only news station dedicated enough to go and find out what happened. There the voice of a news woman though shaky managed to tell us that the sounds were coming from the Ikeja Cantonement where bombs were going off. The bombs had been set off by a petrol tanker catching fire. The fire had spread to the place were the bomb cache were kept. As proof they showed the flaming tanker. I breathed a huge sigh of relief. My dad had been watching silently through out. The silence was a bit unnerving so I said, 'You see it was an accident.' He shook his head and said 'You can not be too sure. The only way to find out whether its a coup or not is to get news from the Bonny Cantonement - another army base on the other side of town- and see if a similar thing is happening there. My heart reinstated itself in my mouth. I walked over to where he was standing and looked out of the window again. This time my gaze fell much closer to home. Our neighbours on hearing the BOOMS had sent their house boy (male maid) to lock, bolt and padlock the gate. Fear can really make some people not think properly. Even with my own agitation to deal with I still found it funny that these people should lock themselves in their house when the safest place to be would be outside where at least you would not be crushed by something you could not see. My dad woke up from his silent reverie and said 'Oya lets go outside.' I could see some families were already making that decision too so I didn't argue with it.

My dad picked up the big black torch which could also serve as a cudgel at a pinch and walked out of the room. I was close behind him. Before he told me to I went to call everyone in the house. The activity allayed some of my fears. 'Dinachi wake up. We need to go outside.' Surprisingly my sister had been sleeping while all the loud crashes were going on. I shook her awake and said loudly 'Let's go.' She followed me and then I went and knocked loudly - a first - on my aunt's door. 'Aunty Unoma, daddy said we have to go outside.' She came out of her room looking scared. I saw she was about to ask me what was going on. I was in no frame of mind to start giving lengthy explanations so I just went on doing my rounding up. Next I went to the boys quarters. I think it was just Aunty Angela then. She came out exclaiming in Igbo, English and pidgen. 'Heeeeewoooo! Wetin de happen! Chibundu what is this noise!' As I have already explained I was in no mood for explanations so I just said 'Daddy said we should go outside.' So there we were outside the gate all looking scared except my father, he was the only man in the group even the gate man was no where to be found (That was not much of a surprise). He had to put on a brave face for all of us but still I'm not convinced that he was actually putting on a brave face. I still think that he wasn't scared but rather a bit irritated by this interruption of Sunday, his day of rest. I did a quick head count. My aunt was standing next to one of the flourescents outside the gate. BOOM. 'Unoma move away from there, that light my fall and shatter' my dad said to her. She dutifully moved a few steps away and the leaned against the iron gate. 'At least this won't give away' her new position seemed to say.

But wait where was Cousin X? WHERE WAS SHE? 'Daddy where is Cousin X?'. 'She's still in the house I suppose.' A wave of fear threatened to engulf me. 'Cousin X!' I screamed from little side door in the gate. My sensible self upbraided me. 'How do you want her to hear you when you are so far away.' I inched a little closer into the compound and screamed again 'Cousin X!' No answer. 'Closer' the sensible me said. I took the few more steps to the second gate and screamed 'COUSIN X COME DOWN!' This scream was directly under our room window. 'I'M COMING DOWN NOW.' Irritation swept through me. What was she doing? Didn't she know we were all worrying about her here. 'WHAT ARE YOU DOING?'
'I'M IN THE TOILET'. Well you can all guess what she was doing. I laughed at the absurdity of the situation. Evidently the call of nature was stronger than the fear of being crushed by a bomb. I finally heard her flush the toilet but she still didn't come down. 'HURRY UP NOW.' 'STOP SHOUTING JO I'M COMING. THE THING HAS REFUSED TO FLUSH.' I laughed long and hard at this as I heard her running water into a bucket. Finally the monster went down and she appeared at the doorway. We went outside. 'What were you doing Neice X' my dad asked her. 'Sorry Uncle, I was in the toilet' explained Cousin X.

We proceeded unto the road tarmac where there was quite a gathering of families. All the neighbours came out. Some, I hadn't seen in years but there we all were brought together by the bombs. Even my neighbours who had locked themselves in had come out and were now expressing wonder at the going ons with each other. The BOOMS sounded in the back ground but we didn't care as much anymore. We were all together. I saw our landlords family in the distance and went to say hi to them. Before I knew it we were hugging and exclaiming together at the carelessness of Nigerians. We thanked God that Nigeria didn't have any nuclear weapons or else then we would have been in serious wahala(trouble). 'Barracks shouldn't be near the places that civilians live' I said vehemently; repeating the opinion my father had just expressed. I discussed with my land lords children. The girl was 22, the boy was 17 and I was 12 but age didn't matter when bigger things like bombs were an issue. I was on the far side of our road during this discussion. 'Let me go and check what is happening over there' I didn't add 'with my family' but they knew what I meant. I walked sprightly with a lift in my step to where the family was. The adrenaline was pumping. I was still scared but I felt good. It was like I was untouchable.

Back in the family camp things weren't as exciting as on the far side of the road. My sister was struck with a stomach ache and a chair was produced from one of the housed for her to sit down on. She was doubling over and holding her stomach. I think she vommitted eventually I'm not sure. I knew it was the fear that was making her stomach feel all weird not indigestion. 'Poor Dinachi' I thought. 'Can't take the heat and the adrenaline like I can.' Aunty Angela, Cousin X and my dad crowded around her. Me, I wondered who was brave enough to go and get the chair from inside the empty house. I patted her head. My dad prayed for her, I said 'Amen' and turned and began to skip away. 'Chibundu where are you going?' my dad asked. His voice was sharp but it was only because he was tired. 'Just over there' I said pointing at where the landlord's children were. 'You shouldn't be walking up and down. Stay in one place eh.' I just looked back and said 'Daddy it's just there' and kept walking. He didn't try to stop me. He knew his children too well.

In the landlord camp conversation continued as usual. I felt flattered that these older people should talk to me like one of their equals. We watched the sky turn different shades of red and green. Finally the boy said 'Let's go and see what's happening outside the estate.' My heart moved further up my mouth. The sensible part of me said go and stay with your sister. I looked back. There were three people standing over her, 'She doesn't need me.' 'Yeah sure lets go' I said to them both. We set out at an easy pace. We walked and gisted. When we rounded the corner that led to the estate gates we saw that they were wide open. 'Lets go and close them' I said frantically. A battered pick up drove past the gates and I began to feel worried. 'Theives might come and they will just drive in.' 'Ha ha' the boy laughed. 'The gatemen just fled abi?' I remember thinking that was a rather juvenile thing to find funny. 'Let's close the gates' I appealed to his sister. She just looked at me and shrugged. The boy stopped laughing and said to me; for the first time that night speaking to me like I was younger than him 'Use your sense. If we close the gates, people that are wanting to enter the estate quickly will be delayed. That was the most sensible thing those gate men did.' His logic was sound so I stopped asking for the gates to be closed. We got to the gates and looked out. The streets were deserted and all the power was out but apart from that it didn't look too different. As we walked back we talked. Suddenly a great big BOOM sounded that painted the whole night sky red for a few minutes and then I started running. Scurrying like a rabbit down the road. The boy and girl laughed at me, I even laughed at myself but I couldn't stop until I had reached the safety of the neighbourhood gathering. None of the people on the other roads had come out from their houses. I wondered what they were doing in there. Probably quaking with fear under their beds I thought.

It was getting late now and the atmosphere had become more relaxed. People only looked up when a boom was particularly loud and the sky turned markedly red. Apart from that the gisting continued. A few of the helps were sitting over the gutters and discussing life I guess. The gutters on my street are particularly clean as water never flows through them. In fact they are just like cement grooves in the side of the road with a few weeds sticking out here and there. My sister was better. In truth if there hadn't been bombs going off I would have said it was a neighbourhood picnic as people had made brief sojourns into their empty houses to collect things such as cold water, fruits, wrappers and such other necessary items for a picnic. At eleven o'clock people started to drift into their houses. The bombs were still going off but they were less frequent and we couldn't exactly sleep on the road even though I had considered dragging out a matress. The landlord and my family were the last people to go in. We exchanged a few parting words and then entered our house. Surprisingly the house had not changed by its ordeal. All the windows which I thought would be at least cracked were still intact. There was no broken china, no spilt spices in fact nothing to show that the house had been shaking and was still being shaken by the bombs that were going off. We all slept in the parlour that night except my dad. I wonder if he did sleep. Being man of the house must be hard. The generator was put on sometime in the wee hours of the morning and we all went to our rooms and were lulled to sleep by the gentle humming sounds of the air conditioner with the occasional BOOM of a bomb.

It turns out that I wasn't the only one to run once I heard the bombs go off. Some people ran and ran themselves to death. They jumped into the Canal thinking that safety was on the other side. Many of them died. The canal isn't very deep and on a normal day you should be able to walk across it without contracting anything more dangerous than a cold but on this day it was different. There was a general stampede. A few people started running towards the canal and then the whole crowd followed. People were suffocated under the water. People stepping over peoples body to reach the other side. Some people got to the brink and realising what was waiting for them if they attempted to cross the canal tried to turn back but the crowd wouldn't let them. The crowd pushed forward and they were thrown into the waters. Some managed to get across, some didn't. The canal was choked with dead bodies for about a week. Thank God my cousin stopped me from letting my reflex carry me far.