He put his head under the hot shower, he closed his eyes as steam started to fill up the bathroom. He felt his stiff muscles start to relax, his body felt heavy. It just occurred to him that he hadn’t slept for two days. As much as he tried, he couldn’t get his brain to decipher what Maduma had said. He couldn’t even remember half of her mumbo jumbo.
When he opened his eyes, a dark figure was standing in the corner of the room behind him. The lady in black facing right at him. He felt cold at the nape of his neck, the hair on his arm struggled to rise against the water. He recognized the fear that was crawling on his skin and stopped him from turning around.
“One,” the whisper sounded distant, he couldn’t make out what it was. “One,” another whisper now a little closer. His heart beats faster, she never whispered anything before. “RUN!!” the whisper was right in his ears as he jolted and turned to look but she was gone. He gasped for air, the water was still running but he knew what he heard, she said “Run” but he didn’t know what it meant.
He dried up and put on fresh clothes. When he walked out to his room, Friday was already fast asleep on the mattress. It felt like forever that he hadn’t had a good night’s sleep. He was gone the minute his head touched the pillow.
Adrian was back at his house again. He just came home from school, he was 12 years old. He heard his mom calling him from the bedroom, so he went to see what she needed. The sight of the room was like a warzone, there was blood everywhere. The bed sheets were soaked with blood, the floor was smeared with red liquid dripping from the metal basin. Towels were scattered, all caked with blood, a strong smell of metal overpowered the room.
His mom was crying while holding something in her arms, wrapped in a clean sheet. He couldn’t see what it was until it wiggled and cried. She tried to stand up even though it looked so painful. “Adrian … sweetheart … would you help me?” she asked then burst into tears. “Please, baby, … help momma, will you?”
Adrian nodded, “What is it, momma?” She walked up to him with the baby and handed the little baby girl to him. “She’s too early, she needs help … but promise me something,” she was being serious as she was sobbing, “Promise me Adrian!” she insisted. Adrian nodded again, scared. “You can’t let anyone know about this baby, not even your dad … do you understand?”
He didn’t understand what exactly was happening and why he needed to keep it a secret, but he loved his mom more than anything, he would do as she asked. “You have to take this baby to this address … a good man will help her there … just leave her on the front porch of the house and you will run from there as soon as you put her down,” his mom instructed.
She gave him a piece of paper with an address then she doubled the sheet around the baby with a clean towel. “You have to hurry … don’t forget to ring the bell so that someone will come out and help the baby.” He held the baby in his arms, a fragile tiny little human in his awkward twelve-year-old arms, he took the piece of paper and looked at his mom, confused.
“Don’t worry baby, she’s gonna be alright,” she sobbed uncontrollably. “I can’t take her myself, I have to clean up this mess … your father’s gonna be home soon, … and I can’t … I can’t …” she cried again. “Go, Adrian! You have to go now and don’t let anyone see you!” Adrian didn’t think twice about it, he went with the baby on foot, running as fast as he could with a tiny human in his arms.
He did exactly as his mom said, he put the baby between the cushions of the chairs on the porch of a big fancy house and then he rang the bell. The baby cried so loudly that he hesitated before he finally left it. But somebody had opened the door and saw him. The man who opened the door heard the crying baby and immediately shouted at him to stop running. He didn’t have a choice, he was caught and something told him to stop running. The man was carrying a baby too, but the one he carried was not moving and its skin was bluish, he too was crying. And then he heard it in his head, his mother’s scream, “Run!!”, so he ran and ran as fast as he could to go back home.
He was afraid because someone had seen him and hoping his mom would not be angry at him. When he arrived at his house, the front door was opened. That’s when he saw her, face down on the floor in a pool of blood. He jolted up from his sleep, gasping for air. His head was spinning, for a moment he forgot where he was, and then he remembered falling asleep on his mattress last night. He felt a stabbing pain in his chest, his heart beats too fast, he now remembered the dream he’d just woken up from, but it wasn’t a dream, it was a memory that’s been lost for years. A memory that was suppressed because he didn’t want to remember them.