EXCERPT FROM CHAPTER FIVE [pages 47-51]
They sat in the shade of a building in the park and talked for a while. Ndidi taught her some simple things she had learnt from Ebere.
They were there for a while when suddenly; pandemonium broke out in the park. Some hawkers ran into the park with their wares, either, all thrown away or still dropping. They had run from the express road near the park. Shouts were heard outside the park by men saying, “Hold them! Catch them!”
All the people in the park, especially the young ones, took cover. The hawkers who had run in were crying. They spread the news: Two children who were hawking had just been forcefully kidnapped on the express road by three men in a car. They had sped off and were a far distance when people around realized what had happened and some tried pursuing them but couldn’t catch up with them. They seemed to have planned to perpetrate the crime when the roads will be free of vehicular traffic. So there was no impediment to a smooth sailing in their kidnap.
Ndidi and Nkechi were sad and scared.
“Let us go home now.” Ndidi said, shaking with fright.
“From where?” Nkechi asked.
“Let us look for another way out.”
They left the motor park immediately, through an apian way bypassing the express road. As they walked home, they avoided cars that were parked by the side of the road with men inside. Whenever a car came close to them, they would run far from it.
“I don’t think I will sell again o,” Nkechi said as they walked home.
“Me too,” Ndidi agreed.
“Those people are wicked.”
“Who knows what they will do to the children?
“The police will catch them.”
When they got the point where they parted ways, they both walked home in haste. When Nkechi got home, her aunty was around. She told her what happened.
“Is that a story you made up as an excuse for not selling anything today?” her aunty asked her.
“No aunty. It really happened.”
“Where is the money you got from the sales?”
Nkechi gave the money to her, wondering why she cared more about the money than her well being.
“The money is complete,” her aunty said. “Thank your stars. I would not have believed you and you would have paid. Go and fetch water!”
Nkechi sadly left to fetch water.
When Ndidi got home, only Ebere, Onyi and Jerome were around. Ebere always brought them back from their school on his way back from his own school. Theirs was in the neighbourhood so it was not difficult for him.
“Mummy is not back yet?” Ndidi asked as she dropped her empty bucket.
“No,” Onyi answered. “She is still in the shop.”
Jerome came to her and she carried him.
“You came back early today,” Ebere said.
“Something bad happened today.”
“What happened?”
Ndidi told them what happened in the express road that afternoon. They listened with rapt attention and Jerome kept asking questions which she answered.
…
She went to do some chores while Ebere and his siblings played in the parlour. When their mother came back that evening, they told her what Ndidi had told them.
“Story story,” she said. “So she did not sell anything today.”
She called Ndidi with a loud voice. Ndidi came and greeted her.
“Which cock and bull story are you telling?” she asked Ndidi. “Did you sell everything?”
“Yes aunty.”
“Where is the money?”
Ndidi went into the room and brought some money and handed over to her. She counted it.
“You are lucky,” she said and went inside her room.
Ndidi exhaled to diffuse tension when she was out of sight and Ebere gave her an ‘I told you’ look.
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About The Book
“Against the Tide” is the story of a young girl named Ndidi; the third child of her parents, who up until the death of her father was living in affluence. The story follows her ordeals, hardship she passed through and what eventually happened to her.
“Against The Tide” is a well written fictional story that highlights certain issues concerning child labour and abuse as evident in household slavery, street hawking and sexual harassment. The book tries to pick up causes and effects and goes on to make little effort in proffering solution
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(c)2015.Chinedu Isaac
