STORY SERIES

A SHATTERED LIFE-1 by Ada RuChi

     Emmanuel Eno Ekok was born on the 29th of December, 1997 in Calabar. He is the fifth boy in the family. He grew up in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State in Nigeria. He is the son of Captain Frank Ekok and Late (Mrs.) Kate Ekok. He is slim, light skinned and very funny. He is lively, very handsome and very brilliant.
     The 1st of January, 2015 has become very memorable to him, not because it was the beginning of a new year  but because he lost his mother at 10:38am. 
     The 31st of December 2014 was like the end of every other year for him and he traveled to his village in Akwa Ibom State leaving his mother and four brothers in Calabar. His father had traveled to Kaduna a week earlier and he looked forward to a new happy year. His mother was hale and sound when he left for the village so the news of her death shocked him.
      It was noon when he returned to Calabar and met his brothers and a host of friends and relations mourning. He looked on in shock and disbelief as his mother's body was put in an ambulance. He could only whisper "mother! mother!!" He wished he had said "goodbye," he wept more because he was unable to tell her "Thank you" and "I love you mother." He locked himself in their kitchen and hugged her photograph through out the night. His brothers tried severally to break the door and pull him out but it was not possible. He had never felt a pain so strong, he had never lost a person so dear. His mother was his personal friend, his confident, his burden bearer and his care-taker.
      The next morning, on the 2nd of January, 2015, his brothers traveled back to Rivers State and he was left alone to explain to the visitors and friends what he heard was the cause of his mother's death. With each visitor's coming, he re-counted the story of her death and the wound in his heart widened, he felt the pain of her death more when it was evening and he was left alone. He wept incessantly for 6 hours and pleaded with death to bring his mother back to him. He screamed and asked severally "Can't I see her again, just this once, just once and I will be satisfied!" He rolled on the floor, slapped his head and tore his shirt. He folded his body on the floor and thought of the days before her death. He thought of her voice calling him, he missed her scent, her presence and her hugs. He held her rosary close to his chest and slept.
      His father came back home a month after his mother's death and was shocked to see his son looking more dead than alive. He immediately sent Emmanuel to his cousins in Akwa Ibom State but he grew worse. He became withdrawn, refused to eat, sleep, or bath. He stared into space without blinking for almost a week before his aunt had to rush him to the hospital where he was given a sedative and some anti depressants.
     At the end of the March, he traveled back to Calabar to join in the arrangements for his mother's burial. His grief lessened when his mother's sister told him that his mother had appeared to her and sent her to tell him to be strong for her as her favorite child. The mass for her funeral held on Saturday 13th March at St. Clement Catholic Church, Airport Road, Calabar. As he approached her coffin, hot tears ran down his cheeks and he said "Mother, I miss you! I love you! Thank you for everything you ever did for me! Pray for me and guide my spirit!" He immediately entered the ambulance heading to his village with his mother's corpse. He could not glance back to look at her face, he could not yet believe that she was dead.
    During his mother's burial, he kept looking at her coffin praying that she would rise up and all would be a joke. As her body was lowered into the grave, tears ran down his cheeks and he walked away, he tried to detach himself from reality but he realized that his dear mother will forever be beneath the soil and his life would have to go on never the same. His cousins held him trying to console him but he could never be consoled.

TO BE CONTINUED...