Dance in the Graveyard – episode 1
LIST OF COMPLETED STORIES
Dance in the Graveyard – episode 1
My name is Richærd, I’m about to get married
to a beautiful woman.
My location right now? I will have to tell you
later.
About two years ago I was made to dance in a
graveyard. I know you
are surprised, but that is the truth. A
graveyard, a place where the
leaves obey the commandment of the smooth
and quiet wind. A place
where the birds sings for the beautiful souls of
the good in the day
and where the vultures cries for the angry
souls of the wicked in the
night. I think I’m going too emotional. Let me
tell you about myself
first.
I’m Richærd Jones. A soldier of the federal
republic of Nigeria. I
really love my job.
I got admitted into the NDA, Kaduna some
years back. My experience
there was rough, tough and fun as well. Doing
a thousand push-ups was
never a burden after some time.
But as hectic as the work was, I could still fall
in love with a
beautiful lady. Her name is Rose. Rose was
different from every other
lady there. “Mr. Man, I don’t have your time”
that was what she always
tell me whenever we are together. But saying
that with her beautiful
smile tells me, there is a light at the end of
the tunnel. Eventually,
we started dating. About six months after we
started dating, we
graduated from the NDA. The celebration was
fun-filled. But I took the
opportunity to propose to Rose that day, and
guess what? She said yes
without delay. That was one of the happiest
days of my life.
Something happened that day that has never
happened during any
military graduation before. As we were
dancing and enjoying ourselves,
all of us were given letters. We were all posted
to different stations
immediately. In anxiety and fear, I opened my
letter and alas, I was
posted to Borno state.I know it was with the
intention to go and fight
against terrorism in that area. I quickly went
to Rose to check where
she was posted, I was happy she was posted
to Abuja to work as an
Officer at the headquarters.
Rose cried and cried when she knew that my
station was Borno state.
The celebration ended immediately when we
all got our letters. We were
asked to resume for duties the following
monday.
Monday came, Rose was still crying when the
aircraft that will
convey herself and some other colleagues was
about was about to take
off. “Please stay alive for me” that was the
last thing she told me
before she entered the aircraft. I was still
trying to be a man but I
didn’t know that tears was already running
through my eyes. I was
afraid but I had no choice and I actually liked
what I was about
doing, even though I knew my life was at
stack. A few hours later, a
caravan came to convey myself and others
that were posted to Borno
state.
We got to Borno state around 6:45pm, I
observed that just a few of
the senior soldiers were there, I was terrified,
thinking most of them
were dead but I was told they were transfer to
Adamawa state because
the terrorists were operating at a very high
level in that area. “You
are welcome to my camp” that was Major-
General Musa Yusuf, the
commandant of the camp. He continued by
saying “here I’m your father,
your mother, your brother and even your god.
If you think you are here
to stay alive, know that many are going to die
for your reason. So
fight for your country”. “Sir, yes sir” we replied
like military men.
After the warm welcome by the commandant
and the senior soldiers, we
had a little military camp gyration. We were
oriented and we also had
fun.
We were there for weeks, training hærd
everyday until one day when
the publicity section of the camp sounded an
alarm for us to get ready
because terrorists were already coming. My
heart was already in my
mouth. Col. Yaro Yaya who was a senior
colleague, led us out. “Just
follow anything I say or you die” that was his
instruction. I was
afraid. “Shoot” col. Yaya commanded. I
started shoot randomly and to
my surprise I killed two terrorists immediately.
I started building my
confidence. It took us about two hours but we
eventually conquered. We
killed about 150 of them that day. I was so
happy. I called my fiancee
and I told her everything.
When we got back to the camp, we were all
celebrating our victory
and I observed something, Major Yusuf was
not really comfortable, I
could see it in his eyes as he was going
straight to his tent. What
will make a commandant uncomfortable at the verge of victory? Who knows?
TBC
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