This is my favourite thing about being a guard, the court trips with inmates, watching the lawyers presenting their case with passion and eloquence.
My father wanted me to be a lawyer but his cancer robbed me of this, the family income was diverted to trying to cure the disease which later claimed his life.
I spent five years working odd jobs for survival before my uncle got me a job in Ikoyi prison, at first
I was sceptical about it, being around all sorts of criminals made my skin crawl but the pay was triple the amount I earned as a waitress so I jumped at it.
How bad can it be?
Inmates are usually accompanied by three guards, one leading the line, another walking on the side and the third behind. When they get to the transit van the one leading opens the door, stands by it and ticks names of the file as each inmates steps in. The second guard stands a few feet from the van and is usually the last one in.
Adamu the most hated of all the prison guards stands by the door with an A4 page in hand calling the names, James the second guard calls a hawker for gala and flirts effortlessly with the big breasted lady, he flashed his brown teeth and touched her several times.
For a very unattractive man, he has a way of getting attention from the opposite sex
"Me sef wan chop", one of the inmates shouted.
We are trained to ignore any remarks made in public.
Being the youngest and also having less experience means I get to stay two feet behind the last prisoner in the single file.
Out of nowhere a man with filthy ripped clothes and mismatched flip flops struck the left side of my face, the slap was followed by immediate blindness and I struggled to stay on my feet.
Son of a bitch!
On hearing the sound James reaches for his baton and rushed away from the hawker, his belly jiggles with each step.
The attacker who is clearly mentally unstable started pushing the three men who are yet to board the van.
Adamu closes the door and moves forward in order to challenge the mad man but he was no match for his strength, one punch had him on the ground, this caused the prisoners in the van to laugh uncontrollably.
The mad man kicked him continuously, each kick was followed for a grunt.
A crowd was already forming, almost everyone had a phone in hand recording the scene. James tries effortlessly to save Adamu from the mad man but is unsuccessful.
I hold my cheek which stings and radiates enough heat to boil an egg, I struggle to see from my left eye.
The scuffle continues for another minute before the mad man slips through the crowd.
Two men stand by the van with a smirk on each of their faces.
"Where is the third one?" I asked.
They looked at each other and raised both hands up in protest.
I walk to the other side of the van with "PRISON SERVICES" boldly written on it with ugly yellow paint.
Adamu is still on his knees struggling to get up, the crowd stayed far away from the van, they are stories of innocent people being randomly picked off the streets of Lagos to replace prisoners, no one wants to be the next one.
James went into the court building and returned alone.
Chucks the missing prisoner should be on his way to my self contain at Ebute-Metta.
Adamu rolls around in agony, blood dripping from his lips, he doesn't know he got beat up by an MMA fighter disguised as a mad man in order to distract them.
The plan was to slap him twice but Ade hated Adamu the second I described how he treated his best friend Chucks and vowed to make him pay.
I fell in love with Chucks because he is everything a woman wants, well asides from being a prisoner awaiting trial, he is charming, smart and extremely kind. He was the only one who didn't drool or make sexual comments when I started work in the prison.
He told others off and lectured them about respecting females, I found myself daydreaming about the kind armed robber, soon we began spending my break in one of the empty corners in the yard. I shared my lunch with him and he shared stories of his youth and growing up outside Lagos, he left Owerri four years ago and the gist on how he got involved in crime made my blood boil.
He graduated with a first-class in Computing, he had dreams of a start-up tech company, he saved up money her earned from building websites and partnered with a friends cousin who claimed to know the big shots in Lagos. A few meetings here and there and he lost his life savings, it was all a scam his friend concocted before he left Owerri. He was left stranded in a city he barely knows his way around, he had enough cash to pay for a cheap hotel, just when he was about to give up and head back to Owerri, he met Yele.
He told Yele what happened, Yele offered him a place to sleep in exchange he had to hack into bank accounts, he learned hacking via youtube during one of the university's long strikes.
He was making good money and was working on a pitch and all he needed was twenty million naira and when the idea to rob a senator who flaunts his wealth on Instagram came up, he jumped at it.
The operation was an ambush, the security at the senator's residence outnumbered them and they found themselves in prison.
He already pleaded guilty when I met him ten months ago and was waiting for his next court appearance. I can say it was love at first sight, his smile can light up an entire room.
I didn't care at this point, I loved him and didn't hesitate when he tried to kiss me two weeks after we started sneaking off on our own.
We had sex at the same spot weeks after and it was the best I've ever had, I'm not sure if being away from a woman for so long made him better but that man knows his way around a woman's body.
Three weeks later my period was late and a cheap pregnancy test confirmed I am carrying his child.
" Let's me get you out of here," I said out after a steamy session.
" How?"
" We can do it next time you are in court, we create a small distraction on the way back to the car and you sneak off ".
I contacted his best friend Ade and we came up with the plan.
I just have to make sure the handcuffs didn't clip when I put them on him when the court
After hours of shouting and questioning, we were allowed to go home, Adamu is getting treated for his injuries. I can't wait to get home, Ade has my key and they are to wait at my house before we decide on the next step.
I look forward to spending time with him away from the heavy metal gates and wired fences, no need to constantly keep an eye out for people when we have sex.
We can finally have sex naked, not just quickies with trousers pulled down to our ankles.
"Baby", I called out turning the spare key in my lock.
I walked into the tv room expecting to see the love of my life waiting for me with a smile. I called for him once more without noticing the TV on the wall is missing and every other appliance I own.
I told him about tin in the freezer, I told him about not trusting banks so I keep my saving in an empty milo tin at the bottom of my freezer.
The freezer is not the way I arranged it.
This is impossible, there is no way I committed an offence because I fell in love with this man only to have him rob me of my life savings. I walk back to the tv room to find a note saying " I'm sorry, this was only my way of keeping busy and getting laid but you got carried away so I played along".
I didn't even tell him about our baby, I wanted it to be the first news he gets as a free man
I undo my belt and open the buttons of my shirt, the room feels hotter and I can feel the walls closing in, my cheek starts to sting and I am welcomed by sudden darkness.
THE END
Wow! This is great.
ReplyDeleteThank You.
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