The swinging door opens again. Treasure is startled by the sound of the rifle going off.
X
@Sho4Sure grabs the rifle from Sammy.
“It was a mistake,” Sammy tells them. “I didn’t mean to.”
But the words do not make a difference. Treasure is shouting at Sammy, cursing him, slapping him. She has not even gone to check if the woman Sammy shot is really dead. She looks dead sha; her blood is plenty for ground. The dog is lying down beside the body, making whining sounds. It is like the animal is crying. He did not even know Treasure had a sister, or a dog.
They have to leave now. Gunshots in an estate like this will not be ignored.
He grabs Sammy by the collar and drags him. Sammy is crying and saying sorry, as if sorry will help this kind of situation. He had not prepared for a quick escape. He was supposed to be leaving Pious Estate with a bride. He was not supposed to be on the run. But now if they are caught here . . . rich people don’t play.
He opens the front door, but there is a short man, hobbling toward him with three security men by his side. He slams the door shut. How did they get here so quickly? He spins around and runs toward the back of the house, dragging Sammy with him; a house this size will have more than one exit, and sure enough they come across another door. It leads into the garden. And the only thing separating the garden from the world outside Pious Estate is the cement wall. The walls are covered with barbed wire. It will cut and tear at their skin if they attempt to climb over.
“It is them!”
The short man has caught up to them. @Sho4Sure climbs first, so the boy knows what to do. The security men don’t have guns, but one is shouting into his mobile phone. Soon more of them will come.
“Get down from there!” someone shouts.
The tree is not a strong one. Sammy has begun to climb, and the branches wobble from the pressure of their weight. There is a gap between the branch and the wall. @Sho4Sure jumps without hesitation, grabbing on to the wires that grab on to his flesh, clawing into him. It is too much pain to digest, and he doesn’t even attempt to. He leaps into the open air.
His body slams into the earth, and his breath leaves him. It is a moment before he gets it back. When his senses return to him, he realizes Sammy is not beside him. He can hear the shouting, the jeering. He waits to see if Sammy’s body will fly into the air as his did. But he soon realizes the boy won’t be coming after him.
XI
Treasure watches from the window as Papa Tobi beats the boy with a cane.
The boy is making really ugly sounds. He is affecting her ability to think. Her employers will be home in an hour. He will tell them everything. They will beat it out of him. It will not matter to them that he is just a child; after all, how do you reason with people who give a dog a human’s name? He will tell them that @Sho4Sure came for her, and they will wonder how he found her. They will see her Instagram page.
It’ll be all over for her then. They will replace her. After all, house girls are a dime a dozen. They will refuse to understand. She spends her whole day looking after the needs of others, taking care of a dog and being constantly berated by her employers; but on Instagram, she is a #queen. And they will take that all away from her. They will fire her and expose her to her many followers.
Her bladder is full, but she squeezes her thighs together. How did this happen? All she did was try to grow a following. Who will tell Patience’s mummy that her youngest is gone? How much money will they give the woman to help her forget her pain?
Papa Tobi takes a break from the beating to catch a breath. Sammy is crouched on the cement, weeping.
“Please, sir, it was a mistake. Ask your madam.”
“Which madam?”
“Aunty Treasure, sir.”
Papa Tobi laughs. “All that alcohol don scramble your brain. You mean Treasure? The house girl?”
She pees a little. She has to get Sammy away from here before he reveals everything. She leaves the room where she’s been holding vigil and walks toward them.
“Papa Tobi, I think the security men are looking for you.”
“This idiot boy thinks you are the madam of this place!” he tells her, laughing.
Treasure acknowledges the joke with a smile and then hisses as Papa Tobi strolls away. She has maybe five minutes at the most. Sammy looks up when she crouches; his eyes quiver.
“Oya, get up!”
Papa Tobi has gone to the green room, where the security men are with Patience. She doesn’t know how they can do it, how they can stay in that room without weeping. But she cannot think of that now. She takes the boy’s hand and pulls him toward the kitchen.
“Shhh, stop crying! They will hear you!”
“Where are you taking me? I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to kill her.”
She opens the kitchen door and points to an unfinished house five minutes away.
“They are still building that house. Sometimes the construction men leave stools or ladders there. Something you can use to scale the wall. But if they catch you, don’t even mention my name. Do you understand?”
“You are allowing me to go?”
“Yes. Be fast!”
“But . . . why are you helping me? I killed your sister.”
“She wasn’t my sister. She was just a house girl.”
She pushes him through the door and slams it shut. Then she takes the phone from her pocket and deletes her Instagram account. It is a shame, but she can begin again.
She returns to where Sammy was being beaten, tears the sleeve of her fading blue dress, lies down on the ground, takes a deep breath, and screams.