Growing up turned out to be great and exciting. Life is filled with joy and happiness and on the other hand disappointments. As you grow older and develop yourself mentally, spiritually and physically, you tend to learn new things and encounter in your family, within your environment and among your peers different breathtaking experiences which either ends up as blessings to you or as a curse. Life can never be perfect for you.
As I lie on my stomach on the innocently flat mattress covered with a bed sheet that I have being raining on since morning with my flood of tears. The memories of the fun we had and the good things we shared with Sophie came crashing and stumbling into my head. Images came into my eyes like I just turned my eyes to a television station from the past. I held my head in a tight grip with both of my hands as my head became almost heavy from my now tiny neck to carry.
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We grew up together, always fund of each other. My mother told me the story of how we were born on the same day. Our houses stood opposite each other and as our feet to start to move we became close to each other that we never allowed a third girl in our midst. We were so into each other and many people referred to us the true definition of friendship. Though we don’t look alike in anyway but anyone who doesn’t initially know us will immediately mistake us for twins after seeing how close we are.
As I turned to the other side of the bed, my eyes could not help but envision those moments when we mixed sand and mud with water in tins of Peak all in the name of cooking delicacies. As tears flow down my cheek I could almost see is doing our traditional ‘yar gala-gala. We were so into each other that even sleep doesn’t separate us both. When we are forced to sleep alone in both our houses, both mothers won’t know peace that night. So it was like a shifting process of sleeping together in both houses. Even when our parents bought us things, they bought it for both us.
We started school together and finished our primary school, wrote our common entrance examinations and there came the admission into Chibok Girls Secondary School, Maiduguri. We scaled through all the hitches and challenges of the school. Till the last day came when every girl was looking forward to the next day to write her final WAEC paper and head back home. We were all seated in the room after our night prep discussing of how life would be after school. Suddenly Sophie stood and told me she had to go to the toilet to excuse herself. Moments later we heard sounds of vehicles approaching, men shooting guns and screaming at the top of their voices. Every one of us took to their heels to run to safety. I headed for where the toilet was to search for Sophie but from a distance I could sight a heavy-built man holding her in with his strong hands and the rest of the masked men were already capturing some other girls. Before I could think of the next thing to do, the strong hands of Mrs. Ali pulled me and we were on a run and as I lay here on my bed I could hear how she shouted at me to run after her.
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Since then, it has being 350 days and there is no sign of getting Sophie back. Voices have being raise by different opinion groups, opinion polls, media organisations, human rights activists and many more. But the only relieve I got was when Shekau the video that contained the girls and I sighted Sophie from amongst them. Everyone is seemingly silent about them. No one is longer talking. I can only lie here and wonder when Sophie and my other friends will be returned.
BRING BACK OUR GIRLS
N.B: All characters and names mentioned in this piece are fiction and any resemblance to a person living or dead is just a coincidence.
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