Tsunami

God didn't promise days without pain, laughter without sorrow or sun without rain but he did promise strength for the day, comfort for the tears and light for the way..If God brings you to it, he will bring you through it.

This powerful quote sums up the faith and trust my family and I had in God on this day that eruptions of drama of volcanic proportions exploding in seismic waves into a tsunami barraged through the front door in human clothing that happened to us...it was  a day that was literally earth-shattering indeed!


  It was a day like every  other day, Mom had gone to work and I'd called in sick at work but told them I would be coming in quite later in the day, QT was busy on his phone chatting with friends, Hamz was lying on the floor in his room browsing on QT's laptop and Karl was busy using the restroom while I, although feeling weirdly uneasy for unexplained reasons as well as quite woozy from a persistent headache from earlier that morning, was rearranging my wardrobe as well as taking out my outfit for the day to work. Prior to the above, earlier that morning around dawn, my head had been pounding with serious headache since the muadhin in the nearby mosque close to our house first called to prayer at around five a.m that early morning which is usually my cue to wake up and have my shower in preparedness for work, Mom woke up as well, said her prayers and went into her bathroom to have her bath.

For unknown reasons, my heartbeat kept pounding heavily, as though it wants to break free away from my rib cage, I usually have that feeling like  a premonition something ugly is about to happen and over time, it has proved to be quite accurate but that morning, everything seemed perfect so I wondered what could possibly go wrong but just to forestall any danger or bad omen since it's life and anything could go wrong even in the happiest and secure of places, I said my prayer, reciting severally in odd numbers suratul kursiyu which in the Quran is the verse of protection telling God to keep us all safe from danger and the evils of men and jinn but apparently, for some reasons, he chose to test our faith by allowing our feet touch troubled waters. Around ten a.m that morning, eclectic mix of voices belonging to a group of people apparently coming from both sexes of male and female arguing with QT reached me upstairs in my room, I dropped my clothes and wondered if QT had friends visiting him that early in the morning but as the argument got rather intense, I had to leave what I was doing and went out of my room and onwards downstairs to check what the problem was, I met Hamz who also came out of his room and was struggling with putting on his short shorts with his face puzzled as to what was transpiring downstairs at the front door. We both hurried downstairs and met a busty, dark lady in a red, loose blouse, putting on an old, brown coloured wig along with a tall, quite heavily built igbo man in sharp grey suit who looks like a lawyer who I was to later learn is the lawyer to our enemy, Alhaji, then a short, severely black man who identified himself as a court messenger, a fat policeman with a saggy paunch and deep and long igala tribal marks across his fair cheeks along with some five dirty looking hausa men whose job is to help take people's property out and my brain quickly processed they were probably here to disposes us of our property, think WHEN TROUBLE BREWS, so I quickly fetched my phone and put a call through to Mom to alert her whilst QT kept arguing with them. The group insisted they were ordered by the court with a copy of the verdict in hand, I collected the white sheet containing the court verdict and read through, feeling really terrified as indeed it says in the sheet that the court is taking possession of our house...my late Dad's house. I instantly felt my body wet with sweat, Karl came around and a tearful Hamz told him what was happening, the five dirty court errand boys had started coming in to do their job of throwing our things out when an angry Hamz violently pushed them out, threatening to smash bottles on their heads, the police man wielding a baton promised to hit it on Hamz's head if he doesn't cooperate, I quickly took out my phone and took a snap shot of the police's badge on his breast pocket area detailing his force identification number and name, he and the lawyer in the sharp suit demanded to know why I will do that and asked that I delete the picture immediately, I retorted rather calmly (because if I had screamed, I could probably faint out of exhaustion and high body tension I was in) that I needed to know his force identification so I could sue him and get him to loose his job if he hits and injures my younger brother, he snapped,

 "YOU IDIOT! ARE YOU THREATENING ME? I HAVE BEEN SENT BY THE COURT TO HELP INSTILL ORDER AND ENSURE A PEACEFUL VACATION AND LOCKDOWN OF THE PREMISES AND YOU DARE THREATEN ME FOR DOING MY JOB AFTER THIS GOON OF YOUR BROTHER THREATENED TO SMASH BOTTLES ON OUR HEAD?"

 The lawyer in the smart suit clearly enraged took off his jacket, facing Hamz and promising to deal decisively with him and declaring nothing will happen as he's a lawyer and he was doing his job, Hamz didn't mind as he again, charged violently at them, promising to smash bottles if anyone dares to touch any of our property, my heart has never beaten at the rate it was beating that moment ever in my life and it induced a headache so severe I was beginning to feel dizzy because here I was staring at great humiliation from being sent into the street in a neighborhood where compassion and pity is only mouth deep and everyone puts up a facade of contentment and ultimate bliss in their lives, the thoughts of how Dad's family would react if they heard that we lost their late son's home, how would I face my friends and explain what had happen and the greatest of all issues, where would we move to with our mountain of belongings, I was all shaky but I still summoned the last shreds of strength in me and pulled Hamz back by the arm whose sweaty body made my grip slip right through, I quickly summoned Karl to help pull him back as QT was on phone with Mom, I turned to face the men and the lady from court and told them we weren't afraid of packing out but they should understand that this was an ugly news and our reaction was normal and to be expected, the policeman nodded and the court messenger responded saying that's why they came in peace and brought men to help us carry the heavy loads out and that if they had met no one at home, they will have carried out the order nonetheless, I replied saying that I wasn't aware we had a court case where a judge presided and declared we should leave our house, that's the first point, secondly, I didn't ask for some form of identification to prove that indeed, they were from the court, for all we know, this could be a set up from Alhaji to disposes us of our home so it's all happening so fast and they need to step back and give us space to figure all these out.

 I turned to look at Karl and I saw how red he had become, obviously shocked at the whole episode unraveling before his eyes and I felt ashamed whilst thinking,  could he be regretting coming to live with us? It's been from one drama to the next since he came and probably not what he had thought he would be  signing up for when leaving america, I sighed and signaled to QT to ask him what Mom had said,

"She's on her way home, she's calling our lawyer now because am not aware we had any court notice summoning us to court nor any hearing where the judge...whoever he or she is gave a verdict for us to vacate our house or do you?"

 I shook my head and he sighed, continuing,

 "This, I only see in nigerian movies, I can't believe this is happening, for people to show up and declare we leave our home? Our Dad's fucking house?"

I sighed dejectedly, telling my brothers we need to calm down and buy time as much as we can till Mom got back and at that moment, we heard sounds of properties dragging on the tiled floor and on swiftly turning around, the five court errand boys were busy unplugging our refrigerator and carrying out our sofas, Hamz who is rather impatient and gets enraged like a bull swiftly turned around, looking for a bottle, he made to make a dash for the dining table to pick a glass cup when he tripped and fell and the nearby stool pricked his leg and immediately started bleeding and how I hate the sight of blood, I gasped and asked him to be patient so I tend to his cut which was quite the gash but he wasn't feeling anything, he promptly stood up and hurried to the dining table, picked a used glass cup lying there and swiftly turned towards the errand boys and threw with the force of a gravitational pull at them but the guys managed to swerve right in time and the glass cup smashed against the wall, sending broken glasses everywhere, the policeman angrily threw his baton at Hamz which Karl grabbed mid-flight expertly like an action star in a movie and shook it with the purpose of flinging right back at him if he doesn't  stop, he was flushed with rage and it was obvious, he was so red and his hair stood up, I hadn't seen him that enraged ever! The busty lady in a red blouse kept screaming that we are one hell of a hooligan, talking to her colleagues in pidgin english,

"These ones no be omo butter oo, these ones don craze for head oo, make we call for backup? Ehn officer Udoh?"

At that moment, my heart was beating at an alarming alacrity I had to take a seat lest I pass out and despite my condition, I was so glad at how my brothers held the forth and defended their home while I felt like the queen-bee sitting at the back being heavily guarded by my soldier bees, my brothers' muscles pulsating with rage and their breaths hoofing like a dragon's breath, I still couldn't believe my eyes at all that was unfolding. The group promised to make us pay heavily for our action if we don't quietly make way and let them do their jobs but we weren't backing down, the police officer whose name was officer udoh demanded Karl give him back his baton and Karl asked him to come for it and could he dare? So officer udoh made a call for back up, asking for a battalion of back up, we thought he was bluffing till several pick up vans upon vans pulled up at our residence and officers in bullet proof vests and guns dangling from their holsters jumped down from the vans our shoulders fell, officer udoh started shouting and asking if we could still put up a fight, he then gave an order for the five men to throw our things out, the policemen who had arrived looking all fierce asked if we were proving stubborn and officer udoh said yes and that on seeing the batch arrive, we've felt subdued, QT then motion for us to go pack our stuff upstairs, I thought I was going to die when he said that, Pack? Pack where the hell to? Hamz sniffed repeatedly and with a shaky voice told the men packing our load to be careful with our stuff so they don't break something, he also volunteered to stay downstairs and supervise the packing lest they steal things and told me I could help him pack his own personal effects upstairs,

"My big bags are in the last section in the chest of drawers in my room"

He said and  at that moment, hot tears streamed down my face and I found myself crying like I've never done all my life, I looked up to the ceiling and despite all the bullying I've encountered in my life, all the rejection and suffering I've ever faced, the life-altering, often brutish ways my effeminate gestures had placed upon me from people for no fault of mine, I've never ever for a day questioned God on why he did what he did to me or if I'd deserved it for one reason or the other because I've been brought up to never question his will but at that heart-sinking moment mixed with all the pent up anger from all of my effeminate gestures, my dad's death when I was young, the drama his family put us through, the bullying and discrimination I've endured and so so many other "natural" issues I've  never had to ask God questions about, my face soaked with salty tears and my eyes red with rage, I looked up and without a care in the world, I asked God for the first time in my life,

 "BUT GOD WHY?...WHY?!"

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