BC Series Note 1: Damilola's Poem

 "I will travel far and wide to choose my destiny and remould the world, I know it is my destiny to defend the world, which I hope to achieve during my lifetime"~Damilola

I've never met Damilola. But his story touched me all those years ago....even now I remember him. A part of him lives in me. 

Hair Band

Drawing by: Monica Baoleki

“No no….like this, up high”

The time. Not sure, somewhere in the afternoon.

Place? Home.

Location? Beside the house, in the shade, bare feet on the paved path circling the house.

Temperature? Blistering.

Monica was showing me how to kick and throw punches like how the pros do it. She had recently taken up a karate class at school and was eager to show me the moves. She punched surprisingly accurately, to the misery of my tummy and arms, all of which had to block her advances. She had always been that type of girl yanno. Look at that grin on her face, fists flying, legs cutting and pounding. We waved towards the road as one of  our schoolmates walked by, piqued by the sight of me and Monica looking like we were about to break out into a deadly fight.

“This is not as easy as I thought it'd be”

“Don’t worry, you’ll get the hang of it”

We were seated down…she, stretching…I, massaging my sore forearms. Then me looking over;

“Are you still writing that novel”

“You mean that old story, nah, I’m writing a completely new one”

“You wont ever finish if you keep changing stories” I smiled

“Eh!, wasn’t much of a good story anyways…this next one will blow your mind, just you wait.” The excitement in her eyes, and her ever present smile.  

I walk her to the gate to see her off.

“And how’s baby Michelle doing, good I hope”

“Growing fast as ever, you know the other day….” Cut off midsentence by the sound of the ice-cream man riding along and announcing his merchandise with each squeeze of the horn.

“Anyway, I better get going, I left her with Aunty, who is about to leave about now”

“Bye Monica”

“Bye OT”

Watched her disappear into the distance. Smiled, absentmindedly twirling an object between my fingers. Looked down to see what it was. Oh shucks her hair band!

the silhouette

“And oohh how did you say your name was again?” I asked him, and with kindness at the corners of his smile; “Brienne”…

I returned the contagious smile; “Like Brienne of Tarth then” I grinned. He laughed a little, a full set of gleaming white teeth, “Yeah I guess you could say that, although me and her are different for the obvious case of our pronouns”

“Of course,” I returned the knowing grin,”of course”


 7 Hours Till The Present 
“I just got off the Uber,” I spoke into the phone, clouds with every breath like a steaming kettle, only cold. I had left the warmth of the Uber only a minute ago where the lovely Arab gentleman had the AC cranked all the way up, bless his little cotton socks.
From a distance a door opened and out came a blare of party music, the person waved. “I see you,” I said into the phone.
I walked in with him. A 2 storey apartment complex with 2 houses on each floor, as far as I could tell, all exceptionally quiet on a cold Friday night, except the one apartment we were heading into of course. Darkies

Not being much of a party person I wasn’t too sure what to expect….I’ve come to honour an invitation, I kept telling myself as if trying to justify booking the national express at short notice to cross a fair bit of the country to attend a strangers party upon a friend’s invitation.

30 Minutes Till The Present
I’m in a dark room, lying on my back, one foot on floor and the other dangling over the bed, shoes still on…Is my phone still charging, let me check. I curse the pixel for the short battery life. Its 4 in the morning. I can hear the music thumping through the bedroom door, but its quiet in here, one of the reasons I’m here. As I’m rustling through my thoughts, the door suddenly comes open and I see a silhouette of someone walk in, the glaring lights behind him, door closes. My eyes were already accustomed to the dark so I could see who it was, although I couldn’t say much for the guy…blind as a bat, he took a couple of deep breaths, like someone trying to collect himself, believing himself to be all alone in the room, but alas!

It was the frizzly haired guy I had spotted a couple of times out there where its all happening. The universe with its sense of humour. Here we were, probably the only two people who’d never stopped to acquaint, now in a dark room, alone, by ourselves. And as if to prove a point(the Universe), the boy dropped prostrate right next to me on the bed with his right hand lucky just grazing my arm. “Oh my bad!”, realisation, “I thought I was alone in here” the boy said, apologising profusely for some time. What I didn’t expect was the number of times the boy was going to ask me whether or not I’m ok. A great deal of thoughtfulness and kindness. That’s when I learnt his name…Brienne

We talked for the longest time…so many things in common, even geeked out about the pixel series. Now how bout that. I thought my time at the party had ended a long time ago. But talking to this guy, it felt like the fun was just beginning, like this had been the main event all along. Later that night, wait, it was morning now, he walked me into the corridor and waited for my Uber with me. “Wait in here, there’re some shady looking dudes over there by the curb,” he said, “plus its warm in here.”

Now many months later, I still talk to Brienne, whenever I get the chance to.