The various voices and noise woke me up, and believe me, it wasn't the type you hear and continue sleeping. It sounds real urgent. By the time I made my way to the corridor, everywhere was already filled with smoke. I rubbed my eye to be sure I wasn't dreaming; it was real. I planned making my way out through the kitchen door as it led to the backyard, but then I tripped, and I was glad I did. I looked straight ahead into the kitchen and saw how everywhere was glowing with fire.
“Jesus, Jesus, Jesus," I had my mom shouting as she rushed towards me.
“Get up and fetch water from the bathroom, fetch water..." my dad shouted.
"Dad, water won’t do this; this fire is too much; it's the gas cylinder,” our firstborn yelled as he dragged me by the arm.
Sincerely, it still felt like a dream to me; my elder brother almost gave me a slap as he couldn't bear how I was acting like...
“You took that cylinder out to get it fixed today, and you didn't tell anyone you weren't able to get it done. Why return it to its place, enh Daddy Soji?” my mother said, coughing. “You didn't get it done.”
“Me? Why didn't you check before making use of it? Why? Are you not supposed to double-check? Are you not a woman? If you had come to me to say, "Thank you for fixing the gas," wouldn't I have told you I wasn't able to get it done?" My father screamed as the fire roared.
“What are you trying to do? Don’t even blame me!” she shouted back as she held our lastborn, who was crying. "As the man of the house, are you not supposed to get things done? There's nothing you've ever done right in this house, and who even told you I had even made use of that gas in this house today?"*
“Will you both stop shouting!” my brother snapped. I didn't know where and how he found that courage. I looked at him and saw how red his eyes were due to the smoke. “If we don’t find a way out now, the whole roof will fall on us!”*
About three days ago, our front door had jammed by itself. My dad had said he would call the repairer and get it fixed, but maybe because we can still make our way through the kitchen to go wherever we are going, he had left it unattended.
“Baba Soji, Baba Soji,” Daddy Sonia, our neighbor from next door, was shouting. He was already standing outside our window as he called on my dad.
“Please call some guys and find a way to help bring this front door down,” my father responded.
The guys were already outside and were busy hitting on the door with everything, from kicks to hammers and all.
"See you, a whole man of the house, you keep on taking things with levity, is it until everything gets destroyed? What would it have cost you to fix this door since? Just don't kill my children!" My mother roared as she slapped my dad on his back.
The door came down, and we all burst out into the compound... barefooted. Even though everywhere was heating up, I was shivering from head to toe. I cleared my eyes, trying to make my eyes adjust to the darkness, as everywhere was dark and various torches kept flashing around.
“What could have caused this? Is it that..."
My dad didn't even allow her to complete her words as he shouted back at her, "Will you keep your mouth shut, Mummy Eunice? Always poking your nose where it doesn't belong."
“Don't cut her short; oh, we should ask questions." Another neighbor cuts in. "Just last week, I saw your children playing with matches in the backyard."
“My own children?” my mother asked as she held my sister’s hand. “My children would never do that...*"
“It was Brother Tunde!” My little sister rubbed her eyes as she talked. “He burned some leaves and said he wants to make the rats come out of their hiding."*
Everybody turned their head to my brother.
“So you want to kill all of us because you were looking for some rats...enh?” My father roared as he surged forward to grab my brother.
“But that was last week, Daddy. I don't know about this...” My brother shouted back.
“Maybe the fire came from the wire that sparked some few hours ago." My brother said.
"You see, you kept saying, 'I'll do it, I'll do it,' but you never did anything,"* my mother shouted at my dad.
“Why don't you keep calling my attention to it?" Dad said, facing my mom. "And you," he said, facing my brother, "see how you are talking to me as if you are the one feeding us and paying rent."
“Enough!” My mother screamed as she broke down crying. “Our house is on fire, and the only thing you all can do is to ask why while blaming each other.”*
Guess what? No one seems to hear or even notice her. Hands were flying in the air as blame bounced from one mouth to the other. Neighbors and people present also began adding fuel to the issue. I started hearing various things coming out from their mouths: “It's their father." "It's the carelessness from the mother's end." "The father should have fixed those things." "There's nothing poverty cannot cause." "He's the problem." "She's the cause."
Then Uncle Edward stepped forward; he had been silent since, and nobody even noticed he had been going in and out of the house trying to bring out the little things he could while drenching himself with water each time he was about to step in.
"Enough of all of this." He shouted. His voice silenced every other voice, like...and everyone froze.
“Just take a look at yourself,” he said, pointing to everyone. “The house is still burning, and you all are here arguing, shouting, and blaming each other. Tell me, will your blame fix this house? Will your blame be the one to bring out the important stuff in this house? Will your blame give these little ones a bed to rest their heads on tonight"*
Silence made a loud noise as everyone bowed their heads.
"Follow me inside," he said, pointing to me and my elder brother. "Check the important document that you can save; I will try bringing out the foams and stuff that could catch fire easily. Make sure to pour water all over yourself as I do, and please...be careful."
He turned to my dad. "You know what to do, but then you can keep pushing blame." He turned to my mother. "Take the children inside my apartment and keep them calm; this is not what they should be seeing now, and to the rest of you, if you can't help, please go home."
And for the rest of that night, no one argued; we all moved and did what was needed while obeying every instruction.
We couldn't even sleep; we all just sat down in Mama Sonia's sitting room. At dawn, we stepped out and saw how black the walls were, with the smell of smoke filling the air. My dad stood while my mom sat on the ground and looked.
Uncle Edward came by and held my father's trembling hand as they stepped in together. My dad looked around his once upon a time beautiful sitting room and corridor filled with beautiful flowers and smelling of very great fragrance, now smelling of smoke. I just stared into the ruins and...
Uncle Edward stepped out with Father. He looked up and then at my dad as he said, “You were doing the easiest thing yesterday... that is, blaming. Now, you need to face reality and do the hardest thing... and that is rebuilding. And that is something we must do now.”
But no one gave him a response nor argued.
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