The Victim [Fiction]

A loud knock and kicks on the door were what woke her and her little sister from a short sweet sleep they were enjoying, having been exhausted by the long hours they had put in the previous day working at the Okuta rice mill in Obinze village; one of the local rice mills that were still thriving and still paid young men and women on a daily basis for their labor in processing rice grains.

Many of such rice processing factories in Obinze village have been closed, while others are unable to pay workers their wages due to low patronage by the big rice businessmen. Mr. Emeka, One of the big traders that sell rice at the Onitsha Market told Nwanze, the owner of Okuta rice mill, that the sellers were unable to sell their rice because the government has locked down the city. “They informed us that there's a COVID-19 pandemic, We must close our shop as they said,” Mr.Emeka said as he paid a deposit for the bag of grains he brought to be milled.

Amongst the large number of people who came to the factory to seek a job opportunity daily, they were grateful to be given a job in the factory although the money that was paid for a full day’s job was very little. It was not sufficient for Olanma and her younger sister, Nneoma who was only seven years old when their mother was shot dead by unknown gunmen during one of her journeys to the big city to sell rice.

Olanma's mother had once told her on her tenth birthday about her father, who she said was killed in a peacekeeping mission somewhere in the northeastern part of Nizar. She wouldn’t ask her mother much about him, because each time she brought up the discussion it would only make her mother sad and she would cry all day.

Her grandmother always tells her that her father was a brave hero who died as a soldier protecting her and her sister, but was not compensated by the Nizara government. She didn't believe her grandmother, Ugo ora, (a name that was given to her when she was younger because of her beautiful body structure) when she praised her father as a brave soldier.

Her unbelief was mostly because the people in her village do not like the soldiers living with them. she had witnessed many occasions where the young men would fight the soldiers with sticks and stones and the soldiers would shoot at them killings some and injuring many others. Many of such fights had resulted from a soldier forcefully having sex with a maiden in the village or even beating up a man on the road for not giving bribe money. Her grandmother always tells her that her father was nothing like these soldiers in Obinze.

Having lost both of their parents, Ugo Ora was the only one looking after them, but she was too old to engage in serious commercial activity that would generate money for their school fees, because of this the girls could not continue with their education.

Olanma and Nneoma attended Agbabulu mission school, a school located in another village close to Obinze. She was only twelve years old when their mother died. She was so brilliant that her school head teacher, Mrs. Nwachukwu wanted her to take the common entrance examination into secondary school while in primary five. She could still remember the voice of Mrs. Nwachukwu compelling her mother to pay for her junior common entrance examination.

Mama Olanma had invited her mother to her office before her last midterm break. “Olanma your daughter is very smart and intelligent and for that reason, She needs to join the seniors that are ahead of her in school to write exams," she said. But Ngozi refused, she insisted that her daughter should attend all the primary classes with her mates.

This article including the images is mine through peakd.com

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