I Eva Steven was born on the seventeenth day of July in the year 2000. I am from Freetown in Sierra Leone, at least that was what Mama told me, what she never told me was how possible it was for a woman to get pregnant on her own, she never told me about Baba and trust me I have tried asking right from the day I knew what father meant, she just sighs and moves away, so I decided I would not ask any more. We live in the shithole {ghetto}.
Mama just has me, the shithole and Mr. Benjamin, Benji for short, he is a drunkard who gives Mama money, buys me clothes too, for a drunkard that's weird, but I accept with wide and open arms, please do not judge me, I am only twelve.
"Thelma! Shetti!!", "oh please Eva don't call me that, I was just five when it all happened" {giggles} "oh Thelma dear, you are even lucky I called you by your real name first before shetti". Thelma has been my friend since day one, we grew up together in the shithole, she was nicknamed shetti {shit tea} when she was five, she used to steal tea from Ahmed's kiosk, and after drinking her stolen tea she would have a bowel section; Jeez, Whatever Ahmed did to that " So what brings you to my place {smiles} shetti?", she replies with a wink, " guess what, a new dude is coming to school tomorrow, and he looks like you, he just registered today, saw him leaving", " what do you mean, he looks like me? { blinked suspiciously}", she replies rolling her eyes and mimicking my facial expression, " you know, light skinned, does not look like a Sierra Leonenian to me"," some private investigator you are, maybe his mom is from Afghanistan and dad from Freetown", we both burst into laughter. Our voice was so sweet that a passerby would mistake the shithole for some cool neighborhood, who would imagine such laughter in the shithole.
"Mama Mama! I'm off to school now"; "you're always late Eva, why? After waking you up and doing most of the chores, you're still going to be late? eish this child huh", Mama said with her South African accent, mama is a South African, Mama always scolds me in Zulu, it's always sweet and relaxing, and that's because I do not understand Zulu. " All right mama, take care and make good sales", " what would you want to eat when you get back?", " porridge rice", " porridge rice is going to get you pregnant one day", I ran off giggling to what she said. I met shetti under the pear tree close to the school gate, we always wait for each other here, and she never goes in without me and vice versa. I could tell her face was not smooth, she had a red face; I had delayed her so much. I was panting heavily, "{heavy breath}, oh shetti", she did not let me catch my breath and hurriedly said, "weysay de do de shithole since ya mama for wake ya?", "babes I no do my assignment for that past night, na insay this morning I do am", "Eva, time pass, time pass, we run insay school naw, go go", we ran off with hopes of missing Mrs. Dorothy and her magic wand. What we spoke earlier was krio, we do not use it as often as many Sierra Leonean's do, and mama does not talk to me with it, I could hardly speak or place a correct sentence with it, so does shetti. Our plans did not go quite as planned, Mrs. Dorothy caught us in action and yelled out our names, " Thelma!!, Eva!!, the general overseers of this school, would you come here?!!!!, we ran like angry dogs and knelt without her asking , just as our drama with Mrs. Dorothy was ongoing , shetti gave me an elbow to the wrist and moved her lips to the opposite direction { in the African style}, to show the arrival of the new kid who was walking towards our direction, " Eva?!, are you listening?, Thelma what are you doing?", I and shetti chorused, "no ma", Mrs. Dorothy wasn't a woman to joke with . Now the new kid walks up to Mrs. Dorothy not knowing what a scorpion she is and says, " Good day madam, I am a new student here , sorry I resumed late ,I", Mrs. Dorothy didn't allow him finish his statement and says, " And so?, will you take my cane or sweep the compound after school today?", quickly like a running finger shetti said, " sweep, sweep ma, we'll all sweep", and I and the kid acted like back up choir and said, " sweep too ma", " okay then, come to my office after classes, now go!!", you should have seen how we took to our heels, all three of us.
The new kid was tall, handsome, really light skinned, had deep brown eyes, and kinky brief dark hair, we were in the same class. We were in our final year in junior high school. My school, for a school in the slumps polished teachers, good environment, and mostly populated by shithole folks. I did not pay fees neither did shetti, we were catered for by Mr. Benji.
{Hours later-bell rings for school dismissal}
" Shetti, we better take the new kid to Mrs. Dorothy's office, least he lands himself in Sir Bashir's office", shetti laughs and says, " the worst, he might end up sweeping the whole compound for his remaining days in His shepherd academy", I had curiosity on my mind and face and had to ask shetti a question, " Do you think he is also in the shithole?", she looked at him from the crown of his head to the shoe he wore and said, " na na na , he is too fresh , maybe one of the local rich , see how he walks", {she mimics him and shrinks her nose}, we burst into laughter and he caught shetti's wandering eyes, shetti was never shy on some matters, she quickly waved at him to come over to where we were sitted , and he had a shy look on his face. " you're new right?" shetti asked, as though she never knew, " yes I am, My name is Itemogeng, I met you earlier outside and also noticed you answered questions throughout classes today", " wow, the boy speaks well", I said making a surprised face, he had an African free accent and spoke polished English, I had to whisper to shetti, "shetti he is smart", " don't call me that", she said, and forcefully acted a smile, " shetti?, your name?", the kid asked, " it is my nick name, I am Thelma and she is Eva I interrupted and said, " we are from the shithole and we are on fees-free, how about you?", "Eva?!!", shetti yelled out my name and smiled , she did not like telling people about our hood. I had forgotten the kids name so I had to ask, " what did you say your name was again?", " I am Itemogeng, I am from Tanzania, but my mom is from Scotland, I am from uptown, I live with my grand ma and she pays my fees", his name was definitely a hard one to call, so shetti asked, " may we call you Temo?", " wow, cool, yes you may", , then I asked, " have you been to Scotland?", he replies, " No", and I asked another question, " how then did you know your mom is from Scotland?", he smiled and said, " I've talked with her on the phone, I've seen her pictures and she calls grand ma", I was cold when he said this , I felt down and said to myself, I really need to know who my baba is. My thoughts were interrupted by Temo's question, "where is the lady's office?", "oh, Mrs. Dorothy? Let's go", said shetti, and we all went to meet her. Mrs. Dorothy gave us our portions to sweep. The sweeping bond us so well, we got to know a lot more about each other, and oh man I saw a trio coming.
"Shetti, mama will be making porridge rice today, want to come?", "Never will I say no to mama Yolie's porridge rice, Temo, you could come too", he turned and smiled to us and to relieve him of the tension on his face, I said, "we could see you off to your house later and tell your grand ma why you came late", he seemed relief at this and said, "okay cool. We'll go, and oh, can I also come around on Saturday so you guys could show me around?", "of course, Temo", shetti said. We started walking down home when Temo halted and said, " Aren't we taking a cab?", I and shetti hurriedly exclaimed, " cab?", " yes cab , like a car?", he said, looking surprised, shetti the drama queen quickly replied, " oh, a cab!, see, umm, we don't really like cab", I couldn't let shetti lie any further, so I interrupted, " we cannot afford a cab, who needs cab anyways, when we have legs", " agghhhh, Eva!!!", " what shetti", " { rolls her eyes}, whatever", shetti speed off and halted, then said to us, " please hurry up, can't wait to eat mama Yolie's porridge rice".
We were close to the shithole, when shetti saw two men and halted with so much shock expression on her face, at the sight of her, these two men entered their car and speed off, shetti had peed all over her body on the street, I was shocked on my side, I ran after the car, yelling at them to come back and shouting, " hey, come back here, who are you?!!", I was in so much panic, then shetti called out my name, "Eva!, come back {sobbing} they'll take you too", I ran back to where she was, Temo was drenched in his own sweat because of the tension he was in at that moment. We managed to get her up, for the pain had reduced her to her knees, Temo kept asking, "What is it shetti?", but she never said anything but nodded. We had to hold her hand in hand till we got to the shithole. I didn't want mama to know what happened so I went through the back door, Temo helped me clean shetti up and then he faced the wall and let me change shetti's dress. "Shetti need some food first?" I asked, " no Eva, water, just water", she replied, quickly Temo brought out his water container and shared his water with her, oh the way she gulped them all down and exhaled heavily, " want to talk now?", I asked, " some minutes please", she replied.
{Few minutes later}
Mama walked in and the sight of us gave her a shock, " Eish, Eva?, Thelma, you guys are here already?, why did no one call me?", " sorry mama, meet our new friend Temo", " Temo?", she said surprised at the name, to clarify her, Temo said, " I am Itemogeng from Tanzania ma'am", " oh Tanzania, that's great, I'm Yolie from South Africa, I am Eva's mama", "okay ma'am, where is her baba?", shetti and I chorused , " oh no no no", mama just smiled and quickly said, " would you kids like Eva's favorite?, porridge rice", " ye mama please", " okay, right on it". In few minutes mama placed it on the floor, for we had no table, we washed our hands and ate the food. Shetti still didn't say anything about the men she saw.
Mama went to the kiosk shortly after we had a little chit chat concerning school and Temo.
{On our way}
We had to see Temo off to his house. " shetti you need to talk, remember no secrets", I said, " guys I could move away so you girls can talk", Temo said, " no, I'll say", shetti responded looking at us eyeball to eyeball, then she started, " them ya saw, those man bad, them na evil man, them na bad man", she broke down in tears and exhaled then continued, " Mama So-so, die y them insay them hand, So-so die insay them hand too,{sobbing} So-so elder sister them man put her insay the car trunk", she couldn't hold her tears anymore , she looked up and let out a loud cry, "those men raped mama so-so while she was pregnant, and also killed our so-so, on their way out, they met Malita, soso's elder sister, she wanted to scream but one of the men shut her up by pointing a gun to her head and pushed her to his car parked outside the shithole { nods her head and wiped her tears} , then I overheard one saying in krio, boss said we shouldn't touch Malita that she pays him well in bed, why then are we taking her?, the other one replied too in krio, can't you see?, she saw us, she would have just ratted us out to the police, then they said, why don't we just sell her to Mr. Oriola from Nigeria, he'll buy her, this is what he likes, Pharaoh our boss won't know", Temo couldn't hold tears anymore, neither could I, we all wept for poor mama so-so and so-so, , then I had to ask shetti, " but shetti, why did they leave at your sight?", " they were looking for me", she said, Temo and I were shocked, and Temo had to ask, " is mama so-so your aunt or a relative?", shetti didn't wait for Temo to settle his lips when her voice rang high, " they saw me !, { sobbing}, they saw me, they saw me, they saw me !!", oh my God was what filled I and Temo's lips, we had fear in us, obviously, then I asked, " how shetti?", she stammered before giving me a response, then finally she said boldly, " I { exhales} I was watching from mama soso's kiosk that night, I wanted to creep out when one saw me , I saw him too, and then, he ran after me, I ran into Barber Ghana's dog house, he ran past me, searched the whole place and couldn't find me, so they left", she stood up and looked at us as though it was a horror movie and said, " let's go, it's getting late" .
We walked Temo to his house, his grandma was sitting outside already, anxiously waiting, " Temo, what took you so long?", Temo replied with a shaking smile, " Mama I met some new friends today an school and I followed them to their house mama", " okay dear, what are your names children?", she said, I replied in shetti's stead, " she's Thelma ma, and I am Eva", " okay dear, how do you do?", " fine, thank you ma'am", shetti replied with a thin smile, " we have to get going now mama, the day is getting dark", I said, " okay children, bye", Temo was speechless, so we were, we just waved our goodbyes.
We walked home trying to hide our fears, I guess Temo was also scared, shetti was boiling scared and so was I. Now what do we do I asked myself as we walked back home, the street is no comfortable place to hide, the shithole is terror, where would shetti hide? And now that we have been seen with her, we are also not safe, many thoughts ran through my head, and all not good.
Shetti just walked slowly, I had to break the silence, " shetti, wh-h-y, {exhales}, why don't we go meet umm, me-e-t, meet Mr. Benji, yes, I believe he can help", " you think so Eva?", with a surprising boldness I said, " yes shetti, yes", she quickly dried her tears and we hurried off to Mr. Benji's place.
Mr. Benji is supposedly a good man, the children in the shithole pride themselves in him, we hear he helps take people overseas (for a drunkard that's weird) and help young children find better places to grow in. His shithole is beautiful, I think it shouldn't be called a shithole but a mini mansion, but since it's a mansion in a shithole, we call it the shithole mansion. We got to the wooden gate of Mr. Benji's shithole mansion, and we graced upon the ugly face of pitter {peter}, his guard, tall, huge, black as charcoal, and a Zambian he is. With his ugly face he shocked our ears with his voice, "hey you, whusay you dey go?", "we want to see our mother's friend, Mr. Benji", I said, "who be your mother?" he asked, "mama Yolie", I replied, "aii, insay da mansion, third room by the right, boss room nam be that". We went in and found the room, the door was open already, I and shetti looked in and what we saw made us stand at a spot for fifteen minutes, ( this wasn't just a room of a drunkard, infact that of a drunkard would be more relaxing) it was like the room was on fire , heavy smoke formed a cloud in the room, unclad women all over Mr. Benji's body, caressing him, at his left were two guns, and a brief case loaded with Leones and some dollars too , empty bottles of vodka laid on the floor , and coke {cocaine} bagged in three little bags laid on his table , I was shocked, but then what would you expect in a shithole, but then again, I thought Mr. Benji was just a drunk, a saint with just a spot in the eyes of people, many thoughts ran through my mind, "hay!!", corresponding to the hay, we jumped and screamed, " ahhha!", it was a fat Cameroonian boy, that tapped reality into our forgotten selves, we screamed loud that Mr. Benji ran out half clad, with a gun, at our sight he dropped the gun and said to the girls, " hey, all of you, out, out, pick those things up, clean up now, out fast!", then he turned and looked at us with an evil smile , the girls left the room trembling whilst being half clad. " little ones come in, make yourselves comfortable, this will soon be your spot {chuckles}, you know right?, sorry for what you saw earlier, those ones, they'll fade away soon", I couldn't lay hands on what he was trying to say, so I kept mute, " so, what brought you here?", we started to lay out what shetti saw. "well Pharaoh, he is a friend of mine, I'll talk with him, just don't say anything to anyone, and trust me kids, you'll be safe, when you see those men again, just walk past them, they won't hurt you, Pharaoh my friend is a harmless man", I and shetti wore a suit of relief when we heard what he said, and we could not help but thank him continually, " it's okay children, so Eva my dear, how is my Yolie?", I didn't like the sound of that question so I replied, " My own mama Yolie is fine", he giggled and saw us out. On our way out he said slowly, " you two my dears will be okay, just okay in a year, your size are in request now, { giggles}, its what's moving, and shetti?, sorry for your loss!", shetti just nodded. I and shetti, walked quickly out of his shithole mansion, as though we hadn't heard anything he said. My eyes caught a face, and it looked like that of one of the guys shetti saw earlier today. As for shetti's loss, her parents were killed by some guys by the river bank, when four of them went for fishing, her baba , mama, her aunt and her, shetti and her aunt barely made it alive, though her aunt was shut on the leg. She is fine now and she is the only family that shetti has, most times she's hardly around to take care of shetti, shetti has to come stay with us, no one knows where shetti's aunt always goes to, and she so does not have a job, mama Yolie always asks when she would eventually find a job.
I and shetti happily ran back home, though I still had some questions on my mind, but who am I to question anyone, we were told not to say anything to anyone.
We met Temo the next day in school and told him all that happened, he was relieved too and said, " I couldn't sleep all through the night I kept pondering, and I couldn't place my hands on anything cause I am new here", " it's alright Temo, it's all good now", I said, patting his back, then we further told him what Benji said, " he really said you shouldn't tell anyone?, but justice needs to be brought", he rolled his eyes and said, " hmm, that is one glorified criminal", as he said this, we couldn't help but laugh.