Friends

“You and your cheesy words.” Aisha sighed, rolling her eyes at him.

Then Aisha said to her, ”We’re here for you but you have to sharpen up. We don't know how much time we still have here.” Aisha advices and their moods dampened. The reminder that any of them could be taken away or killed at anytime was always a huge blow.

They ate the little food silently, each taking turns to drink water from the cup after they were done.

“Best meal ever.” Aisha sighed, moving to rest her back against the wall, closing her eyes.

“You don’t have to be sarcastic always, you know.” she said to Aisha.

“Its part of my recipe for happiness here.” Aisha responded. She shook her head, tearing a little piece of her blouse then sprinkled little drops of water from the empty cup on it. She turned to Naeto; taking his right arm, she began to clean the fresh cuts on it. There were older ones, all from fighting to get food.

They were given food only once a day and it was always the same meal. One of their captors would come at about 10am every morning and drop a medium bowl containing the Akara and a small keg of water. They were always hungry and the food was never enough for everyone. Every attempt at a civilized style of sharing the food equally always went down the drain. So it was always a struggle, a blind rage-filled struggle, between them, the captives, trying to get food on their plates and water in their cups. They were each given a plate and a cup when they were newly brought in. Plates and cups that were never washed except by the little water they could remain from their individual shares after drinking.

“You’ll make a good doctor.” he said to her,watching her.

“Why do you say that?” she asked, not looking away from what she was doing.

“You know how to stay calm even in very difficult situations.” he answered.

He winced as she applied pressure to one of the cuts.

He continued, ”I remember when you were dragged in here. You weren't even struggling with them, you didn't make a sound even when they pushed you to the floor. After you just stayed alone, looking around, looking so calm and detached like the situation wasn’t bothering you, like you were just watching a movie. I couldn't take my eyes away from you, I guess that was what first attracted me to you.”

He was still watching her, still following her every movement, still so calm like he didn’t just say he was attracted to her.

She had hardly met people like him, people who gave you the truth so straight, to was staggering. She raised her head and met his eyes. His eyes were brown, normal but he had his way of looking at people that made them feel bare, exposed. She was the first to look away.

“And you act so professional when cleaning my wounds, like right now.” he added.

“That’s not all it takes to be a doctor, you know. There’s still the paperwork.” Aisha jumped in. She turned, startled. She had forgotten Aisha was sitted there.

“Did I interrupt anything?” Aisha asked innocently.

“Did you?” Naeto asked back, chuckling.

She turned back to cleaning his wounds.

“It doesn’t matter anyway. I was focused more on the engineering field.” she told them, tying a piece of clothe around a deep cut.

“Oh… so can you be our Michael Scofield and break us out of here?” Naeto joked and they burst out laughing.

It was a nice sound, a nice feeling that was becoming rare as the days went by. The others stared at them, the hunger and sadness evident in the their faces, probably wondering how they could laugh or be happy about anything in that doomed place.

“Done.” she announced and patted his arm after they had stopped laughing.

“Thanks.” he smiled gratefully.

“We’ll just pray it doesn’t get infected though that seems highly unlikely with the environment we are living in.” Aisha spoke, looking around with disgust. The corner where they stayed could be considered clean compared to their surroundings since they had scrubbed it clean with the jacket she had been wearing when she was brought in. The only ventilation was a small barred window.

Naeto shrugged, looking around unconcerned but having learnt to read him a little since they became friends, she could tell he was slightly bothered.

“You should let us fight too. Soon we wouldn’t even recognize you with cuts and bruises all over you.” she offered half heartedly since she already knew his response.

As usual he didn’t respond.

Aisha quickly jumped in, bringing up a topic for discussion and they talked and laughed and chuckled and smiled as they did everyday, telling their stories and getting to know themselves better. Each not allowing the other to cave into the darkness.

It distracted them from the tension and fear in the air; the fear of being the next person to be taken away and the tension of knowing you'll someday be next.

Ify looked forward looking into those dark menacing eyes that haunted her at every opportunity. She didn’t know what those eyes had against her and she partly did not care. Those eyes would never get to her.

Night came and a certain calmness fell over the room.