After Swimming, comes the nightmare

After swimming that day I will say that the level of my popularity increased to a higher significant level, throughout that day, my tale was in the mouth of almost all students and teachers. But I won't say that the population had brought about more love for me because both Bright and the rest of his clique saw me now as an even higher threat. First, they believed that I am thanking their girls from them, something I got no plans of doing, but I must confess that I will really like to take Cynthia from them, Just Cynthia, no one else.

Talking about Cynthia, she and the rest of the super Cee were so happy for me, they kept holding and grabbing me, asking me numerous questions that I have no answer for.

"Why did you delay before going into the water? Why must you wait till that clown come to push you?"

Cynthia asked looking a bit disappointed.

"Didn't you get the concept? That's how professionals do, he wants to make everyone think he doesn't know how to swim, he is just catching cruise like every other professional."

Chinwe responded.

"Ok, I understand, but I must confess that he gave me scared when he went down the water without any movements."

Charity said.

"Did you not see that I almost died out of a heart attack?"

Cynthia said.

"Hahahaha, you girls are funny, why can't you just see things fast? It is just his way of proving to the entire school that he is the next Merman, not even the so call kunle can not last that long underwater."

Chinwe added. This girl Chinwe just kept answering all the questions on my behalf, I must confess that I love it, because I don't even know what to tell them, except for the truth which was definitely dumb. Till the school closed that very day, I wasn't myself, I kept thinking if there will be a later reaction that might lead to my death and what mom will do if she ever found out that I have swam. But on a more serious note, where did I learn how to swim, when did I learn it, and how possible is it to breathe underwater? How can water ever sing? Why do I feel this strong attraction to the water? What if I die tonight? All these thoughts ran down my deep hollow mind, but I have a consolation, and that is Cynthia, I have proven to her I am the kind of man she loves, and as it goes, I think we are actually heading to the love zone, I can see how soft she is towards me lately, Cynthia is not the type of a to be described as soft, but recently, she had been soft towards me, especially after the swimming. After school period, I and Cynthia went home, she rested on my shoulders all through the car that we took home. I got home before mom. Did I mention that my mom got the job she went for the interview the same day I started school. Oh, forgive my manners, it is not my intention to keep any details from you, well, mom got the call she was waiting for, she was called to start work with the company, so she hardly return home early. so, when I got home and found her absence, I quickly decided to do a little cleanup before she comes home in the evening. I even dressed her room, and made dinner for the both of us because I know that by the time she will return home, she will be tired and famished. After the whole cooking and cleaning, I rushed into the shower to clean my whole self, mom just can't know about my swimming, I don't want to leave Abuja again, I'm already living in this place, plus I will not like to leave Cynthia, not now that I got this feeling that we will soon start a relationship. I've never kept anything from mom before, but this time, I had to keep this, but I'm not sure I can lie to mom, so it is better I cover up to avoid any questions from her, so that I won't have to lie.

The next day, I woke up with fear, I woke up seeing my mom bending over my head, well, she was only trying to wake me up, don't read too much meaning to it, just that I also almost read meaning to it, judging from the kind of horrific dream that I had. a very horrific dream indeed, well, I must confess that it has been long since I last saw a dream that bad, maybe I had such a dream because I slept with the fear that I might not wake the next morning. Hahahaha... It was not funny before I slept I prayed for God's protection upon my life, something I've never done, I'm not sure that I have ever on my own without the supervision of my mom prayed for anything, I only prayed with mom. That night I was scared that what mom said about me swimming might happen later in the night, so I prayed to God to protect me from every jaw of allergies. So as I was saying, I saw a dream, which shook me to the marrow. In the dream, I saw myself in our former place in Anambra state, I just came out on a cloudy morning trying to start our generator when I saw one of those boys who attacked me the day mom had an asthma attack, it was the very boy who broke his arms, in the dreams it was like we were best of friends, he came and asked me to escort him to his grand mother's farm, without any hesitation I agreed. You know how annoying dreams could be, how would just agree to go to the farm with someone that hates me? So I followed him as we were going, we passed through a lonely bushy part, and it was about to rain, we could see the sky making rumbling noise threatening to unleash on death a heavy downpour. I told this boy that it was about to rain, let's go home, but he insisted that we go faster, according to him, his grandmother has a shelter built against rain on the farm, so we started running to see if we could beat the rain, but instead, we were beaten by the rain. Now something happened when the rain started, I noticed that the rain was very hot, it was as hot as boiled water, I felt the heat burn through my skin, I look round in search of the boy with whom I came to the wilderness with, but I could not find him anymore, I found myself Alone under the hot rainfall. The pain became so much that I could not bare to run anymore, so I fell to the ground and cried, I saw my skin pealing off as the hot rain washed off my flesh, and the rain continued till blacked out in the dream, for a while I thought I was dead, but I woke up to a very bright day, I saw Cynthia, we were in the middle of nowhere, and I noticed that my hands and legs were bounded together, so I called on Cynthia to come to help me out but she paid no attention to me, she was just busy trying to make fire out of woods and stone, she had this big pot before her which she intended to cook in the fire, so when I called her she paid no attention, she only used her hands to wave me away. Later I saw another woman, it was the mother of the boy who broke his hand, she was the mad lady who came to disturb mum and me. In this dream, she had these decaying teeth, so disgusting, when she opened her mouth I saw maggots crawling in her mouth. The woman came with a mirror in her hand she was laughing at me, when she got to me, she showed the mirror to my face, now what I saw in the mirror was so scary, instead of seeing the beautiful and graceful me, I saw a very huge fish as me, when I saw this, I tried to cry but all I could hear was a shrill sound. The woman dropped the mirror on the ground and left as she laughed at me. Now my fear increased, I tried to escape from the place, but all my efforts came to null and void. As I struggled to escape, I saw another woman, this one was very old and I cannot recognize her face, she came with a well-sharpened machete, then she said to me with her scary face which looked like the faces of the witches in Nollywood movies. The old woman pointed at the huge fire which was made by the lady who looked like Cynthia, I wouldn't like to call that witch Cynthia. So, the old witch told me, that I would be killed, and I will be used for fish pepper soup, now I got even more scared as I tried to plead for mercy but my word came out unclear, now the other two ladies stood and started laughing at me, the gave out a peal of loud evil laughter as the old witch raised the machete to cut me, this was when I woke up from my sleep. Now I woke from my sleep, and with a sleepy eye I found someone bending over me, I got even more scared and screamed out loud.

"I am not a fish!"

That was what I screamed. Before it became clearer to me that it was my mom who had come to my room to wake me up, she had been hearing me making funny sounds from my sleep so she noticed that I must be having a nightmare so she came to stop the dream by waking me up. When I found out it was her, I quickly bumped into her and hugged her tight. You know, before I even know that God is the ultimate protector, my mom had been the one that I placed in that position, I used to believe that no harm can ever come to me in the presence of my mom, and funny enough, it has always been so.

"What is the problem baby?"

My mom asked me as she saw the level of fear in me.

"Bad dream mom, I had a very scary dream."

So I said.

"Oh my baby, sorry honey, and what about the fish part? Why did you scream that you are not a fish?

Mom asked looking very serious about the fish part.

"In the dream, I turned into a fish, and some ladies tried to kill me and make a fish pepper soup out of me."

So I explained, and this explanation got my mom tensed, and she became so terrified, she also said,

"You are not a fish my boy, you are a human, not a fish. Will you like to join me in my room?"

My mom said and offered me the option of sleeping in her room till its clear dawn, and without any hesitation, I accepted the offer, so, I stood up and joined her in her room. Did you know that throughout my stay in my mom's room, all she was saying was:

"He is not a fish, he is a human."

She kept saying it repeatedly, and it became weird to me, almost weirder that it was even scary in the dream.

When it was finally dawn, mom quickly rushed to the kitchen to make breakfast while I had my shower, after she had prepared everything, she had a quick bath and joined me at the dining table, where we sat before a nicely fried scrambled egg a loaf of Oak bread and two cups of tea. As we ate, mom asked me a question that suggested that she suspects that I must swim lately, but she quickly dismissed the question by herself, I thank God for that.

"Tell me Damie, have you in any way played or gone into any water which I asked you not to? You know what? Forget it. Where can you possibly find any stream here in Abuja, it is not like we are in the east where you will see streams almost everywhere."

Wow! I'm so grateful to God that she had to change and annul the question by herself, what would I have done? Tell her the truth? Hell no, that is not even the option, lie to her? God, I will really not want to lie to my mom, I should hide the truth from her and then lie.