Chapter 3: Sunny Fields

"My name is Dan. I'm sorry if I startled you. I can't say much but I need to get you out of this field right now so you can get something to eat." He answered my question quickly. His arms were no longer wrapped around my waist, but we both were still seated on the ground. Ironically, I was now thankful for the length of the weeds because due to its length serving as a natural barrier, no could see us. 

But just in case, I peeped a little above the weeds, as long as my neck could stretch and I was able to see the back views of the other slaves spread out across the field engaging in thorough labor. I looked back at this stranger behind me who seemed to be around my elder sister, Demi's age but probably a little younger.  My sister was eighteen years old. He looked fifteen. 

He stared back at me. There was now a look of apprehension on his face and he had kept glancing sideways very often, cautious as to take note of the slightest unusual thing asides from what we were doing. 

"Who are you? And how do you know that I've not had food to eat?" I asked. 

"I'm a slave here as well. I jus didn't wear the same kind of clothing as the other slaves because I serve the loan shark himself and tend to his personal needs and dealings, hence I'm a Chief slave. Just like that woman who took you to the dressing room. If you look closely at what she wore today, you would figure that she was wearing the same kind of clothing as I am..."

He was right. They both were strangely dressed like medical assistants - a plain blue shirt on plain blue trousers. He'd paused and given me a moment to recall and when he got the hint in my expression that I seemed a little convinced, he swallowed and continued. 

"So I was promoted by the loan shark as I was once a regular slave basically hence why I'm a Chief slave now. I tend to the affairs of the other slaves. I noticed you had not gotten any food to eat because I was the one who distributed the meals to the other slaves this afternoon." 

"If it's that irritating piece of meat you gave others that you want to give me, then I don't want." I shook my head vehemently. 

"It's not." He replied with an almost unnoticeable eye roll. 

"But waif, If you're a Chief Slave, aren't you supposed to be aware of the fact that I'm not meant to eat any thing at all for the next four days? Because the other woman knows and she decided not to give me anything to eat since it's an order from the loan shark himself and also, the tile of a Chief slave seems like a title for a grown up person but you look like a teenager. How old are you?" 

He bit his lip in what looked like impatience. He closed his eyes for a full minute and opened them right after he had taken a deep breath. 

"I get why you want to know everything. It's not okay to ask these questions and want to know everything but now is not that time. See, I'm fourteen years old and just take this as me favoring you because I choose to. Please don't ask me why I'm choosing to favor you. Take it as it is. If you desperately need to eat. Please quietly just follow me. We have to run away from here before anyone who is not mean to see us, sees us." He breathed out. 

Moments after, he broke the chains holding my legs together in a swift time lapse, which made me gasp, momentarily terrified by his bizarre strength but he gave me an awkward, stupid smile, assuring me that it was alright. 

I wondered how someone could be so comfortable with calling themselves a slave, like If was a title that ought to be earned or something to be proud of or rather, the unimaginable kind of tragedy that must have been behind compulsorily having to conform to that saddening identity. I wanted to ask him all of these questions but I had to keep quiet since I badly needed to eat.. 

*** 

We were at the store house. I don't know how we got there since he'd backed me and was on his heels all through the journey and since the speed of his stride had spiked up a sudden nauseous feeling in me, I had decided to keep my eyes closed all through. 

The storehouse was small and there was no means in which much air could pass through which meaner that we had to leave soon anyway since we both were sweating profusely. 

The storehouse was stuffed up with bags and bags of grains, legumes and I'd spotted a few tuber stockings; yams, potatoes, cocoa yam. I saw other food stock too but I couldn't decipher what they were since they were many and pretty much uncountable but it made my heart drop seeing that there was so much food yet these monsters had chosen to give the slave's a meal that a domestic dog couldn't even eat. 

I saw him dip his hands into a sack close to where the stockings of tubers were and then brought out a plastic food pack from the sack in no time. It contained rice but I could not possibly see the condiments on top of it till he handed it over to me and then I opened the lid of the pack blocking me from seeing the whole meal. 

My stomach churned very painfully as the aroma of chicken stew wafted into my nostrils. Who knew there would come a time when I would appreciate the presence of food so much?? 

But now I Had gone beyond hungry and was in severe pains and I wasn't even sure if I would be able to enjoy this meal like I ought to. 

"I'm sorry but you would have to eat the food here." His voice broke in my reverie as my eyes leveled up to meet his. There was a faint smile on his face and I could tell that the smile had been derived from watching me all along.

Where else was I going to eat the food?? I didn't intend to eat it anywhere else!!

I picked the spoon next to the plastic pack as my hands began to shake, with minimal stamina left. I scooped a spoonful of the rice after I had mixed it with the chicken stew in my best possible way and devoured it with my mouth, some of the grains of the rice had dropped to the floor since I could barely hold the spoon properly. I was that weak. 

I felt the sudden urge to cry. I couldn't believe I went without food for this long, but I tried to keep eating as more grains of rice kept falling to the ground. I was getting weaker. I didn't know If I was going to be able to work at the fields today. I just really needed sleep. 

"Do you want me to feed you?" He asked me. He was closer to me now, as he went on his knees, keeping a fair balance. 

I looked at him. I was confused. But he was looking at me, with an expectant expression. 

"Oh..I hope you're not getting any wrong idea? Or...no I know you can't. You're just nine. Just see me as your big brother okay?" He stuttered in embarrassment. 

What was he even thinking? 

I nod in agreement to his request and he collected the spoon from my hands gently and scooped the food as he began to feed me. He fed me in silence and I ate in silence until the need I had felt to cry earlier began to submerge. My stomach was still hurting grievously like there was a big sore on the inner walls of my stomach. 

"Oh my....why are you crying little one?" He put the spoon back in the plastic plate as he placed a thumb on my cheek, in a motion to wipe my tears away. His look was so compassionate; eyebrows furrowed in unison, eyes laden with worry.  

"My stomach just hurts and I feel very weak but I know I would not be able to sleep because I have to go back to uprooting the weeds in the fields. I'm so tired." I confessed, sobbing hardly as I struggled to swallow the morsel of food left in my mouthed. 

I think I was more downcast by the fact that I would not be able to rest even when I needed it badly. This was really hell. The fact that I had to work under the scorching sun when I desperately wanted to sleep under a cozy blanket was painful to think about. 

"Aww Don't worry about that cutie. You would get the sleep you want."

Hearing him call me cutie had made me cringe as I didn't like anyone calling me that generally, but since I was more interested in how he was going to provide a means for me to sleep, I let it slide. 

"How? Doesn't the loan shark keep an eye on every slave?" 

"He does but not for every single hour of the day. Even if he's keeping an eye on us right now, don't worry. I'm the one who is promising you all of these things, it would be fine. I'd take you back to the dungeon now and you'd sleep for a period of two hours. Once it's six o'clock, I would come back to wake you up so you can go back to the fields, by then you would feel a lot better and then sun would have left the sky. Besides, you would not have much to do any longer because majority of the work on your own portion of the land would be done. I would uproot the weeds for you and leave just a little for you to uproot. I would love to do everything for you but that would cause trouble because the loan shark himself would come around to inspect the slaves by six fifteen to see how far the slaves have gotten with their work. So he would need to see you working there and not me. Do you understand?" 

"Is it not dangerous that you're going to help me with my work right now?"

"Don't worry. I would disguise myself as the other slaves. I'd take you back to the dungeon now and bring a few pillows for you so you can sleep. No one is going to visit the dungeon during these hours so you just make sure you get adequate sleep. Okay?" 

"Okay." I agreed.

* 

True to his words, the dungeon was empty as I had seen the other slaves working out on the fields tediously, their cleanly shaved heads glistened under the sun, as beads of swear bad turned their light brown colored uniforms into a darker shade. Oh I forgot to mention. The loan shark made every slave shave the hair off their head. Since today was my first working day as a slave, the loan shark made that strange woman shave all of the hair off my head; my precious, lengthy, healthy hair. 

I cried so much but he'd given me a harsh stroke on my back from a horse whip, commanding me to keep quiet and stop crying as the woman kept shaving all of my hair till it got bald and then I was dragged back to the dungeon where I'd been all morning till the woman came back again to get us marching onto the fields with chains tied to our feet. 

I didn't know anything about the en-routes of this big place hence it was always very confusing when I tried to wonder what path lead to the dungeon from the storage room and every other pathway around the palace but it wasn't my trouble to worry about since this strange guy seemed to be very reliable. 

When we got to my own cell, he brought out a mat which he'd rolled up in his arms. I was guessing he took it from the storage room. Then he set on to the cold floor and then put a small pillow above it with a blanket, spread out tenderly. He put me gently on the matter and covered me up with the blanket. 

He rubbed his hands softly on my forehead and it spiked up this feeling of uncertainty. I was stuck in between wanting to yank his hands off my forehead but i was too weak for that and at the same time, I wanted him to continually care for me like he was doing because it reminded me of my brothers. He was the closest thing next to home in this dangerous, livid place. 

"I'd bring another set of handcuffs when I come back by six o'clock. No one must know that you're not bound in chains right now. That would cause trouble as well but since you need to sleep now, you need the freedom of movement while sleeping. You should be able to move your limbs and not sleep in a stiff position hence why I broke those chains. Sleep tight and don't worry about a thing okay?" He said and then he removed his palm from my forehead. 

Then the warmth disappeared. How was I not supposed to worry when all he did right now was to unconsciously remind me that I was a slave? And that irrespective of the manner of comfort I receive right now, it didn't evade the fact that I was in captivity? 

He stood up and left gently as he locked the bars with a padlock without looking back. He put out the lights and was gone in a swift moment. 

I stared at the little dimensional square of a window where the sun peeped in, glowing on my face. Tears flew down my eyes, as the images of my dad flashed through my mind, and then imagining the kind of pain he must be going though right now on realizing that he can't find his daughter anywhere close. 

"Daddy, I'm here. Would you ever find me?" I asked in a whisper, hoping that somehow the wind would carry my voice through the sunny fields, the peaky roads, the glistening waters and onto the hibiscus garden where my dad mostly was during the day. 

Sleep finally took over. It felt blissful for that moment. 

** 

He came for me by six o'clock true to his words and took me back to the fields to uproot the rest of the weeds which was just a small portion. All though I was still feeling weak since I'd now woken up with a terrible headache, I felt like I could gear myself on to do remaining part of the work. The slaves were still there, uprooting the weeds in a tireless motion. It did not seem like they had taken a little moment to rest at all. 

I was all alone now as the boy had to go back to the palace to continue his duties. By six fifteen, the loan shark came around to inspect just like the boy had told me. I was thankful for the fact that I was now beginning to sweat like the other slaves so it would look like I'd been working here all day like the other slaves. Then suddenly, I heard him whip one of the slaves just like I was whipped this morning only that this slave had fallen down and had most likely died. 

He used a chain whip on the woman. Which looked very painful. The thought of using it on me, made me yell internally because if I scream out loud, he would kill me too. So instead, I acted like the other slaves were acting and continued to uproot the weeds like nothing happened at all. 

"IF I COME BACK HERE BY SEVEN O'CLOCK AND FIND OUT THAT ANY ONE OF YOU  ISN'T DONE WITH THEIR WORK, I WOULD KILL YOU JUST LIKE I KILLED THIS WOMAN. I'M SURE YOU ALL KNOW WHY I KILLED HER. THIS WOMAN IS VERY LAZY AND HASN'T EVEN COMPLETED QUARTER OF HER WORK. YOU ALL MUST BE DONE BY 7 O'CLOCK. ALRIGHT??!!!" His voice bellowed thunderously. 

"YESSIR!!!" All of the slaves yelled in unison that I couldn't even note if I'd joined them to say "yessir" or not since each person had screamed on top of his lungs which made it difficult to hear my own voice. 

Then he left. 

And I began to sob again. I would never get used to this. It was so horrifying. It was horrible to imagine that it would be my turn one day; sleeping with the thought of death every day was an event I never expected to come to existence in my life. 

** 

Months passed by and Dan kept coming through for me. These months were still unbearable as I spent them in this horrifying place but Dan was always there to help me in various ways. The loan shark didn't get any nicer to any of us and there were times when he had made the scape goat to the other slaves. He whipped me very often with the horse whip on days when I didn't clean the library thoroughly. He'd whip me so much that the slaves would wince to the point of tears but I had gotten used to the horse whip and I didn't cry any longer when he used it on me then he began to use the chain whip and I sustained deep wounds, then he'd order that I get no food to eat for the next three days or even the next week depending on how angry he was. 

On nights like that, Dan came through. He would get me lots of food and came with bandages and medical solutions to help disinfect the wounds. If he couldn't come, he would send help through this particular slave named Krystal. 

Krystal was Japanese which made me wonder why she was a slave in a place like this but she barely answered any of my questions but nevertheless, she was very kind to me and would deliver whatever dan had to give me. Some times, we shared the meals together and she helped me treat my wounds on other days too. 

I was just a nine year old with small height so I never understood how the loan shark would expect me to thoroughly clean a library with high walls and pillars just by mounting on a ladder. The library was too spacious and there were older slaves who could do the job better but he purposely always picked me to clean it. 

Many times, I had tripped of the ladder and had nearly broken my head but dan always came just in time to catch me. I didn't know how he did it but he always on time to save me. Whenever he caught me like that, he'd put me to seat on one of the wooden chairs and would help me clean the walls. But he didn't stay for long for fear of being caught by the loan shark. Whenever he was about to leave, Krystal would come in to help me with the rest of the work and then I'd clean the shelves where my heights could reach. 

He continued to give me more dangerous jobs. He had once asked me to clean the chandeliers hanging from the high walls on the living room and had tried forcing me to kill a king cobra that he spotted on a fence on another day. Just when the cobra was going to release it's saliva, causing it to land on my eyes, Dan came through and blocked my eyes with his hands and then we fell onto the grass, accidentally toppling over each other but that didn't matter. 

What mattered was the fact that he came on time and saved me from becoming blind and I was extremely thankful to him. 

I wondered what made the loan shark so mean to everyone and I wondered very often why everyone here was a slave including myself. Anytime I thought of it, it had me trying to guess what my mum must have done to warrant me being here and why she did it and it made me cry very often on realizing that my mum didn't love me at all. 

I missed home very often and I prayed to God everyday for a sign; a sign that my family was making conscious efforts to find me or a sign to show that they were close by and would find me very soon. On one sunny day, while I was working tediously on the fields, I had heard the clanging of a metallic substance. I don't know what made me want to know what it was but I was curious anyway. I wiped the massive beads  of sweat off my face and dusted the sandy particles from my hands only for me to look at the ground and I found a kobo. 

I was so delightful. I picked it up immediately and glanced at it. It was a hundred kobo. My dad used to have lots of coins in his pockets with several prints of heroes on them. I loved to ask what the coins were about because it was fascinating to me, seeing prints of peoples faces on an object. 

"This is Nigerian Naira, subdivided into kobo. It's a coin but it's called kobo because that is the Nigerian currency. Don't worry my love, I would buy you a beautiful Barbie doll with these coins!" He smiled brightly at me when I giggled.

"Wow!!! So you can buy whatever you want in the world with these coins??!!" I asked, euphoric. 

"Yes baby girl."

"Would you buy me a mansion with these coins?" 

"Yes baby girl."

"How about the ocean?" I asked, now jumping with so much joy. 

"Most definitely my love! I could buy you the whole word with millions of these coins!!" He said, smiling ever so radiantly at me and then scooped me up in arms and placed a kiss on to my cheek. 

Tears laced up my eyes as I kept staring at the kobo and memories of my dad smiling at me played in my mind. I took it as a sign. A beautiful, big sign and I thanked God for answering my prayer.

"I know you would find me daddy. I will wait for you."  I said in my mind as i dipped the coin into my pocket and resumed to my work on the fields with an ethereal kind of strength. 

But I kept waiting and waiting and life got harder and harder. The loan shark became meaner and meaner. He was increasing our work load as the weeks passed by. 

In the mornings, we would plough the fields and plant several seeds and uproot the weeds till the early morning sun shone. At midday after working so hard on the fields, we would carry bags and bags of grains to the storage room that were very heavy and of course they monitored us all very closely and anyone who dared to steal food from the storage room got shot in the head immediately. 

That week alone, twenty five slaves had died from the gun shot because they had all tried to steal food and I could not blame them. I probably would have tried to steal food like them as well but Dan always made arrangements for me to get food to eat later onwards and I honestly counted myself lucky. 

During the afternoon towards the evening, we scrubbed the outer walls of the supplies building which was so enormous. We would scrub the slimy, disgusting parts of the walls for hours and it was mostly nerve wracking because those walls were never clean no matter how hard we tried to clean them. Many slaves slumped from exhaustion while a few died from excess starvation, dehydration and stress. 

It was tough and I cried everyday. 

My dad was taking too much time to find me. I could barely hang on any longer. Besides, it was November already, my birthday was coming soon and I would be ten years old. I could not believe I would be spending my birthday in captivity. It was the hardest pill for me to swallow ever since I became a slave. 

I could not believe that I was not going to take pictures with my family like the previous years, blow out candles from my birthday cake and make my girly wish, and wear my favorite dress. Instead, I would be spending my birthday, uprooting weeds and scrubbing high walls or even battling with a wild animal. 

My heart grew sore and my head banged. This was horrible and It became extremely painful to wait. God please, I don't want to spend my birthday in this place. It's going to make me so sad. Please bring my dad close to me so he can find me on time. This was my daily prayer as I held on to my treasure and the only thing I owned - the kobo. 

But days passed by and then it was just a week left to my birthday. And I was still in this place, suffering, some times starving and getting weaker at my tender age. One evening as dan came as usual to bring a little share of food for me, I made a small decision; 

"Can a 100 kobo buy me a birthday cake?" I asked him as he fed me gently with a spoonful of yam porridge. It was midnight and so all of the slaves were asleep. Krystal who had become my inmate slept at the far end of our cell. Whilst dan sat on the cold floor with me like a big brother. 

"Well...it can only that the cake would be small in size. You want to buy a cake? When is your birthday?" He asked, widening his eyes in curiosity. 

"November the 22nd." 

"But how would you get the money to buy the cake?" He asked. 

"I have a coin. It's a Nigerian currency unlike the currency that is being used here. I found it while on the fields one afternoon." 

"Wow. That is a good omen." He said, looking very impressed. 

"What is an omen?" 

"It's a sign. It could be good or bad." 

Wow. So my dad was truly going to come for me. I thought. Dan's words gave me a renewed hope that had been quenched by pain. Maybe I could still leave this place just before my birthday comes. Hopefully though. 

"Can you help me buy the cake?" 

"Well...I'm a slave here too remember?" He said, raising a brow. 

"So you won't help me?" I could not believe that he was unable to help me this time around. I had too much faith in him. 

"What makes you think I can this time around?"

"Because you have been helping me."

"Hmm." He looked at me with skepticism and a mix of sarcasm in his expression. "I can help you. I would go to the bakery tomorrow and talk to them." He assured me. "I like that you trust me so much." 

"Thank you." Was all I said with a wry smile on my face.

*** 

My birthday came and I was still in the strange land, working hard working in intense pain. During the week that led to my birthday, the loan shark got a new wife and it only got worse. 

I mean, how worse can it get from here? 

I've always thought of women as people with soft hearts and the direct counterparts of their harsh and brusque husbands. In fact, that had been my mindset as I watched some of my neighbors and how they treated their children. The wives always seemed very compassionate while the husbands, pretty much emotionless so I thought that the arrival of this woman was going to at least make things a little better for me and for the other slaves. 

But this woman was as mean as her husband. 

Every single day, she would request that we prepare dishes of all kinds for her; salads and assorted parts of cow meat, chicken and fish barbecues and rice rich with several ingredients which would take hours to prepare only for her to get served and then she rejects the meal telling us that she has lost appetite for the meal and was now craving sweet potatoes and sauce. It was frustrating and the worst part was that, she would not even let us eat the meal that she rejected. If we tried to or she caught any of us, she would snitch us to her husband and he would come over to kill whoever tried it straight away. 

It was so unbelievable how wicked she was towards us. 

After preparing meals for her for half of the entire day, we would then go back to our daily nerve wracking routine of scrubbing walls and uprooting the most stubborn sets of weeds I had ever seen. 

Unfortunately for me, it was my turn to prepare meals for her on a special day like my birthday but thankfully, I had a good knowledge of what she asked me to prepare for her since I liked to watch my brother, David cook. She asked for spaghetti and meat balls. I prepared it in my best way possible only for her to tell me that I had taken too long in preparing it hence she had lost her appetite and now wanted to eat beans instead. 

I didn't know how to go about cooking beans so I wept, knowing I was in trouble. 

Krystal fortunately had a function to perform in the kitchen so she helped me with the beans. 

"Happy birthday Sandra." She said to me as she washed the beans after parboiling it. I wiped the tears off my eyes. 

"Thank you." I answered sadly. 

Then I heard a gun shot and the next thing I saw was Krystal lying on the marbled floor with blood oozing from her head in a motionless mien. The semi soft bean pods were splattered on the floor as it poured out of the plastic bowl and then I turned towards the entrance of the kitchen only for my to see the loan shark himself, fuming. 

"NO WONDER THE BITCH WAS TAKING SO MUCH TIME TO GET MY JUICE PREPARED." He bursted. 

He'd just killed my friend in my face.

I didn't care any more. I could not help it any longer. I cried so much and I cried loudly. I didn't care if the man was going to shoot me along with Krystal but I could not believe he had just killed her like that. What did she ever do? My heart shattered and grew painfully sore. 

Of course, he yelled at me to shut up but I refused hence he grabbed me by the collar of my pinafore and threw a huge slap on my face but it had only made my cry the more. Then he took out his horse whip and hit me hard on my buttocks, demanding me to keep shut. 

I was sore and weak and I was beginning to loose strength at a rapid rate. Then darkness clouded over my vision and I drifted away. 

*** 

It was eleven o'clock when Dan woke me up in my cell. My bones hurt badly and my eyes felt heavy due to the manner in which I had cried earlier in the day. The light bulb above us burned brightly giving some form of warmth which I actually needed. 

I realized that dan had been with me for a while because I could see a bowl of hot water and a towel. He'd been trying to massage my body. Thankfully, it did make me feel a little better. I sat up and then my eyes darted towards my birthday cake. 

It was beautiful and much bigger in contrast to what Dan had told me about what a 100 kobo could afford. 

"Happy birthday." He softly said. 

"Did you buy this cake with the 100 kobo I gave you?" 

"No I could not. They would not accept any other currency, so I bought the cake with the few coins I had left." He said as he then handed my coin back to me. 

"Wow. Thank you." 

"No problem. Are you going to blow the candles out now and make your wish? It's almost twelve am." He said. 

I nodded my head as I felt tears gather round my eyes.

It was a beautiful flowery cake with pink and white colors but there was no inscription on it whatsoever like you would see on an actual birthday cake. So there was no such thing as, 'happy birthday Sandra' but I could understand. Dan most likely didn't want anyone to know that he was buying the cake for a slave. It was implicating. 

He brought the cake out of its fancy nylon package and placed it on the mat before me and then brought out a match stick from his pocket as he lit the candle standing on top of the cake. 

"Now make your wish, little one." He said. 

I looked over at the far end where Krystal would normally sleep. At times, I slept next to her just for the fun of it. On some nights, she would tell me about her country, Japan and her favorite anime. She spoke about naruto very often and even when I could not understand what she said, I would listen anyway. My hair had grown considerably well ever since the loan shark ordered that my hair be shaved and she would leisurely braid it for me on Saturday's and loosen it after wards since it was against the rules. During these times she would teach me Japanese songs and I would sing along even when I mostly sang rubbish. 

I couldn't believe that I would never get to see her again. On a day like this, she would wish me "tanjoubi omedetou" in a merry song which meant happy birthday in Japanese and would blow out the candles with me but she only got to wish me that briefly before she died. 

Now I was sobbing so much and I didn't know how loud I was until dan tried to shush me, asking me why I was crying so much. 

Then I stared back at my cake and went on to make my wish. He was patting my back gently as I spoke: 

"Daddy, i hate it in here and I want to come home. Come for me and take me away from here. I cry everyday in this place and I'm making this wish with so much tears in my eyes. Please take me home."

I blew out the light from the candle as the smoke went out and evaporated through the small window, wafting away into thin air. This was the last thread of hope I had left and it was in despair. 

Hopefully my actual savior comes for me...

***********

Psalms 55:12-14 - "For it is not an enemy who reproaches me; then I could bear it. Nor is it one who hates me who has exalted himself against me; Then I could hide from him. But it was you, a man my equal, my companion and my acquaintance. We took sweet counsel together, and walked to the house of God in the throng."