LORD OF THE RINGS

Austin woke up late the following morning, and saw that Sandra was not sleeping beside him. Angrily, he got up to look for her, thinking she had left him again. He got into the bathroom, freshened up, got dressed and picked up his keys.

“Jemima!” he called, as he walked into the children’s room.

“Yes, Daddy! Good morning, Dad,” Jemima answered, rushed out of her bed and knelt before him, quivering.

“Get up! I think you’ve knelt down enough. That will teach you not to misbehave, naughty girl,” he frowned at her.

“Thank you, daddy, I’m very sorry. It won’t happen again.” Crying and still shaking, she stood up before him.

“You’re sorry. It’s okay, you can go,” he dismissed her, and then, he called her back. “Come back here. Where is your mum?”

“I think she is in the laundry room. She was talking about doing our laundry, and had asked Jasmine and Dan to bring the laundry baskets to her.”
“So, she’s in this house?”
“Yes, Daddy.”
“Then, why are you not with her?”
“I’m sorry, Daddy, but you told me to kneel since yesterday evening, and you had not asked me to get up. I… I…” she moved away from him, as she saw that dreadful look on his face, knowing he could pounce on her and beat her up. He looked at her in disgust awhile, and then he moved close to her and pushed her out of the room.

“Just get out of here. Go call your mum to me,” he yelled at her. With relief, she ran into the kitchen.

“Sandra!” he called impatiently, and Sandra came out of the kitchen into the sitting room to meet him.

“Austin, I’m here and I wish you’ll stop shouting before the neighbours think we are fighting again, and we shou…..”
“Shut up!” he interrupted her, angrily. “The neighbours don’t tell me how to run my home. So, how they feel or what they think doesn’t bother me in anyway. Now, why is my breakfast not ready?”
“I’m sorry. You know you don’t like cold food. Give me ten minutes, and it will be served,” she moved away from him, seeing he was in a foul mood.
“Ten minutes, else you’ll get it hot with me this morning,” he frowned at her. Just then, his phone rang, and he took it.

“Yes, Sir,” he sobered as he took the call, seeing it was Alhaji Al-Mustapha, his Capon.
“Austin, get to the club, immediately,” he said coldly and Austin nodded.

Alhaji Al-Mustapha was a very handsome, middle aged man, but looked like he was still in his thirties. Whenever he spoke, it was with an air of confidence, always collected and calm, like he had everything under his control.
“Yes, Sir.” Austin hung up and left the house without saying a word. The kids embraced Sandra, weeping in relief as they saw him go.

Worse Than A Nightmare

“O, thank you, my Lord Jesus for, for saving me. So, this was all a very bad dream?” she said to herself. But why Austin? What sort of dream was that? She kept wondering.

Meanwhile, Austin was grunting at the other side of the wide bed. She needed to narrate the spooky dream to him, for his mature counseling, as a man of God.

“Austin, please, wake up.” she shove him gently on his shoulder. And he woke.
“What’s with you woman? And what’s the meaning of your waking me up like this?” He hollered, and sprang at her. He dragged her out of the bed, and pushed her towards the door.

“Get out of here, woman, if you don’t want to sleep. Go sleep with your children out there, please. Otherwise I’ll be forced to trash you again for waking me up like this. Would you want that?”

Sandra staggered out of the room in tears, while he went back to sleep, still growling like a badly injured wild animal.

 

***

Stormy Nightmare

“O, What a storm!” Sandra muttered within. Right then, the night, with its gloom, was closing in on her, as if there was conspiracy of nature’s elements in the firmament. It had been stormy, and rainy, yet the cumulus cloud would not have their fill.

Mercifully, some half-hour later, the wind began to blow less tempesturously, and the heavy downpour reduced to tolerable drizzling, leaving the streets wet, empty and quiet, as only few road users dare the inclement weather.
“I must get home, to my kids,” she got firmly resolved. And suddenly she saw herself driving through an unfamiliar path. Panic-chills ran down her spine, as she took her lonely drive home through the dark and eerie road.
Shortly afterwards, just by a huge refuse dump a few yards away, she saw two armed men throwing a body hurriedly, and disappeared into the side brush.
“And what, what was that?” she spluttered, terrified to her marrows. Sensing great danger, she sped past the spot, prayed to God silently to take control, and to take her safely home. Soon after that, she saw through the side mirrors a Hilux van following her. Wherever street she turned into, they, too, turned into, and kept following her steadily. So, she drove at top speed, from street to street, taking advantage of the good layout of the area. And she managed to dust them out of sight, at last.
Well, that was what she thought, when she was no longer seeing them behind her through the mirrors. Meanwhile, she had kept her headlight on full beam, driving all the way in great panic, until she got home.
Thank God, the gate was left wide open. It is the bad habit of the gateman any time it rained, so he could avoid coming out in the rain to open the gate. Very bad security sense that was! But this time, his lousiness worked for her needs, and uninterrupted passage to her house.
So, she drove straight to the bungalow, parked and switched off the engine, and lights. She sat still in the car for a while, to be sure she was not being followed. Then she mustered courage, and rushed out into the house, only to discover that the front entrance wasn’t locked.
“What? Austin! Austin!” She called aloud, but her husband didn’t respond. His Hilux van was parked at its usual spot all right. Why was he not home yet? She wondered. She became very tensed even horrified. So, she quickly locked the entrance door, dashed to her children’s room, and was greatly relieved to see them sleeping soundly.
Then she entered her room, and heaved a sigh of relief from danger at last. She lay down on her bed a while, then sat up and looked around. Only to see right inside the room, two masked men in black, dashing at her: one from the bathroom and the other from the closet, holding sharp swords. Their heads were fully covered, but for the little openings at the region of their eyes for them to see. They looked like ninjas.
“Jesus! Jesus!” She shouted uncontrollably, and in great hysterics.
“You thought you could escape us? No way, woman… Now, we’ll finish you,” one of them said, sounding very much like her husband, Austin’s voice. Both of them burst into throaty, devilish laughter, and came dangerously close to her with their swords, to strike her. She screamed on top of her voice:
“Austin, no! No…nooooo…,” she struggled out of her sleep at that juncture. She was soaked with sweat and was gasping for breath.