GHOST WORKERS

GHOST WORKERS

👻👻 

Genre: Speculative.

Duration: 5mins

Not drinking Alcohol was next to impossible for Ejaita. He was born and bred in the rum.

Growing up wasn’t much of fun for him, nothing eventful as such, having spent his early years in the squishy, mushy womb of his drunken mother. 

Earlier, the man who impregnated his mother  denied her. Heartbroken, she sought solace in Ogogoro, the distilled spirit of the gods. In 7months, the rounded bulge in her stomach was expelled.

Premature born Ejaita had locked hairs, claw-like nails, set of 32brown teeth—all at birth. He’d barely come out of the womb and was already talking; though muddled at first, he was also walking; though staggeringly. Just a matter of a night and day, Ejaita became as fluent as a linguist and as steady as rock.

Was this fate, curse, a punishment from the gods? Whatever it was, the gods were certainly not through with Ejaita's mother. In fact, apparently they were just warming up when at 2years, Ejaita had deepened in voice, broadened at both chest and shoulders, shot up 4feet 5inches and no more. Strangely enough, he’d developed two sets of overlapping teeth in the course of his two years. His lips were barely holding them in. In general, he  looked ten times his age.  

His mother had fallen out with relatives who  against her relationship with her would-be-estranged lover at the blooming stage. During her predicament, they turned blind eye. Agunba community in Jembe looked the other way, everyone minding his own business. But with the strange turnout, they made Ejaita and his mother the talk of the town. They wouldn’t let them breath or walk free of their gossips and mockery. The landlord of their one-room apartment made their living a hell. He didn’t tell them to leave, but his subtle actions said it all. From increasing their rent by 75%, he disconnected

their light.  Seeing they remained unruffled, he began burning refuse behind their window as though trying to smoke some niggling groundhogs out of a hole. 

At dawn one day, they moved out of his house, and away from Agunba

With no particular destination in mind, they traveled as far as their feet took them, seeking a settlement where news about them hadn’t made the rounds.

As evening  drifted through the blue sky with its trailing shadows, they made it into Agbor; a town about 150kilometres away from Agunba Though Ejaita could still carry on, his mother’s aching feet couldn’t. Asides fatigue, unending hunger gnawed on the walls of their stomach. The leftover of the bread and beans cake they ate earlier in the day came handy. As they sat on a pavement by the roadside drains  to feast on it, they heard a grunting sound from a distance. While overwhelming fear gripped Ejaita’s mother to the bones as the sound drew close, for some innate reasons, Ejaita wasn’t scared a bit. 

A wolf-like creature in shaggy grey coat soon appeared. Realizing it was just a dog, the racing heartbeat of Ejaita's mother became steady.  The dog sat at arm’s-length distance, panting heavily with a show of drooling tongue through long canines.

Ejaita tore part of his meal and tossed at it. Before it could land, the dog captured with wild, opened jaws. Its calculated moves sloshed multiple  thrills through Ejaita. He broke another chunk. At that, the dog went on all fours with anticipating focus. At Ejaita’s throw, it leaped and caught the meal midair.

“Good dog!” 

 

All his two and half years, he’d never been more excited.

The dog wagged at him.

They repeated the toss and catch cycle till Ejaita was left empty. Though hunger was now prodding hard at his stomach, the satisfaction he'd derived from playing with the dog made him mindless of it. His mother resisted sharing her meal with him, being dead sure it’d end up in the dog's belly.

The growing darkness nudged them conscious of their plight. They began searching for a place where they could pass the night.            

             

                                 *** 

Fishing had been the major occupation of Agbor dwellers till a liquor manufacturing company brought its business into town. The distillery settled at the town's center  where it attracted  booming influx of trade and  employed hundreds of Agbor youths.

Rukevwe was amongst those who benefited from the civilization. The distillery wooed a textile industry into acquiring land in Agbor, having foreseen a promising future. Rukevwe was employed as her site construction engineer.

It was a hazy fading away of darkness when he reached the uncompleted building for quick inspection before laborers starts arriving. The one-storey plan was at the decking stage. Its cast was all set to be filled. 

Rukevwe went from room-to-room, linking one opening  to another. He was about ascending the scaffolding, when he noticed a short figure way off in armless top and khaki short, stretching out thick biceps that shielded shoulder-length dreadlocks.  He shook his head as though brushing off a horrific imagination, blinked to get a second look.

“Aaaah!” he screamed, almost jumping out his skin.

Ejaita shot a lingering glance at him, moved closer as he observed the fair, lanky young man in faded jeans, blue T-shirt, with head shielded in white helmet.

His mother rushed over in a wrapper twirled about her slim figure.

“Good morning gentleman.”

“Good morning,” responded Rukevwe, a bit relieved they have company, one he could easily relate with.

“I am Omotore,”she said, “and this is my…,husband,” she filled in after a moment's pause, gesturing at Ejaita. She figured revealing their true identity would be a wrong move. 

“Good morning mister,” greeted Ejaita

Rukevwe was still wondering what such pretty woman was doing with a man few inches above his knees when he caught sight of three rows of overlapping dentition. His mouth went dry in horror.

“Goo. . .Goo. . .” he stuttered in struggle to string a sentence.

“We came in last night from a far away town to live with our relatives,” broke in Ejaita’s mother, “we realized they’d moved and passed the night here when we didn’t have anywhere else to go,” she wrapped up.

“You’d better get going. I’m the site engineer here. Laborers will be here shortly to start the day’s job,” Rukevwe said curtly and turned hastily to leave.

“Excuse me mister.”

Rukevwe turned to the throaty-voiced dwarf. 

“We don’t know if you can employ two more hands, I and my wife are in dare need of a job.”

Rukevwe had granted their request, agreed a daily laborer’s pay of ₦1500 with them and was out of their presence before he began wondering if he was under duress with a shotgun pointed at his head.

The day went well at the site. Ejaita’s naturally toned up muscle came to play. Ascending the scaffolding with head pan holding a  mixture of cement and granite was a piece of cake. In no time, he finished his  portion and his mother’s.

At close of work, Rukevwe had formed a new impression of Ejaita. He didn’t only find him hardworking, but also friendly.

He became concerned for his safety, and that of his supposed wife. Aside being exposed to dangers from creepy animals, in a while; the building project had suffered immeasurable setback at the hands of thieves who cart away building materials at night. He advised they start looking for a safe place to stay.

From the day’s pay, Ejaita and his mother bought suya and vegetable for dinner. The treat wouldn’t be complete without some liquor to wash it down. While Ejaita was still halfway down a bottle of Vodka, his mother had emptied two. She soon became giddy and slept off.

Ejaita laid his head on a garment he'd folded into pillow. The looming thoughts that sprouted from the words Rukevwe had sown earlier seemed to have rubbed him of sleep. He shut his eyes and drifted into dreamland as well. 

A while later, he heard a loud, banging sound in his sleep. Jumping out of the nightmare, he realized it was within the building. He nudged his mother awake. She set two red, drowsy eyes on him, rumbled some jargons and went back to sleep. Ejaita perceived that the continuous movement was from the shed behind the building, where construction materials were stored. He tiptoed to the place and saw two shadowy figure with flashlights, loading bags of cements into a cart.

From the dark corner where he stood watching, he tossed a log at their blindside.

“What’s that?” whispered one to the other. They were startled. Just what he wanted. Then he began making squeaky sounds like a wild beast, hoping to scare the shit out of them and run them off the building.

Upset by the jumpy, ceaseless sound, they split to look around. For Ejaita, things were just starting to be interesting. He dashed about, breezing from bend to bend, stopped for a moment, tossed a stone at his opposite direction. He kept repeating this cycle—dashed about, breezing…

At some point, the thieves almost gave one another a head-on collision. Whatever the crazy creature they were after was about running them insane.

Amidst his fun, Ejaita suddenly realized he was leading them to the room where his mother laid. At a twist into a corner to divert their attention, he tripped and fell.

He was scrabbling to get on his feet when one of them got to him, grabbed him by the collar and dragged him over to his partner.

“It's Ejaita,” he announced.

“What’s that weird dwarf still doing around here?” questioned the other. On getting to him, he smote Ejaita with a fist. “That’s for sweating me out,” he said and walked off. 

Ejaita picked a salty taste of his blood. The two thieves wore plain black face caps with a covering over their nose and mouth. He sensed they were familiar. While one clenched him tight, the other returned with rope. He was about tying his hands when Ejaita pulled down his facemask. One of the site’s laborers came into full view. Still, they bundled him.  They couldn’t go on with their plans. They were going to make off with 12bags of cement instead of 20 when they concluded it’d be stupid to leave Ejaita alive. The one whose face he'd seen went for a machete.

“Hey dwarf, you brought this upon yourself,” he said and aimed at Ejaita's neck. 

He was bringing down his hand  when a wild beast pounced on him, and sunk his canine deep into his wrist. 

Ejaita recognized the dog he fed his meal last night. It pulled on a hunk of meat and bone. It'd have detached the arm from its socket  if he hadn’t stopped it with a ‘doggy, let go!’. It stood growling over the thief who'd passed out in shock. The other one was glued to a spot where he peed in his pant. His mother had woken from her slumber, stunned by the incidence. She rushed over and freed Ejaita.  They in turn bound the thieves.

Agbor was ahum by dawn with the news of Ejaita nabbing the thieves. Ejaita gave recognition to the stray-dog-turned-friend, naming it ‘Casper'.

In appreciation, Rukevwe gave Ejaita and his mother the day off. He paid them the day’s wages as well.

It was gathered that the community’s vigilante have been colluding with the thieves. The three were arrested by the police.

Ejaita became the personality of the week. It appeared there was more to him besides his frightening appearance.

Some fellow laborers would have made advances at his mother, one in particular; Ovie couldn’t get his eyes off her. For the fear of Ejaita, they dared not give words to their feelings. Ovie was bent on having his desires met.

There must be a way, even if it takes getting this weird dwarf out of the way.

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To be continued same time next week. Hope you enjoyed the read? I'll appreciate your comment. Thank you.