Hushed Echoes

He door was flung open immediately and the man appeared in front of him, when he saw the condition of his clothes, he became livid with anger, there was no doubt that he was poised to vent his spleen on him.

“What is the meaning of this?” the man shouted.

“I’m sorry sir, it was the rope that a-a-a…”

“Shut-up!” the man interrupted, “Did I not warn you to be careful with my clothes? Now, look at what you have done, do you think that your salary for five years can buy these? Wait I’m going to teach you a lesson” the man slammed the doo and went back inside to dial a number on his phone.

Marco stood for some time with his heart in his boots, hoping that the man would come out again so that he could apologize, he could not understand why the man refused to come out.Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org exclusive © material.

It was rather too strange in his imagination, he did not know whether the man had forgiven him or not, something in him told him to press the door bell once more so as to remind the man of his presence at the doorstep, but he had to restrain himself because he did not know what the man wanted to do next.

By the time he waited for over forty five minutes, he did not need any Jupiter to tell him that something was wrong, and before he realized what was happening there was a loud knock at the gate.

The gateman instantly threw the gate open and three well-armed policemen tripped in.

“Where is your boss? Where is he? Tell him we are here” one of the policeman commanded.

“Okay let me call him for you” the gateman responded

By then marco had moved away from the door step and was standing in front of the garage, the gateman rang the bell and the man responded immediately.

“Go and call them in here” the man ordered the gateman.

“Yes Sir” he replied.

The policeman appeared and the man nodded his head with satisfaction, he was absolutely impressed with the quality of men that his D. P. O friend sent to him.

They were smart, tall and well built, he knew they were capable of carrying out his mission satisfactorily.

“Good day Sir” the policemen greeted the man with enthusiasm.

“You’re welcome” he looked at them one by one before he continued. “Now with regards to what i discussed with your D. P. O, I want the man there arrested and detained with immediate effect.

” All right sir” the policemen answered.

“Tell the D. P. O that i will speak with him later” the man concluded, moved back and shut the door behind him.

Marco was dragged into the waiting 505 station wagon outside the compound, he tried to plead with the policemen but it was to no avail.

Thirty minuete later, they arrived at the police station, he asked to move in, and before he knew what was happening, he was ordered to change from his personal clothes into the prison uniform, he obeyed without any complaint and was thrown into the cell.

In the cell he went through a harrowing experience which would remain in his memory for as long as he lived on the surface of the earth.

Much more than that, he would always have a story to tell and pass down to his generation yet unborn, Never in his wildest dream had he thought of ever being taken to the police station, let’s alone being caged in a prison.

Through he had offended the man by destroying his clothes, the offense was not grave enough to warrant penalty of a prison term.

Ever since he was thrown into prison, he had attempted frantically to compare his former lifestyle with the horrible experience he was going through in prison, and all he could remember was total frustration, abject dejection and untold hardship being inflicted on him by his inmates.

On several occasions, he was forced to stand for several hours fanning them, to the extent that the most senior inmate nicknamed him “KDK”.

All he did was to lie on his back, dishing out instructions to him, what he told him was that whenever he shouted increase the speed of the fan a little high, two meant higher, and three meant highest.

Apart from that, his inmates denied him his own ration and as a result, he was made to go on empty stomach most of the time.

Were it not for providence, he would have dropped dead, Marco could not even tell what was keeping him alive.

When it seemed as if he was going to slump and die, strength would come and he would continue to live on day after day, his worst moment came when the inmate realized that he was taking every pain unleashed on him with stoicism, they decided to make him more miserable by subjecting him to emptying there faeces, he dared not resist because if he did, they intended to beat him severely.

Two months later, marco was released, On the day of his release, he could not believe it when the sergeant came that and called him out, he thought he was meant to go for a hard labour, but much to his amazement, he was asked to change back into his personal clothes.

When he stepped out of the prison, he stood for a while, looking up to the sky, trying to see if there was anything the world had in stock for him, he had this image of the world as being far away from him.

He felt that if he was to stretch his hands he still would not have reached anything tangible that was capable of transforming his life.

Nevertheless, he thought he had enough cause to be grateful for leaving that gruesome episode of prison life, but now that he has been released, what was the way forward?

He really could not come up with a possible way of sustaining himself, things were just going from worse to worst for him as he was looking more haggard than ever before, his clothes were worn out, and he had lost so much weight that his bones were beginning to weaken.