The Land Of The Rising Sun: Chapter 10(2) The Road Home.

CHAPTER TEN(two) THE ROAD HOME And the house became quiet again. For the first few days after Ndubuisi left, I kept expecting him to return. Onwuka asked about him almost every morning. “Is Daddy coming today?” “Soon,” I would tell him. Sometimes I believed it. Sometimes I didn't. Then, one afternoon, there was a knock on the door. When I opened it, I found Ngozi standing there. He looked tired. His small bag hung from one shoulder. “Ngozi?” He smiled faintly. “Ndubuisi said I should come and stay with you.” I looked at the boy for a moment. “You came all the way here alone?” He nodded. I stepped aside. “Come inside.” From that day, Ngozi stayed with us. He helped in the little ways a boy his age could. He played with Onwuka. He fetched small things when I asked. Sometimes he tried to make us laugh when the house became too quiet. But there were also moments when I caught him staring into space. He had seen enough of the war to know that something was wrong, even if he didn't understand everything. We didn't talk much about it. We simply lived. Days became weeks. Weeks became months. Ndubuisi didn't return. At first, I counted the days. Then I stopped. There were no letters. No visits. Nothing. I told myself he was somewhere doing what he had been called to do. I prayed he was safe. But as time passed, our little supply of food began to disappear. Money became harder to find. The prices of the things we needed kept rising. There were days when I cooked and wondered what we would eat the next day. One evening, I looked at Onwuka and Ngozi sitting together on the floor. They were sharing the little food we had prepared. I watched them quietly. I couldn't continue like this. The next morning, I made a decision. “We're going to Ubakala.” Ngozi looked at me. There was a small smile on his face. “Are we going to the village?” I forced a smile. “Yes.” He nodded happily. For a moment, he seemed excited. Perhaps he thought going to the village meant something good. I didn't have the heart to tell him why we were really going. We packed what little we could carry. Onwuka held my hand. Ngozi carried the small bag. Before we left, a few neighbours decided to travel in the same direction. It was safer to move together. So we joined them. The road was different from the one I remembered. There were fewer people. Some houses stood empty. Others had been abandoned in a hurry. Everyone seemed to be carrying only what they could manage. As we walked, Onwuka became tired. I carried him for a while before putting him down again. Ngozi stayed close beside me. He didn't complain. He simply walked. The farther we went, the quieter the road became. I looked around. There were usually people along this road. Farmers. Children. Travellers. But that day, everything felt strangely still. One of the neighbours looked behind us. “Let's keep moving.” Nobody argued. We continued. The sun was beginning to sink when we heard something in the distance. At first, it sounded like a low rumble. I stopped walking. Ngozi looked at me. “What is it?” “I don't know.” The sound grew louder. The people around us began looking toward the sky. I held Onwuka's hand. Then the rumbling became unmistakable. A shadow moved across the sky. Everyone looked up. And then— WAH! WAH! WAH!

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