May 26, 2081

About a week and a half had passed since the last inky rain and Mr. John's death. The days had gone by smoothly with the villagers repairing what little damage the rain had caused. The village was relatively peaceful and I was glad. Today was my birthday and I had no worries on my mind.

Seventeen years ago, I had been brought into this world. Seven years ago, I would have been celebrating my birthday in a grand style, dressed in a new expensive dress with a party thrown for me that all rich kids in our neighborhood would attend and I would be getting presents, machines of all types, but that wasn't how I celebrated it. I celebrated it holed up in a room, starving, and crying my eyes out.

I remembered my last real birthday party eight years ago, it was the talk of town for weeks. I had several presents including a full sized doll maid that could talk and walk that my parents had given me. It was a bit creepy at first but I got used to her. I had to leave her behind when Mrs. Abimbola took me from the house.

This morning, I felt disappointed when I woke up and didn't see anyone in the house. The year before, on my birthday, Mrs. Abimbola had woken me up, singing a birthday song for me and I guessed I expected it too this year. I grabbed my bucket and fetched water from the container we usually kept water in and went to take my bath. After taking my bath, I returned back to the hut. I was towelling my face as I entered the hut when someone suddenly screamed, making me jump.

"Happy birthday Ivy!"

I looked up to see inky excited faces in front of me. Wunmi, and Mrs. Abimbola and Tobi were standing in the sitting room of the hut. While Wunmi and Mrs. Abimbola looked excited, Tobi looked like he wanted to be anywhere but here and the annoyed expression on his face made me smile.

Wunmi came to hug me. "Happy birthday, Bestie."

"Thank you," I hugged her back.

Mrs. Abimbola walked towards us and I gave her a grateful look. "I made a little something for you. I hope you like it," she said.

I looked at where she was pointing to and my eyes watered. On the table was a small cake. It had ink splotches on it but I didn't mind, it made the cake look cute. Mrs. Abimbola walked towards it and cut a piece for me. I collected it and ate it, looking past the inky taste.

"It's delicious. Thank you," I said, hugging her. I didn't think I could thank her enough for all she had done. She had taken me like her own child and patiently trained me to be more mature and responsible. I owed her a lot.

My eyes clashed with Tobis'. He was glaring at me and I rolled my eyes. I didn't have time for him - and his glares - today though, I just wanted to enjoy my birthday.

We all sat down and ate the cake, even Tobi joined, it was not everyday we got to eat cake. We each had a bottle of inky soft drink. Bottled or canned products had become expensive. I had heard that they went through a tedious process to try to remove the ink from them. It was impossible since the ink was everywhere but it was enough for the taste of the bottled drink or canned food to overshadow the ink. For example, bottled water tasted less inky than water gotten from a tap. I knew Mrs. Abimbola had spent money on the soft drinks so I could enjoy my birthday.

"I miss the times without the ink. Where we could actually taste and enjoy our food," Wunmi said.

"Me too," I said.

We had learnt to live with the ink in everything, it was either that or we would die of hunger. Besides, the ink was already slowly infecting us, it was only a matter of time before we died, we learnt to accept it and didn't care if our eating and drinking inky food made it worse. In the end, we would all die. I remembered the first few days after the inky rain and my parents death, I had refused to eat or drink anything but after a while, I couldn't ignore my parching throat or my rumbling stomach.

While we were still eating, I got my presents. Wunmi gave me a black and blue bag she had knitted for me - She made it that color so the ink wouldn't ruin it too badly - and Mrs. Abimbola gave me a dress. I looked at the gifts, a smile on my face. I loved them.

I looked up to see Mrs. Abimbola giving a grumpy looking Tobi a stern eye. I chuckled. Last year she had been mad at Tobi because he didn't get me anything for my birthday though I got him a gift on his. I traded one of my jewelries for a pair of trainer shoes. He tried to pretend not to like them but I had seen the way his eyes lit up. It was my way of apologizing for what I had done.

"It's no problem. He doesn't have to..." I started to say but stopped when he brought out something from his pocket.

"I'm not the bad guy, you know?"

I collected it and looked at it. It was a watch. A bit simple looking but at the same time I knew it would have taken him something to get it.

"Thank you."

He shrugged and went back to drinking his drink. Mrs. Abimbola gave him an approving smile.

I cleared my throat. Tobi's rare goodness was awkward. "Did you get the soft drinks from Mr. Bidemi?" I asked Mrs. Abimbola.

Her face fell. "No."

"I heard Bidemi was infected yesterday. He died when they were taking him to the site," Tobi said.

We all fell into silence. I was surprised I hadn't heard of that especially since our village was small and news travelled fast. Mr. Bidemi had been a good man. I thought of the wife and children he left behind. His wife had just given birth to their fourth child three months ago.

Mrs. Abimbola coughed. "It's your birthday. Let's talk about something... not gloomy," she said.

There was nothing really lively to talk about though. The ink had made everything gloomy. I knew everyone was trying to celebrate my birthday and avoid the fact that I had now reached an age where I could be infected. It had been discovered that people below 16 had only 5% chance of getting infected. They were safe, but now, I had crossed that safe zone. I tried to focus on my birthday instead of thinking of that.

We talked about the few parties and births in our village but we ended up going back to the gloomy things like the infected villagers, RICCO CORP, and other things.

Six years ago, there would have been music playing in the background but all machines had been banned in our small village a year after the inky rain. We lived hidden in the trees, away from RICCO CORP and others. We were just a group of people, living together away from the continued pollution in the cities and the ruthless arm of RICCO CORP.

"I've to go now. It's already late," Wunmi said, towards evening.

It was just seven o'clock but it was dark. With the ink covering the sky, the day ended quickly and started late. After she left, I went to prepare for bed. Mrs. Abimbola was talking with a neighbor outside and Tobi had not yet come back after he left an hour ago so I rushed to the room to get my bag. I hoped that a miracle would happen on my birthday and Angela Cassey would pick my call.

I held it to my mouth and whispered quietly, "Angela Cassey, my name is Ivy Adekoya. I don't know if you are hearing me but we need your help. We are a group of uninfected people and you can find us by tracing this line. I have the location on."

I waited for a reply but only the dial tone. Angry tears welled up in my eyes but I brushed them away, threw the phone back into my bag and laid on the mattress. Today was my birthday and I wasn't going to let anything ruin it. So to lift my spirits up, I thought of how the day had gone and the surprise Mrs. Abimbola and Wunmi had given me. A few minutes later, I slept off with a smile on my face.

©Jesutofunmi Fekoya

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