ᵗʰⁱˢ ᶜʰᵃᵖᵗᵉʳ ⁱˢ ᵈᵉᵈⁱᶜᵃᵗᵉᵈ ᵗᵒ shitddy

The void between you. . .
This begins when instead of going to nowhere, solo,
you decide to base your happiness on volatile new love.
You'll recover though, it only takes a little longer.

~◇~◇~

With the way he tardily drags his feet on the uneven concrete floor, Mama Zite suspects that another day of his endless melancholic strolls has begun.

While she wonders why she hasn't yet sent him away, it isn't unknown that for the first time in years, her generator has been on steady power, Chizitere has new clothes, even she "herself", had not been spared of the good gestures. Wasn't she also wearing a new wrapper?

For a few days now, she has been feeling unwell and unable to go to her place of business. However, she has watched Ivan leave the house countlessly, only to come back dragging himself around.

She watches him pace about the yard, preparing herself to question him again. Maybe today she will just ask him to leave. Before she can clear her throat and begin, he stops abruptly. She looks up but only meets his expressionless gaze, "If a girl comes looking for me, tell her that she'll find me at the place she wants to visit the most, tell her I'll be with the sunset I gave to her." He says. It's obvious that he has no regard for the poor woman's confusion.

"Kola," she attaches an abnormal stretch to the first syllable, making it sound instead like, koala. "You dey talk like person wey wan.... kpeme. I no like all this kind things, e be like say I dey carry my two koro koro eye dey waka dey put body for inside wahala." You sound like someone about to die and I don't appreciate the fact that I feel like I'm walking into trouble.

She continues, "you don dey here, I don dey ask you about your family people, sotey I don tire. I know say you dey give us money, you dey buy us things, you dey make life dey sweet small small, but I kuku know say you be person pikin and you be small pikin. Wetin make you run comot for house?" You have been here and I've asked you about your family countlessly without result. I appreciate that you help around the house but you are someone's child, what made you leave your home?

Ivan doesn't reply her question, she continues, "your family people, dem get money, see as you fresh, dem they care for you wella, then you come call your mama dey talk say make she no look for you ehn?"

She takes a breather, "wey me I been dey think say dem done die. E no good na, abi e good for your eye? As e be say me I don help you so, give you roof, you suppose help me, too tell me who you be, and why you no wan go house, abi no be so dem dey do am?"
Your family is obviously wealthy and you are well cared for, how could you then tell your mother not to look for you, when I assumed your parents were deceased. Since I have housed you, it is only appropriate that you tell me who you are, and what you are running away from. She shuffles angrily in her kitchen stool, murmuring some inaudible conclusions.

On the other hand, Ivan did not hear a word she said. His mind has drifted away to the sunset, he imagines it would be painless, permitting him to ease into his father's waiting arms, just how he always wanted it. In his pockets are two medium sized bottles of concentrated dry gin. He has already prepared the poisonous mixture out of the ground sleeping pills.

He had come to terms with the fact that Boma didn't want him, that she couldn't forgive him, and so there was no point going on. After searching through dozens of Instagram profiles he had found Chinny's and asked for her number. He dropped the message with her because he didn't want Boma to find out elsewhere that he died, it was important that he told her himself as he got some peace knowing that she was done, and so was he.

At the Adebayo Residence, everyone is unsettled, Mrs. Adebayo has not been able to sleep nor eat for the past three weeks. She withdrew all of Tosin's benefits, his cars, his devices, blocked his accounts, sent him to the boy's quarters to be put on constant surveillance and asked the maids to feed him once a day. That has been his punishment, but since the call this afternoon, Mrs. Adebayo has not only been faced with the reality of losing Ivan, she had realized just how much of a failure she was to him.

She should have known how broken he was after his father's brutal death, one she knew he shouldn't have witnessed, she should have done more to ensure his psyche was not damaged, but instead she was more focused on her own brokenness. She had become an untimely widow afterall and couldn't bare to be with the child that reminded her of the horrors she needed to heal from.

Why did she abandon him to deal with that loss on his own? Why didn't she notice he was drowning all those years? Why has she pushed her son into the cold arms of death?

If she could do it over again, she surely was not going to give him a breathing space. With every ring on her phone, the state minister for defense assures her that her boy will be found and brought back home alive. She argues with him about the police's decision to not make the search public, and again, he counsels her against going to the media, as only a handful of people knew that they were back in Port Harcourt after the brutal murder of her husband. They worry that a broadcast of that level could put the rest of the family at risk and put Ivan's life in further danger if his abductors find out who he is.

Isn't it worrisome to see how ignorance can lead to preventable deaths?

At Mama Zitere's home, she is unsettled. Unravelling her wrapper and then wrapping it around her waist several times. She stands transfixed, watching the fresh minty bundles of 1,000 naira notes Ivan gave her before he left a few minutes ago. She hasn't been able to move from where she stood in the dirty yard, and she surely couldn't feign rest, the woman was more restless now than the time her her 16 year old grand daughter ran away with a man. At least then she knew her grand daughter was alive and tasting waters she should have steered clear off. But this strange young boy whom she had grown to care so deeply for strikes unrest like a town crier breaking news of the gods anger. She knows what suicide is, and her mind keeps telling her that Ivan looks like one of those people that do it, but she chooses to believe otherwise. To her, people so handsome and rich don't kill themselves, their lives are just too sweet.

Meanwhile, Boma and her mother have just landed at the hospital gate the second time that day. Boma alights as soon as the car grinds to a halt. She locates the bole shed and finds nobody. Wind tossed her curly blonde hair around as she nervously bites down on her fingers to keep tears at bay. She looks around, the street isn't exactly the kind people strolled on, everything was taking off around her, tired vehicles spitting out thick plumes of nauseating fumes, unconcerned strangers marching along with no care or concern in the world. She's about to breakdown when a little boy runs up to her, sweating in his obviously brand new clothes, holding a dirty old tire in his hand.

"Aunty, you dey find person?" Aunty, are you looking for someone? He smiles sunnily.

"Yes, yes," Boma quickly replies, "the woman that sells bole here."

The boy creeps closer in a way that makes Boma retreat. "Wetin you wan use her do? She dey owe you?" Why are you looking for her, is she owing you? He asks.

In his little mind, even though his grandmother had instructed him to watch the coals in the shed and to inform customers of her mild illness, Chizitere only has plans of taking something off the pretty aunty, and Boma's charm bracelet sure looked attractive and very sellable. He could imagine the days of good living the five hundred naira should fetch him.

"I am looking for a boy that went home with her a few weeks ago."

"Boy?" He repeats, she nods sagely.

"Bros, Koko?" His sunny smile returns

Boma is lost for some minutes before she remembers that he must have used Adekola instead of Ivan.
"Yes, Koko." She replied.

"He's at home. The woman is my grandmother. Our batcha no far. You wan go there?" He asks.

Note to world: Batcha is used to describe a collection of poorly developed buildings made of wooden planks and zinc. They are usually found in swampy regions and features clusters of poor people, a ghetto would be a befitting description.

Joy grips Boma, and she's moved to hug Chizitere, but he isn't exactly in a hugable state. So she asks him to join them instead.
In the car Chizitere quickly introduces himself to Boma's mom which earns him a thousand naira for his sharpness.

When they enter into the yard, they are greeted by the wrenching odour of stale urine and poorly managed sewage. As they follow the excited little boy to the place where Ivan should be waiting, they notice how all the tiny flats are crumpled between each other, rusty zincs and wailing children running naked here and there.

Their attention is immediately grabbed by an old woman pacing around a small blackened batcha, squeezed near to nothing, generator fumes cloaking her worried expression.

"Mama, this people dey find bros Koko." Chizitere announces. The woman already knew, surely such people wouldn't come looking for her.

"Abeg o. May una no vex. Koko just comot, e no too long." Please, don't be angry, Koko just left, "I dey innocent. The boy talk say make I tell the girl wey come find am say she go find am for the place wey she wan go pass, say e don go the sunset wey e give am. Abeg my hand e no dey." I am innocent, he said I should tell the girl who comes to look for him that she will find him in the place she wants to visit most, that he has gone to the sunset he gave her.

Boma's mom is completely flabbergasted, "Which sunset? Madam what do you mean by that? Please provide the boy," she walks into the house, "Ivan! It's Mina." She yells. The only response she gets is the echo of her voice. She walks back out. "Where is he!" She yells and Mama Zite begins to cry, "if you know how important that boy is, you would be talking...wait let me call his family and inform them of this." As she talks with Sua, Boma's mind clicks, putting three and four together.

I know where he is, she whispers.

"I know where he is!" She takes a dash out of the yard. Her mother throws mama Zitere an angry glance before following after Boma. Nothing concerns Chizitere, with his righteously earned 1,000 naira note in his pocket, the young boy has a great day at the mallam's shop ahead of him.

~°~°~°~°~°

Do you think they'll find Ivan in time? Thanks for coming this far with TVBH, I really appreciate you. *Kisses and flying hearts*

Remember,

▪︎ Tag your friends in the comments and share this book so you have something new to gist about.

▪︎ There's a star at the bottom of the page for those reading on the wattpad app or above to the right for those reading on the internet, please hit that star and drop a vote. Do same for any book you read on wattpad, it encourages the author.
~♡Tamunosakiogaree♡~