BOJU BOJU

****

13th November 2008. Two days after…

“So, tell me, what did you see?” Officer Ahmed, the police officer at GRA police station, asked one of Mr Kanayo’s pupils.

She was shaking. She was afraid. Not because of the three police officers standing in front of her, but of why they brought her here.

“Mariam, its okay.” Her mother patted her back from the seat next to hers, “Just tell them what you saw that night. What did Mr Kanayo do to the children at the forest?”

Timid Mariam held her shaky hands together and allowed herself to think about that night even when she didn’t want to.

She could not remember everything vividly. But she could remember hearing a scream from behind the tree she was crying on. She turned around to see Mr Kanayo lifting one of her classmates and turning around while laughing. It was dark, so she could not fathom exactly what was going on between those two. But she could only assume one thing.

“He was playing.” Mariam told the police officers without looking into their eyes, “He was carrying them and playing around.”

The three police officers just looked at each other without saying anything.

“And was that all you saw?” Mariam’s mother asked in confusion.

She nodded.

None of them said anything. It was all too confusing for them too.

“But,” Mariam added, thinking back to that dreadful night, “he-he had something scary…on his face.”