THE MONSTERS IN UNIFORM(short story)

THE MONSTERS IN UNIFORM

When we woke up, the howl of the wind from the storm deterred us from stepping foot outside. I had to cook moimoi while Jide cleaned the house. Last week he cooked while I cleaned. We do this all the time so it won't get boring, and Jide has been doing a lot better so he insisted he resumed chores instead of doing nothing all day. Dad's car stands dirty in the yard, he'll take it to the washing point later in the day. The chore belonged to Seun, he enjoyed it. I can say washing dad's car was one of the things that made his day whole. He'd sing off key to whatever song played on the radio and stop several times to admire his work. When he's done mom will call him to eat but he'd stand there gazing at how shiny and new he made dad's car.

The storm wasn't letting loose and it was almost 10am. I came down from bed and quietly walked to Jide's room. I didn't knock, it will be pointless. I opened the door and he wasn't in bed; I checked the bathroom and the kitchen and the living room but all was empty. I started to panic slowly, I had a bad feeling in my chest, it was starting to feel empty like the space Seun left in our lives when he didn't return on Friday 13th 2010. I ran to wake up dad, but he was already coming to check on us so we collided in the hallway. He held my arms to prevent me from falling and as he looked at me, the terror in my face must have conveyed the dreadful message I was running to tell him. He pushed me aside and ran to Jide's room, turned the blanket and saw a note

"dad you know I’m innocent, I swear I’m innocent, but I’m in so much pain, I can’t live like this anymore, I'm tired, I’m scared, guys I'm sorry."

The sound that came out from dad's mouth will haunt me for the rest of my life, it woke mom up and she came running to see who was hurt. Dad was slumped on the wall, the note by him. I stood at the corner refusing to accept that this has happened to my family, again. That day I watched my mom slowly lose her mind and my dad giving up on life.

That was the day my family died. The memories still hunt me every night, maybe because they never got justice, or maybe because they didn’t even deserve it in the first place, they were both good boys, I promise they wouldn’t even hurt a fly. And they took them. Every night with its own bruises and scares, beaten to stupor like armed robber in custody, no one deserved that, they both couldn’t handle, not anymore.

I thought Friday 13th was when we lost ourselves but losing the other twin made me realize the grieve of past was just that, the past. Every day comes with its own grieve now.

Jide is gone and so is Seun.

Jide was killed because he wanted to keep Seun’s dream alive, he died for the same reason Seun did- being a young web designer with a “macbook pro” and he was labeled a "fraud" by the same monsters in uniform who were supposed to protect him.

A short story by Kiki.