(Also published in http://www.naijastories.com/2011/12/almost-alive-almost-dead/)

They beat the pulp out of me that night of the 30th day of September this year. It was the eve of the National Independence Anniversary, which for 50 years had been trailed by mixed feelings. This was in spite of the general atmosphere of green-white-green that descended on the country.

I had almost passed by the boys sitting beside their rusty Volkswagen ‘Beetle’ a few kilometers away from mine when a careless log tripped me; I crashed into one of the boys with the load I was carrying. The oozing blood of the load touched this boy with an angry face and he raised an alarm the way he would had he seen ’a thief that killed and stole the only goat that belonged to an entire village’ – he was certain of an instant response. “Hey, blood”, “Catch am”, “He Kill am”, “Na thief”…