I don’t know about you but I believe in ghosts.
I believe that people who died bad deaths do not rest in peace, they wander the earth; maybe they are looking for rest or looking for what will give them peace.
Some situations defy logic; like for instance, I live with my aunt and her family, they took me in when I was like 5 years old and raised me as theirs.
When my aunt’s husband died, years back; my aunty grieved so hard for him that she soon began to tell us that her husband’s ghost always visited her at night.
This scared me.
One day, my aunt called us, she showed us a dent on the pillow, where her husband used to lie, she said, “See, I told you Nnanna comes, see the dent on the pillow.”
There was a dent; there looked like somebody had slept on that side. My aunty couldn’t have; since her husband died, she had been sleeping on the floor on her side of the bed. After that incident, she climbed on the bed and began to sleep there.
Aunty is not an unstable woman; she is not a nitwit; she is sound, educated, smart!
Then several years later, her first son Chidi died, under mysterious circumstances and again, we were plagued with ghost stories; a few people said they saw Chidi, some swear he was still alive. That can’t be true because though my aunty doesn’t know where he was buried, I do and I saw them inter his body.
Chidi died in his early 30s, he was 32.
Chidi was my aunt’s only son; he was a very fine young man. We were told he was poisoned because of a woman. They said he was ‘dragging’ babe with one of his friends. That is what we heard. So, did the friend poison him?
Who knows? He lived in Lagos, we lived in the village, we just heard stories.
What happened?
We were told Peter his friend introduced a lady to Chidi as his friend, the lady turned out to like Chidi more than Peter. Since Peter called the lady his friend, Chidi didn’t know Peter was actually interested in her. So they began to go out, Chidi and the lady. Peter found out and called Chidi a betrayer and a back stabber.
Chidi was said to have told Peter off, that he introduced the lady as a friend not a girlfriend and if he was not smart enough to talk to a woman, then he should go learn.
You know the sort of things friends tell one another.
Well, Chidi didn’t give the girl up, in fact, the girl herself was said to have told Peter she was never his girlfriend, so where did the back stabbing come from?
Other friends said Peter and Chidi soon settled, that they became friends again and would even go to one another’s house. They went to a night club the night Chidi died.
He came home, shortly afterwards began to vomit…he died before his neighbours could get him to the hospital!
The affair only lasted two months; before he died.
That is the story we heard.
Ok, so why did I say a spirit like Chidi is still roaming the earth?
Chidi loved to sing, he used to tell us he would be a musician someday. He never played any musical instrument but if you are in a hurry and Chidi entered the bathroom before you, then you will be late for your appointment because the bathroom was his stage.
After his death, we would hear him singing; he would be singing in the surrounding bushes; we would hear him and my aunt would invite him to come inside the house. She would say, “My son, come in, I have prepared you favourite meal, I have put aside what you like eating the most, come in my son and eat.”
Of course, no one ever came.
Two people came to us recently again to say they saw him, they saw our Chidi but, we will never know who it was they truly saw. But he sings, almost every night, he sings, we hear him singing. That means he is happy, right?
I hope he is. Wherever you are Chidi, please rest; if indeed you were poisoned, let your maker fight your battle.
So why are people seeing Chidi everywhere? We heard his friend, Peter, got married to the lady. Oh yes…they are married. Maybe that is why Chidi’s soul is in distress. I am not accusing Peter of murder. I have no evidence he poisoned our brother but he is married to the woman they had a quarrel about…maybe he did it, maybe he didn’t. after all, nothing is to stop him from having the lady, now, not so?
(Series written and edited by Peju Akande and based on true stories)