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Baby licked her lips, looking pleased.
"Julius!" Ola
Special Julius waved airily. "Never underestimate the power of alcohol."
"Come and sit with me, Baby," Ola
Odenigbo picked up the radio from underneath the bench. A shrill sound pierced the air, and at first Ola
"Our antiaircraft fire was wonderful! O di egwu!" somebody said.
" Biafra win the war!" Special Julius started the song and soon most of the people on the street had gathered to join in.
Biafra win the war. Armored car, shelling machine, Fighter and bomber, Ha enweghi ike imeri Biafra!
Ola
She was giving Baby an evening bath when the siren alarm sounded again and she grabbed Baby naked and ran from the outhouse. Baby nearly slipped from her grasp. The swift roar of planes and the sharp ka-ka-ka of antiaircraft gunfire came from above and from below and from the sides and made her teeth chatter. She slumped in the bunker and ignored the crickets.
"Where is Odenigbo?" she asked, after a while, grabbing Ugwu's arm. "Where is your master?"
"He is here, mah," Ugwu said, looking around.
"Odenigbo!" Ola
The sun's brilliance was startling; it made her feel faint. She ran, her heart hurting her chest, shouting, "Odenigbo! Odenigbo!" until she saw him bent over somebody on the ground. She looked at his bare hairy chest and his new beard and his torn slippers, and suddenly his mortality-their mortality-struck her with a clutch at her throat, a squeeze of alarm. She held him tightly. A house down the road was on fire.
"Nkem, it's okay," Odenigbo said. "A bullet hit him but it looks like a flesh wound." He pushed her away and went back to the man, whose arm he was tying up with his shirt.
In the morning, the sky was like a calm sea. Ola
He laughed. "Don't be silly."
"Nobody will send their children to school," she said.
"What will you do then?" His tone was as normal as his snoring throughout the night had been, while she lay awake, sweating, imagining the sound of bombing.
"I don't know."
He kissed her. "Just head for the bunker if the alarm goes off. Nothing will happen. I may be a little late if we go educating in Mbaise today."
At first she was a
"We are going to stay in the bunker today," she told Ugwu.
"The bunker, mah?"
"Yes, the bunker. You heard me."
"But we ca
"Did I speak with water in my mouth? I said we will stay in the bunker."
Ugwu shrugged. "Yes, mah. Should I bring Baby's food?"
She did not respond. She would slap him if he so much as smiled, because she could see the muted amusement on his face at the thought of taking a dish with Baby's pap and crawling into a damp hole in the ground to spend the day.
"Get Baby ready," she said, and turned the radio on.
"Yes, mah," Ugwu said. "O nwere igwu. I found lice eggs in her hair this morning."
"What?"
"Lice eggs. But there were only two and I did not find any others."
"Lice? What are you saying? How can Baby have lice? I keep her clean. Baby! Baby!"
Ola
"Stay still!" Ola
Baby wriggled free, ran to Ugwu, and stood there looking at Ola
Land of the rising sun, we love and cherish, Beloved homeland of our brave heroes; We must defend our lives or we shall perish. We shall protect our hearts from all our foes; But if the price is death for all we hold dear, Then let us die without a shred of fear…
They listened until it ended.
"Take her outside and stay in the veranda and be on the alert," Ola
"We are not staying in the bunker again?"
"Just take her outside to the veranda."
"Yes, mah."
Ola
"You did not go to school as well?" Ola