Story: Dance In The Graveyard - Season 1 Episode 1

8 years ago

Story: Dance In The Graveyard - Season 1 Episode 1

PREFACE

“Dance in the graveyard” is an oxymoron statement, that is not possible to happen to some extent in the real world.

A graveyard is a quiet and cool place, where mourning and burial is always the order of the day there. Where the nature of the place itself forbids drums. So how can a man dance in a graveyard? But the case of a man, Richard was like this. He was made to dance in a graveyard. #

He didn’t go to a graveyard. He was made to do what he was not suppose to do. Richard will like to tell you his story himself in the chapters of this book.

I’m Richard My name is Richard, I’m about to get married to a beautiful woman. My location right now? I will have to tell you later. About two years ago I was made to dance in a graveyard.

I know you are surprised, but that is the truth. A graveyard, a place where the leaves obey the commandment of the smooth and quiet wind. A place where the birds sings for the beautiful souls of the good in the day and where the vultures cries for the angry souls of the wicked in the night. I think I’m going too emotional. Let me tell you about myself first. I’m Richard Jones. A soldier of the federal republic of Nigeria. I really love my job. I got admitted into the NDA, Kaduna some years back. My experience there was rough, tough and fun as well. Doing a thousand push-ups was never a burden after some time. But as hectic as the work was, I could still fall in love with a beautiful lady.

Her name is Rose. Rose was different from every other lady there. “Mr. Man, I don’t have your time” that was what she always tell me whenever we are together. But saying that with her beautiful smile tells me, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Eventually, we started dating. About six months after we started dating, we graduated from the NDA. The celebration was fun-filled. But I took the opportunity to propose to Rose that day, and guess what? She said yes without delay. That was one of the happiest days of my life. Something happened that day that has never happened during any military graduation before. As we were dancing and enjoying ourselves, all of us were given letters.

We were all posted to different stations immediately. In anxiety and fear, I opened my letter and alas, I was posted to Borno state.I know it was with the intention to go and fight against terrorism in that area. I quickly went to Rose to check where she was posted, I was happy she was posted to Abuja to work as an Officer at the headquarters. Rose cried and cried when she knew that my station was Borno state. The celebration ended immediately when we all got our letters. We were asked to resume for duties the following monday. Monday came, Rose was still crying when the aircraft that will convey herself and some other colleagues was about was about to take off. “Please stay alive for me” that was the last thing she told me before she entered the aircraft. I was still trying to be a man but I didn’t know that tears was already running through my eyes.

I was afraid but I had no choice and I actually liked what I was about doing, even though I knew my life was at stack. A few hours later, a caravan came to convey myself and others that were posted to Borno state. We got to Borno state around 6:45pm, I observed that just a few of the senior soldiers were there, I was terrified, thinking most of them were dead but I was told they were transfer to Adamawa state because the terrorists were operating at a very high level in that area. “You are welcome to my camp” that was Major-General Musa Yusuf, the commandant of the camp. He continued by saying “here I’m your father, your mother, your brother and even your god. If you think you are here to stay alive, know that many are going to die for your reason. So fight for your country”. “Sir, yes sir” we replied like military men.

After the warm welcome by the commandant and the senior soldiers, we had a little military camp gyration. We were oriented and we also had fun. We were there for weeks, training hard everyday until one day when the publicity section of the camp sounded an alarm for us to get ready because terrorists were already coming. My heart was already in my mouth. Col. Yaro Yaya who was a senior colleague, led us out.
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“Just follow anything I say or you die” that was his instruction. I was afraid. “Shoot” col. Yaya commanded. I started shoot randomly and to my surprise I killed two terrorists immediately. I started building my confidence. It took us about two hours but we eventually conquered. We killed about 150 of them that day. I was so happy. I called my fiancee and I told her everything.

When we got back to the camp, we were all celebrating our victory and I observed something, Major Yusuf was not really comfortable, I could see it in his eyes as he was going straight to his tent. What will make a commandant uncomfortable at the verge of victory? Who knows? I’m tired right now, I will tell more about my story tomorrow. Bye for now

To Be Continued…