Image is AI generated
A sudden cold shock ran from my feet to the crown of my head as the police officer led me down the dank corridor as he led me to the cell room. It felt unreal. I just couldn’t imagine myself there.
A peculiar smell of urine filled the corridor. For a moment, I wondered if they were taking me to the urinal or a place they do some kind of bodily exercise I haven’t heard of yet. Oh, no, that was the cell room and the smell was coming right from there.
As we drew near the cell, I saw the fortified iron bars masquerading as a door. The police officer brought out a set of keys from his pocket, clicked open the padlocks one after another as I waited behind him, with my brain roaming with wild thoughts at lightning speed. It dawned on me that this was indeed real and that I would soon be locked inside a cell. I felt a fear I couldn't explain immediately – it was the fear of the unknown!
When the door creaked open on its hinges, I was shoved into the semi-dark room. I could see about nine other people in the room, some laying on the floor, others were sitting. With my addition, there were ten of us in a very small cell. Complete silence greeted me as I entered the room and in a way, that amplified my fear more than any word could have.
As if to break the ice, before I could say “Hello people”, a rather rough and loud voice broke through the suffocating silence. “What have you brought for us?”, one of the detainee who I guess could be the senior in the cell asked, his gaze sharp and piercing; another added, “How much do you have in your pocket?” I mustered up the little courage in me and stamered “Nothing, I have nothing!”
Everyone in the cell went quiet again, and slowly turned away to lie down. I looked around for an empty spot, then collapsed on the floor with a sound like an earthquake. I didn’t sleep at all that night, not even a single minute.
I kept imaging my soft mattress back home, my large bedroom, my cozy pillows, and now I am trying to find sleep on this hard, bare floor.
To compound matters, there was this unbearable smell of poo mixed with urine and the presence of an uncovered toilet right in the room where the detainees could poo and urinate when pressed. Imagine sleeping in a small crowded room with someone defecating right next to you! It is a situation I wish no soul. It is a lasting memory I would carry for a long time, and one which has made me see the world differently.
I know you may be wondering how on earth I find myself in such a place like the police cell; but as they say, life can take a funny twist and change your orientation in a single minute like a pendulum swing. Had anyone told me a week ago that my life could have anything to do with law enforcement officers, let alone end up spending the night behind those bars, I would have told the person he/she is a liar straight away.
As a God-fearing person, I have lived a life, I think, fairly on course. I have always stayed away from troubles. For over four decades of my existence on planet earth, I had never stepped foot into a police station for any matter.
However, few days ago, a uniformed officer, together with some young man, storm into our house in possession of an arrest warrant issued for my daughter. According to the young man, who said he's the director of the company that my daughter was working for, at the time of her employment some items went missing in the office amounting to the sum of over half a million of our local currency. It was agreed that, the staff of that company will start repaying same by way of monthly deduction from their salary for five months.
Unbeknown to all, particularly to me as her father, my daughter never agreed to this scheme nor told me about it.
She got another offer with much better prospects about a month into the scheme of repayment, and left the former organization in a hurry, without formally completing her repayment plan. This action prompted the arrest warrant. My daughter was not around when the officer arrived, so as her guarantor, I was taken into custody on her behalf. And that led to my being dragged into a cell, late into the night.
Life truly teaches us lessons in unimaginable ways. In one night, I discovered dimensions of human existence I never dreamt I’ll get to know as one with no stain of the law. I learnt how life can change from comfort to utter discomfort, and how very important it is to be conversant with the activities of people closely associated with us. By grace, I am out, and will surely never forget the experience all my life.
