I've heard about incidents of armed robbers. They all seemed like fairy tales to me, not the movie played out right in front of my very eyes.
It was around 8 pm. It wasn't too long ago when we just had dinner. It was a bit of of hot evening during the summer. The power was out which even made things worse. It was still the time we used the lamp which had an oil rig which we lit to produce light in the sitting room where my siblings and I were. Mom and dad where at the corridor sitting on top of the trunk of my dad's car while they were both involved in some series of gists and also received fresh air.
The heat inside started to become unbearable, I decided to join mom and dad outside to receive my own share of the evening breeze. But as I was about stepping out through the open front door I saw my dad dashing into the living room from outside with my mom. I still remember it clearly in my head like it was yesterday, how dad yelled as he moved towards me:
"Go inside, now! Go inside!"
I quickly retreated as they both made it into the living and less than two seconds my dad bolted the door and locked it. I was terrified. "What exactly was going on?", I asked myself. Not up to five seconds later a series of loud bangs landed on our front door as very deep masculine voice across yelled:
"Open the door!"
I became even terrified. Dad stood firmly at the door with his back against it as though to form a shield should incase the door collapses. I still was not sure what was going on because the voice across kept yelling that we open the door, claiming to be a police officer who came for investigation. At that time I guess I was to young to see anything wrong with that statement, maybe it was indeed a police officer who came to do his job, until I heard my dad say:
"Investigation by this time?"
That's when I knew something was definitely not right. We were under siege by armed robbers. My heart began to raise like I had just ran a hundred meter race. The only smell I could perceive in the living room at that moment was that of fear. In low tones all I kept hearing was "Jesus! Jesus! Jesus!". The banging on the door continued.
"Open the door! Oh, you don't want to open the door, right? Okay. Or do you want me to go and get my boys? Alright, I'm going to get them", said the man at the other side of the front door.
Now, I was a lot more terrified. What was going to happen if he should bring his boys over? Are they going to break down the door and make their way in? O could only imagine how furious they would be for having to make it into our living room that way instead of succumbing to their command.
This was just me in the living room with my family while a voice which echoed at the other side of the front door was able to instill terror and fear within me. At that point I just couldn't help but imagine how people who had the robbers in their midst putting on masks and being faced with guns would have felt. We lived in a compound that had six flats which contained families each but it felt like they had all gone on vacation because of the deafening silence that roamed the whole compound.
The "boogie man" had left with the promise to return back with his boys but it was over half and hour now and we hadn't gotten any feedback from him. Still terrified and unsure their schemes everyone remained indoors with their of houses. Some minutes later I began to hear opening of doors across the compound and faint whispers like, "Where are they? Are they gone?" It didn't take long before everyone was out of their houses with tension written all over everyone's faces even though some of them tried to wipe it off with some unrealistic laughter.
Next minute we heard a loud knock on the gate made all the women and children and even come men try to make their way back into their houses except for some men who stood at their spots and shouted with a loud voice,
"Who is it?"
"It's the police", came the reply.
This time we could trust it was the police because it was over an hour the robbers left and some in the compound had put a call across to the police. Just about then that was when the power came back on which attracted some insults from the angry and terrified neighbors for having to bring it at that time when everyone could only care less about it.
After all was said and done we all retired to our houses. That night I literally slept with one eye opened and the other closed. It wasn't like anything I had ever experienced. We just entertained robbers in our compound. Beginning from that day we became security cautious by ensuring we kept the gate locked by latest 10pm. Truly, experience tells a much better story.
