It happened again during the late-night dinner. Hungry fingers dipped the plate as my mother watched who violated their turns. I used to wonder why my sister did not eat much whenever we ate together. “I will learn the truth from her lies”, I told myself. She was adjusting the edge of the mat she brought out from the dark stuffy room when I asked her, “Piko nwa, you don’t have appetite like us”. Looking at the mosquito she killed with a clap of her hand, she told me, “I am the cook of the house. The aroma fills my nose and stomach when I cook”. Yes, I knew what she always did. She always ate to her fill from the pot when she cooked. I yawned and slept beside her.

That day and days to come, the fluid will be part of what I have inside me. The shop owner before he left to deliver a package told me to keep an eye over his shop. Down the street was the white bus of the Internal Revenue Board. It didn’t matter if the shop owner had paid his dues or not. I had to lock the shop and stood beside it in the fashion of waiting for someone. One of them walked up to me with a frowned face.

“Where is the owner?” That fluid showed me a burial poster on the wall.

“That’s the owner”. I pointed to the poster. “He died months ago”. The shop owner was saved because of that fluid.

Then today, I saw the handwritten warning: “Don’t urinate here. Fine #200”. I knew the fluid was still flowing. I unzipped my short, bringing out my outlet pipe. I saw the Police man coming from afar when I directed my pipe to another position a bit far from the first spot.

“Mr. Man, can’t you read this?” He said, pointing to the written notice on the wall. People started to gather.

“It’s only a small child that urinates in two places when he pours water with his pipe as play,” I replied, gazing at him. “You did this other one”. I got the support of the crowd.

Today, I am the street lord.

Mbenma Esther is of the department of English and Literary Studies. She fears and loves God. Something she does not know inspires her to write; perhaps she will explain these things later.