Voice of the Universe

Dele hardly has nightmares but whenever he does, they come to reality. First, it happened with his little sister, he saw her fall from the couch, hitting her head on the ground with little intensity, yet she stopped breathing. All efforts to preserve her life proved abortive. He got up from that terrible dream and dismissed it as just a nightmare. “Nothing is going to happen to Kemi, not when we’re extra careful,” he told himself convincingly. But it happened. Exactly one month later. The same scene replayed in his mind as the crucial moment drew nearer. She was smiling and jumping on the couch while watching Barney on TV. A sense of déjà vu hit him as Barney started singing to the kids, that was exactly what he saw in the dream moments before her fall, and it happened again. She fell, head first to the ground and stopped breathing. Kemi was just three years old, how cruel. Dele was distraught, he was fond of Kemi, his only sibling, yet couldn’t change the harsh fate that befell her. Maybe knowing is not enough, acting is. Maybe he could have altered her fate if he, at least, tried to change the scenario, but he was naïve and his sister’s blood lies on his hands forever. 

The next time he had such mind-shattering nightmare was on his tenth birthday. You only expect beautiful things on your birthdays right? Not in Dele’s case. It was Mrs Onyinye’s turn, his class teacher in primary six. She’s so lovely that Dele addressed her as the grandmother he never had. Then tragedy struck. As with Kemi’s case, Dele saw it too but didn’t pay any attention to it.  How pathetic. Lightening doesn’t strike twice, but Dele makes it happen. It was a rainy day and the floor of the corridor that leads to the classrooms was wet, the ‘wet floor, caution’ signage was not on display for no apparent reason. Mrs Onyinye stepped out to answer the call of nature and Dele sensed it yet again. He had seen this scene before and it turned out bad. He wanted to tell her to stay in class for a moment but for what reason if he was asked. He let her go. Another wrong call, another fatal mistake. About ten seconds later, they heard a loud scream, it was Mrs Onyinye, she had slipped on the wet floor, twisted a leg around the guard rail and broke the leg. That was exactly what Dele saw, how could he let it happen again? Knowing is not enough, acting is. If only he didn’t see them before. It’s unbelievable. It’s like seeing a movie twice, obviously, you can’t stop what happened from not happening again.  

He vowed to never let it happen again when next he sees a disaster waiting to happen. “I would do something. Maybe I’ve been seeing them for a reason, to turn the situation around entirely, I would act,” a fired up Dele told himself. 

With a loud scream, a teenage Dele got up from his night-long sleep. It was another terrible nightmare that got tears rolling down his cheek. It was his mom’s turn. Their house was broken into by some mysterious armed men. They all had masks on except one person who seem to be their leader. His dad was away on business trip so it was just Dele and his Mom. All they asked for was the location of a mysterious 14th century artifact. She told them that she had no idea what they were talking about and without another word, she was shot in the head. Dele went to his Mom immediately to enquire about the artifact much to her surprise. He explained her nightmare to her and pleaded with her to hand it over should the moment arrive. He told her about Kemi and Mrs Onyinye but she wasn’t convinced. Apparently, the artifact is a family legacy passed on for generations. “Please mom, just hand it over, I can’t even think of losing you,” he pleaded and she finally agreed. 

It happened three days later, the first two had more time, Kemi’s was a month and Mrs Onyinye’s was two weeks, so, it’s safe to say that there’s no standard lag time between his nightmares and reality. The mysterious masked men powered through the doors and had Dele and his mom at their mercy in no time, like he’d seen before. The leader asked for the artifact and Dele's mom revealed the location as planned, no drama. “Thank you, you’re a good woman,” he told Dele’s mom. They all left the house and Dele was delighted to finally thwart one misfortune befalling someone he holds dear. That has been his duty, to protect them. He has failed twice but now he’s righting his wrongs.

Just as he was about to let out a scream of excitement, he heard strange sounds coming from the far right. Dele heard a gunshot and the next thing that materialized in front of him was his mom drowning in a pool of blood. Then, one masked man appeared, he didn’t leave when the others left and he shot Dele’s mom in the head before she can contact other custodians of the artifact. 

What just happened? That wasn’t what he saw. She was shot because she tried to play smart, now she yielded to their request but still got shot. He left Dele alone to bear the loss of his mom as he finally left. Dele acted but still couldn’t help. There and then he reached a conclusion, the universe makes its decision and toys with some hearts making them think of themselves as superheroes. He felt stupid for thinking he could alter what the Universe had in place already. On the plus side, he knew he can sleep peacefully now that it has become clear that he couldn’t have done anything about Kemi or Mrs Onyinye. 

You would agree with me that one of the most painful emotions in life is knowing that you’ve done your best, still, it wasn’t enough.