The wound you covered will never get healed

Uncover the wound

So that it’ll be healed

Months ago, 17 years old boy who was the best student in his school was killed. He lived in his grandparents’ house, which is four compounds away from mine. I was rushing to my office while people were gathering at the scene of the crime.

I just asked one of the girls; “What’s happening here?”

“The older one killed the younger.” Said the girl. She was a house girl, she doesn’t even know the names of the boys.

As I was shocked from the worst news ever, I walked to other woman and repeat the same question.

“You know the small boy who sits by this gate? His friends killed him and through him over the fence. His families found his body on the verandah.” Said the second lady.

“Dear Lord! This can’t be true. If his friends killed him, there’s no reason to carry him and put his body over the fence. Who can kill a man and brings his body to his loved ones? Who wants to be caught red handed? If they have something to say, they can tell us. I don’t believe this.” I shouted back and left for my office.

I gave a call to my younger sister to tell her not to pass by that gate. “Take the right path to school, not the left side today. I don’t want my little niece to hear that or see anything about it. Some boy is killed and the feds are already there opening the fence to remove the body. Bye.”

The young boy has an uncle, who came back from abroad. The uncle, refused to live there, now he’s begging on the streets of Addis Ababa. He’s using addictive drugs, alcohol, some chewable addictive green leaves(Chat) and cigarettes. Everybody concluded that, the uncle killed the young boy. I also thought the same.

That day, I kept calling my sister to follow the story.

“What did you hear after the police removed his body?” I asked.

“The body was taken to the hospital. The boys hands are twisted back and tied with thick green plastic rope and also his legs are tied on his ankles. A roll of plastic bag is stuffed in his mouth and sealed with a black tape. When we enter the house, one of his aunt is crying. “The killer is among us, this rope is our cloth hanger and the remaining of the black tape is here on the dining table. He tried to kill me before. He did it to me before. I was lucky somebody cam and threw him out of my room. I was making my bed. He put the plastic bags in my mouth and fix is with a tape. He put the pillow on my face and pressed it down and waited for me to stop breathing. We’ve no enemy; he’s the one who did it.””

“That means, the uncle killed his nephew.”

“It seems so.”

I call her later to hear the news of his capture. I call one of my neighbor which is next door for the crime scene.

“How do they find his body?” I asked.

“The boy has been disappeared for about seven days. You know his mother lives in the other town. She’s divorced. Aunt A who lives here brought him to stay with her. Aunt B also comes and stays with them few days a week. The young boy use to sleep in Aunt B’s bedroom. Aunt B didn’t show up for a week this time. Last night she just came and asked aunt A. She said that she never saw him. She thought he went to his mother, but she didn’t call to check. Aunt A’s HIV positive, very sickly and stressed out. I can’t judge her for her negligence. The police said, the body stayed too long. The stomach swell and about to burst. The stench was disturbing the passersby. But everybody thought it was meat which’s buried in some corner by dogs. His skull is open from the back. He was beaten before he was killed. It looks like two people attacked him and through him behind the house where nobody can’t find.”

“Then who saw it at last?”

“Aunt B came and asks around. Since last night she was busy. She calls the boy’s mother, her younger sister. She calls the police and informed she missed her nephew. While the uncle ( the suspect) hears that, he left his house and came to our house. I opened the door for him.”

“What for?”

“They’re looking for my nephew. They’re saying police bla bla…tell them that he slept at the back of the house where none of us enter.”

“He said this to you and you went there?”

“Off course! Are you looking for the young boy? Your brother came to our house and told me the boy is sleeping between the wall and the fence where you blocked it.”

“I don’t believe this. Nobody knew where the boy is. The boy is dead and his uncle is the one who is giving the info. How come? Unless he killed that boy, he can’t say this.”

“ I asked his sisters to check the place their brother was saying. There is a way to that tiny space. When they open the crazy uncle’s bedroom’s window, the stench filled the room. And they we saw the body of the young boy.” I almost fainted. I run to the house and tell my mother. Then people started to cry, scream and mourn from terror and pity for the young beautiful and clever boy.

The boy buried his friends, the whole school, teachers and all workers attend his funeral.

We waited and waited for the criminal to be sentenced. The uncle was released later that month. The police said, they don’t find any finger print because the body stayed for a week.

His families said he commits suicide. We found a letter in his pocket which he wrote in his hand. He said he was unhappy. He hated his father. And more stories…

Anybody commit suicide, but not this way. He can tie his legs. He can stuffed his moth and stick it, but not able to twist his hands back and tie them tight and jump out of the window and sleep on his back in a very tiny space.

We all watch same movies. Killers forced people to write their last words and put the letter in the victims’ pockets, so that they can get away with it. They use gloves, how can they leave a finger print? Aunt A insists, the killer is her brother. “Put him in jail or in rehabilitation before he kill one of us again.” Her voice is unheard. She is the one who lives there always. The others come to visit and go. She lives a hell of life. HIV is killing her day by day. There’s also another killer, her own brother who threatens her.

Poor woman, aunty A!!! I grieved with his mother. I still grieved that boy. He murdered brutally, and the killer is still anonymous. Somebody hides something for some reason.

In the New Year, please let us uncover the crime around us.

I’m still crying.

Let’s begin uncover the truth.