Godwin Inyang's Blog

  CHAPTER 15   THE GOATS’ BLEATS gradually became weaker as the hours went by and there was not one Ransom in sight who could help sort out their problems. Grace herself had become weak from hunger and at a point when her kids had tried to feed, she had unconsciously butted them aside. ‘But ma you said Mr Ransom is a bad man?’ the irascible young he-goat had said. ‘Do you still ask? Can’t you see he is?’ Grace replied to the kid hotly. ‘I have doubt if he truly is. When he was around we were eating round the clock!’ said the same he-goat. ‘If only we could break the door, we’d have food in surplus in the wild and eat it without ropes on our necks,’ Grace asserted. ‘And where we’re going is far, isn’t it?’ asked the young nanny goat. ‘It is,’ Grace replied and curiously looked at her. ‘We’re hungry and weak. Won’t it be punishment dragging us on such a long journey?’ asked the young nanny goat again. ‘Well, whosoever thinks of achieving a great feat must consider hunger and de...

CHAPTER 14   THE PIVOT OF THE RANSOMS’ HOUSEHOLD was down and regular activities got drawn to a standstill. Someone let out the chickens but forgot about the goats and Grace waited and waited, staring at the door to see who would open it to receive her headbutt. She looked and listened hard but it seemed the normal activities in the Ransoms’ home were drastically changing for that day. Did someone eavesdrop on her chat with her kids or did they read her mind? She had resolved what to do and no one would change her mind. Though it sounded like things she heard in her dreams but if they were real, she wondered too about the loud banging sounds. Definitely, someone was up to no good and the facts she soon would know if she would wait a bit longer in the pen. But an uprising was about to happen in the stall and no one would dare stop her. She scratched her horns on the nearby wall to show what would happen soon to the scallywags. She remembered too she had heard sounds like someone was...

CHAPTER 13   MR RANSOM STOLE OUT OF HIS HOUSE and then slipped down the path to the area of his fish pond where he buried his shotgun. He had taken his shirt off to veil the light of his torch but waited and listened for some minutes, put it on, kept it close to the ground and crawled till he reached where the gun was buried. He put the torch off and dug the earth with his bare hands till he could grab the gun's dismantled parts wrapped with polythene sheets. He pulled the bundle out, unwrapped it with great care so the polythene sheets did not make any sound, listened awhile, put the torch on and put the pieces back together. Done, he slipped a cartridge into the gun, put the torch off and crawled back to the path; then he stood up and gingerly walked to the fringes of his home. When that bastard made that rotten statement, Muscle ran around, barking and dodging as they had been trained. At the same time, Bone slipped into the farm and slunk between the stems of corn, cre...