The Bush Baby

“So if I hear you correctly, you are saying that when you try to go to bed every night, you hear the sound of a baby crying? Did I get that right?”

“Yes… every night when I lay down to sleep. I-I hear it. The bush baby. Crying.”

“Bushbaby? Isn’t that the myth you briefly mentioned during our first session? The one used to keep young children in check at night? I remember hearing something like that during my secondary school days too. Are you trying to tell me that you still hear it at night?”

I knew the therapist in front of me was starting to doubt my sanity but I also knew what I heard. The bush baby phenomenon was no myth. At least not to my ears which had been hearing its cries every night in the past month. It was slowly driving me crazy.

“Yeah, it’s a popular myth that they mostly tell school children. Especially kids in boarding schools. However, there are many stories to this myth. Some people believe that answering the bush baby or seeing it can kill you. Others believe that the bush baby wears a rag cloth and carries around a mat. Collecting the mat from the bush baby is said to bring unfathomable wealth to the person.”

She was still looking at me like I might require better mental health treatment than the one she was providing. I shifted uncomfortably in my seat and eyed her wearily from the corner of my eyes.

The aroma from the cup of hot chamomile tea was calming enough, but I couldn’t shake the uneasiness off my shoulders. It felt like something was pressing down on it as I sat there.

“Are you also experiencing what I’m feeling right now?”

The pain in my shoulder seemed to be increasing by the second. It felt like I had been ladened with a bag of rice.

“What are you experiencing right now? I feel perfectly fine. What are you feeling right now? Why do you suddenly look so stressed?!”

“I… don’t… know.”

Ralia rushed over to my side as I fell asleep on the couch. I wasn’t sure if it was the calming effect of the chamomile tea or the sudden imaginary weight-lifting exercise I had just experienced but I saw myself fading slowly into a gentle slumber.

As my eyelashes fanned desperately to clear the sleep from my eyes, I caught the faint outline of a little creature holding a small mat. It looked at me and grinned mischievously before disappearing.

***

“Don’t come close to me. Go away! I’m going to hurt you if you take any step forward! I’m not joking! Step back!

Ahhhh!!!”

The entire room seemed to double out before joining together again to form a complete image in my retina. My head hurt like the sack of rice was shifted from my shoulder to the centre of my head.

“W-Where am I? Owww… it hurts so much. My brain feels like it’s shaking inside my skull. What happened to me?”

Ralia held my hands in hers and she continued to examine my entire body as I spoke. After checking my temperature and blood pressure, she started asking me questions about my earlier incident.

“So… Leah… would you like to talk about what happened earlier or would you rather stay quiet about it? It seemed like something was going on but you were the only one experiencing it. Can you describe how you felt at the time? You can take your time before you answer. I know it must have been a lot for you.”

“I… I saw it.”

“What? What did you see Leah?”

“The bush baby.”

I watched as Ralia’s eyes popped open in fright. Her eyeballs looked like they were about to jump out of their sockets.

“You mean to say that the bush baby you’ve been hearing for weeks showed up here? You really saw it here?!”

“Yes.”

A long silence.

She looked like she was contemplating sending me out of her house or leaving me in. I couldn’t blame her because I would have thought about the same thing.

After all na money she dey find. E no mean say she go come carry curse on top her head.

“I think I should start going home now. I came here to get help but it looks like I’m only causing you more trouble. Thank you for your time and help so far. I don’t think I’ll be returning for another session after tonight.”

As I picked myself up and took shaky steps towards the door, I felt a sharp wind move past me to lock the door. It was as if there was another entity in the room.

Fear crippled me to my spot as I turned around slowly, afraid of what I might find behind me if I looked back. Suddenly, the story of Lot’s wife flashed through my mind and I contemplated not looking back anymore.

Still, there was something about human curiosity that made you want to know. Even if it would end up destroying you. I held my breath and made my 180° turn to catch Ralia smiling wickedly.

“Where do you think you are going, dearest Leah?”

For a second, I saw something black dressed in a red rag smiling at me and it was perched on Ralia’s shoulder.

“R-Ra-Ralia… I know this sounds crazy and you won’t believe me, b-but I swear I just saw the bush baby smile on your shoulder! I…”

“… I know.”

Does she know?! What does she mean by she knows?

“I don’t understand. What do you mean? I thought you didn’t believe in their existence? All these while, I had been coming for counselling, yet you had been telling me that I was hallucinating. Hell, you even prescribed selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors just so I could sleep well and relax.”

“I did.”

“So what’s all this bullshit? Are you trying to get me to doubt my sanity?! What the hell is going on?!”

She let out a peal of long evil laughter that made Maleficent blush in comparison. For some very strange reason, I started feeling afraid. Very afraid.

“You still don’t get it, do you? You don’t remember? Or was I so insignificant that I am not worth remembering at all?!”

Remember? Is she trying to insinuate that I knew her before? I don’t understand.

“Remember? Do I know you? Have we met before I started having therapy with you?”

As much as she tried to mask it, I could see the frustration in her eyes. It looked like she really expected me to remember her but I couldn’t.

“Well, honestly speaking, I didn’t expect you to remember me. So, I’m not surprised at all right now.”

If you didn’t expect me to remember why the hell are you now making a big deal out of my forgetfulness?!

“Alright then, I guess I’ll have to reintroduce myself to you.”

I held my breath as I waited to find out who the woman in front of me really was to have apparently held a grudge against me when I didn’t even know who she was.

Time stood still as I waited for my moment of epiphany. I didn’t know what to expect so I didn’t bother trying to make guesses.

“It’s me. Ralia.”

Wait, what? Is this bitch messing with me? What does she mean by she’s Ralia? Isn’t that what she introduced herself as before? I don’t understand.

“Ralia Rahman.”

It was then that it hit me. Ralia Rahman was my classmate in high school. It was a boarding school and we were not only seatmates but also bunkmates. She had suddenly disappeared from school and nobody had heard anything about her again. She never attended any of our class reunions and we all assumed she had travelled abroad.

“Oh my gosh. Ralia! Where have you been?! You disappeared without informing anyone. We were worried at first then we assumed you travelled out of the country! Where did you travel to? When did you arrive?! Babe, Ismail searched all over Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for you. It’s like you disappeared off the surface of the earth. He was so hurt then.”

“This must be funny to you uhn? Do you think I’m doing all this so we can have a sweet bunkie reunion?! Bitch, you destroyed my life! How dare you forget and try to act like everything is okay between us after what you did?!”

What I did?! What did I do? Ralia and I were literally like besties in school. We were like sisters. I don’t understand why she is pissed right now.

“Everything I did? What did I do?”

Ralia’s face was starting to take on a dark pink shade. Even a blind man could tell how angry she was from the air that blew past her. It felt cold and eerie like someone had suddenly transported us to an empty, old, haunted house.

“I guess some people can still go about their normal lives after destroying someone else’s. I guess you’re allowed to go about happily if your heart is dark enough to move on after abandoning someone to die.”

What’s she talking about?? Me? Abandoned someone to die? Destroyed someone’s life?

“It seems I hurt you a lot, but I honestly still don’t remember what you are talking about. How did I hurt you, Ralia? Even though I can’t remember, I’d like to right my wrongs with you. We were seatmates and bunkmates in high school. We lived off each other’s provisions and fought off wicked seniors together. If I did hurt you, it wasn’t intentional.”

Ralia continued to stare at me like I was the most disgusting thing in the world. I could smell the hatred oozing out of her body and my body started quivering subconsciously. Something felt off about her.

It was hard to place a finger on it but I could feel an otherworldly presence around her– as if something else was in the room with us.

“I guess you really don’t remember then. No matter, that’s not an issue. I’ll just have to remind you. Do you remember the night of the bush baby incident? That night when you tricked me into answering its cry because it was disturbing your concentration while we were trying to read for exams?”

Oh my God.

“Y-Yes?”

She took a very deep breath and suddenly wore the most evil grin I had ever seen.

“When I went outside to see what was crying, I immediately got whisked away by some human traffickers and got shipped abroad. I was used as a sex slave to pleasure wealthy, sexually depraved Arabians for about five years. Believe me, you don’t want to know the shit those people did to me to satisfy their fetishes…”

“I’m so sor…”

“Shut the fuck up! I’m the one talking right now! Th-Those bastards puked on me, took turns to take a shit on me, forced me to open my mouth like a toilet so they could pee directly into it. Lol, they even made a game about it to see who could pee the farthest, and placed bets in six zeros.”

I didn’t know if I should comfort her or not because I felt the need to say something but I didn’t want to aggravate her. I decided to remain quiet. When she was done completely I would give her my sincere apologies.

I was feeling really guilty at the moment. If I hadn’t told her to help me check what was disturbing me that night, she would have led a different life altogether. She would have grown up to become a happy woman.

Instead, she was kidnapped and abused in the worst possible ways, now she wanted to take revenge on me. She had led a life of hatred and vengeance because of a single mistake of an ignorant fifteen-year-old. Maybe I did deserve whatever she was going to do to me. In any way, it definitely wouldn’t compare to the world of pain she had had to deal with.

“Anyway, one night during my night shift at a local motel I met an old Nigerian woman and she took me in. I had managed to escape from my captors after three years of unimaginable torture. I told her my entire story and my desire for revenge.

She empathized with me and told me she would be travelling to Nigeria in a few years, but she would only take me along if I worked hard enough. I shuffled various part-time jobs for a year, after which she decided to sponsor me to college.

I continued to work part-time jobs and went to college to study psychology. Upon my graduation, she announced we were coming back to Nigeria. You don’t know how excited I was to finally carry out my revenge. I was able to survive everything I went through because of this day– the day I enact my revenge on you for destroying my life!”

She’s only lived up to this point so she could kill me. Forget talking your way out of this Leah, you’d be lucky enough to fight for your life. This girl has gone psycho.

“You’re a therapist. Why didn’t you just get professional help and move on with your life? Why did you only live so you could kill?”

Another evil grin, followed by an evil witch’s laughter.

“Turns out the poor old woman was filthy rich. I was expecting her to take us to a two-bedroom apartment in the trenches, but you should have seen the shock on my face when we got to her mansion in Ikoyi. She led me to a secret room in the house and that was where I met it.”

“It?”

“Yes. The bush baby.”

My bloodshot eyes widened even more in shock as I propped forward involuntarily. I could feel my hands trembling beside my thighs.

The bush baby myth that our seniors used to tease us so we wouldn’t slack off during night prep was real?!

“S-So, you mean to say th-that you saw the bush baby that night?”

“Yes.”

Oh my God. It really exists.

“Although it disappeared immediately after I saw it and I picked up its mat. In the same way, the old woman disappeared immediately after showing me the secret room, leaving me with her mansion and around seven zeros in my account. Do you remember that myth that stated that if you could collect its’ mat, the bush baby would grant you unimaginable riches? Turns out it was true.”

This time her laughter sounded more like a cackle. She was gradually appearing more dangerous and I needed to find a way to escape before she could carry out her revenge.

She dragged me by my hair and threw me to the floor with more strength than her tiny body could have promised.

“Now, dearest Leah. How shall I kill you? I’ve been so caught up trying to get to you so I could kill you, that I haven’t thought about how to kill you. Oh my gosh, I’m so excited! I’ll go get my knife.”

As soon as she turned to head for the kitchen, I immediately made for the door. Just as I was about to claim my victory, I saw a tiny furry creature in red clothes. Its long hairy tail wrapped around my legs as my eyes met its huge bright eyes.

A bushbaby! What the fuck?!

“I see you’ve met Tareeq. You know, Tareeq means “he who pounds at the door” in Arabic. A fitting name, don’t you think? I did some research on bush babies after the old woman disappeared. Turns out they are real. It’s an animal called a galago. I know it’s different from the one I met that night because animals don’t have superpowers to make them disappear. Lol.”

The joke was only funny to her. All I could think of was the huge butcher knife she was swinging wildly as she was gesticulating.

I need to escape. I need to fucking escape. This bitch plans to kill me!

“Now, my dear. How would you like us to end this?”

All images are sourced from unsplash