A Collection of Short Stories
Tales-from-the-Other-Side-2015 Tales-from-the-Other-Side-2015
TJ Benson Pretty Bird She pushed aside the tinge of fear and smiled at him as he shooed off the vulture and disappeared down the well. She was relearning trust. She pressed the jacket to her chest for strength. He came out from the well with everything they would need to create some semblance of a meal. They laughed over their failed culinary experiments and soon found themselves on the floor of the kitchen, in a mess of soft, over-boiled yam. By evening however, she had mastered the electrolysis cooking system he created. This was only possible because she chased him out of the kitchen. He stumbled out, giggling when she resorted to tickling. He distracted himself from distracting her, by cleaning her ankara print wrapper and his coat. When the moon was in the centre of the sky, she brought the food served in bent metal bowls and he brought their clothes. They dined in the hut, with only the moonlight for illumination, the partial darkness heightening their senses of taste as the protective numbness wore off from their tongues. Mashed yam. Crushed roasted groundnuts. Pepper and onion sauce. Then the door of the hut was smashed in, banishing the silence of the night. Five men in war armour circled them. They came in peace, they said from behind their glass masks. Why weren’t the two of them wearing any? Gas masks were required to adjust to the surrounding oxygen, since the metabolism satellite had been deactivated. He explained that they were not aware of that instruction; they had not left their compound since they moved in. The ex-soldier who had been speaking nodded. “New information has been discovered,” he bellowed through his mask. A human or a set of humans, probably environmental care fanatics, were responsible for the control of the machines. A team of scientists and programmers had cracked the code of the computer virus program that had overridden all telecommunication systems. It revealed that the machines were man-made, not alien, as they’d first believed. Had they noticed any strange behaviour 79
Pretty Bird TJ Benson in anyone they’d met since the war ended? Suspects would be those more adjusted to the situation, those with solutions and a lack of anxiety or fear. They may have preserved some things from before the war, maybe paintings or leaves. They would be extremely knowledgeable in post-war survival, for they must have spent years in training, preparing for it. He shook his head and said no. The men turned to her and repeated their question. Bile rose to the back of her throat. The phone, she said. “What?” he asked, taking her arm and rubbing gently. She returned his gaze. The phone. The seeds. The electrolysis. He screamed as the men electrocuted him into submission, the bluish light on of the moon illuminating her face, as she calmly stared at the food. He begged her to talk to them, to say something as they chained and dragged him away. She leaned on the door and stared at the moon instead, a hand on her stomach. TJ Benson is a creative photographer and short story writer wose prose have been featured in online journals like the Kalahari Review, African Hadithi, Munyori Review, the 14 th issue of the Sentinel literary magazine and anthologies like the Contemporary Literary Review India, Paragram ‘Remember’ anthology and more recently, the Jalada Afrofuture anthology and the 118 th issue of Transition. He is the founder of www.kaanem.com, a digital art space for expression among young people. He recently completed a collection of prose-poetry and parables titled ‘The devil’s Music’. His collection of photography and poetry titled ‘Self’ would be published in 2016 and is currently at work on a novel titled ‘the Madhouse’. 80 Tales from the Other Side
- Page 38 and 39: Sibbyl Whyte Cracks customary famil
- Page 40: Sibbyl Whyte Cracks baby-snake and
- Page 43 and 44: Double Promotion Shittu Fowora Spre
- Page 45 and 46: Double Promotion Shittu Fowora She
- Page 47 and 48: Double Promotion Shittu Fowora week
- Page 49 and 50: Double Promotion Shittu Fowora For
- Page 52 and 53: Fourteen Years Bankole Banjo
- Page 54 and 55: Bankole Banjo Fourteen Years speak
- Page 56 and 57: Bankole Banjo Fourteen Years But he
- Page 58: Bankole Banjo Fourteen Years rolled
- Page 61 and 62: Jibril Olisaeloka Onyekaonwu Hide u
- Page 63 and 64: Jibril Olisaeloka Onyekaonwu I groa
- Page 65 and 66: Jibril Olisaeloka Onyekaonwu “You
- Page 68 and 69: Open Your Eyes Su’eddie Agema
- Page 70 and 71: Su’eddie Agema Open Your Eyes see
- Page 72 and 73: Su’eddie Agema Open Your Eyes shi
- Page 75 and 76: Passenger 13E Aideyan Daniel
- Page 77 and 78: Passenger 13E Aideyan Daniel ‘Bab
- Page 79 and 80: Passenger 13E Aideyan Daniel make s
- Page 81: Passenger 13E Aideyan Daniel bounde
- Page 84 and 85: TJ Benson Pretty Bird The war had j
- Page 86 and 87: TJ Benson Pretty Bird rang out in t
- Page 91 and 92: Sour Kisses Jennifer Emelife
- Page 93 and 94: Sour Kisses Jennifer Chinenye Emeli
- Page 95 and 96: Sour Kisses Jennifer Chinenye Emeli
- Page 98 and 99: The Indomie Man Michael Ogah
- Page 100 and 101: Michael Ogah The Indomie Man with m
- Page 102 and 103: Michael Ogah The Indomie Man “I
- Page 104: Michael Ogah The Indomie Man will t
- Page 107 and 108: Wanted: For fear Study Raymond Elen
- Page 109 and 110: Wanted: For fear Study Raymond Elen
- Page 111 and 112: Wanted: For fear Study Raymond Elen
- Page 114 and 115: We only die once Jumoke Omisore
- Page 116 and 117: Jumoke Omisore We only die once “
- Page 118 and 119: Jumoke Omisore We only die once “
- Page 120: Jumoke Omisore We only die once I w
- Page 123 and 124: Whispering Waters Soogun Omoniyi
- Page 125 and 126: Whispering Waters Soogun Omoniyi si
- Page 127: Whispering Waters Soogun Omoniyi
- Page 130 and 131: to the ‘writer’s block’ myth.
- Page 133 and 134: This anthology is a product of a th
Pretty Bird<br />
TJ Benson<br />
in anyone they’d met since the war ended? Suspects would be those more adjusted to<br />
the situation, those with solutions and a lack <strong>of</strong> anxiety or fear. They may have preserved<br />
some things from before the war, maybe paintings or leaves. They would be extremely<br />
knowledgeable in post-war survival, for they must have spent years in training, preparing for it.<br />
He shook his head and said no. The men turned to her and repeated their question. Bile rose<br />
to the back <strong>of</strong> her throat. The phone, she said.<br />
“What?” he asked, taking her arm and rubbing gently.<br />
She returned his gaze. The phone. The seeds. The electrolysis. He screamed as the men<br />
electrocuted him into submission, the bluish light on <strong>of</strong> the moon illuminating her face, as she<br />
calmly stared at the food. He begged her to talk to them, to say something as they chained<br />
and dragged him away. She leaned on the door and stared at the moon instead, a hand on<br />
her stomach.<br />
TJ Benson is a creative photographer and short story writer wose<br />
prose have been featured in online journals like the Kalahari Review,<br />
African Hadithi, Munyori Review, the 14 th issue <strong>of</strong> the Sentinel literary<br />
magazine and anthologies like the Contemporary Literary Review<br />
India, Paragram ‘Remember’ anthology and more recently, the Jalada<br />
Afr<strong>of</strong>uture anthology and the 118 th issue <strong>of</strong> Transition. He is the founder<br />
<strong>of</strong> www.kaanem.com, a digital art space for expression among young<br />
people. He recently completed a collection <strong>of</strong> prose-poetry and<br />
parables titled ‘The devil’s Music’. His collection <strong>of</strong> photography and<br />
poetry titled ‘Self’ would be published in 2016 and is currently at work<br />
on a novel titled ‘the Madhouse’.<br />
80<br />
Tales from the Other Side
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