The Day I Almost Lost My Brother

I just got back home from school the Friday before the Saturday that I almost lost my elder brother. I was still afraid to sleep in my room alone so I used to crash in my brothers’ room. I was Twelve years old.

I remember that dreadful Saturday morning like it was yesterday. I woke up after Wisdom had constantly kicked my head in his sleep. Wisdom and I began reading books as was our usual tradition every Saturday morning when there was no light. We realised that Winner, our elder brother was still asleep but it wasn’t that weird cos, Winner sleeps plus he had been slightly ill the past few days.

After a couple of hours, we decided to wake Winner up and when he did wake up, he asked Wisdom to get him some cold water. Wisdom, who wasn’t pleased with being ordered to go all the way downstairs just to get his sleepy brother water, refused.

After a while, I noticed that my elder brother had his mouth slightly open and I was worried, so I woke him up again. This time, he didn’t respond. Wisdom took that as an opportunity to do all the annoying things he could possibly think of to Winner to get him to stop ‘pretending’, but Winner did not budge.

Being the soft hearted person that I was, I began to freak out. I shook him again to wake up and when he did not, I ran to my parents room. I did not bother knocking as I barged into the room and met them laughing about something. I looked at them and said as calmly as I could manage;

‘We’ve been trying to wake Winner up but he’s pretending like he’s dead’

My mother jumped from the bed and ran to Winner’s room. She stood at the door and shouted, ‘Winner, Winner!’. Of course, Winner remained very still. Next thing, my mother ran out and was screaming at the top of her lungs ‘Deji, Deji, ko da mi loun o’. My father ran to Winner and began shaking him. As my father was trying to shake him awake, my mother looked at me and screamed for me to go get the Anointing oil. I ran to her room and searched and searched for the bottle of oil but I didn’t see it. She came in, pushed me away and picked it up from right in front of me. I had no idea how I missed it.

By the time I got to the room, I knew all hope was lost. Wisdom was crying and shouting ‘My brother, my brother’ while I stood very still, thinking about how with my brother gone, I would automatically be the first born and have to carry on with his legacy and be responsible for Wisdom. I saw his coffin being lowered into the ground and people crying all around me. Surprisingly, I stayed very still. It couldn’t be true, if my brother died, I’d die too.

By this time, my dad was pouring the oil into his mouth and slapping him silly. Suddenly, Winner woke up and managed a little ‘Yes? Why are you calling me?’. That was when I cried.

I heard my dad saying to my mum that he had already stopped breathing and it was a miracle.

Throughout that day, I sat beside Winner and watched him as he slept. After letting him sleep for five minutes, I’d wake him up and ask him to play with me. He’d whine and say that I should leave him alone because he wanted to sleep and I’d tell him that he had slept enough. I sat beside him until my mother pulled me away and told me not to worry, that he was alright.

A few days later, I asked him if he saw Heaven or Hell and he replied saying he didn’t know what I was talking about because he was simply asleep.