Beyond Irinajo (A FICTION) 🧳

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Noise and more noise kept polluting the air in the town of Irinajo. There are no words to describe the reason for the loud sounds. Like a music unpleasant to the ears, there is this harmony well unified by children as sopranos, car engines as altos, and the deep voice of animals reared enough to form a headache for the healthiest being! Henry had been in the town for more than 4 years, and his imaginations on the unpleasant music ran wild. A new menace emerged: “Hi Henry, let’s go have some fun, man!” Kudus, one of Henry’s friends, shouted at him from outside his house. Henry has a lot of friends, but his closest friends in the whole of Irinajo are just three: Kudus, Ibikunle, and Ifajimi. These ‘troublesome artificial quadruplets’, as they are popularly called by all the folks in the town, are one of the most feared cliques in Irinajo Town.

Henry took his shirt and joined his friends as they moved to the town’s pub, where they normally drink to stupor any evening they feel like. But on this day, Henry felt a bit different and was busy thinking about his earlier imagination about the noise in Irinajo town. “What has changed?”, he thought to himself. “Are you pregnant for your girlfriend? You’ve been avoiding this chilled dosage since we got here”, Ibikunle taunted at Henry with a suspicious but funny look. He had never seen his friend so moody. “I think he needs a change of Eve; he’s been too stuck with that fine chick, and he’s considering marriage after impregnating her, I guess”, Ifajimi added while Kudus joined them in laughing at Henry. Henry couldn’t give a response to their inquiries; he was only shocked at how wrong and out of point his friend’s imaginations were. He is busy thinking about how noisy the town is, but they couldn’t even see beyond their table of beers!

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The clique normally leaves the bar with a lady each, but tonight, Henry didn’t drink too much and was still pondering a solution to his noisy thoughts. Although the lady Ifajimi was referring to, Shekinat, has captured Henry’s heart one way or another, but that is not his reason for not getting a girl that night. Henry kept wondering after waving his friends goodbye and facing his way home. “Who could have thought that Irinajo would turn out to be a busy place both day and night?” The loud horn of a moving train passing by almost sent him running, interrupting his feelings. After recovering from the shock, Henry wondered why the scary horn had to be at that moment.

“Pafun! Pafun!”, the loud, sharp sound came running into Henry’s ears. This time, he almost jumped out of his skin, as he was just recovering from the train’s harassment. The sharp sound was like those made by yogurt sellers in Irinajo. But it’s night already, so this wasn’t expected. Henry was already on the floor because he jumped in fear as he tried to run from whatever it was. “Ha ha ha, I got you, sweetie!” The female voice was so familiar, and Henry prayed it wasn’t who he thought it was, but as he turned, he discovered his prayers were unanswered—it's Shekinat holding a trumpet prop! “I think you just lost me!”, Henry angrily replied as he was dusting off the sand off his trousers. “Common, don’t be like that; it was just a romantic prank, don’t you get it?”, Shekinat said in her defense. But all fell on deaf ears. “I don’t want to ever see you again!” As Henry made his stance known and left angrily, Shekinat could only watch, as she had never seen him in such a mood.

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As Henry got to his bed, he knew he had to find a solution to his problems, which were mostly the noise, his clique, and his lifestyle. He resolved to relocate to neighboring towns or whatever is at the back of the beyond of Irinajo. He heard there is a place called Irinkerindo but wasn’t sure if the noise there is the same as in Irinajo town. “At least, I’ll start a new life and move away from this environment”, he said to himself. Before he could conclude his thoughts, two big mosquitoes buzzed in his ears. His frustration was like that of a new baby who could only communicate with loud cries. “Can I ever run from noise totally?!”, Henry cried as he started packing his bags to leave the town the following morning.