The Ilorin Shock EPISODE 16

Episode Sixteen: When the Past Walked Past Us

Even after we entered a new house, the past refused to disappear.

Mallam Babulhameen’s house brought peace, structure, and learning. The days were different now calmer mornings, clear rules, and a kind of discipline that didn’t come with fear. Slowly, our bodies relaxed, but our memories did not.

Because every morning, the past walked past us.

Our former teacher’s children used the same road to their school. It was not their choice. It was compulsory. That road passed directly by our new teacher’s house.

We didn’t go their way.

But they came ours.

Every single school day.

At first, it was just shadows figures moving past the gate. Then faces became clearer. Voices became familiar. Laughter we recognized too well.

The same boys.

The same eyes that once watched us suffer.

Seeing them felt like reopening a wound that had barely closed. My heart would tighten without warning. My brother noticed it too. Sometimes we would freeze in the middle of our chores when we heard their footsteps.

Nobody said anything.

But everything was felt.

They didn’t greet us. They didn’t insult us either. That silence was worse. It felt like they were reminding us that they still existed that what happened had not been erased.

Some days, they would slow down as they passed.

Some days, they would look back.

Some days, they laughed loudly, as if the sound itself was meant to reach us.

Even though nothing happened, my mind would travel back back to koboko, hunger, fear, nights of crying quietly. I would ask myself,

What if something starts again?

What if they tell lies?

What if they bring trouble to this new peace?

But here was the difference.

This house was not weak.

Mallam Babulhameen noticed everything even what was not spoken. One day, he asked us gently why our eyes always followed the road at a certain time each morning. We didn’t say much, but he understood enough.

He told us something I will never forget:

“Where you are now is not where you were before. Let the past pass. It cannot enter here.”

Those words became a shield.

Still, healing is not instant.

Some mornings, my brother and I would deliberately stay inside until they passed. Other times, we continued our work, pretending not to notice them. Each day was a test of courage, of memory, of trust in this new place.

Slowly, the fear began to shrink.

They still passed.

But they no longer ruled our minds.

Their presence became noise instead of threat.

What once controlled us now only reminded us how far we had come.

The past tried to return not with violence, but with presence.

And this time, it failed.

Because we were no longer children with nowhere to hide.

We had found a place that protected us.

Yet deep inside, I knew 

The past had not finished testing us.

It was only watching.

Waiting.

To be continued…Episode 17