PEARLS

  By Kehinde Adedeji Whenever harrowing death news of the people I know well is broken to me, I deeply imagine how life had eloped from the confines of their bodies. Or it didn't elope but leave slowly? Like a newly born snake slithering from its hole? Taking its time? I always picture how they breathed their last breath, how the colourless silent gas escaped from their nostrils, how they wriggled to wrench their hearts from fangs of death. Was it a tug of war? Or did they give in and offer it to HIM willingly like a sacrifice? Tired of bearing it? I knew Opeyemi for the first time in early 2022, during the pre-ASUU strike days and our "knowing each other" stretched through the ASUU strike days, spanning months. I wouldn't say he was my "friend" friend but we used to talk a lot. Most times in the late evenings when he was back from work. Our discussions would stretch into hours, reaching late at night until his mother come outside to sound warning to him; th...