Harrow Palm

It is seven a.m. on a Sunday morning, which means it is church time. Aliayah quickly rushes out of the door to meet her family already waiting outside.

“I'm here!”

She says. The others look at her and different comments fly out.

“You're here, after six hundred years!”

“We're late at least by thirteen minutes! If you make me miss out on ministration today, hmph! Well, I better not miss it!”

“What were you doing inside since?”

Aliayah doesn't seem too bothered by their comments. She hurries past them immediately, as though they're the ones wasting time now.

“Come on! We're late! What're you all doing?!”

Seeing her enthusiasm, her father only chuckles and follows after. The rest follow along too. The crew consist of her, her father, her sister, her brother, and her mother. Together, they get to the street and stop a vehicle. Aliayah enters while asking,

“Tafura junction, how much?”

“#500”

“#500?!”

The driver's words puzzle Aliayah, who promptly begins to disembark the vehicle she just entered. Seeing his customer leaving, the driver compromises.

“#300. Last price”

Aliayah glares at him, then sits back down in the vehicle, moving to the utmost end of the back seat so her family members can get space to sit down.

“You for carry for 500.”

“Abeg enter, make we dey go.”

The driver was already slightly displeased he didn't manage to charge them higher, so her comment just made him more angry. Aliayah doesn't push it any more, they already got the price they wanted. The journey would have been silent and peaceful, if not for her sister, Dije, who decides to practice her head voice. Her brother doesn't miss out on this opportunity to give a remark.

“If you keep going on like this, by the time we're at church, you will have lost all your voice.”

Dije strikes back.

“Eh, what do you know? You with that your frog voice. What do you know about singing?”

“Hey! Dije. Don't insult your brother! Is that the same mouth you'll use to minister to the Lord's people today?”

The father sternly warns from the front seat, causing Aliayah to hide her laughter with her hands. Dije said her brother had a frog voice. Uncalled for, but she wasn't all wrong. The brother is defeated, so he stays silent, and only Dije's head voice practice remains. Soon, they get to the church, and get out of the vehicle.

The church is an average sized one, capable of hosting about a thousand members. Outside the gates of the church, and in the compound, are a few security personnel wielding guns. Apparently, this area had been subject to terrorism in the past, though the church had always been spared.

Resting above the door of the church building, is a branch of date palm bent into an arc. It's palm Sunday, and some fellow church members can be seen carrying palm leaves, some have it attached to their head ties, others come empty.

Dije remembers she's supposed to have one too as a chorister, but she had totally forgotten. Taking a glance at the date palm tree just outside the church, she rushes over, takes a little leaf and attaches it to her head tie. Looking into the hall, she sees the choristers are already standing up, ready for ministration, so she rushes in. Seeing her neatly slide into the group of ministers, the choir master shakes his head, disappointed in her lateness. She smiles and begs for his forgiveness without words, rubbing both her palms together. The choir master takes his gaze away from her, choosing to overlook it for now, and the ministration begins.

Aliayah and the others enter the church a little after it begins, and find seats at the back, directed by some ushers.

The choir's song continues, and soon it's time for Dije's solo. Aliayah becomes very focused, wanting to see the performance of her sister after she had disturbed them throughout the journey.

Dije's first line sounds out, beautiful, and powerful. Her voice sonorous, the crowd gets hedged in the moment. Goosebumps appear on some people's skin. Aliayah is amazed. Dije is really good. A smile gets plastered on her face. Anyone would want to see their sister be this good, that is, anyone not foolishly consumed with jealousy.

Then, someone seems to hear a cry from somewhere.

“Alahu akhbar!”

This person turns their head, jolted from the performance by this cry. Aliayah hears it too. She snaps out of her sister's performance, trying to verify if she really heard what she heard, or more accurately, hoping she didn't just hear what she heard.

Her doubts are cleared as bullet shots begin to ring in the air. Immediately, the service gets disrupted, the choristers disperse, the church members begin to attempt to run away; peace has been replaced with pandemonium.

Outside, the security forces are encircled. They're doing their best, but their best isn't truly much; the attackers are simply too much. It's obvious they had been planning to attack this place for a while.

More individuals join the fray, spraying bullets wantonly into the church premises.

“Daddy!”

Aliayah screams as her father falls to the ground, hit by a random shot. Her eyes are wide in shock, not understanding what she was seeing; did her father just die?

She gets jolted from her thoughts as more people get shot in the hall, falling to the ground around her, some holding parts of their bodies, screaming. Seeing this, her body instinctively pulls her to the floor, attempting to keep her alive.

Confusion and panic floods her face. Where the rest of her family is, she isn't sure. Bullets keep flying. Screams, both of prey and predators, keep filling the premises. Aliayah keeps her head down. It's only been a few seconds, or perhaps minutes, but her world has already been flipped. What was happening? Why was this happening?

Soon, she hears a male's voice, saying something in a language she doesn't understand. Lifting her head for a moment, she witnesses a chorister get beheaded swiftly. Her eyes stay wide open, her brain not understanding the data it's being fed. The murderer hasn't yet seen her, so he continues on, entering properly into the church hall, and cutting down people still trying to escape. Soon, she hears a cry she definitely doesn't want to hear.

“JIDE!”

It's a blood curling scream, and Aliayah instinctively gets up to witness the harrowing scene of her mother crying over a body, her sister's body. Shaken to her core, she doesn't even notice when a man whose facial features are masked with clothing, gets behind her. He grabs her hand, and pulls her away. In her stupefied state, her brain struggles on which information to process; her sister's death, her father's death, her mother's situation, or herself being taken to a corner in the building.

She's still in her stupefied state when the man with her forces her to the ground, and begins to pull his trousers down.