Chapter 1: Homecoming

The aircraft touched down just after noon, its tyres screeching against the wet runway before slowing to a gentle crawl. Through the window, Enugu stretched beneath a grey sky washed clean by morning rain. The red earth looked darker than he remembered, richer somehow, and for the first time in eighteen months, Emeka Obi allowed himself to believe he was home.

Home.

The word settled warmly in his chest.

He stepped out of the terminal with a single duffel bag slung over his shoulder. Around him, families reunited in noisy embraces. Children ran laughing into waiting arms. Taxi drivers called out destinations. Someone nearby argued cheerfully over the price of roasted corn.

It sounded like Nigeria.

It sounded like life.

For months, the loudest sounds Emeka had known were gunfire, helicopter blades, and men crying out in languages he never learned to understand. Even silence there had carried fear.

This silence was different.

It smelled of rain, diesel, and roasted plantain.

It smelled like home.

His lips curved into the first genuine smile he had worn in weeks.

He imagined Mama Ngozi standing in the kitchen, complaining that he had become too lean.

"UN soldiers don't feed you?" she would tease before piling enough pounded yam onto his plate to feed three grown men.

He imagined Chidi laughing from the doorway, calling him Oga Soldier like he always did.

He even imagined arguing over the last piece of meat, the way they had as boys.

Ordinary things.

He had missed ordinary things more than he had ever admitted.

As he walked toward the arrival gate, his eyes searched through the waiting crowd until they found her.

Mama.

She stood just beyond the metal barrier, her faded blue wrapper gathered tightly around her waist.

For one strange second, Emeka didn't recognise her.

Not because she had changed.

Because she wasn't smiling.

His mother had always smiled.

Even at his father's burial, when grief had hollowed her eyes, she had still managed a tired smile for everyone who came to comfort them.

People remembered that smile.

The little gap between her front teeth.

The way her eyes disappeared whenever she laughed.

Now the smile was gone.

Her face looked older than eighteen months should have allowed.

The moment she saw him, she hurried forward.

Emeka dropped his bag.

"Mama."

She threw both arms around him.

Her embrace was tighter than he remembered.

Not joyful.

Desperate.

He frowned.

"Mama... what's wrong?"

She didn't answer.

Her fingers clutched the back of his shirt as though letting go would make him disappear again.

A knot formed quietly inside his chest.

"Mama?"

Slowly, she pulled away.

Her eyes were swollen.

She had been crying.

For days.

Perhaps longer.

His heartbeat quickened.

"Where's Chidi?"

At the mention of his brother's name, her lips trembled.

She looked around as though searching for someone else to say the words for her.

There was no one.

When she finally spoke, her voice was barely above a whisper.

"They have taken your brother."

Emeka stared at her.

He heard the words.

He simply couldn't understand them.

"What do you mean?"

"They arrested him."

His pulse began to pound in his ears.

"For what?"

A tear slipped down her cheek.

"They said..."

She swallowed hard.

"They said he killed a man."