Chapter 8: C 8. Abe's Life

"These are the points of my ability," he said, rubbing his disturbed eye, "they are individual entities, and also part of me?" He put back his glasses and continued, "when I was born, I was without eyes. The socket was hollow, nothing inside. But thorough research shows a tiny little eyeball, the size of a tiny grain at the edge of each socket!"

"Despite that, my parents were joyful of having me. Unfortunately, I was never a normal child. I spent six years without growing a day, remaining at the size of an infant.

And my only food is fresh milk from a nursing woman. At the age of two, my moms stopped producing milk, they tried some other milk, but I rejected them. I get sick if I consume anything."

"The solution is another nursing woman as I said before. That is how I lived for six years." He stops as if to allow me to digest what he said. "I wasn't entirely correct when I said I wasn't growing, there was this part of me that grew very slowly."

Before he continued I said, "Your eyes grow all those years!"

"Yes." He nodded. "I can't remember anything from my first six years. It's not like I was able to be mature to know things as an infant." He drank some leftover juice, "And from the six years, I was the fastest-growing boy. At fifteen my super growth returned to normal."

He looked at Mharoni and asked, "Was I speaking too much?" She shook her head.

"That is my story, people call me weird because of how I was. I have an awkward childhood. "He stared at me before said lastly, "I loved explaining myself so that I will not be misunderstood."

He seeks attention from people because he thinks he is abnormal and doesn't belong to any group, but still strives to make friends.

Well, I'm the opposite of him: I hate attention.

"There are a lot of instances that people with special abilities are born differently. During their birth, or after their birth some will seem abnormal, in terms of body development or behaviour. I heard there was a guy, who was born after four years of pregnancy. And he now has 'Invulnerability' as his main ability," Zhen explained.

"True, there was an eclipse when I was born! Hohaha A Planetary Phenomenon!" Amina stood and declared proudly. I was about to comment, Abe beat me to it. "Amazing, no wonder you are awesome." He applauded her. She jumped around happily.

Thank goodness, he stopped me. I was going to say 'maybe it was a coincidence', but that will surely hurt her ego and feel down. Furthermore, I have no idea what her ability is, to make that comment.

"Have you experienced anything similar to mine, Bugralabe?"

Argh! My name is being pronounced wrong. "It is Ba-la-ra-be," I said to Abe. "Oh!" He said, before repeating the name four times, to get it barely passable in my ears.

"Perhaps my ability is related to my eyes too. I was born a normal boy. Within normal pregnancy duration. And… no anomalies of nature of any kind at the point of my birth… ahm, that was not entirely true… I used to brag to my sibling that 'A light rainfall came to welcome my descent the sky was neither too dim nor too bright…"

"That is normal. Nothing special about it," Mharoni said, "I myself was born during a rainy season."

"It can be special if the rain was not on the right season. For example when it's spring, and they are not closed to any body of water that may warrant the sudden rainfall. And also…"

Abe was trying to explain the possibility of the rain being special if it met certain criteria. I stopped him by saying, "I think it wasn't special. It was at the beginning of rainfall season."

Abe was trying to make me feel good, just like he supported Amina's claim. I pity these kinds of people, I was like that too. We are like people-pleasers, and we are usually very loyal friends. But when betrayed we became the worst enemy one will never hope for.

"Anyway, it was uneventful until my third day in this mess-up world. My mother worked up around three-thirty in the morning: it was a habit of almost all housewives in Hausa land. They wake up early to check the children, if there is anything they wake their husbands.

As for babies, they will always be beside them on the same bed. She couldn't find me, but she thought my father took me to stop me from crying: babies usually cry at night, I'm no exception. Yet, she did not feel at ease..."

By the time I reached here in my story, Amina was tapped on the table, and she ordered juice and water. "She called him, but he did not respond, then she checked his location through the GPS, that is when all hell broke.

He was actually not in the city. She then remembered, he said to her, he might return tomorrow. She immediately rings the alerts and everyone wakes up. Unfortunately, no one knows where the baby was!" I was cut off by an abrupt sound.

The double doors were burst open by a giant hand. A kid entered from behind. A small kid about 6 feet, black hair, thin face. He seemed to be very angry. He looked around the hall before spotted someone and strode to him.

I did not hear what he said to the man, but the man was shaking in fear before he gave the kid something. The kid turned around and left the hall. "So everyone with special ability can just show up?

Macaroni said, " Nope, it is just that some abilities affect the mind of individuals and become irrational. So, the doctors did not forcefully stop them but tried to stabilize their mental health through different procedures."

"So basically, they are allowed to follow their primal instinct."

"To a certain extent, yes. In a psychiatrist clinic, observing a mad man do insane things will lead to understanding how his brain and thought processes," she said.

She leaned behind and laid her hand on the table, her palm facing up. On my watchful eyes. Her palm lines became prominent with orange colour. A thick orange fog or concentrated mist floats out from the lines. It spiralled like a tiny storm,

The mist or thick fog changed shape to a figure of a tiny bird standing on her palm. The bird looked like a hand could pass through it if touched.

The bird looked around and chirped, behaving like an actual bird.

"This is my ability. It's formless energy that I can shape to any animal I want." The bird's shape changed again, turning to a tiny tiger. The tiger quickly jumped off the palm and landed on the table, it ran to Amina and started growling.