Civil Peace

"Jonathan Iwegbu counted himself extra-ordinarily lucky.""

"He had come out of the war with five inestimable blessings--his head, his wife Maria's head and the heads of three out of their four children."

"That night he buried it in the little clearing in the bush where the dead of the camp, including his own youngest son, were buried."

"Nothing puzzles God.""

"Of courses the doors and windows were missing and five sheets off the roof. But what was that?"

"As the weeks lengthened and still nobody could say what was what Jonathan discontinued his weekly visits altogether and faced his palm-wine bar.""

"He had to be extra careful because he had seen a man a couple of days earlier collapse into near-madness in an instant before that oceanic crowd because no sooner had he got his twenty pounds than some heartless ruffian picked it off him.""

"My frien... we don try our best for call dem but I tink say dem all done sleep-o... So wetin we go do now? Sometaim you wan call soja? Or you wan make we call dem for you? Soja better pass police. No be so?"

"No Civil War again. This time na Civil Peace. No be so?"

"'I count it as nothing,' he told sympathizers, his eyes on the rope he was tying. 'What is egg-rasher? Did I depend on it last week? Or is it greater than other things that went with the war? I say, let egg-rasher perish in the flames! Let it go where everything else has gone. Nothing puzzles God."

"Happy survival!’ meant so much more to him than just a current fashion of greeting old friends in the first hazy days of peace. It went deep to his heart. He had come out of the war with five inestimable blessings—his head, his wife Maria’s head, and the heads of three out of their four children. As a bonus, he also had his old bicycle—a miracle too but naturally not to be compared to the safety of five human heads.”"

"The bicycle had a little history of its own."

"Jonathan Iwegbu counted himself extraordinarily lucky. 'Happy survival!' meant so much more to him than just a current fashion of greeting old friends in the first hazy days of peace. It went deep to his heart. He had come out of the war with five inestimable blessings—his head, his wife Maria's head, and the heads of three out of four of their children. As a bonus he also had his old bicycle—a miracle too but naturally not to be compared to the safety of five human heads.""

"egg-rasher” because they couldn’t pronounce the official term “ex-gratia”"

"Na tief-man and him people”"

"Police-o! Thieves-o! Neighbours-o! Police-o! We are lost! We are dead! Neighbours, are you asleep? Wake up! Police-o!”"