It's Only A False Alarm.

It was a Thursday morning, and I was still lying on the bed scrolling through WhatsApp when my mum's voice echoed from the living room.

“Somebody come and see o... Is this not your cousin Emeka on this obituary flyer?!”

I jumped up like something stung me. I rushed out to see her holding a black and white flyer on her phone screen, her hand shaking small , I snatched the phone from her

The name read ..... Emeka O. Ugochukwu, age 23 , The photo looked exactly like my cousin same afro, same gap teeth, even that stubborn serious face he always carried like the world owed him something.

“Jesus o,” I whispered. “Is this... our Emeka?”

My mum had already started pacing around , muttering prayers , “I knew it , I dreamt two nights ago that something was not right in this family but nobody listens to me.”

Me I was just in shock , I have not spoken to Emeka in like two weeks, but I remembered him telling me he was going to travel to Enugu for something ,I quickly checked my WhatsApp, his last message was, "Safe journey from me ,LOL." That was it.

“Call his mother now,” my mum said, already shouting.

I dialed Aunty Nneka with my heart in my mouth. It rang, rang, then cut.

“Mummy, she didn’t pick o,” I said.

“Call again! Call again o , devil ooo she said!”

As I was about to redial, a message came in on our family group chat.

It was from Emeka.

Emeka: “Abeg who send this nonsense obituary flyer? I'm alive o. It is not me,Na one guy like this from Aba that just resembles me die.”

I blinked. Huh?

“Mummy, wait,” I said, refreshing the group chat.

Then his voice note followed.

Emeka (voice note): “Before una go start crying and doing burial plans, make una relax abeg, I am in Enugu, I am even eating rice now as I am record this voice note , he's just a look-alike from Aba die, not me. You people should rest abeg.”

I burst out laughing, the kind that had me bending and holding my stomach... It wasnt funny but it got me laughing.

“Jesus,” my mum said, falling into the sofa. “So it’s not him?” thank God oo ...

I showed her the chat and the voice note , She played it again, three times, just to confirm.

“Haaah! This boy will not kill me, My blood pressure went up just now. So this was just a false alarm.”

She stood up, adjusting her wrapper. “And you! Why didn’t you confirm first before panicking with me?”

“Mummy you sef ehn ., you were already speaking in tongues,” I said, laughing.

She hissed and walked into the kitchen. “I blame WhatsApp and all these fake news people.”

That day, the whole house was just full of laughter and relief. I even sent Emeka a voice note, “Oga, abeg no die again o. Even your shadow is causing problem here.”

He replied with laughing emojis and said, “Tell mummy I said sorry before she uses my picture for real funeral.”

Later that night, as we ate dinner, my mum said ,“But honestly, the way I ran spiritual scan the moment I saw that picture, ehn... if it was really him, I would have known.”

I chuckled. “So what happened to your spiritual scan before you nearly fainted?”

She looked at me, shook her head, and smiled. “Next time I will collect confirmation from Holy Spirit first before I panic.”

False alarm or not, that day showed me how much love this family holds… even when WhatsApp tries to scatter everything.

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