Einstein's Brain

The trolley was moving through the walkway, and the physician behind it had a worried look on his face, that one which meant "Forget, this fellow is gone". Mrs Ridwon- the deceased half-sister need not be a wizard to decipher what he was gonna say. 'He is down Ma, I'm sorry the body has been embalmed. They have to lay him to rest or maybe have him confined for a while' he said like it was a nice tiding, with his whitish coat looking undone from having been worked for too long.

'Kamal has to see the corpse one last time before it is sowed into the earth' Mrs Ridwon said while he gave her an 'Oh sorry look'

"From where" Dr Leonard asked

"OAU Ibadan, studying Cyber Security" she replied, always giving away too much most times to strangers.

Leonard asked again "Is he an only child"

"No he is just the golden child" she answered with a sober tone and teary eye 'Why do you ask' she asked

"Nothing much just thinking of how he would get over it," Dr. Leonard said

The reply "That? With time he would get over it". Leonard shook his head in approval and stared as she wiped her face with a hanky, he wished he could help with weeping to j all iss’o, but that was against the principles of his profession.

They say ‘The dead are given more flowers than those alive, because regret is more powerful than gratitude' and so was it with this Man. He was loved though but there were still a handful of people who despised him, not because they thought he was bad, but because they took his lifestyle personally. Of all his kinsmen, he was a certified Atheist and this never sat well with most people, but at his burial, they all looked emotional. If there were few polymaths left in the twenty-first century, I think he would surely make the list; he knew a bit about almost everything. With thirty-five honorary doctorates across the globe, well-acclaimed in academics, a moon whom no one ever saw its dark side. There aren't many people who could talk about him fearlessly, because he was just too loved to be thrown dirt, staying low-key amidst the fame.

The body was now ready to be laid to rest at his favorite villa - The Eagles Pride, except that the kinsmen were waiting for Kamal. The family's patriarch 'Mr. Suleiman' had his fingers on his chin, three years older than the deceased and a little less famous, the only member to have studied overseas, he read History. Thoughts flowed through his mind like water in the Pacific and he shook his head in a way which had in it 'Stop bothering me'. Somehow he felt he wasn't fulfilled with the dead, they never had good terms, It wasn't about the atheism stuff, but a silly form of fatal jealousy, but that's what you get when you're ahead of the pack.

The hall's giant door creaked and the whole kinsmen spurned their necks as if at a command. It opened, and through it came Kamal. He knew what had happened, having predicted earlier that his old man wouldn't survive the Leukaemia, not through knowledge though but by instinct, he believes Cancer is the 'Emperor of all maladies'.

"Just in time, how have you been?" Mr Suleiman asked. 'Let's get to it please' was the reply.

"Now everyone we're moving the corpse to.... "

" Calm down, not so fast, I would like to inspect the body before it's moved, nothing could be wrong though," Kamal said. 'Uh,' the whole kinsmen exclaimed, thinking that with the act, the young guy was possibly doubting their loyalty, but who wouldn't? Most of the family members present held a grudge or more with his old man. All stared as he took a few strides toward the coffin, but none could gather enough courage to stop him. The dead were their brother, but the boy was his son, his first son also, so definitely he had both the right and privilege to do his wish as long as he wasn't ill-minded. The coffin was plated gold, the deceased had got it from N Y C and demanded he be buried in it when he finally becomes history to those whom he once adored. It was quite deserving of the bulky cash paid for it; The lid slung left after a pull and he uncovered the shroud from it. Kamal as they all knew him had a way with words, an erudite, calm and thoughtful, humble too but he had bad reactions to a lot of shitty nonsense. And this time what he beheld was one of them.

"So you guys thought no one would know of this right? " he yelled in fury

" What do you mean" everyone inquired sonorously

"His brain isn't here, the chest is split and how is it certain nothing else was taken?" Kamal replied. That caused a lot of disbelief, but there was still someone in the hall who kept looking like it didn't matter. Most people who knew the dead called him Einstein, he had that nickname from his college days and it has stayed with him since then, that isn't weird if you come to accept the fact that he had such intelligence to account for it, and more so Einstein is his Idol. Most people don't realize it but for me, I see a coincidence.