We Are Able

Episode 56

It pained me so much that I missed Uncle James’ visit. He
should have at least left his home address, but he didn’t. I
began to long for him. He was such a kindhearted man. He
would be very angry at John his brother if he knew everything
he did to me.

My halcyon days had returned, but a recurring thought kept on
creeping into my mind to destroy my joy. It was the thought
of my mother. The only way I could see her was to locate the
prison first, which she was taken to, or at least the court of law
from which she was sentenced. Those days I didn’t have the
chance to put into memory the actual place where the court
was located. All I knew was that my aunty and my class-
teacher took me on a long ride to a place out of town.

I began to pray for God’s intervention. If only he could answer
my request on time and wouldn’t let my mother spend too
long in the cell, I would tell thousands of people my testimony,
I vowed to God, expecting him to answer me just the next
moment. After waiting for a week without any response, I
almost began to doubt if God was really there, but then I
remembered how he answered my prayer during the New
Year Day of the past year and my faith was stronger.

I approached Bose concerning the advice of Moses’ father, who
told me to put Bose’s true life story in my work to be published
but under another name. I thought Bose would jump at the
idea, but I was making a big mistake.
“So, Bose, do you agree with that?”
“Don’t even mention it Rose,” she said. “If you can’t put my
name there, then forget about putting my story there,” she
said.

“But I—em—it is not proper to paint you black in— ”
“Don’t let us keep arguing about this, Rose,” she said. “I have
told you what I want—period!”
Moses had come close to us unawares. If we could hear
sound, perhaps we would have heard the sound of his feet as
he walked into the empty classroom. We sat up when we saw
him.

Moses dropped the books in his hands and sat down on a chair
after shifting it close to us. He smiled.
Moses had been teaching us for the past one month now. He
could teach so well. He was the one who motivated us to make
a move towards having the sign language added to the school
curriculum of the normal people, though I was the person who
gave him the idea. Moses enlightened us more on the
advantages of this great move:
“If the normal people can learn the sign language as a normal
language in their school curriculums at tender ages, it would
become a part of them and the gap between the deaf people
and the normal people would be bridged. Everyone would be
able to speak in sign language with each other,” Moses said.

We agreed to pay a visit to the governor’s office to make this
idea known so that it could be considered for implementation in
the school curriculum of the normal people. We had decided
on a date for such.

Moses tapped me, because I had been absentminded. He
wanted me to watch him speak:
“Rose, Bose, why are you both fussing about with a little
issue?” Moses said. We didn’t respond.

“My father told me that you said you don’t want to publish
your story anymore because Bose wanted her bad past life in
it. Is that true?”

“Yes,” I said. “How sensible is it to write her past bad
behaviours when she is no more an enemy but the closest
friend to me?”
“That’s the reason why you should do what I want,” Bose said.
“If I am your closest friend, then do anything to please me.”

Moses laughed and asked me why I didn’t go ahead with what
Bose wanted. I told him it was not good enough.

“Bose is changed, so let me only put her new life in my stories
because bygone is bygone; her old lifestyle can no more reflect
in my memory. I can only put it there in another person’s
name as the principal your daddy advised me.”

“No!” Bose disagreed.
Moses faced me and said, “Rose, are you sure you really want
to publish your story?”
“Y-yes of course!” I said.
“So, what if Mrs Toyosi and Mr. John your father show up a
day to the launching of your book and beg for your
forgiveness? Will you delete their own evil part of the story
from the book and write only their new good part?”

I was stunned by Moses’ assumption. Even if two million
angels come with Toyosi and John to beg me, I would still go
ahead and publish the story without erasing their villainous
characters, I thought. I didn’t know how to answer Moses.

Bose was already smiling.