We Are Able

Episode 57

I shook my head. Moses would make a good lawyer, I thought
as I submitted to Bose’s wish.
“Okay, okay, I will leave it there,” I said and Bose was glad. I
wondered why she insisted on something as defamatory as
that. How would people who knew her look at her? Would they
not call her a thief who stole her schoolmate’s schoolbag?

It was already a week since I prayed to my creator to show me
the address of the court my mother was taken to, maybe in
my dreams. I had faith that I would see it inside a vision or
anything like that. I began to imagine the scene—the day I was
demonstrating with my sign language in front of the audience
in the court that day. I came out of my long imagination when
an idea sped past my brain.
The next day I told Moses the idea.
“Sir, please can you take me in your car to my former school?”
“For what purpose?” Moses asked me.
“Although I couldn’t remember the court where my mother
was sentenced to two years imprisonment, but I know I could
remember a teacher who went there with us that day.”

“Who’s that?” Moses was eager.
“He is Mr. Dele. He went to the court with us that day—he was
in the car with Mrs Oyin my class-teacher, myself and my
aunty.”

“Great idea!” Moses was glad. “Let’s locate him immediately.
Moses told his father about it and off we went to my former
school to search for Mr. Dele in my former school. When we
got there, we were told that the man had left the school for
quite sometimes.

“He is now in London,” a new teacher in the school said.
I was angry. Why is it that all the people who could be a source
of help to me are far away abroad? I told Moses as we were
walking away.
“Who are they?” Moses asked me as if he was ignorant of it.
“My aunty, my class-teacher, Mr. Dele and even my uncle,
James,” I responded vigorously.

“What about God and me, are we abroad too?” Moses said to
my amazement. Earlier, I thought lawyers didn’t believe in God
because they are Mr. and Mrs Know-all, but when Moses
mentioned God just now, I had to change my conception.

“But why hasn’t God answered my prayer?” I asked Moses. “I
said that he should show me in my dream the exact location of
the court of law but he didn’t show me—why?”

“Because God’s way is not our own way and his thought is not
our own thought. He knows the thought that he thinks towards
us—the thought of peace and not of evil to give us our
expected end,” Moses said. I had read those things from my
bible before but I hadn’t applied them to my life. How come
Moses could quote the bible as much as he could quote the
constitution too? His brain must be very complex and big to
accommodate too much, I thought.

“So, what is God’s way sir?” I asked Moses.
“I don’t know,” he responded with sign language and pulled
me. “Enter the car!” he spoke with his mouth and I understood
him by lip-reading.

As soon as I got into the car and winded up, the teacher who
attended to us earlier hurried to us and began to speak to
Moses. When they had spoken to a particular length, Moses
turned to me and told me what she said:
“She said that a man came to the school just last week looking
for one Rose, which I believe is you; the man said that he is
James, a younger brother to your father. He said he wanted to
locate your new address.”

I was excited. I asked Moses if James dropped his home
address with the woman. She saw my sign and responded me
in sign language:
“He wrote it in a little note and gave it to me,” the woman said.
“He said that in case you come here I should give it to you.”

The woman began to check her handbag for the note. She kept
on dancing on a spot, looking for it in her bag, but she couldn’t
locate it.

“But I put it here!” she signed. For minutes we waited for her to
produce something but nothing was coming forth. We had to
leave without the address. It was very painful began to grow
impatient. What exactly is God’s way and though about my
mother’s case? I wept at a corner. It would be a bitter
experience launching my book without my mother.

Moses’ father was ready to sponsor the publishing of the book.
It wasn’t in print yet.
I sat outside the house with Biodun and la!de receiving fresh air
when a postman arrived with a letter. My aunty would be
returning to Nigeria in few weeks. I was overjoyed when I read
it.

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