We Are Able

Episode 60

When the judge spoke with the Chief Warden of the prison, the
man shook with fear. My aunty was wont to interpreting every
word to me. She did as the two elderly men spoke and I was
able to get the dialogue as it flowed:
“Where is Mrs. John Hannah?” the white-haired judge asked the
chief warden.

“It’s been a while,” the man said. “She’s no more here.”
There was definitely a skeleton in the man’s cupboard going by
the way he spoke. His mouth trembled.
“Where is she?” the judge asked him again.
“Em—em…er, she has been released since last year,” the man
said.

“Released?” Moses and Mr. Joe, the judge asked simultaneously.
“Y—yes,” he said. “Anything the matter?”

“We haven’t seen anyone,” my class-teacher said.

“But we released her August last year, August 18 when her
two-year jail term expired, ” the Chief Prison Warden tried to
solidify his confession. “We have all our papers here.”

Pandemonium stared at us. We could not do anything than to
fidget when he said he had all evidences with him. How come?

I signed to Moses that it was time we produced the note Toyosi
wrote, in which she made known her intention of prolonging
my mother’s jail term till five years, but Moses waved off the
idea:
“It’s not time yet,” he said. “Let this man provide the evidence
first.”

The Chief Prison Warden took us confidently to his desk and
began to present the papers to us. We saw many signed
documents of her release on the specific date the warden
mentioned earlier. We also saw photo evidences of her release.
I was baffled when we saw John in one of the photos, standing
side by side with my mother. It was shocking to us all.

The Judge probed the Chief Warden who denied knowing
anything about Toyosi and my father’s plot.
“Mr. John came here on the 18th of August last year and took
his wife away,” the Chief Prison Warden said. As you can see
here, we have his signatures and photos, so I don’t seem to
understand what you’re talking about.”
The Judge and the Chief Warden dragged the matter for a while
but it didn’t come to a head. Now I was in the greatest
suspense of my life. Where is my mother?

The dream that I saw my mother hanged began to flash back
to my brain each time I was thinking about her. The case had
been made very hot against the prison warden who had been
charged to court. We began to search for Toyosi and John my
father, the two people who could actually unravel the mystery,
but they were nowhere to be found.

Truly in that picture, my mother and John my father were
smiling together in a warm embrace. How come? I was put at
the forefront of the case against Mr. Collins, the Chief Prison
Warden, because I was the person who could provide all the
evidences, though my aunty and class-teacher also voiced out
what they knew about the case. The two of them waited
behind in Nigeria while their husbands travelled back to their
respective destinations overseas.
Four months had passed since the case commenced but
nothing was forthcoming. The Chief Prison Warden had hired
some smart lawyers to defend him. We had our lawyers too.

They fought hard to win the case, showing all the evidences I
provided—the notes written by Toyosi, testifying that she had
lengthened my mother’s jail-term and also other notes my
father had written, telling me that my mother would rot in
prison. Mrs. Oyindamola and Rachael my aunty also testified to
the fact that they saw my mother in her home just within two
months of her detention, but the Chief Prison Warden
debunked.

“My mother must not die!” I signed in annoyance as I stood
before everyone in the court as a witness. “I call on the
government of Lagos to rise up to this case and help me fetch
my mother out from wherever she is,” I signed and began to
weep. Some people in the court were emotionally touched too.

They wept.
Soon, my story became the favourite of the cover pages of
every dailies. My picture was stamped all over the place as the
‘Able Disabled’.
Will deaf and dumb Rose win the case against the government?
Daily Moonlight wrote.

The deaf are also able: Read the Case of John Rose, a deaf mute,
speaking out her mind. Neon Magazine wrote in details
Superstar Rose signed her voice again The Monitor said.
I felt shy each time I come across my pictures on the leaves of
the dailies. I would leave them wet with tears. All I needed now
is my mother and not popularity of any kind. I had also heard
that BCC of London had the news to tell in their land too and
CCN of America. I knew my father would be in unimaginably
hot soup if he was caught perchance.
It was ten months already since the case began, but the Chief
Warden was not declared guilty yet. Of course he wasn’t going
to be condemned that easily without my father and Toyosi
testifying that they indeed connived with him to get my mother
out.

I believed strongly that the pictures of my mother and my
father hugging each other was not a recent one—they must
have taken those pictures four years back and not two years
back as the Chief Warden declared. My mother wouldn’t have
smiled in the picture if actually it was two years back, because
she would see no reason smiling after she had been left to
spend two years in prison innocently. I testified towards that in
the court of law and the pictures were subjected to thorough
scrutiny and the case was adjourned until the pictures were
examined. In the end, the Chief Warden was proved right and
the papers carried the news again that I was losing.