We Are Able

Episode 61

Within this one year, I had abandoned my write-ups. Mrs.
Oyindamola had to return to London to meet her husband but
my aunty, Rachael, had no choice than to remain behind until
the case was settled. Her husband understood him well.

Moses had also returned to school. Now he had a GSM phone,
Nokia3310, with which he communicated with his father who
kept him abreast of the information regarding the court case.

Moses also got me a Siemens phone through which we texted
each other. Unfortunately we could not do calls through it
because I was deaf and dumb.
I was shocked when my uncle, James, suddenly came to our
house in a white Toyota Camry. I rushed to him and jumped
on him.

“Uncle James where have you been?” I signed to him.
“I’ve been in Nigeria for more than a year now, been looking for
you,” the man said.

“Why didn’t you drop your address when you came here?” I
asked him.

“I didn’t know you are still here, Rose,” he said. “I dropped my
address with a teacher in your former school, did you not get
it?”

“Oh, I didn’t,” I signed back. “The teacher lost it!”
“Gush! Now Rose I am here.” James bowed his head and tears
began to flow. I was amazed. “Where is Rachael?” he asked
me.

I was surprised that he didn’t ask of my mother or father, but
my aunty. I waited for him to ask the second time before
replying:
“Rose, I know what has happened to you? Where is Rachael?”
he signed one more time.
I shed tears as I led him in. Rachael was sitting before her
hobby, a big bible.

When Rachael spotted James my uncle, she rushed at him and
gave him a tight hug, forgetting that he was a married man.

“James, where have you been?”
“South Africa!” he said. “Didn’t Hannah tell you?”
“She did, but—”
“I have been back in Nigeria some years ago before travelling
back again four years ago. I even got married here in Nigeria
before returning to South Africa.”
“You don’t mean it!” she screamed. “And you didn’t tell anyone
about it, why?”

“I’m very sorry I did that, Rachael, Rose!” my uncle showed
strong penitence. “Now I have regretted my action—at least I
should have told you…especially you, Rachael, the
prophetess…”

“Stop teasing me and tell me what happened,” my aunty said.
I watched as James signed his long story. I was amazed at his
speed on the sign. He was not as good as this in it those days:
I married her because of her beauty; I didn’t pray or seek for
advice. I loved her so much that I bestowed all my money on
her. I travelled to South Africa to eke out life for us both so that
I could return and get us established. Unknown to her, I asked
a friend of mine to keep her in surveillance. I wanted to know if
she was real or not. My friend began to send me news that she
was engaging in extra-marital affair with someone. Before then
I send her money regularly, but when I heard the sad news, I
stopped sending her money. She sent me several mails but I
didn’t respond, hoping to send her packing as soon as I return
to Nigeria. Eventually I returned to Nigeria, but then she begged
me so much, testifying that indeed she did what my friend
claimed she did. She was too young and beautiful to be treated
badly so I accepted her apology and my love for her grew
stronger, then we had a joint account, just last year November,
seven months ago. But along the line something happened…
My Uncle couldn’t hold himself anymore. He wept . We had to
pet him.

Despite the fact that it was already four years to our marriage,
she didn’t give birth, yet I kept loving her, but she paid me back
in a hard way—she emptied all the cash in our joint account
and fled!

“Serious!” my aunty shouted with her mouth. I got her through
the movement of her lips.
I curled to my uncle’s neck and pacified him. I could remember
he had done that to me six to seven years back too anytime
my father had just finished treating me badly. All of a sudden,
something struck through my mind as I remembered the two
figures I saw ahead of Moses and myself that day he first took
me out. As a matter of fact, it was exactly the same attire on the
man that day that my uncle had on him. My eyes were filled
with horror as I quickly thumped up, leaving his neck alone.

“What’s it Rose?” they signed to me in amazement.

“Em—nothing,” I said. I was scared to reveal what was in my
memory.

It was my turn to weep as I narrated my ordeal in the hand of
my father and Toyosi to my uncle:
“Did you just mention Toyosi right now?” my uncle asked
spontaneously.

“Yes, do you know her?” I said, feigning ignorance.

“She is the one!” my uncle was quick at signing back in return.

“What!” my aunt screamed, though I knew it would end that
way, but I didn’t want to be forward.
We spoke at length about her. James confirmed that indeed she
was with her around that eatery that day I saw her with a man.

James was definitely the man in question.
James was covered in sweat and tears when the truth was
made known.

“No wonder Toyosi’s disposition changed the moment she saw
you on the news sometimes back,” James said. “The day after,
Toyosi began to disturb me that we should travel to South
Africa for a permanent stay, but I told her I was not going
anywhere because I saw my niece on TV and she would need
my help. Two days later, she fled and till date I can’t locate her.”

It was a very painful experience. We couldn’t help shedding
tears. If only James knew that her wife was the one mentioned
on the TV as the concubine who abetted John in the evil, he
would have given her up by himself earlier.
James was enraged. He felt like committing suicide. He told my
aunty about it and she counseled him not to:
“You can live on with another wife, a good one, instead of
committing suicide,” my aunty said and I was surprised. She
was the same highly spiritual woman I used to know who
believed in one-man, one-wife till death do them part. Now she
seemed to be the one championing the course of having
another wife when the first one is not dead. I breathed in
heavily and kept quiet. Maybe she had loosened her grip on
spirituality a bit, I thought.

James vowed to locate both Toyosi and John my father with
the last ounce of his blood. He singlehandedly printed Toyosi
and John’s ‘WANTED’ posters up to a thousand copies and also
made them appear in dailies. We hoped to see them caught in
no time at all.

It was going to two years since the court case began. I was
already in my final year in Secondary School. Moses had
graduated from the University and was now attending a law
school. He was also affiliated to the Chamber of Mr. Joe, the
justice who sent my mother to jail earlier, but who was now
our advocate. The court case was dying down gradually since
we couldn’t locate Toyosi and John who seemed to be the only
two solutions.

Just when I was resuming second term in my school,
someone raised the issue again. He was just a layman who
claimed to have seen John somewhere. The news spurred up
our hope again, but it was short-lived. The young man in
question was found dead. It was a shocker. How come? The
man who was promised #200,000 if he could actually lead
them to John, was now a victim of murder overnight. What an
injustice!