We Are Able

Episode 64

When I woke up, it was on my mother’s laps I found my
head, inside a car belonging to Mr Joe, the Judge. I
thought it was a dream, but many hands signed to me that
it wasn’t. They smiled at me.
“What’s happening?” I asked. My mother wept all over
me. She was lean, too lean to survive the next few days.

She would need a very serious medical attention.

It was Moses who had all the patience to narrate every
detail to me after I fainted:
Hanged? For what?” Moses voiced out.
“For what she did of course!” the warder said.

“What did she do?” Mr. Joe asked.
“She killed her husband of course,” the warder said
confidently and then a little iota of hope greeted the air.

She was definitely not the same person as my mother.

“Oh!” everyone sighed. “That’s not the Hannah we are
talking about,” James said. “The one we are asking for
was brought here three years back, fair in complexion
and…”

“Sorry, we don’t know any Hannah apart from the one that
was hanged this morning.”
Moses turned to my aunty and asked, “I hope my Rose is
responding to treatment, aunty.”
“Yes she is,” my aunty said. “Poor Rose! I didn’t know I
was feeding her the information raw. She just coughed
now but she hasn’t opened her eyes yet.”

They began to comb every cell for my mother who had
probably been checked into the prison with a different
name. Eventually they got to a ward and found her sitting
at a corner, lean and unkempt. She couldn’t believe her
eyes.

“Here’s she!” James and my aunty pointed at her since
they were the only two people who knew her, apart from
the Judge, Mr. Joe. The first person she asked for was
me, but she was rest assured that she would see me in
the car where my aunty was taking care of me.

My mother gave everyone in the cell a peck before exiting.

They were up to ten inmates, crammed together in a
single cell.

“Goodbye Iyabo,” they said, bidding her farewell. Iyabo
was the name she was dubbed by the evil people who put
her in the prison. They didn’t even remember where
actually in the cell she was put since they were not
intending to release her forever. Now it was the turn of
those evil people to rot in cell.

The case was heard in court for the last time. Moses was
our lawyer—they had theirs too, but no way. It was
obvious that everything their lawyer was saying was a lie.

There was nothing left to say.
Eventually, John and Toyosi were sentenced to fifteen
years imprisonment each while the Chief Prison Wardens
who pleaded guilty were sentenced to life imprisonment
for the murder of Semiu, the man who discovered John
but wasn’t permitted to live.

I became very popular, a deaf and dumb girl who won a
case in court, yet having no voice. Thanks to everyone
around me who were my voices—I had so many.

When the sentence was made, it was Biodun who gave me
the tightest hug. He even lifted me off the ground and we
both staggered and fell, but he didn’t stop laughing.

Somehow it was hard on me to imagine that my biological
father was the one convicted, yet I was happy about it.

Well…that is my destiny, I thought.
Bose congratulated me and gave me some snapshots. I
didn’t even know she was present in the court until I saw
her just now. I lowered myself at la!de and gave her a
peck. Mrs Omotayo stroked my hair gently and James,
seated by her, shook me. My aunty held my hand, turned
it around and deposited a kiss right inside my palm.

Moses exchanged greetings with the other lawyer and
began to head for me. He held me tight and kissed my
forehead. Maybe if
Biodun had seen us, he would be jealous, but he is blind.

Mr. Immaculate, Moses’ father, pulled my nose and
laughed. The journalists were all over me to record my
voice. Unfortunately, all they had were my gesticulations
—sign language. Finally my mother rocked me into her
b0s0m and shed tears of joy.

Now I knew how everybody loved me. Maybe it would be
same way people who would read my story in the future
would also fall in love with me, I thought. To my greatest
shock, some important figures were waiting for me
outside the court. My class-teacher, Mrs Oyindamola and
her husband had just led some people to the court, herself
had just returned from the UK that afternoon. I ran as if
somebody was chasing me and buried my face inside her
b0s0m, weeping. She deserved much more.
“Rose, do you remember Judimax?” she asked me.

“Sounds familiar,” I said. I had completely forgotten where
I heard the name from.
“They are the publishing company—here to publish you
now! Hope your write-ups are intact.”
“Y—yes,” I signed. “But I already have many publishers—
you, my uncle, my aunty’s husband, Moses’ father, the
Judge and…”

“Yes! One book one thousand publishers,” Mrs Oyin said
with a smile. “We shall all be your marketer while
Judimax publish you because they know how to do it
best.”
I shook hands with them—three men and two ladies. It
was as if I was dreaming.