RAYS OF HOPE PART 3

I and the Smiths.

"I'm sorry about your Mum...” she said.

Forty minutes later, I sneaked out of the hospital to the nearest ice cream vendor and bought two large cones for us.  I hid the ice cream in my cloths when I got to the reception and pass the Argus eyed nurses on duty.  Immediately I got back into her ward, we closed the door and we began licking them.

"Thanks Rose" she said, devouring the ice-cream as quickly as she could with all the wires and tubes attached to the body "I have been begging mum for ice cream for almost three months now but she wouldn't let me touch it, she keeps saying it is doctor's order that I shouldn't touch ice cream"

I laughed at this.

"Eat everything then if you can" I encouraged “if you need more, I'll get it because I have magic and the nurses will never see me when I walk past them in the reception." I said conspiratorially.

We were still licking the ice cream when her parents and Nelson came in.  We tried to hide it but it was too late.  They all looked unbelievably at us then her mum quickly walked to the bed and took her into a crushing embrace as if she was afraid to let go while her dad roared with laughter at our vain attempt at hiding the ice cream.

“No beat me, I bought it for her” I said quickly

“Don’t worry, nobody will be beaten”. I am happy to see her happy again and that’s what matters and not the ice creams”

Rose was discharged and the doctors said that she could continue managing the heart until arrangements had been made to travel her abroad for open heart surgery. That night, her dad drove all of us to fast food joint told the attendants to give us all as much ice creams as we could take. I will never forget that night in my life because I took more ice creams that night alone than all other nights combined together.        
       

I didn’t go home that night because there was nothing to do at home and no one to talk to. Besides, I couldn’t stand spending the night inside our dingy room with my dad and taking in all the smoke of Indian hemp. I told Mr. and Mrs. Smith that I would spend the night and they were very happy though they were worried that my dad may be looking for me. I told them that he wouldn’t mind if Boko Haram bombed me and they laughed. Of course, my dad doesn’t care about me, he doesn’t care about anyone.

We all slept very late that night when we finally got to their mansion at Victoria Island. We stayed in the big and beautiful living room and watched cartoon on the big television that was hung on the wall till 11PM. Then Kate and I ran to the bathroom to shower and later went to bed in her beautiful bedroom that was filled with many balloons and toys and stickers. We both listened as her dad read us a story from one of Charles Dickon’s novels, Great Expectations and her mum sang a song for us. Kate knew the song very well because she sang along with her mum but I didn’t known it so I listened to them as they sang, their voices perfectly blending into each other and so good that I fell soundly asleep within minutes.

The next morning, I felt cold water o me and I sprang up from the bed at that moment, Kate too sat up and we looked at each other, wondering where the water had come from until we saw her dad with a bowl containing chilled water! Kate quickly sprang out of bed and started chasing her dad who was already running very fast away from the room, laughing very hard. I ran after them, catching the fun too. Nelson could be heard in the kitchen, making happy childish noises as he turned the pots and pans upside down and banged them together, making a loud noise that rang through the house.

After breakfast, I told them that I wanted to reach home and check if my mum was back. Kate insisted that she wanted to follow me so her dad decided to drive us home so we all went together.

Due to the streetlessness of our area, he had to park the car a very long way away from our house so we had to trek the rest of the way to our house. When I got home, neither mum not dad was around so I quickly left, taking some cloths along with me. Honestly, I had been praying to God on the way not to meet any of my parents at home because they may not allow me to go again.

Mr. and Mrs. Smith asked me few days later if I wanted to start going to school and I said yes. I told them how I have been disturbing my parents to send me to school but all to no avail.

I was taken to KG2 because I have never been in a classroom in my life. I would have been put in KG1 if not for my age because I didn’t know how to do the simple things like holding a pencil, I kept turning it upside down and holding at the wrong angle. By then, Kate was already in JSS3 and the academic gap between us seemed limitless. I was at first disappointed to discover that school was not as interesting as I had I imagined it would be. We were taught the same thing too many times to the extent that I felt very tired and bored.

My class teacher, Miss Nancy, told me that if I did well, she would promote me to Nursery1 instead of staying in KG2 where I was annoyingly the oldest. This really gave me hope and I decide to leave the class as soon as possible so I listened with rapt attention to everything she taught us and did whatever she wanted me to do perfectly.

The first two weeks were like hell to me because I was bored plus I had little or no time  at all  to play with Kate because we closed by 4PM daily and had an hour’s break before the evening classes started by 5PM. We have only break periods together which seem very unfair to.

After three weeks, I was promoted to Nursery 2! I was almost crazy with joy. Miss Nancy said that I was fit enough to be there but she warned me not to let down my guard that should my grades slip a bit, she would send me back down to the KGs and I vowed that I would never go there again- among those crying babies. I became serious and seldom played. My intention was to even perform better than Nursey2 and get promoted to primary 6!

Since I didn’t know my parents’ names, I adopted Kate’s dad name to enroll in the school while he paid all the expenses from books to uniforms and stationery.. Every day by 7PM, he would come to the school to pick us up and drive us home. By then, both of us would have been very tired. Most times, we would fall asleep in the car and we had to be carried by Mr. Smith when we got home into the house.

On weekends (especially Saturdays), we would all go to the beach, amusement parks, cinemas and other public places to have fun. They were so kind and caring to me that I had no feeling of missing my parents.

Six weeks after leaving my neighbourhood and living with the Smiths, I decided to visit my parents again but there was no one at home when we got there so I picked some more cloths and left.

I tried to forget my parents and dedicated most of my times each day to reading and writing short stories, playing scrabble with Kate and her parents, playing with Nelson whenever he allows me to play with him and taking swimming lessons with Mr. Banky, the butler who takes care of the care in the absence of the Smiths when they travel out of the country. Sometimes he taught us how to play badminton, football and ride bicycles. I enjoyed every day I spent in the Smiths’ house and with each passing day, it became difficult for me to think of going back to live with my parents again.

Kate’s dad bought us two bicycles and her mum supplied the helmets while Nelson spoilt the helmets with some horrible permanent paint when no one was there. When we saw the beautiful helmets having been reduced to a ugly thing, we felt like crying but her mum told us that the paints made the helmets look more masculine and defiant and formidable and that was how wanted to be seen so we took it as a blessing in disguise.

After two months, is started loving the school experience and each day were filled with memorable and exciting curricular and extracurricular activities. My new class teacher, Mr. Habbass was as kind as my previous teacher, Miss Nancy and he also promised me that I would be promoted at the end of the term if there is an outstanding performance from my end. Kate helped me a lot by teaching me a lot of things that are beyond my class syllabus and by giving me some of her own class works to do in order to prepare me for what was coming at the end of the term.

On Sundays, we would go to church and I learnt a lot from there. Our teacher was a kind old woman who always has a gift for every child. She told us that it’s a sin before God to be smoking and drinking alcohol then I thought about all the people in my area including my parents. She told us that as God’s children, we shouldn’t lie or steal or curse or abuse or do all the bad things that I and the other children in our neighbourhood used to do when no one was there. She said whoever do those things is a pervert. Though I didn’t know the meaning of the word, yet I sensed that it is meant to describe a bad person. You could guess the meaning of some words simply by their sound and the pervert sounds horrible.  She further stressed that as God’s children, we are the light of the world and as such, we must let that light shine through all the nooks and carnies of the world.

She told us the story of a savior called Jesus Christ who was the light that showed sinners the way back to God. She told us to imagine you being in darkness by closing our eyes then we all did. Then she asked us if we could see anything but we said no then she told us to imagine that someone was coming towards us with a bright shining light to show us the way out of the darkness, then she asked us how we felt. We all felt happy and told her so. She pointed out that the ungood people in the bible accused this wonderful Jesus who was a light bearer wrongly. they tortured him and  even nailed him to the crossyet he still forgave them cheerfully. She asked us if we could do that but we all said no. I told myself that I can never do it.

Finally, she told us to be like that Jesus and always pray even for our enemies and not for our friends alone. I was touched by all these things to the extent that I was sobbing by the time she was though. I felt very bad about myself because I’ve never showed my parents how much I loved them or how much they meant to me. I prayed to God for forgiveness for all the bad things that I have done. I promised God to be like Jesus and never to commit sins anymore.

When the teacher asked us if there was anyone who wanted to give her life to Jesus, I was the first person to stand up. She prayed for us and the service ended.

I told Kate’s parents a day before the mid-term break that I wanted to visit my parents after months of staying away from them during the weekend. I told them that as a good child, I supposed not to have stayed that far away from them no matter how bad they may be. They accepted that I should visit them but they said that I shouldn’t feel so bad about it since I have made efforts several times to pay them visit but they were not home those times. They said that I should be happy instead because I am living a better life which is what being happy about.

Then following day, we all left VI inside one of the family’s newest cars and headed to Mushin where our neighbourhood was located. Although the way, I was praying that at least one of my parents would be at home. Mr. Smith asked me to give him my parents’ number so he could call them and let them know that we were on the way but I told him that none of them has a phone. We stopped at SLOT, a mobile phone shop in Mushin and Mr. Smith bought two new mobile phones that cost so much money that made me gasp in surprise and gratitude. I thanked him profusely and began praying that when we finally reached home, my parents would behave well.

When we got to our neighbourhood, it looked uglier , dirtier and smelled worse than I could remember. Instinctively, I wrinkled my nose and wondered if it smelled that bad some months back when I was still living there.  The noise was deafening. It seemed everyone has to shout to make a conversation. This is my world. The world I was born and grew up in. The time we visited the place was raining season and brownish flood water had occupied most of the available spaces in the congested neighbourhood.

 People were milling aimlessly about and some were drying their cloths and wet possessions in the early morning rising sun. The people looked curiously at us as if passed and I knew that in their minds, they were praying that the morning should suddenly turn to night so they could rob us.

We walked through the brownish flood water, holding our shoes like Cele members to our house. Outside our house, mum and dad were seriously beating each other like wrestlers on the ring, fighting for heavyweight championship or something, I hate wrestling anyways. They wore pair of short knickers and that was all they wore. Dad carried mum high in the air and was about to throw her on the ground when Mr. Smith quickly ran to him to rescue her. All the kids in the neighbourhood were watching all these and they were hooting happily. But they were angry when Mr. Smith intervened and they hissed at him. They booed him loudly for spoiling their show. I became very angry like a wounded cat and picked up a very heavy stick that I could find nearby and ran madly towards the kids, meaning to break someone’s head in my anger but they all ran when they saw the murderous expression on m y face.

I broke down weeping while Kate began comforting me, her mum and dada were having a hard time trying to separate mum and dad and preventing them from killing each other.

At last, the fight subsided and it gradually melted to only curses and abuses and both of them were breathing very hard from the exertion of the fight. Kate’s parents released dad and mum and faced me “Rose, what’s wrong, why are you crying? It’s okay, take us to your parents and let’s get away from this neighbourhood as soon as possible” her dad said.

“This is our house and these are my parents” I said and shamefully pointed at mum and dad who were still raining curses on each other.

Kate’s mum was clearly disappointed to see that the fighters were my parents because the disgusts clearly showed on her face, despite the fact that she tried to hide it. They greeted mum and dad but none of them replied. Instead, they left us outside and went inside. . I led the visitors into our cell-like room. There was no chair so our visitors had to stand or sit on the bug-ridden bed so they decide to stand instead. I have never seen my parents react happily about anything apart from money before. When Kate’s parents told them that they wanted me to be living with them, they became very interested.

“Really?’ my mum asked incredulously. “I knew she was happy that she wouldn’t have tyo be feeding me again and putting up with my nonsense.

“That’s good.” My dad said and smiled “So you were the ones who took her away since all these months?” he said without showing any emotion.

“Yes sir but…” Kate’s dad said uneasily.

“Actually dad, it was my idea to leave this hellhole and lead a better life elsewhere…”I said but I was cut short by mum.

“Shut up your mouth!” she snapped angrily at me “When elderly people are talking, a child dares not opens her mouth” “you just walked out of the house without saying a word ads if we are nothing! Do you know how many radio and TV stations that we have been to because we were looking for you and how much we spent in the process?” I knew that mum was lying about the radio and the TV stations and spending money to find me. They would have been happy that I was missing because I meant nothing to them and the three of us knew it.

“We are sorry ma…”Kate’s mum tried to apologize, looking at me and her husband for assistance but dad cuts in sharply.

“We’ve heard you but you must refund the money that we spent before we report you to the police for abducting our child…”

“Daddy!” I cried angrily, wishing I could kill him then.

“Shut that hole on your face this girl or I’ll shut it for you, silly girl!” mum roared.

“No problem sir, we will refund the full money. We are just trying to help her and we don’t mean anything bad for your daughter. How much is the money, you needn’t go to the police for that?” Mr. Smith asked.

“Anyway, it’s not a huge amount; it’s just seventy five thousand naira.” My dad said, looking at mum for approval and she nodded. It was clearly obvious that they were lying. Even the Smiths knew.

There was silence for some moments.

“Okay ma, but we don’t have up to that for now. We have just forty thousand naira on us now but we promise to send the balance to you later, just give us your account number” he said and gave dad the forty thousand naira. Right there in front of everyone, dad pocketed thirty five thousand and gave mom the remaining. Mum threw herself at him and they began to wrestle violently over the money in my dad’s pockets. At last, mum got about half of the money and the fight ceased, both of them were breathing hard.

I hid my face in shame.

“Now that we have paid, can we take her with us, we promise that she would be visiting you periodically?” Mr. Smith asked anxiously.

“Take what?” my BM asked

“Take what?” my BD asked more correctly.

“Rose” Mr. and Mrs. Smith said impatiently.

“Never!” my parents both chorused.

“The money you just paid is for taking her away in the first place without permission. If you want to take her away again, no problem we will have to agree on how much you will pay” she said and dad nodded in affirmation. I wished I was dead or I was never born. Kate’s parents looked angrily at my parents.

“I can’t believe that there are still parents under the sky who would sell their own children for money. No wonder Rose ran away from home, from you two…”

“Hey woman, mind the way you speak, you cannot come to our house and still be insulting us, no one begged you to be looking for our daughter o” mum said hotly. She was ready to pounce on her.

“It’s okay darling, leave them. Remember that we are doing this for Rose and not them?” Mr. Smith said and Mrs. Smith swallowed her anger and retort. Mr. Smith faced my parents and said coolly, indignantly. “So how much will you collect over Rose?”

Mum and dad began to whisper to each other in argument for a very long time. During this time, Nelson was doing some stupid acrobatic dances that amused us while mum and dad were at it. At last, they came back and faced us. We all ignored Nelson and our attention was focus3ed on them.

“If you pay five million naira, you can have her forever. But if you can’t afford that, pay three million naira and that means that we’ll be seeing her once in five years. If you still cannot afford that, pay one million naira and that means we both own her and we will be visiting her every year and she will be bearing our name…..”My dad narrated everything down to twenty thousand naira which he said will let me stay with the Smiths for a months before they claim me back.

“See sir” Kate’s dad said, he could barely keep the anger out of his voice “We don’t need her for anything; we have two house helps, three gardeners, a cook and lots of other workers working in our house, so our plan is not to use her for any menial job. We are here to help Rose and take her away from this environment and to give her good education so she could be useful in the society but if you are not happy with the help we are offering then you will leave us with no choice than to go without her.” He said as a matter of fact.

Mum and dad were not expecting this, so they were taken aback by this sudden change of attitude. They were shocked and temporarily ashamed of what they were planning to do as if they were seeing it for the first time but mum rally quickly.

“Alright then, you may leave now if that is the case and never come back except to pay the remaining balance you owe us. If we don’t hear from you within a week, we will report you at police station and you will be arrested for abduction and we will file a suit against you”

The Smiths left without me and after they’d gone, I broke down weeping. Once again, I felt like murdering my parents. Honestly.

You can’t really imagine how bad it would be for someone who has been sleeping on a waterbed in one of the grandest mansions in the country to start sleeping on a bug ridden flat mattress in a very cold , smelly and dark sleephole; if it had never happened to you before but that was exactly hope I felt. Or imagine yourself being given ice cream thrice a day before and all of a sudden, your dad just told you that he will now start giving you ice cream once in fifty years, can you imagine?!

Early the following day, mum woke me up and we went to a slum in Lekki to sell her Indian hemp. I was officially back in business.

THE SUIT.

It’s been three months since my parents sent Kate’s family away. During those three months, my mum forced me to follow her to Lekki (after being caught and jailed for five months, she didn’t go to Idumota again) where she sells the hemps to the customers. Every day while we were on the streets, I kept remembering those happy moments that I’ve spent and shared with Kate and her family and thinking about how to free myself from my parents’ bondage but there was no solution to my problem.

At nights, I would cry myself to sleep and refuse to eat. After the third month, we received a summon from the state high court with several count charges that ranges from child abuse to fraud. The summon warned my parents that abstinence from court or nonappearance in court on the said date would have dire consequences. As expected, my dad said that there was nothing that court would do if we didn’t show up but my mum advised him to go and that they may be able to get the remaining balance from the Smiths.

The complainant was Mr. Smith.


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On the day of the hearing, there were three cases to be heard, so the courtroom was filled with people who are directly or indirectly related to the three cases. Dad took the farthest pew at the back of the courtroom while mum and I sat on the front pew. The Smiths too were sitting on the front pew.

I stood up and ran towards their pew and they all took me into warm embraces. I tickled Nelson and he cackled with laughter.

“Oh my God, you look awful!” Mrs. Kate exclaimed

“Are you sick or something?” Mr. Smith asked, concerned.

Kate lowered her voice so that my mum wouldn’t hear

“I told you dad, she is not happy living with them, they are maltreating her! Rose am I lying?”

The Judge came into the court room and the court clerk bellowed “Arise!” and everyone in the courtroom stood up till the judge took her seat. I was fascinated and awed. Right then, I swore that I would be educated and study law and end up as a judge like the beautiful woman that everybody was respecting. We sat back down when the judge had taken her seat and the clerk read the frit case to the hearing of the packed courtroom. It was not our case so I watched and listened to everything that was said and done.

 Ours was number two.  The first case was that of a woman and her husband who sold the house he and his wife built and ran away with the proceeds with another woman. While he was running away, he was attacked by armed robbers and the money was collected from him. Now his wife had filed a case against him, demanding to be paid her own share of the proceeds.

The lawyers on both sides talked very brilliantly, defending their clients and I learnt another lesson that when I eventually become a lawyer, I will never defend bad people no matter how much they offer me. In the end, the judge blamed the husband for his wickedness and lack of feelings. She ordered the husband to pay the wife within sixty days or he would go to seven years imprisonment.

Our case was the second case. So when it was called, we were given bible to swear that we would say the truth and nothing but the whole truth. After the swearing, the Smiths’ lawyer opened the floor by accusing my parents of abusing me emotionally, psychologically and morally. He also said that they were enslaving me. He also told the court of how they were using me to sell Indian hemp and he said that I was not taken away from them as soon as possible, and be given away to a good family like his clients for proper upbringing; I may end up being a menace instead of blessing to the society. I loved the richness of his voice and the way he carried himself confidently and held his head up high. The way he argued his points was interesting and convincing.

When he sat down, the judge called my parents to the dock to defend the charges against them since we couldn’t afford the service of a lawyer.

My mum spoke first; she begged the court not to take me away from them because I am the only one they had. Sher promised the court that henceforth, she would take good care of me, send me to school and blah.

Dad spoke next and his speech made me change my mind and thinking about him and mum. He told the court that he was an NCE holder but had never been gainfully employed before. He told the court things that I’ve never heard him say before and by the time he was through, I was already crying. I felt like going to him in front of everybody and hug him but I didn’t want to offend the Smiths who were only trying to help me. Like mum, dad too promised to take a very good care of me henceforth and to send me to school no matter what it takes or cost him to send me to school and to take proper care of me.

The whole courtroom was as silent as graveyard as everybody was confused on whose side to take in the case. The judge read and reread all what she jotted down but couldn’t come up with a single decision. She told the court to on recess for fifteen minutes that the court could sit back after the recess. During the recess, she returned to her office at the back of the courtroom. She summoned the Smiths and my parents to follow her to her office. But we the children were told to stay behind so Kate and I were playing with Nelson and we had a tough time stopping him from climbing the podium to sit on the judge’s chair.

When the court sat back down, the judge truthfully told the court that she confused that she didn’t know whose side she should take on the matter. She thanked the Smiths profoundly for their kind gestures and good intentions. She said that they shall be eternally rewarded by God for their kindness. She rebuked my parents that unable to get job is not an excuse for them to stoop so low to constitute nuisance and contribute to societal problems.

She ordered mum and dad to get decent jobs and live through honest means and be responsible adults. She commanded dad then to take a very good care of me and give me the best education because she said that I am their future and they should take care of me as good as they want their future to be.

Then the judge surprised everyone.

“Now, this is my judgement: I don’t want to take side in this case so that when something goes wrong in the end, I won’t be held responsible. As for me, I would have said that Rose should go to the Smiths without hesitation, at least pending the time that Rose’ parents will be able to get good jobs and be capable enough to take care of her. I believe that this is what Rose also wants so I’ll give her opportunity to judge this case and whatever she says is the final because she is the one feeling all these pains”

The judge said and relaxed back on her seat and the whole court room was watching and waiting for me to talk and choose who to live with. My heart was beating madly in my chest the whole time. It beats so fast that I thought that it would jump out of my mouth. I saw mum and dad huddled at the back with dropping shoulders and heads hung low in shame, they looked briefly at me and then looked away in defat. They knew that I was not going to choose living with them. I saw the Smiths; they were all smiling and waiting for me to tell them that I’ll go with them. Even Nelson seemed to be waiting for my decision because at that moment, he sat quietly on his mum lap and he was staring wide eyed at me as if he had never seen me before.

“Come on, go on and make your decision” the judge urged gently “Pass the judgement darling. These people are ready to you and give you good life so nobody will be unhappy for such opportunity. Don’t worry, your parents will be allowed to visit you whenever they wanted and you too can visit them whenever it suits you so it is a win-win situation for everyone!” she said smiling.

I closed my eyes and I asked God what he wanted me to do without speaking out loud but he didn’t answer. It was obvious He too wanted me to make the decision myself.

I opened my eyes and everyone was still silent and staring impatiently at me.

“I am very sorry” I said

“Oh honey you don’t have to be sorry for anything in this case because your future is more important to all of is here. Just make sure you make the decision” the judge said kindly.

“Okay ma, I will go with….” I paused and thought about my decision again to see if I was wrong and if I would live to regret it.

“Who, sweetheart?” the judge asked anxiously “My heart is beating very fast. Darling please don’t keep us in suspense anymore”

The people in the court room laughed to ease the tension.

“Alright, I will go with my parents” I said

I shouldn’t have said that because I saw Mrs. Smith paled and tears unbidden ran freely down her cheeks in silence. Mr. Smith closed his eyes very tightly. Nelson was saying rubbish as usual but I guess he was cursing me while Kate wept uncontrollably.

There were murmurings in the courtroom and the clerk shouted more than ten times before the noise subsided.

Before they left the court room, I caught up with them outside, crying and begging them to understand that no matter how bad my parents might be, I must not deny them or forsake them but they didn’t listen. They got into their car and drove off. I ran after their car but I had to stop when I couldn’t see them again.

My parents were bad to me before the case, now they worse. That night at home, my mum only said “good girl” to me as an appreciation for choosing them but my dad abandoned me like he always did. I cried throughout the night but none of them bothered to placate me.

They continued treating me very badly and they mercilessly beat me for little or no mistake that other [parents would have overlooked. I begged them to stop hating me or I would kill myself but mum said that I would be more useful to them dead than alive.

Two months after the case I decided one day to go and beg the Smiths if they would take me back. When I got to their supermarket, I was told that they had travelled abroad and that they left a message that if I should come again to their supermarket or home, I should be arrested by the police.