RAYS OF HOPE PART 4

Kate.

NEW LIFE.

On January 3^rd, mum resumed selling the Indian hemp but this time, she would go for as long as three days at a stretch before returning back home. Whenever I beg her to take me along because I was not doing anything at home, she would tell me to stay at home that it would be better without having to worry about me when she is being chased by the police. Dad continued to do nothing except smoking, drinking alcohol and beating mum and i.

One day, four men came into our house. I’ve never seen them before because I knew all the people that dad and mum used to hand out with. All of them were taller than dad and my dad too is not short at all, yet these men were taller and huge. I was afraid of them because they were like the giants mentioned in the bible who were sent out of heaven but later came down to the earth to mix with and corrupt human beings. Even mum who was older was afraid of them.

They spent two days in our house, drinking, smoking and talking in whispers and secretly. Dad sent us out of the room for those two days while those men stayed in our house with all their secret talks and plans. Mum and I were sleeping in a neighbour’s room though she had seven children already and all of them were living in the same room but the woman was mum’s best friend so she didn’t mind our presence. The children were very mean to me, especially David the eldest one among them. David was just thirteen years old but he had started smoking and going to bus stops to work as a conductor on buses. He actually wanted to jump me the first night at their place but I screamed and he ran off. His mum said he was only playing with me but mum and I knew he was not.

The next day, I woke up before everyone else in the neighbour’s room because I couldn’t sleep throughout the night. The neighbour’s room was so small and overcrowded that we almost slept on top of each other. Worse, the neighbour’s youngest baby peed in his sleep more than twice and because I was the nearest person to him, I was baptized with his urine those three times and I smelled till the day broke. Another reason why I couldn’t sleep was that my mind was restless. I knew that dad and the four men were up to something sinister and devilish which may hurt someone and I was scared that he might be caught and sent to prison forever in the process. So I wanted to warn him to stop doing whatever he was planning.

“The escape route” I heard my dad told them men when I was eavesdropping early in the morning that day “Should be guarded by one of us so that when the operation ends, it will be easier for us to fall out quickly without hassle”

“Yeah” one of the men said with approval “that’s very brilliant Gennny, you have it well planned out. I was initially thinking that we should all fall in together, the more the merrier but now I see that we need someone capable to man the entrance. Who do you suggest guys?” the man asked the other men.

“Let him do it” the men said.

“Okay, I will do it. Immediately the operation starts, no one will able to come in or go out”

“Good” the man said. Her seemed to be their leader “Now let’s have the goods”

Another man stood up and went to a corner of the room. He came back later with a big Ghana-must-go bag. He unzipped it and began to bring out guns!

I almost scream and let the know that I was hiding at the door, listening to them because I have never seen a gun up close in real life before except in the movies and sometimes when the police comes to our neighbourhood to raid. Even then, the police guns looked like some misshapen sticks than a gun but on that day, the guns that the man brought out looked exactly like the ones you see in American movies that can fire endlessly. I shuddered. I put my hand on my mouth to prevent myself from shouting as they distributed the guns and bullets among themselves. When they were done, they put the guns back inside the bag and zipped it up.

Dad took permission to get something to eat for all of them so I quickly ran away from the door. I watched him come out of the room then I walked up to him as if I was just coming into the house. “Dad, good morning. I had a bad dream that something bad happened to you…” I began but he cut me short.

“Shut up and get lost…wait, were you listening to our conversation? What did you hear?” he asked suspiciously.

“I didn’t hear anything” I lied, looking at him straight in the eye.

“Liar!” he said “Talk before I kill you!” he shouted and grabbed my cloth and used it to drag me closer to him.

“Leave me alone!’ I shouted, struggling to be free from his grip but he didn’t leave me, however hard shouted.

“Talk before I remove your front teeth now!”

I decided to tell him so I told him everything that I heard “Dad don’t do it”

 I begged.

“Shut up idiot!” he screamed at me.

“Please!” I instead “You could be killed, arrested and sent to prison forever. I still love you dad. I will beg the Smiths and they will give us plenty money if it is money that you need to start a business of your own. Dad please! Please!! Please!!!”

He threw me hard on the floor and I felt my bones creaked I hit the floor.

“Don’t ever DAD me again” he said with clenched teeth. “I am not your dad. Your mom is a prostitute so she slept with another man and brought you into my house. I loved her then and that was why I accepted you but now, I don’t love her anymore which means that I will do away with her or even you if you disturb my life and sneak into my privacy again”

Dad and the men left the next day. I didn’t tell mum about all what dad said in his anger but I told her what I suspected that dad and the men were up to. She was not surprised.

“Sssh!” she said, putting a finger on her lip to hush me. “I know what they are up to long before you do and I’ve warned him to desist to but he beat me instead of listening. God knows that though he hates me, I still love him. Dear, pray for him so that nothing bad ill happen to him”

“But mum, God will not answer my prayer” I said honestly “What he is doing is bad and he knows, God hates bad things and people who do them”

After some moments I asked

“Mum, who is my dad?”

“What stupid question are you asking me?” she said and walked away from me. As she walked away, I stared at her back. Something had changed about her but I couldn’t precisely say what. Mum and I never had any serious discussion before like we just did and she had never called me dear before, that was new, it was strange.

The following day, mom too left home to sell the Indian hemp but before she left, I begged her not to go “Listen this silly girl” she said angrily “I’ve got to work otherwise, all of us will starve to death”

“But mum, there are lots of good jobs that you can do. Remember what the judge….”

“The judge can over a bridge for all I care. Those things she was saying are so easy to say. She had it easy, sitting up there on that chair and looking down on everyone. To get any meaningful job, you must be educated or you must have enough money to establish your own business and I have none. So I have to use the only way that I know to pull body and soul together and you will respect me as your mother, no matter how poor I may be”

“Mum, what if you are arrested again by the police?”

“Well, I will be very careful this time. I was arrested the last time because I was trying to save you but now that it’s only I, the police will have to be more than fifty to catch me, even if they are up to, I’ll still escape all of them”.

Rose, listen up. I will be away for the next three days or more, depending on how long it takes me to sell all the goods that I am taking out with me but by the time I come back, I will have enough money to send you to school…”
“That’s what you always say!” I retorted angrily.

“Shut up and listen you this silly girl!” she snapped angrily, whirling me around to face her “look at me when I am talking to you” she said and jerked me. I felt as if I would snap into two.  “I am trying my damn best here while your useless father does nothing apart from smoking and drinking alcohol and now he is gone and no one knows where he had gone to. If you don’t stop these stupid nagging and whining, I will leave too and I won’t come back ever again, you know I can do it and I won’t feel any pain if I did.

Everything that I am doing, I am doing because of you but you don’t appreciate me, you chose strangers over me despite my efforts at ensuring that you live well.” She said and I started crying.

“I don’t want you to end up like me and your father. I will send you to school, no matter what it takes even if I have to risk my life. But if I can’t then I will accept defeat and send you to an orphanage, at least there, they may send you to school”

Mum left that afternoon and I was alone. I used the money left for me to buy food and exercise books that I could be writing down everything that was happening to me since I had no one to talk to. That was how I got my first diary.

The next day was Sunday so I went to a nearby church. When the pastor told us to pray to God for something we wanted, I knelt down and prayed seriously to God to protect my parents wherever they might be and whatever they might be doing.

RICH DAD.

Dad came back four days after he had gone. He didn’t come back alone, he came back with his goliaths, I called them goliaths because they just too tall and too huge. They brought back four cars and lots of crates of beers.

When he arrived, I was washing my cloths so I ran to meet and hug him immediately he alighted from one of the cars but he walked past me without a word and went into the house.

That night, they organized a party. They bought a lot of new things including a gasoline generator, a new set of home theatre, a flat screened T V, rug for our room, bulbs and lots more. Our small room was filled with neighbours and well-wishers who thought that my dad had hit a contract and that was why he was celebrating. The people danced and smoked in our room until the room was reek with sweat, smoke and alcohol. We slept very late that night because the last well-wisher didn’t leave until the early hours of the following day. Throughout the party, I tried to speak alone with my dad but he avoided me like a plague and whenever we accidentally look at each other, he would quickly avert his gaze from mine.

When I woke up the following morning, dad and the Goliaths were already preparing to go out “Dad please I want to see you” I said as I stretched and yawned on the bed. The mattress was part of the new thing that dad brought back.

“See me?” he asked incredulously “For what?”

The goliaths laughed.

“It’s personal and private” I said, not wanting to let the Goliaths hear what I wanted to tell him because they may turn it to a joke against me.

“You can spit it out or never” dad said impatiently. “In fact, I don’t have time for this nonsense” he said and stormed out. The goliaths followed him out. All of them made devilish faces at me as they walked past.

After they’d gone, I took one the books I inherited from Kate and began reading. While I was trying to understand what I was reading, other kids from the neighbourhood came into our room. They were five in number and they were my best friends before I found Kate, before I changed. Now I didn’t want to associate with them anymore but they kept coming anyways. They were: Blessing, Tunde, Lizzy, Favour and Chinedu.

“Let’s go and attack the barbarians on the next street!” Tunde said as they filed into our room. He had already filled his pockets with missiles.

“No”, Favour said “I think we should play hide and seek instead like we used to do in the neighbourhood, I bet nobody can find me!”

“That’s meant for suckers” Tunde replied angrily “We are no longer suckers but if you still want to remain a sucker, you can go and play by yourself. Let’s paly commando and show them how good we are”

Chinedu and Blessing agreed with what Tunde said but Favour and Lizzy disagreed.

“You boys are fond of rough plays so go and leave we girls alone!”

Favour said.

“Idiot, that is why your mom used to beat your father….

“Me….”

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“Everybody just shut up please or you get out from here!” I shouted suddenly, unable to take their blabbing any longer “You all are senseless and useless. All you think about –apart from foo- is fighting and playing. You don’t even think of going to school…”

“There is nothing in going to school. Those who do are only wasting their time and money!” Tunde declared “My mother told me that one day, I have plenty money and I will be able to buy whatever I want so why do I need to go to one useless school when I already have money?”

“You and your mum don’t know what you are talking about. It’s good to go to school and be educated, so that you can be someone important in the future”

“Hey, enough of that jargons. Will you play or not?” Lizzy asked disinterestedly.

“No” I replied firmly.

The all left me after that.

Dad travelled again the fooling day with his friends without saying a word to me. He gave me some amount of money and a small handbag to give mum when she so she could keep it for him till he comes back.

Mum came back five hours after dad left. When she saw all the electronic and the car that dad brought back, she was unhappy though in had thought that she would be happy. I gave the bag that dad said she should keep till he returns and she opn3eedd it. Inside the bag, there were new one thousand naira notes neatly packed together.

“Jesus!” I exclaimed.

“O my God!” mum shouted too. I couldn’t tell who shouted louder between mum and I. she poured the money on the floor and started counting and I was counting with her as she counted the money. Everything in the bag was three hundred and fifty thousand naira because there were three hundred and fifty pieces of the one thousand naira notes. “Don’t tell anyone about this, you hear?” mum asked me quickly.

I nodded my head

“Did you hear?!” she shouted.

“Yes mum” I said.

Mum quickly packed all the money inside her old bag and she left the room in a rush.

“Where are you going mum?” I asked but she didn’t reply. When she came back in the evening, she didn’t say anything about the money but she came back with a lot of books, new uniform and sandals.

“I don’t know how many books you will need but I bought five dozens all the same, it should be enough, right?”
I was too happy to respond. Finally, my wish had been granted. I felt so glad that I almost cried. So mum did not forget me after all?

“It will be enough mum, thanks!” I said and hugged her before I knew what I was doing.

“Hey, it’s okay so let go of me” she snapped, feeling embarrassed so I quickly withdrew. Mum is not an emotional person and she doesn’t like being fawned on.

“I found a school in the afternoon and I’ve paid all the fees in advance so you will start tomorrow” she said and looked sternly at me “Now listen up, I will stop paying your school fees if you ever miss any question in your class works. I mean should you get nine questions out of ten questions right in a class work then I will stop paying your school fess because I don’t want you to go there in the first place because it’s a waste of time. There are many things you can do for the whole time you’ll spend in school, doing nothing.”

“Thank you mum, I promise that I will always get every question right”

The following day, I resumed at God’s Gift Nursery and Primary school. Since I’ve been in a class before, I quickly adapted to my new school and I made  friend in primary two, Rita was her name and she reminded me so much of Kate whenever I see her. They were just so much alike.

Dad came home after three weeks but neither mum nor I really missed him because we were free from suffering his smoking, drinking and beatings. He left the following day. Mum kept selling the Indian hemp and different men kept coming to our house at night, sometimes they slept over.

Dad came home in a hurry one day.  He had gone for weeks by then and we were already worried if he had met with accident or the police. Mum was not around when he came so he gave me a big traveling bag that he was carrying in a hurry “Give it to your mother when she comes back and give her this note too” her thrust a note into my palm and dashed out of the house  the same way he came.

I gave the bag and the note to mum when she came back home in the evening. She didn’t open the bag like she did the first time; instead, she quickly pushed me         out of the room and locked the door from inside so that I or anyone else could get in.

I knew what she was doing.

After about one hour, she opened the door and pulled me inside the room then she slammed the door close. She looked troubled and on verge of tears.

“When did he come back?”

“Around 3PM” I said

“Was he alone? How did he look? Was he injured, did anybody else come here to…”

“Mum?”

“”Answer me!” she said and broke down weeping. I stood still, not knowing what to do. I began crying myself. Though I didn’t know what made mum cry but whatever it was, I guessed it was very bad because my mum never cried before even when dad was beating her black and bluer, she had never shed a tear.

Neither of us slept through the night. Mum kept jumping at every sound and more than three times before the day broke, she claimed she heard someone knocking at our door. There were many rooms in our house so the knocking could have happened in any of our neighbours’ rooms but mum insisted that it was our door. I opened the door each time mom said someone was knocking but those times, no one was there. I became scared because my mum was scared. So I didn’t sleep at all.

The following day was Friday so I left mum at home and went to school. She gave me more money that day than she had ever given me to spend during the breaks and she sternly warned me that if anybody asked about my dad, I should tell him or her that he had travelled for months and he had not been back yet. I felt reluctant to leave home because that time, I felt as if I would never set my eyes on mum again. But I left her all the same, praying to God that nothing bad would befall her.

So far, I have been getting hundred percent in my class works and all the tests that I have written and I was on top of the class partly due to mum’s threat that she would stop my education if I should miss a question.. I read at every opportunity that I had in the school and at home because I couldn’t bear not seeing my friends and teachers again.

At 11AM that day, we were in class solving a mathematical question when the headmaster came in. he spoke quietly with Miss Yetunde (our class teacher) and she shouted all of a sudden, disturbing the class from the class work she gave us. Though nobody knew why she shouted, yet I had a bad feeling that it had to do with me and my parents

After a while, the headmaster called me to follow him and all the eyes in the class followed us out of the classroom. When we got to the headmaster’s office, I met four uniformed policemen.

“This is the girl” the HM said to the policemen, pushing me forward.

“Alright sir” one of the policemen said “Can you please excuse us HM, while we interrogate her please?”

“O yeah. Okay but don’t stay too long and don’t frighten the poor girl. She is just a kid and she might not know what her parents are up to. If the proprietor should know that you are here, he would sack me so it will be better that you are gone before he comes back, I beg you please” he said and left the office, closing the door softly after him. So I was left alone with those four unsmiling strangers who called themselves policemen.

“I am Corporal Adam Tom. Here are my colleagues; Corp Benzene, Corp Samuel and Corp Kenny. We are here to ask you some questions and we will appreciate it if you can answer us truthfully. But let me warn you, we already know the answers to these questions so if you lie, we will know and we will take you into our custody and you will never see your parents again” he said and I became scared of him and his colleagues. That moment, I wished I could be left alone. I wished I could just go back to class and sit among my classmates, working on the mathematical question. I wished si could be like the other normal children.

The way the policemen looked at me was enough to make anyone pee I his or her pants. They all looked with undisguised hatred at and I had to check myself from shaking visibly.  I believed that they could read my mind and know if I was lying.

“What is your name to start with?” the one that called himself Officer Tom asked.

“Rose”

“I taught the principal said your name is Riya?”

“No sir, it is Rose”

“Okay, when was the last time you saw your mother?” the one called Kenny asked.

“This morning” I replied.

“What time was that?” Corporal Benzene asked coldly.

“7:50AM” I replied promptly because I knew the exact time that I left home.

“How did you know or remember the exact time? Did something special happen?”

“No, nothing happened” Corp Tom asked

“How much were you given to school today?” The one called Kenny asked.

“Two hundred and fifty naira” I said the half of the money that mum gave me. I was shaking by now and I knew with certainty that I was about to be caught.

“Where is the money now?” Corp Sam asked suddenly. He had not spoken since, he had been looking straight at my eyeballs and I am sure he had seen the fears and the lies in my eyes. He was already smiling wickedly like a lion that has cornered a harmless prey. He was the type that would be happy for inflicting pain and injury on other people.

“I have spent it” I lied again though the five hundred naira was still in my bag and my bag was in the class.


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“Where is your bag?” Corp Benzene asked suddenly and I almost pee again in my pants.

“It’s…” I wanted to say it was in my class but Corporal Tom cut me short and I thanked God for the interruption.

“Don’t worry about the bag, we will get it later. Rose when last did you see your dad?” he as