RAYS OF HOPE PART 5

Nelson.

.....he asked casually, almost like a friend who just wanted to know if I was hearing from my dad.

Yesterday.

“About two months ago” I replied.

“Are you sure of this, your neighbours claimed that they saw him yesterday?”

“Yyess” I said with shaky voice,. What if our nosy neighbours had truly seen dad and they had been interrogated by the police, how will I change my answer later?

“Who…”

The door bust open and the proprietor barged in, he was closely followed by the HM who was profusely apologizing for letting the policemen in into the school. “Gentlemen of the police” the proprietor began “I dislike what you are doing right now because it is a bad publicity for my school and it is violation of this girl’s fundamental human right. Now the show is over, you may leave” he said and held the door open but none of the policemen moved a muscle.

I felt very happy for this heaven sent interruption and I began to relax. I knew that as long as the proprietor was there, I won’t have to answer any more questions from the police. They would have questioned me till I cracked but thank God for the timely intervention.

“Proprietor, you know you are not doing your civic responsibility” Corporal Tom said sternly “Allow us to do our job”

“I have no problem with you doing your job but may I see an arrest warrant or any legal document that backs up this interroga5tion? Do you even have ID cards to show that you are truly policemen and not just impostors?”

“Damn civic responsibility and your job!” the proprietor shouted. “Get out now before I file a case against you!”

“That’s a silly empty threat” Corp Sam said with his wicked smile “You have nothing to charge us for”

“O really, what about how you threatened the little innocent Rose that you would jail her if she doesn’t tell you the truth? Isn’t that a threat, especially to a minor?”

The policemen looked at one another.

“That’s not true” Corp Ada said uncertainly. “You can’t prove anything”

“Now listen and listen well. I won’t sue you fools if you leave now but if you say one more word, I will sue you and make you pay your entire pension to me and the girl as damages…”

The policemen laughed. It was not a pleasant laugh and I knew that something was coming.

“You want to sue us?” Corp Sam asked as he slapped the Proprietor on the chest. The proprietor staggered and leaned on his table to prevent himself from falling. “Come on and use us, we are here” he slapped him hard again and the proprietor went down like a sack of grain. The beating started and when the HM too tried to intervened and rescue the proprietor, he was beating too. I quickly ran out of the office to my class. I picked my bag and fled from the school before the wicked policemen could catch me.

When I got home, mum was not there neither was there any of her possessions. All her clothes bags where she kept important things and best dresses were gone, only the bags containing her old and useless cloths were left behind. The room looked empty and forlorn and I felt true alone in the world.

I sat on the floor and wept bitterly.

My mum was gone too.

When I was tired of crying, I picked myself up from the floor and  began searching through her remaining bags and dad’s clothes maybe she left any clue about her where about. I found twenty one thousand naira notes inside one of mum’s bags and I took it. I knew that she had intentionally left it there for me to see and it was a message on its own. By leaving that huge amount of money, mum was telling me that she was never coming back and that I should find my way too. Though how she expected me to survive, I couldn’t say.

Then I saw dad’s note on the floor, it was crumpled. I picked it up and read it slowly:
“Dupe, there is a very big problem. The operation went bad. Others were killed but I managed to escape with the money. We were running away with the money when we encountered the police. There was a shot out and others were shot them but I managed to escape with the money. I have been hiding from the police for the past three days and I just hope that they don’t get to you by now. The money is inside the bag so keep it and save it for me till I return again but if I don’t, you know what to do.

There s a toatal of fifteen million naira in the bag. Should I escape from this problem, we will never be poor again. Goodbye”

 That was the note.

The note finally explained everything to me. I became scared like my mom was and I quickly crumpled the note and just as I was about to hide it ion my uniform, the four policemen strode into our room with their guns pointed at my head. “Raise your hands up!”  They shouted, pointing the gun at me threateningly and ready to pull the trigger if need be but I didn’t raise up my hands. I looked at them defiantly, daring them to shoot me. Though my parents were hardly good to me, yet I still loved them. So I decided that I would rate die than to give them away to the police.

“Bring that paper now!” one of them said, stretching his hand but I continued to squeeze it till it became very small.

“Bring it now!” Corporal Sam shouted and he cocked the gun, ready to put a bullet through my head. Instead of giving him as commanded, I threw the note into my mouth and swallowed it. It all happened very fast. 

They became extremely angry. One them- I can’t remember which one- slapped me hard across the face and I stumbled backwards and fell heavily on the floor. I blacked out for some seconds before he pulled me up again by my cloth and began punching me mercilessly. Somehow in the middle of this assault, I passed out and I didn’t know how long it was but when I opened my eyes again, they were still there in the room, scattering all our possessions and talking in whispering tones. When they realized that I had gained consciousness, they handcuffed me and took me to their station.

THE STRANGE MEETING.

I was sleeping behind the police counter later that evening when someone roughly woke me up. I sat up on the cold bare floor and yawned hungrily. I rubbed my eyes, wishing that everything that had happened earlier was a bad dream but it  was not.
“Hey, young thief, get up, your daddy is here” A policewoman who had been the one that I was handed over to said.

Three armed policemen dragged my dad into the police station with cuffs on his hands and legs. He couldn’t walk very well because he was bleeding in many places. He looked as if he would die anytime. My heart melts and went out to him. I broke down weeping.

“Daddy!” I cried as they dragged him past the counter. I wanted to run to him, too tough him and tell him that everything would be okay but I was held down by the lady police. They led him deep down into the darkness that lay beyond the counter and soon, I could hear the sound of a cell door being opened and then closed shut with many locks.

I continued crying even after my dad had been locked up because I was sad and to the annoyance of the lady police who threatened that she would tape my mouth shut if didn’t stop because my noise was driving her crazy. After a long time, I couldn’t find any tear in my eyes again so I stopped crying and started thinking of ways to elude the policewoman since she was the only one on the counter. Other policemen were outside the station, they were loudly lamented about how government had to increase their salary despite the fact that things cost five times of their original price now.

Soon, the opportunity presented itself and I sneaked away from the counter and ran to the cell at the extreme end of the hall where dad was locked up.

“Dad?” I asked when I got to the door but there was no reply. I called several times again until he answered with a whisper.

“Go away” he said in the darkness of his cell.

“No dad, let me stay here with you” I said

“You go away now this bastard!” he said angrily, finding his voice.

“I gave mum the note and …”

“The bag?”

“I gave her” I said quickly, conspiratorially.

“Where is she now, do you know?” he asked eagerly.

“I don’t know” I said “She ran away”

He chuckled to himself, satisfied.

“Good girl. She is smart. Now you too go away from here. I will find you both when I come out of here but don’t tell anybody where you are going to. When I get out,. I will look for you and your mother”

“And the note you wrote dad” I said, lowering my voice

“What note?”

“The one you wrote o mum…”

“Ah, didn’t the police see it?” he asked, he was scared

“They almost see it. She didn’t destroy it so I swallowed it when the police came” I said proudly.

He heaved a sigh of relief.

“You are smarter than I sued to believe.” He said with fondness in his voice “Good girl, go now, remember, don’t go back home, they will search that place first. Go anywhere and I will find you and your mother later”

I sneaked out of the police station without anybody seeing me. The police lady on the counter was busy watching a Yoruba movie on the TV while the policemen outside were still engrossed in their lamentation.

When in go t out, I ran like I never did before to the neighbourhood. When I got to our room, I picked some cloths and put them in my bag. I was still in my school uniform so I didn’t bother to change and I ran way for the house.

I walked aimlessly about that night till I saw a church where a night vigil was going on. I entered the church and joined the worshippers as they sang, and clapped and danced but my mind was not there. I was thinking about myself and my parents, about the kind of lives that we were living. I fell into a deep troubled sleep in the middle of the vigil and I didn’t wake up till7AM the following day.

“Hey, where is your mummy?” the pastor of the church asked the following day.

“Mummy?” I asked again. I temporarily forgot all the things that happened to me the previous day. “Mummy…she is gone” I said finally.

“Gone? Why didn’t you follow her when she was going?”

“I didn’t know when she left the church” I lied “I was sleeping”

“Okay” do you know your house or will you wait till comes back for you?”

“No” I rose up tiredly. All the places where the policemen kicked and beat me were still aching sorely. “I can find my way home”

“Are you sure you can go home alone?” he asked kindly.

“Yeah, thank you sir”

For two weeks, I walked aimlessly through the streets. I ate whatever I see and slept wherever the nightfall found me. More than five times, I slept among the beggars at Idi-Araba in Mushin and more than twice, I ate with them too.

The twenty thousand that mum left still remained seventeen thousand but I still felt sad because I seriously needed a place to call home. I wanted live in a good house with good people who care about me.  I wanted attention and care, I desperately wanted love, care and comforts but those things were not on the streets, yet I needed them so bad that it brought tears to my eyes.

On the fifteenth day on the streets, I decided to visit the Smiths’ residence at VI again maybe they would accept me back. After all, there was a story of a prodigal son in the bible though I am a girl but if there could be a prodigal son, then there should be a ‘prodigal daughter’, or a ‘prodigal girl’.

When I got to their house, the gateman was very friendly to me, contrary to the last time that I was there and he told me that I was to be arrested by the police if I come again.

“Are they around?” I asked the gateman. When I was still living with them, we used to call him Baba because that was what Mr. Smith too calls him.

“Oga, oga I no dey” Baba said in pidgin English.

“Okay” I said and turned to go.

“Hey wait!” Baba shouted after me. “Oga I said you wait for am” he said. 

It took me some time to understand what baba meant.

“Okay” I said and he opened the gates for me. The house looked more beautiful than I remembered. From the gates to the living room on the ground floor, I was amazed at the beautiful and the intelligence with which it was built. Nothing had changed. All the rooms were still richly decorated and comely.

I met the cleaner and the cook in the living room and dining rooms respectively. They were happy to see me again and I was a lot more happy to be back in the house again after spending weeks on the streets at the mercy of the rans, mosquitoes and sun.

I didn’t know if Mr. Smith would kill me when he comes back and sees me because of the way I once betrayed the family but I didn’t care any longer. I didn’t care if anyone kills me. Maybe when I eventually get to heaven, I could see Jesus or God or both of them and I would have the opportunity to ask them why I had to [pass through so much problems in this life. I would query them for creating me in a family where I was not loved and reckoned with and I wouldn’t leave them both until they apologized to me for their mistakes.

The cook called me into the dining room twenty minutes later and I ate so much that my belly ached then I excused myself from the table and chatted with the cleaner and the cook. They told me that Kate, her mum and Nelson were in the USA and that only Mr. Smith is still in Nigeria on some business trips.  I ran upstairs, hoping that some part of the food would digest as I ascended the stairs. While I was waiting Mr. Smith to come back, I toured all the rooms in the house and I was sleeping in the room that Kate and I shared when Mr. Smith came back.

OVER THE SEAS.

“Hello, I’m here!”

I ran off the bed quickly and descended the stairs into the living room where Mr. Smith bellowing loudly tome. When I saw him, I wanted to run and hug him tightly and tell him that I missed him but I stopped on the last two stairs and looked at anxiously because I didn’t know if he was still mad me .

“C’mon” he said encouragingly “Don’t hold back how you feel so give me a hug” he said and opened his arm wide with a smile. . I ran into his open arms and hugged shim fiercely.

“I am sorry. I am very sorry. I know I did a very bad thing but please just forgive me….” I said .

“Hey, sssh. It’s okay/. You didn’t do anything wrong.  You showed that you are a good daughter to your parents okay?”
“Yes but I shouldn’t have chosen them after everything that you have done for me” I said guiltily.

“Hey Rose, you did the right thing. That’s what I would want Kate to do too if she had to choose between us-her parents- and outsiders. You can’t understand but what you did showed how much loved your parents even when they have nothing to give you. We are very proud of you for that.”

“Yes, thanks sir” I said happily. Finally, I had been forgiven.

“We were never mad at you” he said. My wife and I only feigned anger so that you would be discouraged to come to us. We wanted you and your parents to have a chance to live together in peace without interference from us. We wanted to give you chance to live together the way a normal family supposed to do. BY the way, have you eaten?”

I said yes.

Later in the evening, he told me that Kate’s condition is now critical and that they have nopt been able to get a new heart to replace malfunctioning heart. He said that they were all scared of losing her. He told me that the doctors said that that she had less than moths left live if a new heart is not found as soon as possible.

“But why is it hard to get a new heart? I think there are many children like Kate who….”

“It’s not that easy to get a new heart. Getting a new heart means that someone else has to die…”

“But many people die every day. Our social studies teacher told us that” I insisted.

“Yes but how do you know who is going to die, where they will die and when they will die? You cannot just kill someone because you need her heart”

I cried helplessly.

He drew me to him and consoled me. When my crying subsided, he asked me an unbelievable question.
“I am travelling to the US next week Monday to stay with Kate. Would you like to follow me please? She has been asking for you since and your presence will mean a lot to her”

I was speechless.

“Rose, will you go? Kate has been talking a lot about you lately, begging us to bring you. Trust me, she would be very happy to see you again and her happiness means a lot to us. We want her to be happy for her remaining days if God really wants to take her from us”
“Yeah, sure, yes sir! Thank you!” I said jubilantly. I was happy for two reasons, I was happy because I would see Kate again after almost a year apart. Two, I would finally escape from the trials and traumas that my parents were putting me through. I thought they would never find me if I leave Nigeria altogether for them.

Two weeks ago, I was sleeping on the streets, unsure of what would happen to me next but now I’m here in the famous United States of America for the first time in my life and I was the first person in my family to step on an American soil. Everything here looks and feels different. Even the air smells different. It is cool and has a nice smell to it compared to the dry smell of the Nigerian air. Gigantic and beautiful buildings and edifices are everywhere and the roads are free and clean. Everyone dressed well and walked smartly.  The difference between where I was coming from and this place is too obvious to be ignored.

We passed through the customs officers and security men as they screened and searched through our belongings. Mr. Smith knew one of them so immediately the man sighted us, he collected our passports and checked them thoroughly then he stamped them and passed us on to the next line.

The drive from John F Kennedy airport to the hospital where Kate was admitted was one of the most memorable journeys in my life. I sat glued to the window of the cab as the cab driver drove us through the streets of Washing DC and he and Mr. Smith were conversing in Pidgin English.

We headed straight to Kate’s hospital immediately we left the airport. Mr. Smith opened the door into the ward and said grandly (He had already told me to stay outside the door till he calls me In) like a crooked magician. "Tada!!" he was welcomed warmly by both Nelson and his wife.

"Now everybody, I have a surprise for ya" he said with American accent.

“What’s that honey?” Mrs. Smith asked expectantly.
“Dad what’s it?” Kate asked tiredly. The sound of her voice sent stabs of longing and pains at my heart.

I couldn’t wait any longer to see the best people that I’ve ever met in my life.

“Guess every…”

“Oh no honey, don’t kill me with anticipation” Mrs. Smith said.

“Please what is the surprise dad?” Kate asked again “Or did you see Rose?” I heard Kate ask excitedly. “Oh my God, dad where and where did you see her? Will you bring her here…”

I couldn’t stand it anymore so I broke the rule and walked. I can’t exactly describe how happy we all were to be together again. Kate hugged me for a very long time as if she was afraid of letting go and I held her too and said sorry many times for not being there for her all the while. Even Nelson was happy to see me because he was shouting and saying his usual rubbish and stomping all around the ward with his stumpy little legs.

“Rosey Rase Rasey!”

After the greeting, I told them everything that I have been through after we parted.

The following day, Mr. and Mrs. Smith signed an undertaken to take Kate out of ICU for further medication at home because she insisted on getting fresh air. The permission was granted and ‘by 3PM when the light drizzle stopped and the sun came out, we led Kate out of the hospital in a wheel chair, she was supported on both sides by two nurses that the hospital had provided to supervision her medication and to watch for her vital signs. Kate kept saying that she would rather spend the remaining days she had with the people that she loves than to be confined to a hospital bed.

THE MIRACLE.

Few weeks after my arrival at the United States, Kate’s condition surprisingly improved and she started getting better and being much of her old self. The doctors said that it was impossible that she had less than two months left to live- before her heart stops breathing but anybody who sees her wouldn’t have believed that something serious was wrong with her. The nurses were withdrawn and the wheelchair was returned back to the hospital. Now she could walk by herself and do other things without being supported but she got tired easily if she exerted herself too much.

The Smiths’ house in Washington was built beside the Pacific Ocean and it was as beautiful as their house in Nigeria, if not more because it is situated beside the ocean. They had a permanent cook who also looked after the house when they were in Nigeria. The cook was called Nancy. She was a black American but she knew a lot about Nigeria and Nigerian dishes and she knew her way through Washington to get the ingredients for any Nigerian dish that she wanted to cook.

To celebrate her recovery, her dad told her to make a wish, anything she wanted and he would do it for her. After much thinking, she told her dad that she wished to live with him and her mum and Nelson and me forever.

”God will let it be dear. Assuming it’s something that I can do, I’ll do it without thinking twice about it and make you live for two thousand years” he said and we all laughed.

“Dad wants me to be older than Methuselah but I don’t think that’s a prayer though, it sounds like a curse”

 The two months that the doctors gave her came and passed, yet she seemed to be getting stronger by the day and nothing happened to her. Four months after my arrival, Mr. and Mrs. Smith decided to send us to school since Kate’s condition had improved though her heart was still weak and she had to be very careful with what she ate. So we enrolled at the Whitehall High school at Clinton Park. The school was not far from our residence.

One day, Kate told me that every night in her dreams, she used to see her grandma who had died when she just five years old. She told me that the grandma always told her beautiful stories in her dreams and showed her beautiful places.

I asked if his head told her parents about the dreams but she said no that she didn’t want to scare them  with that kind of news when they were praying that she should stay.
“Rose, I want you to promise me something” Kate said.

“What Kate, I promise that I will do anything that you want me to do”

“Promise me that you won’t leave mum and dad”

“I won’t” I solemnly promised.

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“Ever?”

“Maybe” I said uncertainly “what is it Kate, stop beating around rubbish”

“Every night when want to sleep, in my personal prayer, that is, after our family prayer, I use to beg God to please give me extra time till the end of the next day. I think that the prayer has been working all along. The doctors might be right that I don’t have much time left but somehow I have found a way to cheat death I don’t think it will go on forever. I can’t continue to beg God for extra tome every day because someday, God will just get tired and refuse to answer that prayer” she said.

“No, He doesn’t unless you suggesting that I am tired of begging for extra time?” She asked.

“Exactly!” I s angrily “can’t you see? Don’t be selfish. We need you. All of us do. Your mum, dad, Nelson and I. our lives revolve around you. You brought me into this family and if you go now, I’ll leave too.  Imagine how desolate this family would be! So always beg God for extra time every time you go to bed, don’t be tired Cat please…” I sobbed.

Kate too cried.

“I’m passing through pains even when I smile. I don’t want mum and dad to be sad so I’m pretending to be fine when in actual fact I am not. The pain I’m feeling is too much”

“Kate please endure because one day the doctors may be able to get a new heart for you”

After a long time, we both stopped crying.

“Rose when you start using brassiere, I may not be there so inside our room, open the wardrobe in it then you’ll see a white brassiere there please let it be your first brassiere. Mum told me two years ago before I knew that I have the heart disease that it was her first brassiere  she used and I have promised her that it will be my first brassiere too but God may decide not to do it that way so you may be the next person after mum to use it.” She said and smiled with embarrassment.

I smiled back. At the time, I was just eleven and half years old and she as twelve and we were already talking about brassiere. Kate could be very funny sometimes.

“No don’t laugh because it’s something important to me” she said and sighed. “Also, I want to tell you something and I need more than your promise on this. I want you to swear”

 I became scared.

“Kate, I don’t think that is a good idea. It’s not biblical to swear…”

“Come on Rose, assuming this is my last request on earth, won’t you grant it?”

“Don’t talk like that!” I rebuked her gently “Nothing will happen to you”

“You swear?” she insisted.

I thought for a while.

“Okay. I swear if that will make you happy. Now what is it?”

“I want you to be bearing my name” she said “I am serious about this more than any other thing I might have asked from you in the time past. Please even if I am no longer in this family, don’t leave t. stay here and replace me. I will tell you a story that my grandma told me yesterday.

One day, three friends were lost inside a very deep forest on their home from school. They walked farther and deeper into the forest as they tried to find their way home till they were completely lost. They were still walking when night came then they knew that they’d been lost.

Their parents formed search parties to find these girls but they were unable to find the girls that night or the next day.

The three girls were still roaming through the forest: three days later, they were caught by a pack of cannibals. The cannibals tied them all up and began to make fire to roast them. Lara who loved reading among the three girls had read a lot of books on cannibals, their lifestyle and simple communication methods so she understood some of their gestures. She decided to save herself and her friends if possible. She gestured to listen to her and they did.  Quickly, she told them that the three of them have been driven deep into the forest because they all have incurable diseases than can be transmitted to another person merely by touching and that any infected person would die within three days. So she told them that they might be infected too it they eat them and their race would be wiped off forever.’

The cannibals thought she was lying though they were scared a little. They decided to keep the three girls for three days and see if it would happen as the girls said.  That night in the forest, among the hungry cannibals, the girls cried and prayed for help but none came. The next day dawned bright and clear yet no help came from anywhere and the cannibals were already getting excited, waiting for the next day so they could kill the girls. That night, the girls were afraid because they knew that they would be killed the following day.

“What are we going to do now? If we don’t die before tomorrow night, they will surely kill us” Lauren cried in despair.

“We are lost and gone for real” Annabel added. She looked up and saw a star falling in the dark night sky.  Others too looked up and saw the falling star.

“My grandma told me once that I should make a wish whenever I see a falling star so let’s all make a wish”

“I wish that God will give us an idea to rescue us from this problem!” Lauren shouted into the night sky

“Wait!” Lara shouted suddenly. “God has given us an idea already!”

“What?” her friends asked curiously.

“It’s very simple. One of us has to die to save the others. If at least one of dies, the cannibals will think the lie we told them is true so they will set the other people free”

“Wow, it’s true and it is a brilliant idea” others said.

“Now who will die to save the rest of us?” Lara asked and everyone fell silent.

“Since you brought the idea and you know all these cannibals, Lara you can die for us” Lauren said nonchalantly “What I know is that I must get home and escape from this”

“No, that’s mean. If not for Lara, we would all be dead by now. I don’t think that’s a good idea, Lauren” Lola said.

“Then volunteer yourself then” Lauren said angrily “In case you don’t remember, I don’t want to do now. I am still young and have a very bright future ahead of me….”

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“Shut up! You are just so selfish, always thinking about yourself and not caring about other people!” Lola fired back at her and soon, the duo began to shout at each other. Son, the noise grew so loud that they cannibals were woken from sleep. The cannibals came to where the girls were and made some stupid noises and gestures that Lara interpreted to her friends that cannibals hated being disturbed from their sleep. She pleaded with the cannibals for mercy and the cannibals returned to their sleeping places.

“You know what, don’t worry; I’ll fix it since I brought the idea and I pray that God will let it work so that the two of you can be released…”

“No, Lara no please don’t do it” Lola began to cry

Lauren felt bad about herself and her selfishness and she felt sorry for being mean to Lara.  She too began to cry and the three of them managed to hold each other’s hands in spite of the ropes that were used to bind them tightly and they cried.  They cried till they were tired and fell asleep one after the other except Lara.

Once others had slept, she began to think of how to kill her. She remembered from the stories she had read about how people in captivity or real dangers used to poison themselves in order to avoid being tortured and gruesomely killed by their captors. She picked some leaves she knew and found around as much as the ropes could allow and she began to chew them in earnest. When she had already chewed and swallowed enough of those poisonous leaves, she soon fell asleep.

Barely fifteen minutes later, her stomach began to ache and sweat broke out all over her body. She began to cough and whimper in pain. Her body shook violently and blood began streaming out of her nostrils. Others woke up and there was great fear among the girls as they began to cry for help in loud voices that echoed through the forest. None of them could help Lara because they were all tightly bounded together by ropes. Lola crawled to where Lara was rolling on the floor and began to whisper soothing words into her ears and crying at the same time. The cannibals only looked on in fear; they believed the girls had a dangerous disease.

The day broke but then Lara was barely breathing. All through the night she had been coughing blood and it had been streaming out of her nostrils. The cannibals stepped very far away from the girls, afraid to touch and catch the disease. “Please tell my mum if you see her again that I love her so much and dad too. Tell them that if I have another chance at live, I would be very happy to be borne by them. Forget me not” Lara said and she kicked the bucket.

The remaining girls screamed and cried bitterly such that voice rang through the whole forest.

Unfortunately, the search party was not too far away from the cannibals’ camp so when the girls cried, they heard clearly and knew the direction of the voices. The policemen in the party brought out their guns and ran to the place. The cannibals were apprehended in no time and the remaining surviving girls were rescued but Lara was dead!” Kate finished.

“Jesus!”  I shouted as she ended the story. “But they should have come earlier and faster!” I said angrily.

“Well, they didn’t know that the girls were so close, no one can blame them for that. Remember that they have been searching through the forest for three days with no sign of the girls.

“That’s true but I don’t understand you Kate, why this story, how does sit it correlate with what you want me to do, that is, bearing your name?”

She smiled like a wise elderly person.

“It is a very long story”  she said “Grandma told me the story in one of my dreams”

“Stop saying that, your grandma is dead”

“Yes I know but I see her in my dreams nowadays, almost every day. The meaning of the story is that many people make friends with one another for different reasons but it is very rare to see someone that will be a true to the very end when you are no longer there with them” she said. 

“Now I understand” is aid “I am your friend and though it is your heart that is faulty, my heart too has not be working perfectly since I heard about your illness.  It breaks my heart to see you sick” I said honestly. “I’ll always be your friend no matter what happens”

“I know but I want you to be more than a friend to me and my family. I want you to REPLCAE me when I’m gone…”

“Replace you?” I asked incredulously “That’s impossible. Kate, are you out of your mind?” I said “This is not a sport team where you can be replaced…”

“Rose, will you?” she persisted.

“It’s impossible and don’t ask it of me again because you are going nowhere! I love your family and I’ll be with them even if I have to choose between them and my own family but I can’t replace you, you are irreplaceable”

“Please Rose, I need you to do this for me if you truly love and you are truly my friend. You know what? Maybe replacing me is the real reason why God sent you to this family”

She started crying. She cried a lot those days. The doctors said that it was normal that people with that sort of medical problem are very emotional and any little thing can make them cry or laugh.

“Okay Kate. I will do exactly as you’ve said but make sure that you don’t die on us now or never. If you don’t wake up tomorrow then I would know that you didn’t beg God for extra time when you slept” I said and she laughed.

GONE WITH THE WIND.

It was the first day of the two weeks winter break from school when Kate began to complain tonight about her stomach. We all thought it was because she ate too much that night because Nancy had prepared a very delicious Nigerian dish for us and all of us had eaten beyond our satisfaction.

Her mum told her to go upstairs to her room and lie down on the bed, yet the ache persisted. She was clutching her stomach and rolling to and from on the bed. Her mum, her dad, Nelson and I all stood beside the bed looking helplessly at her and afraid to admit to ourselves that maybe she was about to be gone. Her mom was holding her hand and sobbing quietly while her dad looked so sad that I felt like crying myself. Instead of crying, I held her mum and said “mum, Kate will be alright. We all love her and God lets her stay with us this far even when the doctors said it is impossible. That same God is still up there and he won’t let her go now”

Kate smiled weakly on the bed at us “Mum, that’s true, I’m going nowhere so place stop crying. I just ate too much and maybe I need to sleep and by the time I wake up, the pains would be gone. Rose is right, I’ll be fine”

“Okay then, let’s pray before we say goodnight” her mum said and we all linked our hands together, surrounding her bed and we prayed. Her dad read the last two pages from Charles Dickon’s Great Expectations and her mum sang but she had to stop because she broke down weeping in the middle of the song again.  Her mum and dad kissed her goodnight, Nelson removed a button from her pajamas and shouted “Gid nit” then they all left for their rooms.  Though there were many rooms in the house, yet Kate and I always share the same room. We used to sleep in each other’s room on rotational basis. The previous day we slept in her room but that particular night, we were in my room.

“How are you feeling now?” I asked after everyone had gone. I drew a chair close to the bed and sat beside her, holding her right hand in mine. Her hand felt warm and soft.

“Very bad” she said and gasped for breath, her chest rising and falling unevenly. I sighed in agitation and distress.

“Why don’t you let mum and dad know, maybe we should call the doctors and there may be something that they can do?”

“Letting mum and dad to know how bad it feels will only make them helpless because they cannot do anything to help me” she coughed “Rose place don’t forget your promises to stay and be part of this family. Let Nelson grow up to know you as his elder sister”

“I’ll keep my promises” I said solemnly, holding her hand passionately in mine, wishing part of the pain she was feeling could be transferred to me.

We talked for a very long time, deep into the night until both of us fell asleep. I was resting my head on her stomach while I sat on the chair bedside her bed. Our hands were still liked together even as we slept.

“Hey honey, wake up there’s good news. There is a good news girls!” I opened my eyes and stretched and yawned. Kate’s dad was smiling down at us.

“Dad, what is it, why are you not sleeping?” I asked, rubbing my eyes, not believing that the day had already broken. I looked at the bedside cloth and it read 1:22AM. I looked at him again.

“I was sleeping but I just got a call from Dr. Carson now that a new and compatible heart had been found for Kate!”

I felt as if I was in heaven. Finally, Kate would be free and live a normal life.

I jumped up from my feet and hugged him tightly. Both of us were jumping up and down excitedly and making joyful noises in the process. While we were doing this, her mum came in with the sleeping Nelson in her arms; she was crying and smiling at the same time. “Oh, thank God, at last we are free!” she said.

“Let’s go to the hospital now” her dad said.

“Darling, I think it’s too early; besides, the doctor said the operation couldn’t be carried out till 7AM this morning and this is just some minutes after 1AM.

“Let’s go to the hospital all the same and we can wait there till the docs are ready” I said excitedly, I couldn’t wait any longer to have my healthy friend back.

“Alright” her mum said. “I am ready if you two are ready”

“We are ready” her dad and I chorused.

We woke Kate up.

“Kate darling,” her mum said as she shook her gently “Wake up we have a good news”

She didn’t wake up, Kate was dead.

The doctor told us later that she must have died an hour before we found out that she was gone because her body was still warm.

All of us cried bitterly. It would have been better if she had died and there was no heart to replace her own but it was painful because she died just an hour before the heart arrived. I felt as if I was dreaming and that when I wake up, Kate would wake up too but it was not a dream, it was real, Kate was gone. She has gone to heaven.

We travelled back to Nigeria three days later for Kate’s burial. Many people who were friends of the family came to pay their last respects and to sympathize with the fairly. Our parish pastor presided over the burial and told the people in attendance that though Kate was young when she died, yet she touched some people’s lives and put smiles on the faces of the people that knew her. I told myself that Kate had changed me from being bad girl to a very good one. She has changed me forever and for good.

After the burial, we went back home and started preparations to travel back to the US again because we want to start a new family life afresh.

Ads. 

“Rose” Mrs. Smith said as she came into the room that Kate and I shared when she was alive.

“Yes mu?” I said and paused from packing my cloths inside my travel trunk.

“I believe  that you know how much we loved your  friend when she was alive?” she asked as she sat on the bed, watching me.

I said yes.

“If money could buy life, we told God to take everything that we have and leave Kate for us but that didn’t happen. No matter what might have happened, we still need to thank God for whatever He does because He knows best. He sees and controls everything. Now that your friend, Kate is gone, if you want to leave, we will understand because you may feel you don’t have someone to play with any longer. But if you want to stay, we’ll be glad to have you as our own daughter. In fact, as Kate and it will mean a lot to us. Whatever you want to do, we are happy with you because you are now our daughter, maybe not biologically but we love you as much as we love Kate and your happiness is more important to us than our own personal desires. Do you understand all these?”

I was about to respond when I saw Kate’s favourite pink top. I took the cloth and pressed it to my heart. I couldn’t help it so I cried bitterly because at that moment, I felt as if Kate was in another room in the house. Mum held me and placated me while I cry and cried too in the process. At last, I was able to pull myself together and dried my tears. I decided to tell her what Kate told me.

“Mum, Kate told me about five months ago that is should adopt her name and replace her in this family after she is gone so that you won’t feel her absence too much and I promised her that I will do that. You took me into this family even when Kate was hale and hearty  and now that God had claimed her, I will still stay with this family” I said and I cannot just describe the joy on her face when I said this.

“Come here daughter” she said, opening her arms wide and I walked into her warm embrace.

We travelled back to the US three days after the burial. The winter holiday was still on when we got there so I and Nelson were at home most times with Nancy. Mrs. Smith got a job in Barclay’s Bank as a manager and her dad got a job at a prestigious law firm in the city. Due to the nature of their jobs, they were seldom home at week days but they were always available at weekends and public holidays. On Saturdays, we usually go visiting friends and families, to amusement parks, cinema, and the beach at the back of our house or stay home and have a nice time together as a family.

Seven months after coming back from Nigeria, I received an unexpected visitor, a visitor that I did not want. The time was 11AM that day when the visitor arrived. Nelson was in the living room, drawing jargons in his drawing books and scattering whatever he could or carry. He had been disturbing me from fully concentrating on the book that I was reading.

“Nelson. Stop for crying out loud!” I shouted. 

“Katie Cat” he replied, lifting the telephone receiver to his hear and shouting ‘hello’ into it. I left him to it and continued reading my book. Suddenly, someone rang the doorbell and I started who it was because the cook just left to buy ingredients that she would use to prepare egusi soup and pounded yam that we would eat that night and it would take hours before she could get those things in Washington DC.

I left the living room and went to the hallway. Before I opened the door, I asked who it was and someone replied. The voice sounded so much like mum’s. I mean my BM.

I opened the door and my mu was standing was standing there on the porch. I mean my BM.

“Mum, what are you doing here? How did you get here? What…..” she walked past me into the house and went straight to the living room. She looked appreciatively around the room.

“Whoa, these people are stinkinly rich! Rose, you are a very lucky girl to be living in a place like this, no wonder you ran away from us because we were poor” she said and sat one of the couches in the room but I didn’t sit down. I felt uneasy because mum’s presence in a place always means trouble. “Won’t you even entertain me, young lady? Where are your manners?” she asked in her no nonsense voice.

“Mum…”

“Won’t you give me something to eat or drink? I came all the way from Nigeria just to find you” she persisted.

I went to the wine cabinet and brought out a bottle of wine that we usually give visitors. I poured my mum a cup and handed it to her. She collected it from me and looked at me from head to toes.

“You look so mazing Rose. I can’t believe that you are so beautiful like this. You are now so grown up” she said, unable to take her eyes off me. I blushed.

“Mum, why are you here?” I asked, afraid to hear her say again that she came for me.

“What else if not to take you back home, silly girl?”

“Mum, don’t use that name for me again” I said angrily. All the anger of the past and the bad things she and dad had done to me came back in a flood and I was ready to vent my anger on her after suffering the abuses for years in silence. “You and dad always a call me bad names but that is over now. It’s in the past now but I won’t have you call me those horrible names again. Mum, are you ashamed of calling good names like angel, darling etc.? Why are you so full of hatred for me?!”I screamed at her with tears in my eyes.

Nelson walked up to me and offered me a handkerchief. I don’t know how he knew that when someone is crying, he or she should be given a handkerchief to clean the tears but I said “Thank you” to him anyways.

He went back to his playing.

“Well don’t tell what you say just because you are now in America. If you do something stupid, I’ll beat you…”

“Then I will call the police” I said and I meant it.

My mum laughed wickedly.

“Okay, it is very simple. Go into your rom now, pack all your things, you and I are returning to Nigeria now”

“No mum, I am going nowhere” I said stubbornly and she slapped me across the face, it was a blinding slap and for some seconds, I couldn’t see anything.

“Before I count to three….One…”

“No, I am going nowhere” I said with stronger determination “If you dare slap me again, I will scream and you will be arrested…” Before I could finish my sentence, she grabbed me and folded my hands roughly behind me then she slipped something into my mouth as I wanted to shout and I fell asleep immediately.

When I opened my eyes, I found myself in a different room. The room was big and beautifully decorated but it was not any of the rooms at the Smiths’ house in the US. I opened my eyes slowly because my head ached very badly. My dad sat at a corner of the room, and he was staring strangely at me. I sat up on the bed and rubbed my eyes. I swung my legs over the side of the bed and stood up and I began to walk around the room. “Where is this?” I asked my dad whom I have not seen in a year or so. The last time I saw him was at the police station when he was locked up in a cell. But here he was, sitting as if nothing had happened. He looked healthier and neater. There was a calmness and confidence about him that was not there before. And he was not smoking! That’s almost unbelievable.

“Where does it supposed to be?” he answered backs my question.

“Well, I was in the United States of America the last time I can remember until mum came and drugged me so I don’t know this place…”
“In that case, you are welcome back home to Nigeria” he said casually.

“That’s crazy!” I shouted angrily “I don’t want to be here with her or with you. Mum will rot in jail for this. She has no right to do to me! How dare she abduct me from where I was living? Does she even know anything the US child rights act?”

“Shut up and let me rest in peace” dad said, cutting into my rantings.

I flopped down on the couch and cried. When I couldn’t cry any longer, I began to fuss, worrying about Nelson and hoping that nothing was wrong with him.

About a couple of minutes later, the door to the room opened and mum came with a heavy bag. She brought the bag to the middle of the room and dropped it on the glass center table that was intricately and beautifully carved. Slowly, she began offload its contents without looking at me. She had gone to the market to buy grocery.

“Mum, what game are you playing?” I asked irritably.

“Game, this is no game dumbass. You belong to us and not with those people so you will stay here. You left us in the first place because we were poor but now we are so rich that we can buy whatever we want and we want you back. It is as simple as that”

 “How did you find me?” I asked because I was yet to understand how she found me.

“Must I explain everything to you? Okay, listen then. We have been looking for you for the past six months but found you nowhere. We hired a detective to help us find you and he was the one who found those people’s house at Victoria Island. The old gateman told us that you were with the family in America and that you recently came home to bury that your friend-sorry to hear that, what killed her? Anyways, I asked if he knew the US address but he said no so I had to call the detective again and he connected with another detective in the US who looked up their address in a directory book and he was watching them for two weeks to know their routine. He was the one who told me when to come visiting. Did you get all that?