CHRISTIE'S STORY (FULL STORY)
00:29:00
THE FULL STORY
CHRISTIE’S STORY
A SHORT STORY
"Again!"
“Jesus Christ!” Christie exclaims as she firmly grips the receiver of the white telephone, so for it not to slip off her soft and sweaty palm. The cracks emerging on her eyeballs reveals how terrible she feels about what she’s just heard over the phone.
"The three of them?"
"O my God"
"I'm feeling terrible right now” she says
Christie gets so nauseated by what she just heard on the phone that she feels something cold swimming up her gullet, to her mouth and it’s of great exigency that she lets it out.
“Excuse me Shade I'll be back in a moment" she drops the receiver. Perspiring profusely, she dashes through the well illuminated hallway. Everything seems absolutely vague in Christie’s sight, as she forces her way to the restroom and tries as much as possible to let the moving stuff out, prodigally disgorging, the bread and the dark brownish coffee, she had just consumed some hours ago. As she rinses her face, and stares at the mirror.
She cannot see herself reflect on the basin mirror. She can only see herself sitting at that round table covered with a red piece of cloth, she can see her, young, radiant, beautiful and tender self, facing Lawrence her brother whose Mephistophelian beam would always make one remember THE JOKER of the batman series.
“what would you like, ma?" she can now remember the voice of the black, beautiful and voluptuous waitress, with alluring cat eyes, holding the bill of fare. The waitress whose bust bulges out of the upper unbuttoned part of her white uniform as if it is straggling to force its way out, is one of those Nigerian graduates that have chosen menial jobs as last resort, after futile efforts to get a good job. Most of them choose to work in hotels, restaurants, clubs, and, bars on Victoria Island so they can ingratiate themselves with the Big Men that come to patronise them and they can get "tipped" for telling the men how beautiful their outfit is (even if it isn’t), and all sort of head swelling compliments, this leads to some of them telling the Big Men what led them to their "groveling" state.
"Sir, I'm a second- class lower graduate of Accountancy, I finished from UNILAG ," the waitress had told Christie's father Mr. Gilbert Ojo a "Big Man" too, he owned some of the biggest industries in Lagos, his biggest ones were located in Ilupeju, Ikeja, and Agbara. His fifteen storey, five star hotel stands out gracefully among other skyscrapers, beside the BAGATELLE RESTAURANT on the commerce friendly Broad Street in Lagos Island. The elegant and classy structure of the hotel brings the image of the brilliant BURJ AL ARAB of Dubai, for the structure of CHRISTIE HOTEL which was named after Gilbert's mother takes the shape of a palm tree because of his mother's obsession with palm trees.
"So I took my application letter and my C.V. to Pearl Bank that year… … …” the waitress had continued.
“After much ‘go and come backs’, I was at last granted an interview on the fifth month of visiting the bank”
She told Gilbert how the manager had invited her to his house after the interview for ‘drilling’, which she had thought to be like tutelage on the way the bank operates.
”He raped me, sir” she finally said and paused.
Christie had expected her to be lachrymose after relating her story, but the waitress had forced herself to smile, with the smile being so real, that it looked like that of the lady on the antiseptic commercial, who gives a broad smile after saying the "if I don't take care of them, who will?" Phrase.
"Unfortunately sir, I wasn’t offered the job” she said.
"The manager said he wanted another round for me to start the job" she added.
Christie, now washing off some of the puke that had splashed on the sides of the pure white bathroom sink remembers how Gilbert, became stupefied by the waitress' story. Gilbert moved by the waitress’ story, gave her his business card and invited her to his office. The waitress looked around like a thief that is being chased before collecting the money Gilbert had offered her. She then fell to her knee to thank Gilbert for the money he had given her, with prayers flooding out of her mouth.
"John who collected money from a guest last week was fired by our , Sir", she told Gilbert, after he asked her the reason why she collected the money timorously.
"Iya mi, please eat your food", Gilbert had urged Christie, who was 17 years old at that time to eat the Cassoulet de Toulouse which Her mother, Mrs. Funmi Gilbert had just ordered for her since she had refused to talk when the waitress asked her what she wanted. Gilbert called her "Iya mi" which means "my mother" in Yoruba language, because his grandmother had once said that she would reincarnate as a fair complexioned lady because of her tar black complexion. She by had told Gilbert to take good care of her transmigrated form just as he would take care of her. When Christie was given birth to, “this one is the duplicate of Her Grandmother" was what Gilbert had said, the only divergence was the difference in complexion, and that was even enough to convince him.
Christie, still staring at the mirror reminiscences, the feeling she had had that day. The day her father had told her the reason why he called her ‘Iya mi’, the abstract swelling she felt in her head that made her burst into laughter, her father too seeing this started laughing intensely. She recalls what her father had said when she asked him the reason for his laughter
"Well, I'm laughing because happiness looks so nice on your sheen face and that’s my greatest joy, and I promise to do anything to make you happy always"…………….
"Daddy! Lawrence has been a pain in the ass," she remembers what she had said after much pleading from her father to her on her eating the Spanish dish her mother had ordered for her. Lawrence, her younger brother who was just 15 then had been hassling her "just because he is tall and burly" she would always say.
"Lawrence! What have you done this time around" Gilbert who has now stopped eating stared angrily at Lawrence and giving Funmi the "see your stupid son" look.
"Dad yesterday is the fifth time Lawrence would make me break up with my fifth boyfriend" she had said dissentingly.................……
"Hello, Shade I’m back” Christie finally speaks after waiting for close to twenty seconds, listening to the "boon boon" sound that one hears when the receiver is yet to accept a call, she has been staring still at the gold lifeless"Ori Olokun" artifact which has been staring directly back while the phone rang, her husband Ikechukwu had bought the 200,000 dollar worth ornament for her as a birthday gift when she clocked 25 last year. Ikechukwu got to know how much Christie cherished art, the first day he visited her family at their house at Keffi Street, Ikoyi. All the paintings, statues, wood and metal artworks, monopolized his sight, the most astonishing one he saw was a replica of the beautiful Paul Gauguin’s ‘When Will You Marry?’ painting.
"I bought it 9,000,000 dollars on my last trip to Italy" Gilbert had boasted………………..
"I just watched it now online" Shade said in her soprano like voice.
Shade had just told Christie about the latest video that had just been uploaded online by the XY terrorists, who have been petrifying the lives of many Nigerians for many years now. They are religious extremists that have been recognized for wrecking havoc on Nigerians. They claim responsibility for numerous suicide bombings, kidnappings and execution of people of any other religion, or "civilized" people for the past 18 years, when Christie was 9. They had debuted, with the attack on a small settlement; a dry and dusty village in Maiduguri in northern Nigeria using machete, bow and arrows, axes and other crude weapons, killing every living soul and setting their houses ablaze. That time, they attacked mainly the northern part of the country. Today, they have just uploaded a video of the execution of a Lagos based rich family of three. Today they have shown the world what happens when the bullet of an AK47 is made to pass through the skull.
"Shade I'm feeling really bad right now" Christie said tearfully,
"I understand how you feel" replied Shade
"Don't worry everything will be alright" she added
"Are you sure?" Christie asked with a loud sob trailing her speech.
"Yes by God's grace" Shade replied, ignoring the fact that the "are you sure" question Christie asked was ridiculous as she had felt it was.
"Everything will be alright, where is Ikechuckwu?" Shade asked.
"He took Fred to the park, now I don't even know if they are safe where they are” Christie replies
"Shade, we are all vulnerable"
"Don't worry my dear” Shade tries to console her.
Exactly what her father had told her the last day she had seen him…………………….
Christie had visited her parents that day, after Ikechukwu had gone on a business trip, she had not given birth to her son, Fred at that time.
" Dad, I'm staying for a whole week " she told Gilbert when he told her he had missed her so much, and asked her to stay for two days. That day, she had a little misunderstanding with Lawrence because she claimed he refused to greet her properly. Lawrence insulted her that day that she could not go out with them to see the latest movie at one of Lagos biggest cinemas.
"Gilbert, Lawrence shouldn't go with us" Funmi said “lets punish him for being rude to his sister”
“I will never do that my dear” "I've made a resolution, from the time I started having kids, to always treat my children equally," added Gilbert.
"Christie, you are still very special to me, I promise, I’ll give you a special treat tomorrow, ignore Lawrence's imperfections and embrace him for his impeccability. Don’t worry my dear"……………………
Christie had just dropped the phone when she remembers how herself and her family had escaped death the day they left the restaurant, where they had met the waitress.
"Why are soldiers everywhere" as Gilbert drove along that wide boulevard, he asked his wife, who was engrossed with the sight of a soldier beating a man with the whirlwind like "koboko". The man, probably must have disobeyed the soldiers order. Gilbert who was surprised at her unresponsiveness, was forced to look at the same direction as Funmi .
"Dad what's going on?” Lawrence asked
Christie could read the trepidation in her father's face and in the way he drove their 15 million naira worth Lincoln Navigator L, until the tall dark soldier with the fin like tribal mark appeared in shades, he knocked on the driver's seat glass, to get Gilbert's attention.
"Oga, well done ,we dey do stop and search” the soldier whose teeth were brown and lips dark probably due to incessant smoking and drinking said speaking what one could describe as ‘Hausa pidgin English’. He told them that the restaurant they were coming from had just been attacked.
" XY terrorists don go kill am for flenty people"
"Dem don enter Lagos, and we no fit catch dem" he said.
"Why una no fit catch dem?" Gilbert asked
"Dem get big gun flenty and bomb and "grined" but gomnent no gif us anything"
"Okay, go ahead, and check" Gilbert said after a long conversation with the soldier
"Ah ah oooga, we know say you, I no get bomb, abeg gif us small money, make we use am buy cigar, and we go leave you make you dey go"………….
A loud knock on the door just woke Christie up, from her sleep. She had just dropped the receiver of the telephone an hour ago. The knock reminded her of that day her Father's Ikoyi resident door was knocked. That maledict day. That day her father had promised her a treat. The first time he had told her He'd take her for a treat he took her to, COUPLES RESTAURANT the most expensive restaurant in Lagos at that period where a glass of wine costs 700,000 naira. She was just 16, at that time; she had felt really embarrassed that day because they were like real couple………………….
She remembers what happened that day, at her father’s Ikoyi residence …………..
"Are you Mrs. Christie Ojo" the police officer who pronounced “Christie” like a Yoruba name, switching stress for tone, had asked. The ugly policeman! Christie felt the gateman; Audu shouldn't have allowed into the House. He should have allowed her to end her movie. He should have allowed her to feed her curiosity by knowing the end of the suspense filled Mexican movie, she had thought.
"I would like you to come with me to identify the corpse of your family members" was the last thing she had heard before everything became abruptly dim. That day was the last day she saw her introversive, unremittingly hardworking, industrious, and submissive mother who owns the Pearl Group of Companies, her mother who had just a primary six certificate, who had been betrothed to marrying Gilbert by her father. Funmi, who most times just nods to anything her husband, Gilbert says. Funmilayo who refused to change her name to an English name because she felt the meaning was too estimable for her to terminate. This, contrary to the advice of her husband, who wanted everybody in his family to bear an English name. He didn't bother her much about her name because of her respect for him.
Christie, who just saw only pictures of the corpse of her family members, now walks to the door.
"Oga madam, one man dey gate dey find you" Jimoh, the Yoruba gateman always dressed in buba and sokoto and a sweater is the one knocking. Christie who have stopped allowing strangers into her palm tree exuberant Compound for “security purposes”, walks to the gate with the fear of receiving a bad news, maybe of her husband's death or of Shade's or her cheerful Fred, because Jimoh had just told her the visitor was in uniform.
"Are you Mrs. Christie Richards" the man in uniform asked
"Yes I am” Christie responded
"Here is a letter for you." A post man hands over an envelope with her name inscribed on it and the symbol of an Elephant preceding her name and “First Bank PLC." Written on the next line. And a couple of addresses and telephone numbers.
"You'd have to sign here mam" The postman said before leaving.
Christie takes a deep sigh that shows how relieved she is, as she sinks into the sofa and switches on the TV.
Christie was just about to switch on the decoder, that she heard another knock at her door,
“That must be Jimoh again” she thought
"Hold on I'm coming" Christie now moves to the door.
"Are you Mrs. Christie Richards?" asked, a tall and black man in black uniform, who with his uniform one will know he is a police officer.
“Yes, I am, how can I help you” Christie answers him, still wondering where, Jimoh is, and why he has not come to tell her she had a visitor, a lot of thoughts started going through her head, as she stares at the envelope on the man in uniform’s hand.
“I am John Okpara from NEMA" the policeman said
“Can I get an ID?” Christie asks
The man brings out a tattered looking, tortured and half laminated card, which contains a gaunt image of him. He hands it over to Christie for scrutiny, but she refuses to collect it, intimidated by the grotesque sight of the card.
“Did you not meet my gateman at the gate?” Christie finally asks the man in uniform.
“Yes I did, but he sa….” The man in uniform paused, to take a deep breath and finally speak.
“Madam the visitors book of the wonderland park in Lagos indicates that Ikechukwu Richards who I’m sure is your husband and your son Fred Richards checked in early this afternoon, and it is so unfortunate that the place has just been hit some minutes ago. There was a bomb explosion at the park early this afternoon, and I would like you to follow me to the place to identify the corpse of your husband and your son.”
“Why have I given him much time to say all these?” Christie kept on wondering, as she loses balance, and everything finally becomes dim.
EPILOGUE
Everything’s been lost. What is the worth of living? why was I given birth to?, I would have committed suicide but, I’m scared of heaven and I’m scared of hell, I’m scared of living further, life is not worth living. If I was poor, I would have nothing to worry about, If I was living in abjectness, if I was the grass in the meadow, if I was not the Iroko, I would be stepped upon. I would take the leftovers from the Iroko tree. This life is not worth living. In a country like this, life is not worth living, Had I being poor, though I lived in wealth, it’s still like living in hell. I started well, my father was comfortable, I got everything I desired, and my family got the best.
I overheard………. Yes, I overheard it. The newspaper vendor and the security man, they exposed it all. My father wasn’t really the good man everybody wanted he was just good to I, my brother and my mum, my father had thrown a lot of people into indigence, they can never come out from. He has embezzled, he has killed. Now I believe what our priest once said at mass, “He who kills by the sword surely dies by the sword” the whole pension fund, the minister put it in his account. He owned an account in the Swiss bank various accounts in Nigeria with different names, why did I not know all these? I’ve been too oblivious, had I known, I would have stopped collecting his money. I would have stolen his money and absconded. Now I hate him. I really hate him now.
“The minister used him” the vendor had said, I could not buy anything at the mall again that day I heard their conversation, thank God they didn’t know I was his daughter, had they known, they might have slit my throat. Now they shouldn't bother, because I’ve now lost everything, my father, mother, brother, husband, and son have been taken away why must I suffer all these alone, at least I didn’t steal any money, I didn’t push anybody to indigence, my priest has another answer to my question , he once said “If one finger is stained with oil, the other fingers are not left out of getting stained”. Now I’m being immured, yes I'm being immured, they all think I’m insane, they think I’m crazy, I’m just being repentant, nobody wants to listen to me, everybody thinks my father was a good man, my lovely mother, why would she ever have thought of marrying a vicious man like my father, maybe she did not know about it too anyway,
“All the money meant for the pensioners, were kept in his account, he used it to start up his business” that’s what the vendor told me… no… I mean what he told the security man. But I feel they were talking to me, had I not known all these, I wouldn’t find solace in this asylum.
All the same I’m very happy, I’m fulfilled, and I’m comfortable here, I’m happy I know why all these ruinous happenings came my way, I’m glad I know my dad is the root of all these. Now I believe in karma, it’s just like a rubber no matter how far you stretch it; it strikes back at your face. But I didn’t drag that rubber, my dad did… Now I get this whole thing, my dad is the hand, myself, Lawrence, my mother, my husband, and my son, dwell in the face…. Oops! Here comes the man in white uniform, he’s coming to inject me again; I’ll make sure I bite him harder than I did before. It’s so sad, I’ve to go, it’s so sad.
Written by
Adedolapo Boluwatife.
The End.
CHRISTIE’S STORY
A SHORT STORY
"Again!"
“Jesus Christ!” Christie exclaims as she firmly grips the receiver of the white telephone, so for it not to slip off her soft and sweaty palm. The cracks emerging on her eyeballs reveals how terrible she feels about what she’s just heard over the phone.
"The three of them?"
"O my God"
"I'm feeling terrible right now” she says
Christie gets so nauseated by what she just heard on the phone that she feels something cold swimming up her gullet, to her mouth and it’s of great exigency that she lets it out.
“Excuse me Shade I'll be back in a moment" she drops the receiver. Perspiring profusely, she dashes through the well illuminated hallway. Everything seems absolutely vague in Christie’s sight, as she forces her way to the restroom and tries as much as possible to let the moving stuff out, prodigally disgorging, the bread and the dark brownish coffee, she had just consumed some hours ago. As she rinses her face, and stares at the mirror.
She cannot see herself reflect on the basin mirror. She can only see herself sitting at that round table covered with a red piece of cloth, she can see her, young, radiant, beautiful and tender self, facing Lawrence her brother whose Mephistophelian beam would always make one remember THE JOKER of the batman series.
“what would you like, ma?" she can now remember the voice of the black, beautiful and voluptuous waitress, with alluring cat eyes, holding the bill of fare. The waitress whose bust bulges out of the upper unbuttoned part of her white uniform as if it is straggling to force its way out, is one of those Nigerian graduates that have chosen menial jobs as last resort, after futile efforts to get a good job. Most of them choose to work in hotels, restaurants, clubs, and, bars on Victoria Island so they can ingratiate themselves with the Big Men that come to patronise them and they can get "tipped" for telling the men how beautiful their outfit is (even if it isn’t), and all sort of head swelling compliments, this leads to some of them telling the Big Men what led them to their "groveling" state.
"Sir, I'm a second- class lower graduate of Accountancy, I finished from UNILAG ," the waitress had told Christie's father Mr. Gilbert Ojo a "Big Man" too, he owned some of the biggest industries in Lagos, his biggest ones were located in Ilupeju, Ikeja, and Agbara. His fifteen storey, five star hotel stands out gracefully among other skyscrapers, beside the BAGATELLE RESTAURANT on the commerce friendly Broad Street in Lagos Island. The elegant and classy structure of the hotel brings the image of the brilliant BURJ AL ARAB of Dubai, for the structure of CHRISTIE HOTEL which was named after Gilbert's mother takes the shape of a palm tree because of his mother's obsession with palm trees.
"So I took my application letter and my C.V. to Pearl Bank that year… … …” the waitress had continued.
“After much ‘go and come backs’, I was at last granted an interview on the fifth month of visiting the bank”
She told Gilbert how the manager had invited her to his house after the interview for ‘drilling’, which she had thought to be like tutelage on the way the bank operates.
”He raped me, sir” she finally said and paused.
Christie had expected her to be lachrymose after relating her story, but the waitress had forced herself to smile, with the smile being so real, that it looked like that of the lady on the antiseptic commercial, who gives a broad smile after saying the "if I don't take care of them, who will?" Phrase.
"Unfortunately sir, I wasn’t offered the job” she said.
"The manager said he wanted another round for me to start the job" she added.
Christie, now washing off some of the puke that had splashed on the sides of the pure white bathroom sink remembers how Gilbert, became stupefied by the waitress' story. Gilbert moved by the waitress’ story, gave her his business card and invited her to his office. The waitress looked around like a thief that is being chased before collecting the money Gilbert had offered her. She then fell to her knee to thank Gilbert for the money he had given her, with prayers flooding out of her mouth.
"John who collected money from a guest last week was fired by our , Sir", she told Gilbert, after he asked her the reason why she collected the money timorously.
"Iya mi, please eat your food", Gilbert had urged Christie, who was 17 years old at that time to eat the Cassoulet de Toulouse which Her mother, Mrs. Funmi Gilbert had just ordered for her since she had refused to talk when the waitress asked her what she wanted. Gilbert called her "Iya mi" which means "my mother" in Yoruba language, because his grandmother had once said that she would reincarnate as a fair complexioned lady because of her tar black complexion. She by had told Gilbert to take good care of her transmigrated form just as he would take care of her. When Christie was given birth to, “this one is the duplicate of Her Grandmother" was what Gilbert had said, the only divergence was the difference in complexion, and that was even enough to convince him.
Christie, still staring at the mirror reminiscences, the feeling she had had that day. The day her father had told her the reason why he called her ‘Iya mi’, the abstract swelling she felt in her head that made her burst into laughter, her father too seeing this started laughing intensely. She recalls what her father had said when she asked him the reason for his laughter
"Well, I'm laughing because happiness looks so nice on your sheen face and that’s my greatest joy, and I promise to do anything to make you happy always"…………….
"Daddy! Lawrence has been a pain in the ass," she remembers what she had said after much pleading from her father to her on her eating the Spanish dish her mother had ordered for her. Lawrence, her younger brother who was just 15 then had been hassling her "just because he is tall and burly" she would always say.
"Lawrence! What have you done this time around" Gilbert who has now stopped eating stared angrily at Lawrence and giving Funmi the "see your stupid son" look.
"Dad yesterday is the fifth time Lawrence would make me break up with my fifth boyfriend" she had said dissentingly.................……
"Hello, Shade I’m back” Christie finally speaks after waiting for close to twenty seconds, listening to the "boon boon" sound that one hears when the receiver is yet to accept a call, she has been staring still at the gold lifeless"Ori Olokun" artifact which has been staring directly back while the phone rang, her husband Ikechukwu had bought the 200,000 dollar worth ornament for her as a birthday gift when she clocked 25 last year. Ikechukwu got to know how much Christie cherished art, the first day he visited her family at their house at Keffi Street, Ikoyi. All the paintings, statues, wood and metal artworks, monopolized his sight, the most astonishing one he saw was a replica of the beautiful Paul Gauguin’s ‘When Will You Marry?’ painting.
"I bought it 9,000,000 dollars on my last trip to Italy" Gilbert had boasted………………..
"I just watched it now online" Shade said in her soprano like voice.
Shade had just told Christie about the latest video that had just been uploaded online by the XY terrorists, who have been petrifying the lives of many Nigerians for many years now. They are religious extremists that have been recognized for wrecking havoc on Nigerians. They claim responsibility for numerous suicide bombings, kidnappings and execution of people of any other religion, or "civilized" people for the past 18 years, when Christie was 9. They had debuted, with the attack on a small settlement; a dry and dusty village in Maiduguri in northern Nigeria using machete, bow and arrows, axes and other crude weapons, killing every living soul and setting their houses ablaze. That time, they attacked mainly the northern part of the country. Today, they have just uploaded a video of the execution of a Lagos based rich family of three. Today they have shown the world what happens when the bullet of an AK47 is made to pass through the skull.
"Shade I'm feeling really bad right now" Christie said tearfully,
"I understand how you feel" replied Shade
"Don't worry everything will be alright" she added
"Are you sure?" Christie asked with a loud sob trailing her speech.
"Yes by God's grace" Shade replied, ignoring the fact that the "are you sure" question Christie asked was ridiculous as she had felt it was.
"Everything will be alright, where is Ikechuckwu?" Shade asked.
"He took Fred to the park, now I don't even know if they are safe where they are” Christie replies
"Shade, we are all vulnerable"
"Don't worry my dear” Shade tries to console her.
Exactly what her father had told her the last day she had seen him…………………….
Christie had visited her parents that day, after Ikechukwu had gone on a business trip, she had not given birth to her son, Fred at that time.
" Dad, I'm staying for a whole week " she told Gilbert when he told her he had missed her so much, and asked her to stay for two days. That day, she had a little misunderstanding with Lawrence because she claimed he refused to greet her properly. Lawrence insulted her that day that she could not go out with them to see the latest movie at one of Lagos biggest cinemas.
"Gilbert, Lawrence shouldn't go with us" Funmi said “lets punish him for being rude to his sister”
“I will never do that my dear” "I've made a resolution, from the time I started having kids, to always treat my children equally," added Gilbert.
"Christie, you are still very special to me, I promise, I’ll give you a special treat tomorrow, ignore Lawrence's imperfections and embrace him for his impeccability. Don’t worry my dear"……………………
Christie had just dropped the phone when she remembers how herself and her family had escaped death the day they left the restaurant, where they had met the waitress.
"Why are soldiers everywhere" as Gilbert drove along that wide boulevard, he asked his wife, who was engrossed with the sight of a soldier beating a man with the whirlwind like "koboko". The man, probably must have disobeyed the soldiers order. Gilbert who was surprised at her unresponsiveness, was forced to look at the same direction as Funmi .
"Dad what's going on?” Lawrence asked
Christie could read the trepidation in her father's face and in the way he drove their 15 million naira worth Lincoln Navigator L, until the tall dark soldier with the fin like tribal mark appeared in shades, he knocked on the driver's seat glass, to get Gilbert's attention.
"Oga, well done ,we dey do stop and search” the soldier whose teeth were brown and lips dark probably due to incessant smoking and drinking said speaking what one could describe as ‘Hausa pidgin English’. He told them that the restaurant they were coming from had just been attacked.
" XY terrorists don go kill am for flenty people"
"Dem don enter Lagos, and we no fit catch dem" he said.
"Why una no fit catch dem?" Gilbert asked
"Dem get big gun flenty and bomb and "grined" but gomnent no gif us anything"
"Okay, go ahead, and check" Gilbert said after a long conversation with the soldier
"Ah ah oooga, we know say you, I no get bomb, abeg gif us small money, make we use am buy cigar, and we go leave you make you dey go"………….
A loud knock on the door just woke Christie up, from her sleep. She had just dropped the receiver of the telephone an hour ago. The knock reminded her of that day her Father's Ikoyi resident door was knocked. That maledict day. That day her father had promised her a treat. The first time he had told her He'd take her for a treat he took her to, COUPLES RESTAURANT the most expensive restaurant in Lagos at that period where a glass of wine costs 700,000 naira. She was just 16, at that time; she had felt really embarrassed that day because they were like real couple………………….
She remembers what happened that day, at her father’s Ikoyi residence …………..
"Are you Mrs. Christie Ojo" the police officer who pronounced “Christie” like a Yoruba name, switching stress for tone, had asked. The ugly policeman! Christie felt the gateman; Audu shouldn't have allowed into the House. He should have allowed her to end her movie. He should have allowed her to feed her curiosity by knowing the end of the suspense filled Mexican movie, she had thought.
"I would like you to come with me to identify the corpse of your family members" was the last thing she had heard before everything became abruptly dim. That day was the last day she saw her introversive, unremittingly hardworking, industrious, and submissive mother who owns the Pearl Group of Companies, her mother who had just a primary six certificate, who had been betrothed to marrying Gilbert by her father. Funmi, who most times just nods to anything her husband, Gilbert says. Funmilayo who refused to change her name to an English name because she felt the meaning was too estimable for her to terminate. This, contrary to the advice of her husband, who wanted everybody in his family to bear an English name. He didn't bother her much about her name because of her respect for him.
Christie, who just saw only pictures of the corpse of her family members, now walks to the door.
"Oga madam, one man dey gate dey find you" Jimoh, the Yoruba gateman always dressed in buba and sokoto and a sweater is the one knocking. Christie who have stopped allowing strangers into her palm tree exuberant Compound for “security purposes”, walks to the gate with the fear of receiving a bad news, maybe of her husband's death or of Shade's or her cheerful Fred, because Jimoh had just told her the visitor was in uniform.
"Are you Mrs. Christie Richards" the man in uniform asked
"Yes I am” Christie responded
"Here is a letter for you." A post man hands over an envelope with her name inscribed on it and the symbol of an Elephant preceding her name and “First Bank PLC." Written on the next line. And a couple of addresses and telephone numbers.
"You'd have to sign here mam" The postman said before leaving.
Christie takes a deep sigh that shows how relieved she is, as she sinks into the sofa and switches on the TV.
Christie was just about to switch on the decoder, that she heard another knock at her door,
“That must be Jimoh again” she thought
"Hold on I'm coming" Christie now moves to the door.
"Are you Mrs. Christie Richards?" asked, a tall and black man in black uniform, who with his uniform one will know he is a police officer.
“Yes, I am, how can I help you” Christie answers him, still wondering where, Jimoh is, and why he has not come to tell her she had a visitor, a lot of thoughts started going through her head, as she stares at the envelope on the man in uniform’s hand.
“I am John Okpara from NEMA" the policeman said
“Can I get an ID?” Christie asks
The man brings out a tattered looking, tortured and half laminated card, which contains a gaunt image of him. He hands it over to Christie for scrutiny, but she refuses to collect it, intimidated by the grotesque sight of the card.
“Did you not meet my gateman at the gate?” Christie finally asks the man in uniform.
“Yes I did, but he sa….” The man in uniform paused, to take a deep breath and finally speak.
“Madam the visitors book of the wonderland park in Lagos indicates that Ikechukwu Richards who I’m sure is your husband and your son Fred Richards checked in early this afternoon, and it is so unfortunate that the place has just been hit some minutes ago. There was a bomb explosion at the park early this afternoon, and I would like you to follow me to the place to identify the corpse of your husband and your son.”
“Why have I given him much time to say all these?” Christie kept on wondering, as she loses balance, and everything finally becomes dim.
EPILOGUE
Everything’s been lost. What is the worth of living? why was I given birth to?, I would have committed suicide but, I’m scared of heaven and I’m scared of hell, I’m scared of living further, life is not worth living. If I was poor, I would have nothing to worry about, If I was living in abjectness, if I was the grass in the meadow, if I was not the Iroko, I would be stepped upon. I would take the leftovers from the Iroko tree. This life is not worth living. In a country like this, life is not worth living, Had I being poor, though I lived in wealth, it’s still like living in hell. I started well, my father was comfortable, I got everything I desired, and my family got the best.
I overheard………. Yes, I overheard it. The newspaper vendor and the security man, they exposed it all. My father wasn’t really the good man everybody wanted he was just good to I, my brother and my mum, my father had thrown a lot of people into indigence, they can never come out from. He has embezzled, he has killed. Now I believe what our priest once said at mass, “He who kills by the sword surely dies by the sword” the whole pension fund, the minister put it in his account. He owned an account in the Swiss bank various accounts in Nigeria with different names, why did I not know all these? I’ve been too oblivious, had I known, I would have stopped collecting his money. I would have stolen his money and absconded. Now I hate him. I really hate him now.
“The minister used him” the vendor had said, I could not buy anything at the mall again that day I heard their conversation, thank God they didn’t know I was his daughter, had they known, they might have slit my throat. Now they shouldn't bother, because I’ve now lost everything, my father, mother, brother, husband, and son have been taken away why must I suffer all these alone, at least I didn’t steal any money, I didn’t push anybody to indigence, my priest has another answer to my question , he once said “If one finger is stained with oil, the other fingers are not left out of getting stained”. Now I’m being immured, yes I'm being immured, they all think I’m insane, they think I’m crazy, I’m just being repentant, nobody wants to listen to me, everybody thinks my father was a good man, my lovely mother, why would she ever have thought of marrying a vicious man like my father, maybe she did not know about it too anyway,
“All the money meant for the pensioners, were kept in his account, he used it to start up his business” that’s what the vendor told me… no… I mean what he told the security man. But I feel they were talking to me, had I not known all these, I wouldn’t find solace in this asylum.
All the same I’m very happy, I’m fulfilled, and I’m comfortable here, I’m happy I know why all these ruinous happenings came my way, I’m glad I know my dad is the root of all these. Now I believe in karma, it’s just like a rubber no matter how far you stretch it; it strikes back at your face. But I didn’t drag that rubber, my dad did… Now I get this whole thing, my dad is the hand, myself, Lawrence, my mother, my husband, and my son, dwell in the face…. Oops! Here comes the man in white uniform, he’s coming to inject me again; I’ll make sure I bite him harder than I did before. It’s so sad, I’ve to go, it’s so sad.
Written by
Adedolapo Boluwatife.
The End.
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