Ruth Vicissitudes - Episode 8

 

Since the previous night, Ruth had been in panic about the whereabouts of Ericks. For the umpteenth time that she dialed his phone in the morning, she got negative response. They agreed on visiting his cousin’s place in the suburb of the city around noon after the morning lectures but with Ericks not available, it got her worried the more, it was unlike of him who never allows his phone ring more than once before he answers his call, its one thing she had noticed about him in their togethernes.. Maureen who just got up from bed was astonished to see her friend up so early, she asked Ruth how long she had been awake, Ruth didn’t respond, not even with a good morning greeting like she usually does . Maureen knew something was not right about the morning with Ruth panting like a dog. Tonkey returned from her usual early morning jog and found Ruth in the same manner.

“Since your waking up, you have been like a woman in bereavement. The last time you were like this, it was about Samuel and you didn’t recover so easily. What is wrong?” asked Tonkey on her arrival.
“I have asked her the same question over and over again girl, she has been mute”
“Come on girl, open up to us”
“Okay, you want to know why? I feel Ericks is unsafe, nothing seems to be right about his long silence since yesterday”
“Oh my Lord, is that why you have been in solitude? He probably went some places yesterday and came back late or has some hangover”
“Ericks is a big boy, he can take care of himself or do you want to be his caretaker?” Tonkey added.
The possible outcomes proved nothing right to Ruth. Within few months of been with Ericks, she already knew how Ericks thinks, his way of reasoning was beyond their comprehension

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. He never keeps night out at a party, she thought of going to his room and probably ask every soul where he had been. Why didn’t she think of it before instead of wiling away time ruminating? She stood up from the bed and proceeded to have a shower when she heard a buzz from her phone;
“Hello Ruth, its Josh”
“Hi Josh, I was about to come to your room. Have you seen or heard Ericks?”
“I was about to ask you the same. His number isn’t going and I am worried”
“When was the last time you saw him?”
“I accompanied him to the gate. He got an emergency call from home last night and decided to travel” Ruth wondered why Ericks didn’t tell her before living but like Josh said, he had an emergency and didn’t have time to call her but that didn’t explain why he has been out of reach. The call ended and she flung the phone to the bed.
“What did Josh say?”
“He said Ericks travelled back home because of an emergency”
“So you see. There is no need to panic and worry over nothing, he will come back when he is finished dealing with it”
With everything be said, Ruth became calm and unnerved. At least, she knew Ericks was safe but what if he wasn’t still? He could have an accident on the way and no one would know about it. She discarded the pessimism and opined to herself to wait much longer, he may be back hale and hearty.
It almost approached forty-eight hours, still there was no notification from Ericks or his where about, Ruth resulted to calling his cousin. When she finally did, he said there had been no contact between Ericks and he for the past four days. Everybody she contacted said the same about Ericks not being in contact with them since his leaving school. Ruth was more convinced there was more than meets the eye, something no one had seen yet except her. A tragic event had happened to him and she can sense it. She proceeded to Josh’s room, when she thought of nothing else clearly.
“I called his aunt too. Her number just got through but she said she was not expecting Ericks home and never called him to come”
“What? Who then did? You said he told you it was an emergency from home”
“Yes, that’s what he told me” Josh stated assuringly.
“Oh Lord, let nothing happen to my Ericks.”, she prayed. “What are we going to do?”
“I think we should head to the police station tomorrow morning and make a report. Its been more than forty-eight hours” Josh suggested.
“I think that’s the probable thing to do”
In the middle of their ponder, a young man clad in an anorak with dark sunglasses on entered the room sluggishly, leaving the door ajar. It took them close inspection to identify that the subject was the person they had been ruminating about for days.
“Oh my God! Ericks where have you been? What happened to you?”
“You got us worried man. You don’t look well” Ericks removed his glasses, pulled off his anorak, and grumbled on landing on the bed.
“Jeez, who did this to you” Ruth asked on her approaching to him. His face was bruised, swollen in crimson.
“Aarrgh, don’t touch there please. Its killing me inside”
“Tell me Ericks, who is the bastard that did this to you?” asked Josh in furiousness.
“I don’t really know. I entered a cab that night and didn’t know the guys there plotted to abduct me. They took me to a remote location that I cant really recall because I was blindfolded and beat the hell out of me. I think it has to do with what I did back in Kaduna”
“How on earth did they locate you here? What did they say they wanted from you?”
“Money, they still think am owing them and ran away with their money. They want me to pay them back everything”
“Oh my world. Why are all these happening to me? Let me dress your wounds for you. Your are stained with your own blood” Ruth offered to lend a helping hand.
“No, don’t worry my love. I just want to rest for a while”
“Not like this Ericks, you are not in comfort” she insisted on dressing his wounds up for him. after that, she opted to go to the pharmaceutical stores to get some drugs and bandages and on her way back, purchase some food for him. while she was away, Josh who had been quiet and observing asked Ericks to tell him what really transpired. He never believed a word of what Ericks said did happen and knew he was hiding something from them, Ruth especially.
“That’s what happened Josh, am serious here”
“Not as serious as when you said you loved Ruth and promised  to tell her the truth. You are lying to her and to me and you know it” Ericks let out a deep breath and turned his face away from Josh.
“It wasn’t those boys right”
“No, it wasn’t but I don’t want anybody to know about this, Ruth inclusive” Ericks stated.
Ruth got a call from her father demanding her presence immediately, so she left school and got home by 8 pm. She wondered what demanded an exigency from her, she hoped none of her parents were sick or her siblings were in a critical health. When she got to the sitting room, Mr. Jude was looking very pensive, a look Ruth had seen before when something  was bad, his wife stole glances at him and gesticulated to Ruth something was amiss. Even after she greeted them both, Ruth’s mother was the only one that responded.
“What is happening papa?”
For a few minutes, Mr. Jude uttered no word since she came in, neither did he take his eyes of the family painting on the wall he had been staring at. On the other side, Ruth faced downwards and occasionally took a glance at her parents, still trying to figure why she was called. 
“What is happening in school?” he finally asked.
“Nothing. Just normal school activities and the intense preparation for the forthcoming…”
“Then explain these”, he scattered the photos of her and Ericks making out in the last night they shared together before his abduction on the glass table. One by one, Ruth gazed at them like she didn’t know who were in the pictures, she cringed when she saw how her father looked daggers at her, serious and vicious.
“Is that why I sent you to the university? Is that why my close friend Mr. Ademola had been paying your fees for? To be sleeping and parading yourself with gold diggers and opportunist.
“Papa, where did you get these pictures from?”
“Oh, where did I get it from? Is that what you are supposed to be asking now. So its true, there is another Samuel in your life that you don’t want us to know”
“its not what you think. I can explain”
“Explain what? There is nothing there to explain. Its as clear as a crystal that after everything Dolapo has done for you, you decided to go with another riff-raff behind his back again. How ungrateful can you be Ruth?”
“Take it easy darling, give the girl the benefit of the doubt”
“Don’t darling me, you have always condone everything she always does and never criticized her actions. She is always messing up because of you”
“Don’t put anything on me, she is also your daughter”
“Enough of this. That’s the truth papa, and you are right, there is nothing to explain because am in love with that man in these pictures and not Dolapo. He is no gold digger or opportunist but the man I not only love but who I want to be with”, she confessed courageously, detriment and amazement to her parents
“What? So you have the effrontery to release this nonsense from your cursed lips eh”
“Why cant I be with the man I love? Why must I always act according to your dictates without considering my feelings? Am a human being and ought to be treated as one and not as a slave. I don’t love Dolapo, you all know that”
The next sound that was heard was the sound of ‘wham’ on the right cheeks of Ruth surprisingly, who romanced the affected part.
“Shut up your mouth. Do you know what the Akintolas has done for the family? They are the reason why you will be writing this upcoming exams, the reason you are still in school since year two and the reason why you will be a graduate in few months. They are the reason for your younger siblings continuing education since I lost my money to fraudsters and ponzi schemes. They are the reason for our survival ever since our financial handicap, why do you want to destroy what I have built for years?” Ruth was always reminded what the Akintiolas had done for the family by her father whenever topics like this arises, just like that Samuel, she was tired of being the bait, playing deaf and dumb to her needs while satisfying the needs of others. Anytime she tries to be selfish, she will feel being ungrateful for who she had become, the Akintolas will always ring in her mind like a bell.
“At my own expense, you want me to still sacrifice my future and happiness  by marrying Dolapo, a man that I don’t love?”
“You are sacrificing nothing compared to what you have and what you have gained. Its just a token of appreciation for what they have done for you and the family”
“So you are selling me to them like am a worthless person”
“Call it whatever you want. A date has been fixed by the two families for the wedding after your exams. You and Dolapo will be a couple”
“What?” she looked surprised. She imagined how her parents would fix a date without telling her. it was so ridiculous of them to think of her opinion as unnecessary. She was still in school and had no plans of getting married till after her final semester.
“Ladies still do that out there. You can get married and still go to school, beside you have a some months to finish school, not a year. I married your mother when she was in her year one”
“Am disappointed in you papa, you neglect you own daughter, flesh and blood for someone else. My decision is final, am not going to honour the date of the so called wedding. I don’t love Dolapo and I wont marry him”, she picked up her bag and left weeping.
“Come back here Ruth” he screamed but she never came back.

Do you think Ruth's parents are using her for their selfish gain or for the good of the family? Are they right about Ruth being selfish despite all she had done for the family? Should Ruth sacrifices continue to go on for the  good of the family and her siblings? Drop your opinions about the questions asked and any other comment so far.