The Thorny Path to Europe - Episode 4

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'I will kill her', Ade mouthed.

'What?'

'I will kill her', he whispered. 'I will kill her. We're so dead'.

Tunde calmed him down. 'She will leave'.

Their mother raged and walked through the passage and marched off to her room, ranting all the way. Tunde hoped she was returning to her room as a change of mind.

'She is not going', Ade muttered and scurried to peep . He looked back and shook his head and crumbled to the floor. Tunde raised his hands to assure him that he could try to something. He rose, adjusted his trousers, and watched her from the back of the curtain as she continued in her rambling, shaking her leg but not in any way prepared to leave. Tunde sat on the bed and knew that the only way he could send her away would be to beg. He trudged to the sitting room. At the same time, she marched to the door.

‘I don’t even know why he allowed you people to carry his car anyhow?’ She fumed as she opened the curtain.

‘Mama’, Tunde said and she turned to him, startled. With a big scowl on her face, she stood akimbo and glared at him as if her eyes had lasers in them and she wanted to smoulder him to death with them. He prostrated as it was typical of the Yorubas when seeking the confidence of an elderly one

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. He wouldn’t have done this on a normal circumstance.

However, he had to give her disturbing-cow the grass she needed, which was their apology, so that she would give them the chance to clean anything that would implicate them in the death of Emeka.

‘We are very sorry’.

‘We’re sorry’, she mimicked him ludicrously. She had the habit of repeating whatever one said as if they were saying rubbish. He could see the anger on her face breaking to a smile.

‘This is a son. This is your elder brother. See him. Can you? Can you see the way he laid here? I don’t understand you, people, again. You’re grown up and have forgotten that I’m still your mother. I won’t take that rubbish from any of my sons. You people are still my boys. What do you want to teach the girls among you? No. Not in my lifetime’, she said as she released the curtain, making Tunde breathe.

‘Mama, don’t mind Ade. He is just a small boy. He is still behaving like a baby’.

‘Baby? This grown up. It’s not babyish. He is not a baby. He is just …Erm...He is proud, rude, pompous. Since he finished secondary school, he had suddenly seen himself as Don. So, I shouldn't be surprised that he finished University and feel he can grow wings. Who do you think you are? If you grow wings, I'll break them. I… Will… Break them without anything to stop me. There are bigger men than you, many of whom I taught before I retired. Whenever they meet me on the way, they still prostrate’.

‘Mama, it’s okay’.

‘It’s not okay, she retorted as she sat on the chair and began to tie her scarf across her head. He felt like cracking up. His mother was disappointedly predictable. She was getting ready to leave the house. He preferred to lay there.

'Get up! Get up my son’.

‘We will change. So, you won’t have gone to work?’

‘Yes. You people are my children. I don’t mind. If it’s to remain here till heavens return until you heed what I’m saying I won’t stop saying it. I told your father you people are doing things that are not worthy of being called children of a teacher.’

‘Mama, I'm sorry'.

‘I’m on my way. You know you can still come to my shop with me’.

He gave her that look that she knew meant she was already passing her boundary.

‘I’m going. Naughty child. When I’m ready for you, I’ll handle your case. You also know I don’t want you. But for now, I’ll go before Iya Segun drains my battery because of her money. How much is her money?'

She clambered out of the chair, dropped her phone on the centre table, went to the room to get her bag, and left the house. After about ten minutes, Ade came out with eyes that were red and face that was flushed as if he had been slapped with a slab. Tunde wheezed and counted down from thirty. He had to be sure she was gone. If he did things rashly, she would notice that something was wrong and that was really bad for them. Then, the gate cranked loudly as she stepped out.

Ade punched the air and pointed his knuckle at him, which Tunde punched. She had always complained about the crankiness of the gate. Ade was supposed to oil some three months before, but he had never gotten the right time to do that and that was helpful on a day like that.

He ran outside without his slippers as that could easily give him away and Ade hopped after him. Tunde peeped out of the house. He had heard the fading sound of a bike’s engine. It had probably carried her away. Yet, he didn't have any proof that she was gone. It would be very disastrous to leave the house and try to peep only to meet her still standing the house, waiting for a bike. She would easily decipher that something was wrong.

He peeped from the sides of the gate- an action that was like trying to watch wrestling from a neighbour's closed window: it was a very horrible ordeal. He turned intermittently at Ade who kept gesturing to know if she was still there. He opened his palms to make him know he didn’t know. However, his cough came again and muffled with all his strength, wishing that he could find a lasting remedy for it. After trying different strategies to tell him, Ade still didn't get what he was trying to tell him. So, he ran back.

‘Is she gone?' Ade whispered.

‘I don’t know. That’s what I've been trying to tell you. I'm not seeing anything. I don’t know if she is gone. She might still be there’.

‘What do we do?’

Tunde looked out of the door again to be sure no one was coming. The next thing would be to use what would vex her if she was really outside.

‘You have to do as if you’re going out to buy something. Go…’

Ade ran back inside.

‘Where are you going?’

‘To hold money’.

‘For what?’

‘For…Why do I need money? We need money to fool her in case she is there’.

‘She is angry at you, remember. She might not ask you where you’re going’.

‘What if she does?’’

‘You’ve your heads. Tell her that… You know what? Don’t even talk to her’.

‘Good’.

‘Go… ‘He whispered and pushed Ade towards the gate. He wished they weren’t doing this. As against this, he was supposed to be at home or trying to find another job, and maybe Emeka would have been sleeping in his own house. They shouldn’t have met Jude. Maybe they wouldn’t be in that problem at that time.

Ade walked away and suddenly began to hear the noises of his mother’s voice. She was there. He hurriedly wore his slippers and ran for the door. There was no way she wouldn’t be angry enough to let Ade go without causing trouble for him. He knew he had to play cool and a fool. That was what she needed at that time. When he got outside, he met her fiddling with her bag.

‘Mama, what happened again?’

‘Arrant nonsense. You people don’t talk sense into those big head of yours. If not, Ade wouldn’t snub me when I asked him questions. How old is he? I’m his mother’.

‘Mama, what did he do?’

‘That’s what I hate about you too. Can't you decipher simple thing? I said he snubbed me. He is my son’.

‘Mama, we are very sorry’.

‘No. No. Don’t even try it. I gave birth to the two of you and I won’t accept you counting yourself as if you're the one that committed the crime that only your brother committed.

‘Mama, don’t let him work you out. You know what? Let me get a bike for you’.

‘That’s what I was trying to do before he suddenly became snobbish. I’m his mother for crying out loud. I’m his mother'.

‘Okada’, Tunde cried enthusiastically as a bike man passed by.

'I think I'm forgetting something'.

'Ah! Go! You're not forgetting anything'.

'If you say so'.

His mother also was ready to go on the bike. She haggled the amount for transportation and she was soon ready to leave. Ade was pretending to buy something from the shop when he saw her leave, he sped up to meet him. They ran into the house after counting to thirty and they were sure she wouldn’t be coming back soon.

Without wasting any time, they ran for the car and Ade rolled up his trousers and was set for cleaning of the car. Tunde, who wasn't a fan of car-washing, asked Ade numerous questions on how he could help and Ade kept passing instructions for him.

‘Water. We need an extra bucket, Ade called as they got to the scrubbing off of the blood. It wasn’t easy to do. As he was returning with the bucket, he heard his mother’s phone ring. Tunde felt himself freezing and hoping he could die that instance. She would probably remember. He quickly aimed for the phone as he saw who was calling her. It was Iya Segun again.

‘Mummy. Maami is coming’, Tunde said.

‘Yes. She is coming’.

‘Yes. She just left home some minutes ago’.

‘What do you mean by she is coming. She just left here’.

‘Where?’

‘Yes. She just left home some minutes ago.’

‘What do you mean by she is coming. She just left here’.

‘Where?’

‘Shop now. She said she forgot her phone and only dropped her bag.

‘I can bring it for her'.

'There’s no need. She should be there in the next ten minutes. I was just calling the phone to confirm it was at home because she always forgets her phone. Alakogbabe ni iya yin’.

‘Okay’.

 It took Tunde all the efforts in the world not to scream when he heard she left some minutes ago. ‘Ade, there is fire on the mountain’, Tunde exclaimed.

‘And the people keep on running around’.

‘Hope you are alright?’

‘It’s the same thing. We would start running around. What happened?’

‘It’s Mama. She is coming home again’.

‘The Witch’.

‘Hey!' Tunde shouted as he hated people talking to his mother anyhow. There had been days he had been in a serious fight with people because of the way they talked about his mother. His mother had warned him seriously to never be engaged in any fight because of her, but that was something he couldn't stop.

‘See, leave me. How will we salvage this situation? Is she not trouble like this?'

‘Are you still asking me? I’ll be at the gate and wait for her to arrive then, pretending to want to take the phone to her on the way home’.

When the bike man stopped her at the gate, he was waiting for her and didn’t give her the chance to drop because doing so could only mean that she was coming into the compound and that was something he wanted to avoid at all cost. She asked the questions he expected her to ask and he told her all the answers he planned for such questions.

‘Like this?' She said as the bike turned. He looked down and saw that his legs were wet and the trousers were still rolled up. He watched her go and sighed. At that point, he wished he didn't make any plan. He could have told her that after the call from Iya Segun, he decided to wait for her outside that was a better move than the one he just played and he hoped his mother wouldn't find the loophole in his story.

The ground would be dry before their sisters returned from school in the afternoon, and he would do everything in his power to make sure that nothing disturbed them from reaching their goal. If for nothing, for the sake of Emeka, whose life was sacrificed for their emigration. He had become their lucky charm. He made them have the whole idea in the first place.

‘We’ve not even counted the money’, Ade said after they've finished washing the car, eaten and seemed ready for anything that reared its ugly head.

‘That’s true. ‘

‘Let’s count the money’.

Despite the heaviness of his heart and the memory of how Emeka kept fighting for his own life haunted him, Tunde watched Ade as he wanted to start counting the money. At that moment, he wished someone would open the door and catch them and kill them and every problem in the world would end. Or Wished a plane could just drop on their house to end the fear and worries that brewed in his heart. Or if the weather of Nigeria could suddenly change its uniqueness to a worse one, where a natural disaster would suddenly end their lives and he would forget everything he had ever had to go through to get the money- the shame, the loss of his best friend, the desire to steal, the betrayer they had to get from Lizzy and the things to come. If they had agreed to do this now, how was he even sure that they would have a reason to do something worse.

‘Stop doing that’, Tunde complained.

“What?’

‘All these… Stop all these… You can’t count all the money like that. You can't count it one by one, you'll faint. Just count only one and we will assume that’s the amount in every bale’.

‘Oh! I never thought of it. Thank God you’re here’.

‘Thank God. Now, let’s try to do that’.

They set to work and Tunde had to count some set twice. After they finished counting the money it was just eight hundred and fifty thousand. Tunde had to conclude that, 'Emeka knows about money’.

‘Why are you saying that?’

‘He said this thing wasn’t complete’

Ade rested his back against the wall and Tunde was very sure they could come up with a way to leave the house before a detective began to seek out things where they weren't supposed to be.

Later in the day, their mother called to announce what she had just read on Facebook.

‘Have you heard? Ah… Emeka… He is dead’.

‘Dead?’

‘Yes. He is dead. I just read on Facebook. Ah! That fine boy, Emeka’.

'Mama! Emeka! Ahhh’, Tunde pretended to be sad. ‘What killed him?’

‘They said he… It was thieves. It was this Baddo group. You should know those armed robbers. I thank God my sons are armed robbers. They said they entered his house and broke his head. Then they stabbed him. Or maybe they did one before the other. Oh! God. This is bad. Really bad. God will punish these Baddo group’.

Tunde pretended to feel sad, rushed into their room, placed the phone on speaker phone, and made Ade shout as if he really felt bad because that was the only way they could make their mother nosiness shift to another business. Even when they have switched off the call, she called back and told them not to even go out for the next three days or even near Emeka's place so that they might not be roped in the issue, but that if they had Emeka's parents' phone number, they should commiserate with them.

Ade wanted to protest but Tunde told him to keep his cool and assured their mother that they would take all her words to the heart and they've even started trying Emeka's parents' phone number and that none of them would go out. She prayed for them, wishing nothing evil will happen to them.

Since she had her way of getting information and Ade couldn't defile her that day.

'At least we're free from anything implicating. Emeka’s death is solved. The people believed Baddo killed him’.

‘That's our truth till we leave this earth. Baddo killed him’, Ade said and nodded.

‘What have we put ourselves into?’ Tunde said.

‘We’ve just switched off the generator of Shrine Club. It means disaster for us. I remember the story of the guy that did that. He was beaten blue-black. This life has just beaten us blue-black'.

 The plan was that they would wait till the next day. Ade would take the car to Jude's place and would beg him that they would find the rest before the day they are meant to leave, that the money was just paid for to show their readiness. He could have followed him but their mother can be assertive and that meant that she would find a way for someone to tell her if they both went out or not.

When the night fell, they decided to stay in the parlour so that their mother wouldn't suddenly have a reason to suspect them of doing something shady. However, the reverse was the case because the moment they rose from the chair to return to their room, his mother called his name.

‘Iya Shakiru said she told you I was on the way’.

'Yes. That was why I came out. I was waiting for you'.

‘You told me you wanted to take a bike'.

'And I wanted to'.

' But you looked suspicious. I'm your mother. You, Ade, for example. You only get angry when you want to do something bad and you don't want anyone to know. I'm your mother. I can tell…'

'Leave these boys alone. If he didn’t help you, you would have talked. Now, he did help you, you’re tormenting him'.

Tunde entered the house and knew something big might happen very soon. So he advised Ade to start parking his loads. When the next day came, they pretended to argue about pre-season matches and were so engrossed in their argument that their mother, who hated talks about football matches, had a reason to leave home earlier. And that helped Ade to leave home after her. Coughing, Tunde said his goodbyes and watched him leave the compound.  

***

Ade drove out of the house as fast as he could as he had to make Lizzy tag along to pay her own money.

'Ade, I've not gotten the full amount'.

'We too'.

'We have to work something out. Can't one of you wait behind?'

'I told Tunde, but he insisted on going too. We've decided to beg the man. Tunde couldn't go because our mother is suspecting us of something we didn't do'.

'And you think he will collect it?'

'Of course, he will'.

'Stop sleeping. Wake up. This man will not collect nothing'.

' Do you know him? Even at that, if he refuses, we will stay at home'.

'And lose such opportunity? No. No. Not at all. Things like these are once in a lifetime'.

'We can get another one. It's not that deep'.

'What's not deep? What do you mean by deep?'

'I mean. It's not as serious as that'.

'Oh! Who told you? These things are as serious as anything in the world. We can only get this opportunity once. How many time has anyone ever come to you talking about going abroad?

None... Or how many times?' She said and began to unzip his trousers. He gave her a cold glaze and she removed her hand. She always saw any opportunity together as a reason to copulate, and he loved it until that time. Ade focused on the road and didn't know what to think or believe. He zipped his trousers and she shrugged and began to fiddle with her bag.

'Talk. Tell me. How many times? These opportunities are like roses that blossom in adversity. They are... How did that Papa Pope put it? They are rare. Very rare. You can't get a chance to see them again. Somehow much do you think or do you say you have?'

'We have Eight ninety thousand. We're keeping fifty for contingencies'.

'You....' She said and her voice faded off as she seemed to be in deep thought. She was fond of pretending to be Olivia Pope from the TV Series ' Scandal'. He knew she already knew what she wanted to say and must have been practising it from home. She stared into the evening as if she was in a trance. 'You will sell this car'.

'Sell car? What's sell? What car? This? No... This will kill my father'.

'Your father will have to pick temporal success over the permanent one. And he is like a baby. You know what babies are now...'

'I don't want to hear this hogwash. Let's discuss a realistic solution'.

'Well, you're the one acting like a baby here. The sentiment you're showing is becoming too deep, as you put it, for my liking. You need to have a sense of responsibility. I need you to be a man. We'll be married one day. Is this how you'll act. Act. Act like a man. Think like one. You can't just spend your life like this. Think. The car is even the second phase of the plan'.

'Oh! Your plan, that is making my love for you dwindle like an electric train, has other phases, a first phase?'

' A first phase that you would surely not like, and might probably yell at me for if you hear it'.

'Spit it out already'.

'Adex, It's the truth... And after you use it, you will see that you made the right choice. The thing you have to do is to take some part of the money for yourself. Pay the man five hundred thousand naira. Then, take fifty thousand for contingencies. It will remain erm... How much again? It will remain three ninety thousand. Then, you will give me One fifty thousand to add to mine. It will remain one hundred and ninety thousand. We will sell this car for three hundred and add it to that of your brothers'. Oh! It will remain for ten thousand. We will remove ten thousand from the one with you. I would have asked that we collect some of the fifty thousand, but he will suspect. I'm sure we can find other means before we leave and by then, I would have found money to refund you guys for the trip and we will all be fine'.

'Why didn't we say this at the beginning? I mean why didn't I suspect that you were always heartless?'

She pouted and began to dab her face with a powder duster.

Read " Purified Tomorrow: The Mad Awakening " by the same author ( Akíntayo Akinjide )

. 'Please, don't call me heartless. I love you. It's your brother that has a problem. He is selfish. I know you know'.

'That doesn't mean....'

'It means he is selfish. You're the more agile one. You should stay woke. You can't sleep at this moment. The most painful part is that you people can share this money without much problem.

Don't always play second fiddle to him. I think you always complained about this'. Ade kept quiet as he drove off, knowing that her plan was really good and hoped it was the right decision.