When Kate had come to pick Oluwole up from school, his teachers made several complaints to her.
She casted a nasty look at Oluwole and his tears began to flow again. Oluwole knew within himself that now that his father was paralyzed, Kate would deal with him mercilessly and there would be nothing his father could be able to do about it.
“Why were you sleeping while your teachers were teaching today, Oluwole?” Kate asked with.
“I-I-I-I…” Oluwole stammered.
“You don’t want to answer me, right? Don’t worry, we would see about that when we get home” she said visibly pissed now.
Oluwole impulsively ran and hid behind Mrs. Sharon. He did not want to be beaten up by anyone anymore. Kate however dragged him forcefully to the car and drove off roughly. Mrs. Sharon only looked on with sad eyes.
“She is his mother anyways, my hands are tied.” she thought to herself.
That evening, Oluwole received the beating of his entire life.
Tunde yelled from the room that Kate should stop but she only intensified the force with which she used to flog him and Oluwole wailed even louder.
It became so serious, the caretaker – Hilda had to go to the extant so as to hold on to the cane in an attempt to pleaded with her on the poor boy’s behalf.
“Ahh Madam biko, he don do na (it is enough). Oga be day shout since make you stop to day flog the boy. You one kill this pikin? (The child’s father has been shouting from upstairs that you should stop but you won’t stop, you may end up killing at this rate)” pleaded Hilda.
With anger written all over her face, Kate gave Hilda a resounding slap.
“Who gave you the right to interfere?” Kate asked the dumbfounded Hilda.
Hilda was furious that her boss had slapped her just because she felt for the well-being of the child under her care. She returned the slap. The two women engaged in a word fight and Oluwole took advantage of the opportunity to escape to his father’s room. Oluwole ran to his father’s room utterly battered. He held his loving father’s hand and wept bitterly before him.
Tunde held him as close to himself as his could and said, “Don’t worry my son, please wipe away your tears. I want you to know that in life we all make mistakes and one of the greatest mistakes I made was marrying that woman.”
“I’m so sorry omo mi (my child), for whatever pain she might have caused and inflicted on you. It was never my intention to hurt you.” Tunde said with tears gathering in his eyes now.
Oluwole only cried the more as his father said those words. Unknowingly to them, Kate and Hilda had now broken into a wild fight. The neighbors curious about the cause of the loud ruckus, rushed into the house and eventually separated the raging women.
“I will show you. I would make a mess of you in this town. Come let me show you the stuff that I am made off. Emi, Katey fire! It is me you common maid is messing with right? Come here!” yelled Kate even as she attempted to smack Hilda across the face once more.
After several minutes of intervention and pacifying, Hilda then went to pack her things in preparation to leave the Ajayimore’ home. She knew she had no right to interfere but it clear to anyone who had two eyes that Kate was doing more than correcting the poor boy.
“That woman get evil spirit! (That woman is possessed by an evil force)” Hilda said angrily to herself even as she stuffed her clothes into her luggage bag.
“Shabi I don day comout. If you like, kill them two. You hear?? Anofia! (I am leaving and if it pleases you after I have left kill the both of them. I hope you can hear me. Idiot)”Hilda hissed even as she dragged her luggage out of the house.
She stopped a passing motor vehicle, got on it and left the premises.
Mirabel who was fast asleep before had awoken and was now crying loudly because of all the shouting and argument going on. Kate rudely ordered all the neighbors out of her house. She was happy that Hilda was gone; as no one now would be able to stand in her way. She did not hire any other caretaker after her. She became the alpha of the family in terms of decisions and provisions.
In the past, she and Tunde had used a joint account for their day to day transactions but now, she withdrew all his hard-earned money out into her personal savings account. What was left unaccomplished in her wicked scheme, was to inherit all of Tunde’s properties nationwide.
The following day at school, Oluwole narrated the entire scenario to Mrs. Sharon.
“Daddy is just on his bed. He cannot walk, sit up or stand.” Oluwole said with eyes and cheeks flooded in tears.
“David dohhh.” said Mrs. Sharon. “I am so sorry, Please clean those eyes!”
“You know what…?.” Mrs. Sharon continued.
“What?!” Oluwole said intently looking at his favorite teacher with expectant eyes.
“I think it’s out time I had a little chit-chat with your step-mother” she said with a frown.
“No Ma!!” Oluwole pleaded. “If you come to see her, immediately you leave she would skin me alive. She might even walk you out of the house” he added.
“Hmmm!” Mrs. Sharon sighed heavily with deep concern for young Oluwole.
“Okay Oluwole. If you think going to talk to her is a bad idea, I would not go” She brought out a wafer biscuit from her shoulder bag and handed it to Oluwole.
“Thank you Ma.” Oluwole said. “I have never stopped praying but things only seem to be going from bad to worse.”
“Are you really sure that you don’t want me to call her to order? I mean, look at you. She has inflicted so many bruises on your handsome face and arms.” Mrs. Sharon said pointing to the numerous bruises that Oluwole had.
“Yes Ma. I am sure.” Oluwole said. “I’d rather keep praying to God and believing that she has a change of heart towards me someday, than to risk being thoroughly beaten all over again.”
Mrs. Sharon and Oluwole now sat in comfortable silence.
Even though Oluwole sounded quite tough on the outside, he knew he was losing it on the inside.
“How much longer would I have to keep praying?” “Would my step-mother ever have a change of heart towards me?” “What if she never changes? What then would become of me and daddy?”
All these questions and more bugged the heart of young Oluwole even as he ate his wafer biscuits distractedly. However, no matter how hard he thought or tried to wrap his head around it, he later figured out that these were questions that even his favorite and highly intellectual teacher – Mrs. Sharon couldn’t answer.
“I would just have to wait to find out….” he concluded sadly taking a bite off the biscuit.
Oluwole and Mrs. Sharon kept on with their conversation until the horn of Kate’s Toyota Camry vehicle was heard.Oluwole felt a cold chill down his spine and a rush of fear run down his body.“David that should be her, right?” Mrs. Sharon asked.Oluwole nodded affirmatively to her question.“By you sudden change in mood I can tell that she was the one whose car made that horn even before I asked you.” Mrs. Sharon said. “Take care dear!” she added with a smile.Oluwole stood up and embraced Mrs. Sharon tightly returning the smile.“Thank you so much for always being there for me Ma. You’re like the loving mother I never had.” Oluwole said amidst stifled tears.Mrs. Sharon returned the embrace warmly after which Oluwole ran off to meet his step-mother at the reception. He did not need a prophet to tell him that she wasn’t in a very good mood. Without staring so closely at his stepmom’s face, Oluwole stepped into the car without saying a word to Kate or even sparing her a scan. On their
When Oluwole woke up, he could neither find Kate nor the car.He looked all around searching for the car or his stepmom, Kate both of which he didn’t find. He was so confused. The feeling and urge of a night sleep was far from him. The only thing installed in his thoughts were questions that he had no apparent answer to. Mutually bad and blameless thoughts competed in his mind for which was right. Oluwole was totally lost.When observing at his sides, all four cardinal points around him seemed to be covered with thick land space of vegetation and were pitch black. Some many questions ran through his poor, young and troubled mind. It was far into the night and he had no idea where he was or what had happened to him. The last thing he could recall was being in the car with his stepmom driving. The several bites and perches of mosquitoes on his arms and legs only heightened his confusion and agitation.Bad and fear-fueled thoughts began to run through his mind.“What if this is not a mis
“I would ask you again for the last time boy. What is your name?” said Charles with a smile.“First tell me yours.” Oluwole said. “You tell me your name and I’d tell you mine.”Oluwole in his state could tell that there could be a chance of the man before him not being a Nigerian judging by his really light complexion. His skin had a far lighter tone compared to those he sees every day in school, church and in his neighborhood. Charles looked like one of those actors in the action movies daddy usually watches. He put his hands into his pockets and surprisingly found the picture of him and his dad in one of them. Oluwole was a bit curious as to how it got there.The last thing he remembered was holding on to it tightly when he got kidnapped.“Why don’t we say our names together?” Charles suggested forming a smile.“Okay!” Oluwole said trying to return the smile.“Oluwole David!” “Charles!” They both said in unison.“Wow!” “I like the name Oluwole. What a nice name for a handsome boy lik
Oluwole spent the remaining part of the week crying in his luxurious room. Now that his father was gone, the thought of going back home was far from him. Home without his father would be nightmare. The people that killed his father probably also sought to kill him too. He therefore decided to stay with Charles.He needed him now more than ever. He had nowhere else to go. The love and care Charles had shown him since he arrived was far preferred to that which he would receive back home.“I love you daddy. I do and I always will.” Oluwole said holding the photograph of him and his father to his chest. Right now, that was his most treasured and valued item. It was the only tangible memory of his late father that he had.He had no other family relations that he knew of. No uncles or aunts. He was still staring at the photograph when he had an asthma attack. He looked around his room frantically for his inhaler which was in his bag pack. The struggled to get it within his reach. He needed
Ben drove them back to the warehouse. On the way, they had change of vehicle for about seven times. When they got to the warehouse which was now Woles new or rather Samuels present home, Felicia placed a call to Charles. He informed him that they were back from the hospital. Charles gave her the instruction that henceforth, Wole should be addressed as his son and by the name of Samuel. He also told her to make sure that all the other staffs that worked in the warehouse got the message. Hand the phone over to him I want to speak to him, said Charles. Your father wishes to speak to you, he knows that you are sick so don’t worry he would soon be back home, said Felicia to the hearing of Charles. She wanted to make sure that Charles would think that she is actually going with the he is my son nonsense. Deep down she had pity for Sam. She knew that Charles would change him from the innocent boy that he recruited a week ago. Yet she had to go with it, even though it was all pretense. Sh
Felicia was 20 by age.She was just a simple girl going about every day on the streets in search of a job as a maid. She had gone to schools, hospitals and basically anywhere that required the maintenance services of a maid.She wanted to get herself the job even though it seemed menial just so she could settle her fees at the university. That was the point when Ben came into her life, the instrument that the devil had used to destroy her future. She had introduced to Ben by a friend of hers. Immediately she was told of the huge sum of money that was involved in the job, she applied for it. She didn’t even put into consideration of how a job as a maid could fetch out such a salary. The desperation to settle up pending school bills and return as a big girl flooded her thoughts and made her rush into it without having a rethink. Back then she was so filled with joy when she had received the news that she had gotten the job. She had no clue that it was a life time job with a contract t
As he watched the cartoon series, Sam could feel something in his heart. There was a feeling that was pointing out to him that all was not right. He was greatly disturbed by it. It was almost as if someone was trying to talk to him in his heart. He could hear a voice speak but could not understand what it was saying. He was ignorant of what it was pinned on. Yet he was pinned on ignoring it. He was really into the cartoon channel, enjoying every scene and every show.Before all this, Kate never allowed him to watch any cartoons when his dad wasn’t around and that was basically a lot of times. When he was not at school or doing his homework, she made him do house chores over and over again to her satisfaction. So it was normal for him to have a certain craving for cartoons at his age even though he didn’t know it. He got so caught up in the show that he ended up flushing both the feeling that was on him and the incessant voice down the drain. Apart from his afternoon lunch and his eve
Sam woke up the following morning with a nagging headache. He was surprised to see that the T.V was still on and that he had slept off while watching cartoons. He thought of starting the day with some few episodes but the rash headache seemed to disagree with him and denied him the opportunity. He forced himself to get out of bed in order search and to get a remedy. With his head dizzy, he attempted to look at the wall clock behind his bed. From the quick glance he was able to capture, it read 7:01pm. He got out of his room in a bid to go downstairs. Carefully, he made his way down the stairs. Looking through the demarcating centralized space of the living room and the kitchen, he could get a very good view of all the various angles of the warehouse. From the view, he could see the house to be more of a hotel than a warehouse. He was not aware that the place he was living in was a warehouse for hard-drugs. He was just in the belief that he lived in a regular house that contained nor