Chapter 34: Chapter 34

CHAPTER 30

In a world like this, it was absolutely insane not to admit that people around you ascertain your existence. Simi was the first person, and perhaps the only person on earth who could assure Teju he was not just an unseen spectre. But it seemed Simi was now a non-mourning widow, and he was just a ghost with no actual existence. There was only one way a ghost could be acknowledged. A ghost had to foist his or her existence on the living. Teju wondered how to do that with Simi.

As Simi drove off, in her cream-coloured Toyota Camry, there was a strange curiosity aflame down his belly. It was absolutely irresistible. If his heart told him she was seeing someone, then his head would tell him that that was the last thing she would do to him. Yet he knew his wife was to be trusted as much as his heart.

As a matter of fact, he had been in situations where his head was at odds with his heart on several occasions. This seemed to be the fiercest of them all. He suddenly wanted to know without thinking it over carefully, and for the mere sake of knowing of course, who the person she was seeing was. He instantly reached for his t-shirt upstairs and followed her.

Teju took Okada so that he could trace her without being noticed. It was a pretty long ride, and it took a great dexterity for the rider to keep pace with Simi and also remain completely unobserved. Simi parked her car at a space in front of a restaurant. She was receiving a call on her phone. Teju alighted at a safe distance, paid his fare and slithered behind a Pathfinder Jeep which was parked beside Simi's car. She was facing the other side, and it was easy for him to sneak up behind her. He wanted to hear what she was saying on the phone. He wanted to have every bit of information. But he only heard the fag end of her conversation as she hung up.

Simi waited beside her car. Teju hid beside the Jeep. A lot of imaginations rammed through his mind. He wondered what people passing by would think of him, a full grown man playing hide and seek in a parking lot! Wonders shall never cease. It would be a public disgrace for him if the owner of the Jeep walked up to his car and saw him hiding like a rat hiding from a smell-sensitive cat beside his car.

He knew every bad was going to become worse if an angry alarm was raised against him, that he was a thief. And at the end, Simi had had to rescue him from the predatory and fiendish hands of an angry mob. And he had had to explain to everyone including his half-wife that, out of a disturbing inquisitiveness, he had been stalking her. Or perhaps, Simi would allow the angry mob to carry out their jungle justice on him. They would beat him with fan belts and fat sticks. They would hang a tyre around his neck like a pendant. They would moisturise him with petrol and then light him up with a match stick like a touch.

He was deliberately breaching her privacy for no decent reason he could think of. He knew he was. This was his second time. If he was caught, then it would be unpardonable. It was an absolute risk. Though he had second thoughts to withdraw, it made no sense to him if he decided to suffer himself with dire curiosity at this point in time.

Some minutes later, a lady in a brown, tight and knee-length gown and a man in a completely black suit came out of the restaurant and approached Simi. The lady was familiar. It was Tiwa. He wanted to rush out of his open hidey-hole and brawl at her. He could tell her to keep off from his wife, but something held him back, calming his goaded nerves. He listened.

"How are you, Simi?" Tiwa said as she gave Simi a side hug.

"I'm fine thank you" Simi mumbled. She seemed hesitant. She barely looked into Tiwa’s condescending eyes.

"Oh my God, look at you" Tiwa exclaimed as she looked Simi over like a sex matron scouting for a ripe sex worker. "You look so used and spent. This is to show how heartless and cold men like Teju could be. Hope he is not beating you the way that beastly Sam was beating his wife".

Oh my God, they also knew Sam had beaten his wife. He was Sam’s friend, and they had put his own integrity on the scale of doubt, Teju thought ruefully. It was not their fault though, he had shown them his friend, and they were simply questioning who he was. It was true what the adage says, that the sheep who befriends the dog would eat shit, and that was exactly what he was eating- shit. He beat his finger in lament. If he had saved Sam's wife from Sam's brutality, who knows, he might have become the hero of the story now.

It had been his only chance to purge himself of this ill which, of its own will, was taking delight in soiling his white garb beyond what the eyes could pardon. He had done well in blowing the chance away like powder. Simi could have been proud of him. She could have even reconsidered her impression towards him, and that might have left Tiwa hanging. It could have proved her wrong or better still, it could have discomfited whatever her plans were. Alas, it was completely the contrary. Tiwa was the stronger one in the battle.

It would later come to his knowledge that Sam had pitched himself into such belligerence against his wife because he had allegedly caught her with another man, just a couple of days after she had caught him with another woman. It would be one of those times when Teju wondered what sort of human being Sam was, a being that could unremorsefully cheat on his wife, but could not bear the blinding reality of seeing another man with her. This was a typical scenario where two divided two, no remainder left. He wondered why Sam should be provoked on such basis speaking of which he also was very much culpable.

"Oh no, Teju could be anything but violent" Simi replied, smiling dryly.

"Well, that's sound like good news. But Simi, you need to stay strong and fight your battle relentlessly until justice is served. You need to feed on enough balanced diets and rest well. It’s going to be over soon, okay?" Tiwa said and Simi nodded her head wearily, as though she thought Tiwa worried too much about her.

Teju grated his teeth as though his teeth were offending. He tightened his clenched fist and stamped the ground silently as Tiwa's words poured on his eardrums. Thank God Tiwa recognised the fact that Simi had to feed well, but what she meant by ‘it’s going to be over soon’ was wholly indistinct to him. For a minute he considered the young man in a black suit who watched without interest the ladies conversing. A grip of fear seized his chest when something whispered to his ears that the man in the suit was a hired assassin and that that was what Tiwa meant by ‘it’s going to be over soon’.

With the gushing sweat on his forehead, he felt something smouldering from his belly upwards. He felt the smouldering heating up his chest as though he had been taking a strong gin. Tiwa's words were like profanity. It was like heresy in church. It was as annoying as listening to a snake telling the world how poisonous and hazardous a dove was. Even if he had slept with his personal secretary, he still did not identify with the reason why Tiwa was doing all that. What would she gain by painting him- even if he was not as innocent as he thought- as the villain of the world and the embodiment of nuptial infidelity?

The greatest misfortune was that Teju knew he had been handicapped. He was laid up by all means. He could not raise a finger to defend himself, and that was the most painful part of the whole story. It was as fixed as fate. He could not fight providence. If he threw his hat in the ring, he was going to lose. If he threw in the towel, he was a loser all the same. The manners in which he was arresting Tiwa's schemes were all wrong. And to fight an enemy who was in the wrong, one had to fight rightly.

"Well, this is my lawyer I told you about" Tiwa continued, introducing the man in a suit to Simi.

"Oh, Mister errr..." Simi stammered.

"Mister Michael" Tiwa reminded her.

"Yeah, Mr Michael.... how are you, sir?" Simi said as Michael replied with a fast mumble and they shook hands. Teju was relieved Michael was no hired assassin, but he quickly frowned. He did not read about any Michael in the chats, and he wondered if introducing a lawyer to the situation meant he was going to be sued.

Michael brought out a few sheets of paper from his bag and handed it to Simi.

"In other to keep the new development low and serene, it's better you ask him to sign on the papers and you sign also, then everything would be easy for both of you and the court" Tiwa said as Simi stared at the papers.

"It's going to be preferable if you can get it done sooner, let's say by tomorrow, alright?" Tiwa said. Tomorrow! For God's sake, tomorrow is our first wedding anniversary, and she knew it, Teju thought. He hit his forehead with his palm as though it was padded with uninvited corrupt thoughts. It was outright devilish and wicked to orchestrate a divorce between couples on their wedding anniversary, a first one in this situation. There was no greater tragedy than that.

"Okay, I would see what I can do, thank you very much Tiwa....” Teju could not catch the remaining part of what Simi was saying. It was a little boy in a grim-looking pair of knickers, a dwindled jumbo shirt, and a pair of dust-powdered slippers worn in reversed order. He was about five years old. He was standing about two feet behind him. He stared with snooping but innocent eyes at him.

Teju was initially frightened. When he recovered, it occurred to him that it was a school day. The first thought that pounced on his mind was that the boy ought to be in school, and he was angry the boy was not. There had been and there were so many children like him roaming in the streets, picking up ill manners and perverse thinking patterns, learning the ways of illegal hustling, and becoming too expensive to be sent to school by their wretched parents. They were caused to flow like an urn of libation into the society to manhandle for money, and by default, they make trouble for the society.

Though elaborate explanation cannot be proffered for that theory, it had been seen as a social reality in the country over the years. The government would always be blamed because the parents of these children live from hand to mouth. The government were supposed to be the third hand aiding the parents’ responsibilities, but they were not.

He motioned for the boy to leave, but the boy stood rebelliously looking at him. Teju frowned at him to scare him but the boy remained unmoved. The boy took his right hand to his mouth, a common gesture that indicated his hunger. It occurred to him that the boy was a beggar. He was a boy beggar, a boy that could only beg for alms to survive.

Teju smiled. He tried to look through his pocket for some chicken feed to give the boy. But the Pathfinder Jeep which was shielding him from being seen ignited into life. It was a lady's car. It was a lady at the wheels. Instinct made him dash stealthily at the boy, grabbed him by his hand and dragged him away to a corner where he would not be at risk of being seen. He watched as Simi's car glided carefully away before turning to the boy

"You wanted to give me something" the boy pursued audaciously in a strong Ibadan-accented Yoruba that stung Teju with surprise.

"Give you what? I don’t have anything to give you. Sorry" Teju replied, in a less mastered Ibadan-accented Yoruba.