I kept on begging for alms, all because I needed to see my mother alive as Toyosi promised. John returned home healthy after one month. The family had been rendered penniless by the emergence of those sicknesses which happened to them in turn. Now I feared that it was going to be my turn. If it happened to me, I was sure no one would show any iota of concern. Didn’t they want me dead earlier? I thought.
Toyosi and John depended on me to
have them fed. They
would collect the money I made from my
begging business
each day and use it to get food for the
family. Toyosi had
written a letter to her husband abroad,
but she hadn’t received
a reply yet.
I confronted Toyosi again to release my
mother or else I would
kill myself with a knife. I was only trying
to threaten her,
because I was their only hope of
sustenance at the moment,
since none of Toyosi or John my father
would be able to beg
alms as I was doing.
When Toyosi heard that, she put her
hand on my head and
rubbed it in a passionate way as she
wept.
“Rose, I have already put everything in
place for your mother’s
release,” she said in tears. “She will be
here very soon.”
“I don’t accept that,” I replied her in an
unconvinced manner.
“Take me to her if you can’t bring her to
me!” I signed in a
vigorous manner. “I must see my
mummy, or else…”
Toyosi held me tight to herself. I
wriggled in her grip. I was
already fed up with her unnecessary
show of concern to me,
knowing quite well that she was just an
impostor. I submitted
in the end and watched her drinking her
tears like a cup of garri.
Laide and Biodun were on holiday. I was
happy I would be able
to see Biodun now, since he would no
more be going to
school. When I went to their apartment, it
was Taiba who met
me at the door and waved me off. She
didn’t want me near
Biodun at all; perhaps she was following
the instruction of her
mistress.
I wrote a letter in Braille and went back
to their apartment.
When Taiba came to the door, I gave her
the letter, but she
took it and shredded it to pieces. Taiba
didn’t want anything to
endanger her job and I understood
vividly, but I couldn’t
contain the feeling I was having towards
Biodun anymore. We
haven’t seen each other for the past
three months, yet we lived
in the same house.
Toyosi suddenly held her stomach and
groaned in pain. She
was rushed down to the hospital by her
jobless illegitimate
husband. I wondered what was going on.
It was her second
time she would be calling at a hospital
within three months with
the same complication. I began to guess
that her ailment had
something to do with the abortion she
underwent some
months back. Maybe it had affected her
womb somehow, I
thought, but since there was no one to
give me an answer, I
forgot about it.
While John and Toyosi were in the
hospital with Bode, I took a
day out to rest. I was going to keep it
holy by not begging for
alms that day. It was a Friday morning. I
had stepped out of
the apartment to take fresh air. I was
looking towards Biodun’s
flat, wishing deep down my heart to see
Biodun appear. How
would that happen when Taiba wouldn’t
stop policing him
everywhere? I thought.
The violent breeze blew some dust into
my eyes and I began to
blink to get the dust away. It took me
sometimes to recover
from the pain. When I did, I saw Biodun
standing close. I was
surprised.
Biodun touched me with his walking stick
as he made his way
to our door. I smiled. I went close to him
and touched his
nape. He knew at once that I was the
one. Who would touch
the back of his neck that way except me?
Biodun smiled.
I led Biodun in. He made a sign to me—
my own language,
something I had taught him a little of.
“Let us flee together,” Biodun had signed.
When he asked me in
Braille to teach him that statement in
sign language in the eatery
three months back, I didn’t know he was
going to use it for
real. Now that was the exact statement
he was demonstrating
to me with his hands.
It was amazing that he could come up
with such suggestion. I
touched him at the back of his head. It
was a sign we both
formulated together to mean ‘no’.
Biodun’s face grew pale. He
was disappointed somehow. Soon he was
shedding tears. He
did the sign again to say that we should
flee. It was something I
had least expected, myself fleeing with
Biodun to continue our
love affair somewhere else? Too funny to
think about!
Biodun was serious about it. He began to
weep. I clutched his
head in my hands, a way of pacifying
him, but his tears didn’t
end. He asked for those Braille materials
I had with me and I
provided them. Biodun began to punch
the paper with it. He
was done with it after five minutes. I
read:
Though I may not have seen it but I have
heard it; when people
can’t get what they want, they kill
themselves. When you see
me dead before tomorrow, then you
should know why. Bye.
Biodun rose up. He took his walking stick
and began to feel his
way out of the parlour. He lingered a
little while at the door and
then went through it. I rushed towards
him and stood on his
way.
I never wanted him dead, else I would die
too. Somehow, his
soul had fused into mine. I was his sight
and he was my voice.
There was no one at the moment I
understood more than
Biodun, despite the fact that he was
blind and couldn’t see me
do my signs and I was deaf and couldn’t
hear him speak.
I touched Biodun’s forehead. It was our
self-formulated sign to
mean agreement. Biodun didn’t believe it.
He reached out for
my forehead, but his two fingers couldn’t
get there because he
couldn’t see me. I knew what he wanted
to ask, so I held his
arm and set the two fingers there myself.
He was going to ask
if I was sure of what I had just
communicated to him by my
‘touch sign’.
I touched his forehead with two fingers in
return to tell him that
I was sure. If I was not serious about it, I
would have touched
his forehead with just a finger and not
two.
I rushed back inside to take my bag. I
took the money I had in
a purse and set out. I held Biodun’s right
wrist as we began to
hurry towards the gate. I opened the gate
carefully so that
Taiba who should be inside their
apartment wouldn’t hear its
sound. In no time at all, we were out of
the house. All we
needed to do at first was to get onto a
motorcycle to take us to
somewhere far from home. I waved down
one and Biodun
spoke with the rider. They didn’t agree at
a price, so he left.
Another soon came close and we
mounted on that.
The rider didn’t move. Instead, he turned
his head backward
and it was a shock to us. When Biodun
tapped him to ask why
he wasn’t moving, he told Biodun
something which I didn’t
hear. Biodun tapped me and pointed
backward. He was asking
me to look behind me since I was his
eyes. I looked behind me
and saw horror! Taiba! She had probably
been shouting and
waving at the bikeman to get his
attention earlier. Biodun must
have heard her shouting and didn’t know
she was the one.
Our plan was shattered. Now we had to
beg Taiba not to tell
Biodun’s mother what had happened.
Taiba didn’t accept it until
she got some money from us and pulled
our ears, warning us
that we shouldn’t dare try such a thing in
our life. Biodun
actually sneaked out of their apartment
while she was having
her bath.
To be Continued
