Moses’ mouth went wow when he saw me. He demonstrated before me in sign language and I was awed. The last time we met, being the only time, he wasn’t able to do the sign.
“How is it, Rose?” he had asked. I was
surprised that Moses still
knew my name.
“I’m fine, sir,” I replied him. Moses’ father
was very shocked to
see that we knew each other. He began
to speak with his son.
Moses signed to me that I should be up
on my feet. At first I
didn’t listen to him, fearing what his
father could do to me. I got
up eventually when the headmaster
himself gave me the go-
ahead. Moses asked me why I was
involved in a fight.
“Rose, don’t you know that fighting is
bad?”
“Yes I know sir,” I signed back.
“So why are you fighting—with your
senior for that matter?”
“She—she…” I knew it would be a very
long story.
Moses said he wanted to be alone with
me because he was
perceiving that I had a lot of troubles
going on within me.
“Rose, I have been willing to have a heart
to heart talk with you
since two and half years back when we
met, that was why I
gave you my home address. You didn’t
show up there, why?”
“I came, but…I was told you have
relocated,” I responded.
“You came? Oh! Sorry!” Moses signed.
“Come, let’s go.”
I was looking at his father who was not
interrupting his son. I
wondered what he would say if he saw
me going with his son.
Moses led me to a car just outside his
father’s office. The
Toyota Camry glistened in the early
morning son. It was
smooth to the core. Moses ordered me to
get in. I was afraid
and shy.
Bose was close by, gaping like a monkey
whose banana was
lost. Others, her friends, were gaping too.
I plodded in, beside
the driver’s seat and began to fasten my
seat belt. Moses sat
behind the wheel and drove off.
We pulled up in a very big restaurant. I
was shy because my
school uniform was still on me. People
would take me for
something else, seeing me in a school
uniform. As we sat
before a table, I saw eyes staring at me. I
knew they were
saying some contumelious words but
since I had no
functioning eardrum I didn’t hear them.
“Rose, do you know something?”
“No sir,” I replied.
“Since two and half years back that I met
you, I have been
feeling like I should know you better.
That day, you looked very
troubled. I wanted to know everything
concerning you but that
day was so short—we couldn’t talk at
length—you know I was
deaf those days…”
“Deaf? How sir?” I asked him. I thought
he was making fun of
me.
“Yes, I was!” Moses maintained. “I was
deaf to the sign
language you knew how to speak. The
barrier in
communication pained my heart so much
that I began to learn
it from my dad as soon as I got home
that day. Now I can do it
even better than him—I can sign the
American and even the
British. Can you sign the ASL too?”
“Yes sir,” I replied. “It’s quite easy.”
Moses coughed over a fist set before his
mouth. Then he
changed the topic:
“Rose, that day when I saw you, you were
very worried. What
was wrong?”
“It is a very long story,” I said. My eyes
went gloomy. I was
not ready to dig into those story of the
old memories.
“I’m all eyes, Rose,” Moses said. “I’m not
going back to the
campus today, so I have all the time on
earth.”
I began to tell Moses everything I could.
When I ended my
story, Moses was already shedding tears
in sympathy.
“Rose! We must find them! We must find
them!” he signed
vigorously.
Moses wanted us to swing into action
immediately. He paid for
all our expenses and off we went.
A lady asked for Moses’ attention and he
halted to speak with
her. I set my face few metres ahead and
saw a couple. The
husband got into the driver’s seat and
the wife also bent to get
in. The two of them appeared familiar. I
was shocked when I
discovered that the woman was Toyosi
but the man didn’t look
like John—of course I was sure the man
was not John, but he
looked familiar to me.
I screamed. When Moses heard me
scream, he left the lady
alone and rushed to me.
“Rose! Rose! What’s the matter?”
“She’s the one!” I signed and pointed to
the car which was
already zooming off!
“Gush! Rose, get inside the car!” Moses
signed. He was going to
give them a chase.
To be continued
