I shook my head. Moses would make a good lawyer, I thought as I submitted to Bose’s wish.
“Okay, okay, I will leave it there,” I said
and Bose was glad. I
wondered why she insisted on something
as defamatory as
that. How would people who knew her
look at her? Would they
not call her a thief who stole her
schoolmate’s schoolbag?
It was already a week since I prayed to
my creator to show me
the address of the court my mother was
taken to, maybe in
my dreams. I had faith that I would see it
inside a vision or
anything like that. I began to imagine the
scene—the day I was
demonstrating with my sign language in
front of the audience
in the court that day. I came out of my
long imagination when
an idea sped past my brain.
The next day I told Moses the idea.
“Sir, please can you take me in your car
to my former school?”
“For what purpose?” Moses asked me.
“Although I couldn’t remember the court
where my mother
was sentenced to two years
imprisonment, but I know I could
remember a teacher who went there with
us that day.”
“Who’s that?” Moses was eager.
“He is Mr. Dele. He went to the court
with us that day—he was
in the car with Mrs Oyin my class-
teacher, myself and my
aunty.”
“Great idea!” Moses was glad. “Let’s
locate him immediately.
Moses told his father about it and off we
went to my former
school to search for Mr. Dele in my
former school. When we
got there, we were told that the man had
left the school for
quite sometimes.
“He is now in London,” a new teacher in
the school said.
I was angry. Why is it that all the people
who could be a source
of help to me are far away abroad? I told
Moses as we were
walking away.
“Who are they?” Moses asked me as if he
was ignorant of it.
“My aunty, my class-teacher, Mr. Dele
and even my uncle,
James,” I responded vigorously.
“What about God and me, are we abroad
too?” Moses said to
my amazement. Earlier, I thought lawyers
didn’t believe in God
because they are Mr. and Mrs Know-all,
but when Moses
mentioned God just now, I had to change
my conception.
“But why hasn’t God answered my
prayer?” I asked Moses. “I
said that he should show me in my dream
the exact location of
the court of law but he didn’t show me—
why?”
“Because God’s way is not our own way
and his thought is not
our own thought. He knows the thought
that he thinks towards
us—the thought of peace and not of evil
to give us our
expected end,” Moses said. I had read
those things from my
bible before but I hadn’t applied them to
my life. How come
Moses could quote the bible as much as
he could quote the
constitution too? His brain must be very
complex and big to
accommodate too much, I thought.
“So, what is God’s way sir?” I asked
Moses.
“I don’t know,” he responded with sign
language and pulled
me. “Enter the car!” he spoke with his
mouth and I understood
him by lip-reading.
As soon as I got into the car and winded
up, the teacher who
attended to us earlier hurried to us and
began to speak to
Moses. When they had spoken to a
particular length, Moses
turned to me and told me what she said:
“She said that a man came to the school
just last week looking
for one Rose, which I believe is you; the
man said that he is
James, a younger brother to your father.
He said he wanted to
locate your new address.”
I was excited. I asked Moses if James
dropped his home
address with the woman. She saw my
sign and responded me
in sign language:
“He wrote it in a little note and gave it to
me,” the woman said.
“He said that in case you come here I
should give it to you.”
The woman began to check her handbag
for the note. She kept
on dancing on a spot, looking for it in
her bag, but she couldn’t
locate it.
“But I put it here!” she signed. For
minutes we waited for her to
produce something but nothing was
coming forth. We had to
leave without the address. It was very
painful began to grow
impatient. What exactly is God’s way and
though about my
mother’s case? I wept at a corner. It
would be a bitter
experience launching my book without
my mother.
Moses’ father was ready to sponsor the
publishing of the book.
It wasn’t in print yet.
I sat outside the house with Biodun and
Laide receiving fresh air
when a postm
an arrived with a letter. My
aunty would be
returning to Nigeria in few weeks. I was
overjoyed when I read
it.
To be continued
