When the judge spoke with the Chief Warden of the prison, the man shook with fear. Myaunty was wont to interpreting every word to me. She did as the two elderly men spoke and I was able to get the dialogue as it flowed:
“Where is Mrs. John Hannah?” the white-
haired judge asked the
chief warden.
“It’s been a while,” the man said. “She’s
no more here.”
There was definitely a skeleton in the
man’s cupboard going by
the way he spoke. His mouth trembled.
“Where is she?” the judge asked him
again.
“Em—em…er, she has been released since
last year,” the man
said.
“Released?” Moses and Mr. Joe, the
judge asked simultaneously.
“Y—yes,” he said. “Anything the matter?”
“We haven’t seen anyone,” my class-
teacher said.
“But we released her August last year,
August 18 when her
two-year jail term expired, ” the Chief
Prison Warden tried to
solidify his confession. “We have all our
papers here.”
Pandemonium stared at us. We could not
do anything than to
fidget when he said he had all evidences
with him. How come?
I signed to Moses that it was time we
produced the note Toyosi
wrote, in which she made known her
intention of prolonging
my mother’s jail term till five years, but
Moses waved off the
idea:
“It’s not time yet,” he said. “Let this man
provide the evidence
first.”
The Chief Prison Warden took us
confidently to his desk and
began to present the papers to us. We
saw many signed
documents of her release on the specific
date the warden
mentioned earlier. We also saw photo
evidences of her release.
I was baffled when we saw John in one
of the photos, standing
side by side with my mother. It was
shocking to us all.
The Judge probed the Chief Warden who
denied knowing
anything about Toyosi and my father’s
plot.
“Mr. John came here on the 18th of
August last year and took
his wife away,” the Chief Prison Warden
said. As you can see
here, we have his signatures and photos,
so I don’t seem to
understand what you’re talking about.”
The Judge and the Chief Warden dragged
the matter for a while
but it didn’t come to a head. Now I was
in the greatest
suspense of my life. Where is my
mother?
The dream that I saw my mother hanged
began to flash back
to my brain each time I was thinking
about her. The case had
been made very hot against the prison
warden who had been
charged to court. We began to search for
Toyosi and John my
father, the two people who could actually
unravel the mystery,
but they were nowhere to be found.
Truly in that picture, my mother and
John my father were
smiling together in a warm embrace.
How come? I was put at
the forefront of the case against Mr.
Collins, the Chief Prison
Warden, because I was the person who
could provide all the
evidences, though my aunty and class-
teacher also voiced out
what they knew about the case. The two
of them waited
behind in Nigeria while their husbands
travelled back to their
respective destinations overseas.
Four months had passed since the case
commenced but
nothing was forthcoming. The Chief
Prison Warden had hired
some smart lawyers to defend him. We
had our lawyers too.
They fought hard to win the case,
showing all the evidences I
provided—the notes written by Toyosi,
testifying that she had
lengthened my mother’s jail-term and
also other notes my
father had written, telling me that my
mother would rot in
prison. Mrs. Oyindamola and Rachael my
aunty also testified to
the fact that they saw my mother in her
home just within two
months of her detention, but the Chief
Prison Warden
debunked.
“My mother must not die!” I signed in
annoyance as I stood
before everyone in the court as a witness.
“I call on the
government of Lagos to rise up to this
case and help me fetch
my mother out from wherever she is,” I
signed and began to
weep. Some people in the court were
emotionally touched too.
They wept.
Soon, my story became the favourite of
the cover pages of
every dailies. My picture was stamped all
over the place as the
‘Able Disabled’.
Will deaf and dumb Rose win the case
against the government?
Daily Moonlight wrote.
The deaf are also able: Read the Case of
John Rose, a deaf mute,
speaking out her mind. Neon Magazine
wrote in details
Superstar Rose signed her voice again
The Monitor said.
I felt shy each time I come across my
pictures on the leaves of
the dailies. I would leave them wet with
tears. All I needed now
is my mother and not popularity of any
kind. I had also heard
that BCC of London had the news to tell
in their land too and
CCN of America. I knew my father would
be in unimaginably
hot soup if he was caught perchance.
It was ten months already since the case
began, but the Chief
Warden was not declared guilty yet. Of
course he wasn’t going
to be condemned that easily without my
father and Toyosi
testifying that they indeed connived with
him to get my mother
out.
I believed strongly that the pictures of
my mother and my
father hugging each other was not a
recent one—they must
have taken those pictures four years back
and not two years
back as the Chief Warden declared. My
mother wouldn’t have
smiled in the picture if actually it was
two years back, because
she would see no reason smiling after
she had been left to
spend two years in prison innocently. I
testified towards that in
the court of law and the pictures were
subjected to thorough
scrutiny and the case was adjourned
until the pictures were
examined. In the end, the Chief Warden
was proved right and
the papers carried the news again that I
was losing.
To be continued......
