Inside a one-room apartment, on a tattered mattress, lay Mr. Rich sick and dying.
"Bomaaa my daaaughter," he said and coughed loudly in pains.
"Yes Papa. Papa please don't cough like this now," Boma answered with fear written all over her tear-stained face as she held his hands.
"Boma, take, take this key. It is the key to my, to my brown box," he released the small key he was holding into his daughter's hand. Suddenly he started jerking.
"Papa! Papa! What now?! Papa please," she stood up and started trying to calm him down as his breathing became a struggle. "Papa don't leave me please. Papa don't do this now--" the word had barely left her mouth when Mr. Rich breathed his last.
Too shocked to scream, Boma recoiled bringing her knees to her chin seated by her father's bedside. She looked at her father and tears just flowed down. He was the only family she knew, and now, as he lay lifeless before her, the reality that she was alone stared glaringly. Papa was gone.
About an hour later in the evening, she heard a knock on the door. Then Mama Uchenna, the next door neighbor, opened the door and came in.
"How is your father doing, Boma?" she asked as she came close to look at Mr. Rich. "Has he eaten anything?"
At this point, Boma couldn't hold back the tears and her outburst told Mama Uchenna all she needed to know. She screamed to the hearing of neighbors who all rushed in to see what it was. Mr. Rich's corpse was taken to the mortuary and was buried the following day since he had no known relative and young Boma was only sixteen years old.
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A Few days later, in the middle of the night, a lady dressed in a white apparel appeared to Boma in her dream, and asked her to quietly leave that environment at the break of dawn and never return, because there were evil people around who desired to hurt her, and eventually destroy her life. The following morning, she quickly packed her few belongings including the brown box, and came out of the room. But Uchenna sighted her from where he stood brushing his teeth.
“Boma, where you dey carry load go this early morning?" he asked in his deep husky voice.
Surprised to see him, she mouthed an inaudible greeting and went behind the house ignoring his question. Then she came back, went into the house, and came out with a bucket; all along worried she may not leave easy and wondering where she could go to that would be far away from this place she had lived all her life. Her father had never told her anything more than that her mother died giving birth to her and he grew up in an orphanage home. While she was yet moving around thinking and acting like she was about to do her laundry, Mama Uchenna came out of her house and also saw her.
"Ma, good morning," Boma greeted her, forcing a smile.
"Morning. Are you washing? Let me bring some clothes for you to help me with," Mama Uchenna went inside without giving her a chance to accept or decline. Then she came out with a big basin of dirty clothes - Uchenna's clothes - and dumped it in front of the poor girl.
"Help me wash them for my son, eh? I will leave soon for the market and return to cook for us," she said without any sign of plea in her face, while Uchenna stood watching. Then his mother called him inside as she also went into her house.
"Mama, you think sey she go gree? That girl can stubborn." Uchenna said to his mother in their small sitting room. "I don try to touch her, but she shout and you know sey her Papa been dey sick that time."
"Then try again! Try if she no gree, force her. After all, which better thing she wan use her body do if no be prostitution. Make she happy sey my son wan give her pikin and family." Mama Uchenna responded maliciously.
"Ok. I go try again today. Make I go park go find money. Tell Ihuoma sey make she wait for me I dey come now now," he said standing up and dusting his cap on his dirty pair of trousers. He walked out of the house towards where Boma was doing the laundry and saw all his clothes soaked in the basin: jeans, shirts, white and colored - everything was just mixed together, but there was no trace of Boma, not even her belongings.
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Running as fast as her legs could carry her, Boma got to a bus top and entered a bus that was just about to move. Not until the conductor asked her for her transport fare did she realize she was in a bus going to Aba in Abia state. Immediately, she told the driver she wanted to come down from the bus because her actual destination was Waterlines Junction on Aba Road. Her father had always talked about Waterlines being the place to get a bus to Lagos, and she had also heard that better opportunities were in Lagos. Now with the five thousand naira she had left on her, she hoped to pay her way to Lagos. So she paid the already angry conductor some money and came down from the bus clutching the brown box and her small bag.
"Abeg, I dey go... Lagos. Yes. Where Lagos bus?" she asked at the park and someone pointed it out to her. She got into the bus and soon left Port Harcourt - her homeland.
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The journey to Lagos was a long one and being her first time of travelling, Boma stayed awake all through the trip watching and observing the places they passed through. She sat in-between an elderly lady and a young man. The young man had his ears plugged with earphones and the woman was looking out the window most of the time, until she slept off leaning her head on Boma’s shoulder. And even though it wasn’t comfortable, Boma didn’t complain. She had come to discover that the time spent with people was a time to show kindness, because time was short and at least she was happy she could give this woman a shoulder.
When the bus arrived at Lagos, she came down at the motor park, completely amazed at the scenery, the hustling, and the busyness of the place.
“My daughter, where are you going to? Please help me carry this bag,” the elderly woman lifted a big sack and balanced it on her head.
“No mama. Let me carry it for you,” Boma collected the sack from her and placed it on her own head. “I am a stranger here ma. I came to look for work to do.”
“God bless you my daughter. Don’t worry. Follow me to my house and spend the night, then tomorrow you can think about what to do,” the woman said.
“Thank you so much ma. God bless you too ma. Thank you,”
The woman led her to a bus top where they entered a bus heading to Surulere. While she was living with the woman, she went out walking the streets of Lagos, looking for a job. Eventually, she found a job as a cleaner in a bar after a week of walking round town. The owner of the bar, a woman, had also offered to accommodate her as she did with her other workers, so she thanked the elderly woman and moved over to her new madam’s house.
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One day, while helping her Madame at the bar serve drinks at the table, a young man walked up to her.
"Nicole?!" he looked puzzled and a bit unsure even as he called her by that name.
"Sorry sir. I'm not Nicole," Boma replied a bit embarrassed that a handsome guy like him would approach her, and then mistake her for someone else.
"Yeeeah. I see. Wow. You look so much like someone I met in the States just a week ago!" he was all excited now and turned to his friend. "Greg, remember that girl I told you I saw at the airport: the one that I said her Dad was looking so young I mistook him for her guy now?"
Greg nodded.
"That's the girl I'm talking about," he said as he took a seat and watched Boma leave to get more drinks.
All their talk got drowned in the music playing at the background as Boma walked away and continued with her work. She had other things more important to think about. She had been looking for the key her late father gave her just before his death. She was yet to decide whether to break the box or keep searching for the key. Her father had kept that box for as long as she could remember, and when she was younger, she burned with curiosity to know the contents but after her father got ill and she had to bear responsibilities, she lost interest in the box. Now she really wanted to know the content, hoping it held some useful information about her father and his history. She decided she better keep searching for the key rather than break the one property of her father she had left.
About a month later, she was walking by a car park, on her way to report at the bar, when she heard a voice that attracted her attention and caused her to look into the car park and who did she see dressed in a T-shirt and black shorts, talking with his voice raised high? Her father?
She looked carefully... There could be no mistake. Except for the polished appearance and polished accented voice, this man talking looked exactly like her father. Goose pimples spread all over her as she made to hide behind one of the cars and watch him closely. Too late. He turned and saw her trying to hide. He too looked like he had also seen a ghost.
"Nicole?!" he called out as he walked towards her. This time she fainted.
"Ah! Please bring water, bring water," the car seller ordered one of his workers as they rushed towards her. "Ray, you know her?"
Mr. Ray, lifted her up from the ground and carried her into the office.
"My God! She looks so much like my daughter. For a moment I thought she was, but... obviously not," he said as he laid her on the table and sprinkled some water on her face.
Immediately she coughed and woke up. And as she did and saw him next to her, she screamed. "Papa!"
Now everyone around looked as confused as Mr. Ray.
"No, I'm not your father. Sorry dear. Why the panicked look on your face?" Mr. Ray asked her as she jumped off the table in undeniable confusion.
Not knowing what to do or what to say, Boma took to her heels.
"Wait! Come back!" Mr. Ray called after her but she was gone. "Wow."
"Ray, you say you don't know this girl and she called you Papa? And you had just said she looked so much like your daughter," Bade the car seller asked.
"I'm just as confused too," Mr. Ray replied shrugging his shoulders. "People look alike. Coincidences like this happen all the time."
"Hmmn, perhaps you should look into this one carefully. She looks like your daughter--" Bade was saying.
"And I look like her Papa. Yes I see the difference, but really it wouldn't be necessary. I don't have a missing daughter to look for." Mr. Ray interjected and went on, "let's get back to our negotiations."
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Boma didn't stop running until she got to the bar. She was twenty minutes late when she arrived and she met Lizzy, her roommate and coworker, at the back of the bar.
"Where have you been, Bomcy? Madame asked after you before going out. Hope all is well?" Lizzy said looking at how she was panting, and at her facial expression.
Boma simply nodded holding her chest and gestured for Lizzy to get her water. Lizzy got her a bottle of water and after she drank, she cleared her throat and spoke. "I don't understand yet, but I think I saw a real ghost just now. Flesh and blood. In fact, I'm so disorganized upstairs, I should rest a while," she gasped for breath,
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Mr. Ray finished with Bade and walked out of the car park office.
"Ehen, Ray just in case that lady gets out of her shock and comes back looking for you, what do I tell her?" Bade asked Mr. Ray as he was leaving the door following after him.
"Mere coincidence Bade, mere coincidence. Besides I don't want to cause the girl any more horror so just forget about it," he replied with a wave of the hand still walking on.
"And can you forget about it?” Bade continued relentlessly, “It wouldn't hurt to get to know her you know?”
"I'm returning to the US next tomorrow. I'll speak to my wife about it first. You can always call me to keep me informed, but please, wait for me to give you a call before releasing my contact to her if she bothers to return." Mr. Ray said with a sound of finality to the conversation. He walked to his car, entered it, and drove away.
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