Somewhere in the city of Albertville, Marshal County of Alabama, Mr. Ray walked into his home.
"Honey, I'm home," He announced as he dropped his luggage by the base of the stairs and took off his black leather jacket. He got no response from his wife, but from his daughter.
"Dad! Oh Dad, welcome home. How's Nigeria?" Nicole answered with the American accent, sliding down the rail of the stairs with open arms to greet her father. Seeing her reminded him of the conflict he'd been battling with over the past forty-eight hours.
"Cole sweetie, I'm back. How are you doing'?" he asked as he caught her, giving her a hug and holding her for a while.
"Fine Dad. Did you get all your stuff done?" Nicole asked, releasing herself from his embrace.
"Yeah I did. Where's your mother?" he asked.
"She was with me a few minutes ago - Mum!" she also called out. "Daddy's back. Com' out now."
Mr. Ray was already climbing up the stairs when his wife popped her head out.
"Oh Honey," she said coming down the stairs to meet him and giving him a kiss and a hug. "Missed you. How was the trip?"
"Great. And how is my sweet doing?" he lifted her off the stairs and brought her down to the couch.
"Helloooo. The room is right up... stairs Dad. You two are so... ewww." Nicole said, taking a throw-pillow and hitting her Dad with it before running up the stairs. "I'll catch you up later. I have a date."
"Ray, we'll roast our dinner if I don't get into the kitchen right now, baby," Tess, Nicole's mum and Ray's wife of eighteen years managed to say, catching her breath.
"I'll like the meal burnt if you... No, I change my mind," Mr. Ray said standing up and lifting his wife up. "I'm terribly hungry."
Tess laughed. Her husband was back safe and sound and that meant a lot considering the dream she had the previous night. She couldn't wait to share it with him so they could pray together about it.
"So gimme the highs of your trip." she asked him.
"You don't want the lows first?" he asked following her to the kitchen.
"That could follow after."
"Well, all went well with the deliveries. Bade got the cars, and has sold all but one," he replied while opening the fridge to retrieve whatever edible he could find. "I also met the Investors for the DREW project. And yeah, I bumped into a girl too - a Nicole look-alike."
Tess had been listening while attending to the food on the cooker, but the last piece of news got her turning around. "Really? You did?"
"Yeah I did. The Investors were so excited about the prospects of the business--" he was saying when she cut him short.
"Yeah. Nice. I was actually referring to the girl part." Tess emphasized, taking a hand towel to wipe her hands.
"Oh, yeah I did. If it wasn't so striking, I wouldn't even have remembered. But she looked like an identical twin of our baby, and she got this very mark here, right here," he replied pointing to his neck, "got me sleepless."
"Oh, that's really creepy. Can that even be remotely possible or are you kidding again, Ray?" she asked, looking at him a bit seriously and disturbed.
"Tess I wouldn't be toying with sensitive issues like this one, now would I?" Mr. Ray said, coming close to her. "I've had to keep it to myself until I got here to discuss it with you."
The look of seriousness on her husband's face confirmed this wasn't another joke. She grimaced and continued with setting the table.
"Let's have dinner, Ray. I don't feel comfortable talking about her," Tess said without looking at her husband.
*****************************************************
Tonye waited all day for Boma's call, hoping she'll need his help or at least call to acknowledge the gift, but he got no call. For a moment he was tempted to go back to the hotel and ask after her whereabouts, but he felt that would be too intruding, so he decided to just keep waiting.
"Mr. Olumide, send me that quotation for review before mailing it to DAC Gases." he said on the phone and dropped the receiver.
Being young and heading a department full of 'elders' wasn't easy. He had to be at his best and balance his communication with his co-workers. He checked his watch, it was 3:45pm. He would just drop by at Kali bar for a drink or two, he thought. And make sure Boma was fine. He felt so annoyed that she didn't have a phone.
At the close of work, he drove straight to the bar.
*****************************************************
Boma went to work - late, but she went all the same. All her plans to make an escape that morning was truncated. Madame Kali had outsmarted her. She was trapped. She couldn't trust anyone to share all that was transpiring with her lately. She couldn't even bring herself to call Tonye, the man who had shown her all that kindness. He must think of her as an ungrateful person. She only had Jonah, one of her colleague, to talk to. But she refrained from sharing her personal issues with him, not because he wasn't understanding, but because she didn't want to give him room to get personal.
"Boma. Collect the money from Jonah and keep for purchase of drinks tomorrow," her Madame said, while counting some money in her small office.
Boma went into the seating area of the bar and saw Jonah, looking well dressed, seating on a chair like a customer.
She walked up to him and he asked, "Sweet Bom Bom, why your face dey like dis since yesterday? Talk to me na. I dey worry o'" he asked putting a hand around her waist.
She wasn't in the mood to push away his hand as she always did. He was the only one that had noticed her worried expression. Even Lizzy hadn't bordered to ask her about the other morning's incident since she returned. She took a seat beside him.
"Jonah. I no just well. I get some personal wahala wey dey disturb me, and you no go fit help,” she said as if complying with him, "But thanks eh, and if you try put your hand for my waist again, anything you see, you take." Then she snatched the money from his hand and turned to walk away.
Jonah laughed and slapped her butt as she walked away but he missed.
Tonye on the other hand didn't. He had just arrived the bar, looking for where to park his car when he saw Boma coming to meet the man, and the rest of the scene that took place. Angry at what he saw, he drove away. Greg was right after all, he thought: a pig would always go back to filth; so much for preferring look alikes and trying to covet public property.
*****************************************************
The Bar closes at about 9pm, so by 9:20, Boma had already started finding her way back home, leaving the other girls behind. She was lost in thought as she strolled down the brilliantly lighted street - Lagos was beautiful at night.
She had a lot happening to her at the same time, it was as if the heavens had shut itself from her. Talking about heaven... She hadn't gone to church since she stepped foot into Lagos and even back in Port Harcourt, she didn't have a particular church she was attending. But where was God, the father to the fatherless, while life was treating her so unfairly? Wasn't it the same God who warned her with the dream she had the night before she came to Lagos? It seemed she would have been better off in the frying pan of Port Harcourt with Mama Uchenna, than in this fire she had entered with Madame Kali. Now her life and independence was threatened on all corners: she either had to dance to Madame Kali's tune and lose her dignity, which also meant Madame could turn her into a slave, or get a miracle of two hundred thousand naira, and a job, and shelter, and money for upkeep - nothing but a miracle could save her from Madame Kali.
Still thinking and walking, she realized she was approaching the car park where she'd seen that ghost man. She quietly took off her slippers and sprinted past the car park as if the ghost was hot on her heels. She made sure she had covered a good distance away from the place before she slowed down to catch her breath and hurried back home.
*******************************************
"Tess."
"Ray."
"Can we talk?" Mr. Ray was seated on their bed. He was on pyjamas half-covered with the quilt. And his wife was lying down backing him.
She turned and looked at him. "About what, honey?"
"About what I told you yesterday. The girl." Mr. Ray said.
"Ray! Stop it." This time she was up. "What are you... Are you thinking... Are you thinking she is our daughter? Raaay?"
"No, I haven't said that, honey please." he threw off the bed cover and held his wife's hands. "I just want us to get to the root of it. Please. Baby, she could be family. I never met my biological family. I only got to know I was adopted and had a twin on the day we wedded. Please."
Tess sighed and held his hand. "Ray, I thought you said you were happy with your family and didn't want to bother with looking for your twin."
"I know I did. I said so. I paid a few visits to the orphanage where I was adopted from just before we came here, Tess." Mr. Ray finally said.
Tess withdrew her hands from his, "And you didn't tell me?" The expression on her face spelt distrust.
"I'm sorry. I didn't want to bother after all I heard about him. I just felt it was better to get on." Mr. Ray tried to explain.
"And now?" Tess was already standing, looking at her husband squarely, with arms folded. She wasn't as upset as he thought she was.
"He wasn't adopted. Stayed in the orphanage until he was fourteen, mingled with the wrong group, dropped out of secondary school, and left the orphanage," Mr. Ray paused. "The last they heard about him, he was imprisoned... for attempted rape and assault."
The last two words came out reluctantly from Mr. Ray. Tess walked over to where he sat and sat beside him.
"Was that why you didn't tell me?" Tess looked into her husband's eyes.
"Yes, honey. Didn't want it affecting your perception of me, or my family. I considered bringing up the subject later on, but then, we were about to relocate."
"It's okay, my love. I'm here to support you. Would be nice knowing his whereabouts now." She gave him a hug.
"Tess,"
"Yes, Ray."
"What were you thinking when you asked if I thought she was our daughter?"
************ ************* **************
Madame Kali had been watching Boma ever since she returned from her first night. She had been dealing with girls of her kind for some years and she knew Boma was different from the others: smarter. She had to deal with her with tactic.
The Chief of that same day, had specifically called to ask her to send Boma to him for the night. He paid fifty thousand naira into her account with a promise to pay in another fifty the following day.
She watched Boma go about her duties at the bar. She would make a good profit from this beautiful, smart girl before she got too smart.
By the close of the day, Madame Kali called Boma.
"Boma, tonight you'll attend to Chief. I'll give you his hotel number and you must make me happy." she told Boma as soon as the girl entered her small office.
Boma knew she was in trouble. She had met her dead-end.
"But Madame... " she was starting to say when Madame Kali cut her short.
"No buts! Your days of excuses are over. Get out of my sight." Madame Kali yelled. "And don't forget our deal."
Boma left the office dejected. She had no escape. Was this what she'd suffer and for how long. Then an idea sprang up. She needed to find a phone booth.
She found one by the corner just on the next street.
"Hello, is this Tonye Horsefall?" she said when the call was picked at the other end. It took calling trice to get through.
"Yes it is. Who is this?" Tonye replied from the other end. He knew who it was, but he wasn't as eager as before to hear from this caller.
"Tonye it's me, Boma. From Kali bar." she answered in desperation.
"Ok. How are you?" he tried to sound disturbed by the call, because hearing from her reminded him of what he saw the previous day.
"I'm sorry I haven't been able to call you. Thank you very much for your help the other day. I've been very busy." she told him, hoping to win some sympathy from him.
'Very busy with your customers' Tonye held himself from saying. He mustered all the self-control he had to respond, "I understand the demands of your job. It's ok. Thanks for calling. Have a nice evening." He was just about to drop the call when Boma spoke, almost in tears.
"I need your help."
************* ************ *************
"So that was why I hadn't called you yet." Boma concluded her story. They were in the bar of a hotel, not too far from the street where she worked.
Tonye looked at her. The pain in her eyes were undeniable. So young, she had gone through a lot. It annoyed him.
"You speak so well for someone with only a secondary school certificate." he couldn't help voicing out that observation.
"I was top in my class most of the time. I liked to read too." she replied. She really wished she didn't have to be a burden to him. But she was in a tight situation.
She had shared only the part of her life that concerned her current predicament with Madame Kali. It'll take his reaction here to determine if she could discuss more about her personal life with him.
"You'll stay with me tonight. Tomorrow morning, I'll pay Madame Kali a visit." he looked at her to see her reaction. "I mean like Stay with me."
"Oh just Kidding."
********** ************ ************
Meanwhile, Chief kept calling Madame Kali asking after the girl. She knew better than to play on Chief's intelligence by sending someone else to him. She was so upset by past 11pm when she got no word from the Boma.
"Chief please don't be angry. Something must have happened to her. Perhaps she missed her way. She sounded so cheerful to come see you." Madame Kali was saying on the phone.
"She doesn't have a phone yet. I'd have gotten through to her. She's new." she continued. "Can I send another of my lovely girls to you for the night? Please, Biko... Okay."
"I'll teach that stupid girl a great lesson by tomorrow." she said to herself aloud.
Back in Alabama, in Mr. Ray's house, at the dinner table. Tess and Nicole sat together eating, while Mr. Ray stood watching.
"Nicole," he sighed, "I... your mum and I, we'll like to tell you something very important."
Nicole took a bite from the fruit pie, chewed, and swallowed before responding. "Please Dad, don't get me scared towering over me and sighing like that. I'm sure you and mum ain't getting' a divorce. So 'm listening." Not with all the lovey dovey she's had to witness almost all her life around these two people. She was confident that wasn't the case.
Her dad dragged a chair around and sat on it, facing her. "It's about my family back home. There's a part about my family I haven't share with you and it's important you know now."
"Really? And what is that, Dad?" she said, her eyes darting from him to her mum and back.
************** *********** *************
"Oh my gosh! You have a twin?!" Nicole exclaimed, bewildered. "This so cool. Is he in Nigeria?"
"Your Dad hasn't met him yet, sweetie, but he met someone that may give us a clue about him." Tess said smiling and enjoying the look on her daughter's face.
Nicole gave her Dad a hug. They were both standing now. "I'm so excited for you. Yeah, and I'll be more excited when I meet him."
"Me too." He said still holding her.
*********** ************ ***********
"Ray. I had a nightmare a few nights before you got back." Tess was saying. It was late in the night and they were both lying on the bed, awake.
"What about?" he asked.
"'Twas a bit incoherent, but you had an accident and died and someone called me from Nigeria to inform me." she said hugging him tighter.
"Thank God for His mercies. I'm here with you, honey" he said caressing her hair and giving her a peck on the forehead.
"You still haven't told me what you were thinking when you asked if I thought it was our daughter." Mr. Ray ventured.
"Ray, I haven't forgotten her so soon. I think about it, how we could have had two girls instead of one, you know. And we haven't had kids after then." she said woefully.
Mr. Ray held her closer. "That's okay. God knows best. I'm happy with my two beautiful girls right now."
They were quiet for a while. He, thinking about the girl he saw in Nigeria that he hoped would be the link to his twin, and she about the moment when the doctor told her she lost one of her babies.
************* ************* *************
Tonye was awake until 1 am, thinking about the lady in the room opposite his. He just felt this responsibility towards her that made him wonder even at himself.
He may have been wrong about her, or maybe there was more he was yet to know.
********** ************* ************
Boma was awake until about 1 am, thinking about a lot, including the man in the room opposite hers. She wondered what Madame could possibly do to her after standing Chief up the way she did.
She also noted that Tonye hadn't made any advances towards her, just being nice to her. Before she slept off, she prayed she wasn't digging a deeper ditch for herself by getting this indebted to a man she barely knew.
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