TRAPPED...Part 17.

"What is really going on between you and Dan?"

It was Bola. I had called her to inform her of the text message I got and my intended visit to the address. Apparently, Dan had told her that he would accompany me. I swallowed hard at my end of the line.

"Nothing."

"It better be. I know you two had something in the past. But that is where it ends. In the past. I am Dan's present as well as his future. I would not like us to have an issue over this."

The click of the phone as she hung up buzzed in my ears. I had listened like a chastised pupil. I stared at the phone and then threw it on the bed. Her question had startled me. Is she getting jealous? If she has an issue, she should take it up with Dan, not me.  Dan had always visited me voluntarily. I had supported her engagement to Dan. How on earth could she consider me her rival? She was spoiling for war. A war which I have no strength to fight.

The chime of the clock jolted me back to my senses. 10 am. I was running out of time. I hurriedly went to get Uche ready. Dan came around by 10.30 am. He was looking worried.

"I don't know what is wrong with Bola," he said.

My heart skipped a beat. "How?"

"She was not sounding happy when I called her this morning and yet when I asked, she said she was fine. I persisted till it almost sounded like I am nagging her. She still maintained she was fine."

"Oh! Most times when we say we are 'fine', we really are not. We simply try to draw strength from saying that to enable us tackle the problem. Maybe you check on her when we return."

"Sure, I will. Are we ready to leave?"

"Yes." I had deliberately not mentioned Bola's warning to him to avoid adding gasoline to a smoldering fire. I had taken Vicky to Mama Tunde's house to play with her children while we were away.

The address was not hard to locate. We stood in front of the gate and knocked. The gateman answered and directed us to the main building. It was a brown duplex with a driveway just in front of the main entrance. The living room was spacious with black leather sofas arranged in a semi-circle. Jimmy's father sprang to his feet on seeing us.

"Ah! Thank you very much for coming." He motioned us to sit.

His wife emerged from an adjacent room and smiled on seeing us.

"Una welcome o!" she said.

I looked around the room.  Jimmy's pictures hung on the wall. Baby pictures. Birthday pictures. Matriculation picture.

We were soon joined by two elderly men. One was introduced as the Senior Pastor in their church. The other was their family lawyer.

"We appreciate you all for making it to this meeting," the Senior Pastor said. " God in his infinite wisdom and inscrutable ways has decided to console this family, who recently lost their only son, with a grandson. Despite the circumstances surrounding his birth, his survival up to this moment is a testimony that this child was sent to wipe the tears from the eyes of these two servants of God." He pointed to Jimmy's parents.  

Jimmy's father spoke next. "Stella, we have been trying to meet you. Not to make trouble. No, not at all. The fact that this baby is alive today is just because of you. You really possess the milk of human kindness. You are a candidate for heaven." A tear trickled from my left eye.

He continued. "You fed, clothed and provided for a child whom you picked up from the street. Raising children is very difficult. But you did this, single-handedly."

Jimmy's mother came and knelt before me. I tried protesting but she held onto my knees.

"We appreciate the kindness and love you have lavished on this baby," she said. "I am your fellow woman. My only son, whom I suckled, is no more. This baby is the only hope we have left. Kindly, allow us raise him. Please. Please." She was sobbing.

I looked around. Everyone in the room had their eyes fixed on me. I opened my mouth to talk but no words came out. Tears flowed freely from my eyes. I closed my eyes for a moment, wiping the moisture from them with the back of my hands. I looked at Uche. His face was expressionless. In an instant, flashes of our journey together hit me- his smiles, giggles and babbling. His first words. I felt his smooth skin and ran my hands through his luxuriant hair. The room remained silent. I looked at the woman kneeling before me. A third of her hair has turned gray and wrinkles were deeply etched on her forehead. She cut a pitiable figure.

Jimmy's father broke the silence. "Here is a cheque for one million naira. We know it is nothing but you can have it for all the troubles the baby may have caused you."

"No, no, no,"I said, shaking my head.

"Please, take it,'he insisted.

"Sir, with all due respect, Uche is my son. He has been my son since the day I picked him from the refuse dump and I had treated him as such. I never knew this day would come."

My voice trailed off. I was crying profusely. Dan held my shoulders.

"I will always consider him my son. Whatever I did for him, was done out if love. I cannot accept any amount of money for that."

"Will you allow us raise him?" Jimmy's mother asked, looking up.

I looked at her. Her eyes were expectant. I fought back my tears and turned to Dan. His face was blank. I knew that decision was up to me. Summoning every energy in me and suppressing my screaming maternal instincts, I said the one word that will change their lives.

"Yes."

© Kelvin Alaneme, 2015.

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