EPISODE 19
Skyby arrived in Oshogbo the
same day that Damilola did. They
took separate flights and there
was no way Damilola would have
known that someone had been
sent to snuff the life out of Dayo forever. Skyby stayed in the same
motel that Bella stayed, when she
was in Oshogbo. Damilola
however went to his mother’s
place. His first port of call was Gberan’s
mother, Madam Lagos. He went to
see her to thank her for taking
care of Khadijat and taking care
of his son. But Madam Lagos was
in sorrow over the disappearance of Dayo. Judging from what
Khadijat’s mother had narrated,
she was sure that Dayo was in
trouble, and it hurt her that she
had failed at keeping her promise
to Khadijat. So, when Damilola came with his vote of thanks,
Madam Lagos rebuffed him. Madam Lagos: “What are you
thanking me for, if I took care of
Khadijat, where is she? What
about Dayo, do you see him here?
You impregnated a girl and you
left her to face the shame alone, and now, years later, with the girl
dead, and the child nowhere to
be found, you come to thank me.
Keep your thanks to yourself, and
look for our Dayo, perhaps then
Khadijat will forgive you and her spirit will rest” she said bluntly. Damilola was short of words, he
stood up from the position where
he had knelt to thank Madam
Lagos, and left the house, with a
heavy heart. How could he have
thought that she would be nice to him? He wondered. She, who
witnessed all Khadijat went
through. He made a vow that he
would not go back to Lagos until
he found Dayo, dead or alive. Sunlight escaped through the
little opening in the curtain and
danced on Dayo’s face. He
opened his eyes and he looked at
the strange surrounding. The bed
was a comfortable king size, whereas he was used to sleeping
on the hard floor of the
uncompleted building. The room
was a beautiful, white painted
room, and furnished with
beautiful furniture. “This is not the uncompleted
building” He thought and bolted
up to a sitting position. Then the
memories came flooding back. He
was not in the uncompleted
building because he had chosen life. He had been given two
choices; to join a band of
assassins cum armed robbers, or
to be killed, and he had chosen to
live, even if it meant joining them. “Mother, what do I do, should I
have refused and be killed. I
don’t want to die yet, not without
fulfilling your dreams. What do I
do, mother?” he said to the empty
room. Suddenly, the door of the room was opened and Stone, the
leader of the gang walked in,
with a smile on his face. Stone: “I am glad you choose
wisely, would have been a pain to
have to kill you” he said. Dayo did
not reply, he just stared at him.
Then he told Dayo to follow him,
he took Dayo round the massive mansion where all the members
of the gang lived. They ended up
in the kitchen where the cook
gave Dayo a plate of toast, with
scrambled egg, and mayonnaise.
Dayo ate with relish because, since leaving the house, he had
not eaten good food. However,
the calm in the kitchen was
broken when one of the gang
members rushed into the kitchen
and grabbed the television remote. He switched on the flat
screen television on the wall of
the kitchen, and Dayo’s face filled
the screen. Dayo: “What am I doing on
television?” he whispered, even if
he had shouted, the occupants of
the kitchen wouldn’t have heard,
they were engrossed in the
words spilling out of the television. The television anchor
was saying that Dayo was
involved in an accident in Lagos,
and somehow is in Oshogbo,
working hand in hand with a
gang of robbers who were known to always kill their victim.
She also said that anyone who
found him should report to the
nearest police station. The
question on everyone’s lips was,
‘How did Dayo run away from the hospital and end up in Oshogbo’. Stone: “So you are a runaway
huh, your people must be
looking for you” he said looking
at the television screen
thoughtfully. Dayo: “No one is looking for me,
my mother is dead, my father
rejected us. Madam Lagos
probably gave up on looking for
me now, after all we are not
related” he said, as emotions clogged his throat. He missed the
family that was not really his,
especially his daddy Gberan.
Every day, he tried to visualize
what he was doing, now that he
was no longer with them. “He has a son, remember, and
now that you are gone, he is
focusing on his son” the voice
inside would say, and it would
bring tears, he would wish that
his absence had created a vacuum in their lives, but in his
heart, he believed that no one
cared that much for him. If only he knew, that not only
was Gberan looking for him, but
his grandmothers and his
biological father had paused their
life looking for the son that
Khadijat gave birth to. It happened that, the gateman
while talking to Dayo had seen
his face when he pointed a torch
in his face, while talking to him.
So, he had described Dayo to the
police and the police artist had sketched Dayo’s face. It wasn’t
long that someone recognized
Dayo as the boy who was in an
accident and ran away from the
hospital, throwing his family into
confusion. Skyby had also seen the news
and had gone to the place of the
robbery, he combed the area
around the place, but there was
no sign of Dayo. He saw the
uncompleted building opposite the lemon coloured house where
the robbery had taken place, and
went there, hoping that he would
find Dayo. He found signs of
inhabitation, but didn’t see Dayo.
There was no way he could have found Dayo because he did not
come out in the day, and only
came out at night, and only on
nights when the gang had an
assignment. He was always
cooped up in the house, with the gang. Skyby began to hunt the places
where the gang struck. He stayed
close to his television set, and
whenever he heard that the gang
had struck a place, he would rush
there, but he never found any clues. One day he sat down and
asked himself why he was
chasing after Dayo, did he plan to
kill the boy when he found him,
just because Tania asked him to? “Are you really going to be a child
killer because you want to save
your reputation?” he questioned
himself. It is time to pull out of
Tania’s web, he told himself. But
still Skyby was not ready to have his career ruined so he made a
gamble. He called Tania and
offered her a deal. Bella, since her encounter with
Tania had been living in fear. She
decided to reveal everything to
her husband, in a bid to get
protected. She hoped that her
husband would forgive her part in the disaster, and protect her,
for the sake of their son. So, she
asked to talk to her husband, one
evening, after dinner. Since Dayo
went missing, Gberan had
become less of a happy man, but however, he became closer to his
son, Ken. Ken reciprocated the
attention, by doing everything to
please his father. He loved all the
sports his father loved and learnt
all the skills his father was good in. He even decided to study
engineering, like his father had
done. Seeing the way Ken had
turned out, Bella did not regret
her actions. After all, they pushed
Dayo out of the house, and gave Ken room to be all he wanted to
be, without sharing the affection
of his father. Bella: “Gberan, Tania is a killer,
she tried to kill me” she dropped
the bombshell. Gberan bolted out
of the reclining seat where he
was, lounging on the patio. Gberan: “I know you did not
have any liquor this evening, so,
what nonsense is this you are
saying? Are you trying to tarnish
the image of your friend? This is a
new low, even for you” he said vehemently. Bella: “Will you just keep quiet
and let me talk. She tried to kill
me, and if she had not fainted
then, you would have seen my
dead body somewhere. When
she thought I was going to die, she confessed to me that the
accident was deliberate, she had
meant to kill Dayo because I told
her Dayo is Damilola’s son” she
said and watched as her
husband’s eyes got darker and darker. Gberan: “You told her that Dayo is
Damilola’s son, how did you
know that? Even Damilola didn’t
know that, until after the
accident” he said unbelievably. Bella: “Remember when I told
you I was going to see my
mother, I actually went to
Oshogbo. I watched Dayo and
Damilola together at the lunch we
had, and noticed similarities in their looks. I was not sure so I
went to Oshogbo. Khadijat’s
father had just died…” she
explained to her husband, whose
eyebrow shot up the more she
talked. Gberan: “I am scared of you,
Bella. I cannot believe that you
would go this far to fight against
an innocent boy whom life had
dealt enough blows. My mother
was right, I should never have married you” he said. He walked
back and forth, thinking hard.
The more he thought about it, the
more he could not believe that
Bella could do all she did. Then he
thought of Tania, the innocent faced woman was even deadlier
than Bella..
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