BROKEN JINX
(II)
As
Chima Okere, who left Calabar, Cross River State for Abia State that Saturday
evening to check on his old mum Madam Ndozi, walked into his family’s lounge,
he observed without much ado that the woman in question had been in sorrowful
mood considering the look on her aged face; her countenance was pale and moody
as her shoulders were calmly held by Emeka. “Mama, what is it?” he inquired,
standing by the entrance.
There was absolute tranquility all over.
Chima
walked closer to them. “Mama..?” he dished out.
“My son.” she said. “You are welcome.”
“I said, what is it?” He reiterated,
ignoring her welcome note.
“Ask your brother.” she answered,
pointing at Emeka.
“Emeka, what is the problem?” he said,
stood still, not minding to include any mark of respect in the name.
He was the fourth child of the parents; in
order words, Emeka deserved some respect from him. Though he used to address
him as ‘Brother Emeka’, it seemed he found no need of observing any protocol.
“Won’t you sit down?” Emeka urged
tenderly.
He managed to sit on one of the single
upholstery chairs sited directly opposite them. “So, what is wrong?” he
insisted, looking perturbed in his brownish caftan.
“I don’t know why mama is disturbing
herself unnecessarily.” quoth Emeka.
“Disturbing herself?” Chima enquired.
“Yes,” replied Emeka. “She keeps
saying, get married, get married as if marriage is all and all.”
“My son,” Madam Ndozi interrupted,
fixing her eyes on Chima. “That is not even the issue.”
Chima was calm, remained attentive.
“He said he wants to travel abroad
again.” She eventually notified.
The information abruptly changed Chima’s
mood. While looking at him, you needn’t be told that things were no longer at
ease; he instantly frowned and got his eyes fixed on his elder brother as if
his mother just announced that he (Emeka) was his rival.
“Why are you looking at me that way?”
Emeka broke the silence.
“Why have you decided to bring shame
upon this family?” Chima uttered unequivocally.
“How dare you address me in such
manner?”
“How else did you expect me to address
you?”
“It’s okay, it’s okay.” The
septuagenarian mediated.
“Mama, let me tell this man here who he
is,” said Chima. “Let me inform him that he had caused us enormous pains
already since he is yet to know.”
Emeka furiously stood up. “I can see
you don’t have any respect for your elder brother again.” He asserted.
“Elder brother my foot.” Chima
responded, equally stood up.
“I said, it’s okay.” Madam Ndozi
shouted.
Despite the old woman’s effort to avoid
the foreseen fire, one thing led to another, within a twinkle of an eye a
serious fight ensued between the two brothers. In the process, their mother
contracted a cardiac arrest and therein gave up the ghost. Chima, on his part,
sustained a severe cut and was rushed to a nearby hospital with the help of
Emeka and other relatives who dashed to the compound on hearing the
pandemonium.
“Where am I?” Chima enquired right from
the hospital bed the moment he regained consciousness at about 8:45pm.
Beside
him were Emeka and a few of his relatives.
“You are in the hospital.” Emeka
replied.
“Why?” he said. “What happened?” he
added, paused. “Where is mama.” He supplemented in a jiffy.
“Don’t worry,” one of the sympathizers
enjoined. “You will be fine okay?” He said just to divert his attention from
the finding regarding his mother’s whereabouts.
There and behold at about 9:15pm, his
beloved wife – Chiamaka – who came all the way from Calabar on hearing the
incident, walked into the hospital room only to see his hubby surrounded by
both familiar and strange faces. “What happened to him?” she inquired as soon
as she got to Chima, looked bemused.
“My wife, calm down okay?” one of the
kinsmen conscientized.
On hearing the voice, Chima looked up,
saw Chiamaka and became so pleased and relieved.
She became sparingly calm, rolling her
palms on Chima’s entire body while taking her time to observe each of the men
present in the room. Before she could finish with the observation, she got
profusely shocked on catching the sight of Emeka; his facial outlook appeared
to her like that of a monster. “Oh my…God..,!”” she screamed.
“What is wrong?” Everyone, including
Emeka, chorused.
The intriguing aspect of the said
observation was that Emeka had once raped Chiamaka sometime in the past when
she was still a maiden. The incident occurred when the former was yet to leave
Nigeria for Germany; he had really lived a dirty life before he travelled
abroad. The ungodly act, carried out in the company of his fellow gangsters,
took place in an uncompleted building situated in one of the rural localities
in the state.
Since Emeka was deported, he was yet to
meet with Chiamaka who had been indisposed, and the latter couldn’t notice him
via pictures among other photographic materials ever since she got married to
Chima.
“What is wrong, dear.” Chima managed to
utter.
“I know this man.” She said, cruelly
pointing at Emeka.
“That is Emeka, my elder brother,”
informed Chima. “The one who returned from Germany.”
“He was the man who raped me,” she
revealed strongly. “You remember the incident I told you about?”
Chima nodded, remained attentive.
“This your so called brother here is
the monster behind it.”
“What…?” Chima shouted at the top of
his voice.
Everyone was trapped to the ground. Emeka, on
his part, could best be described as a ‘living corpse’. He never saw it coming;
the funniest part was that he never recollected Chiamaka as one of the ladies
he had in his net.
The revelation indicated that Emeka was truly
under a spell as his late mother presumed. The aforementioned victim had vowed
that whosoever that was involved in the act would never see peace in his life
for eternity. The unfortunate event which occurred about seven years back had
remained a nightmare in her entire life, thus she kept renewing the spell every
moment she recalled it.
After
all said and done, she was left with no option than to forgive him having
received countless pleas in that regard, including those of Emeka who
eventually embraced remorse and repentance.
Few months later, Emeka retraced his
steps to Europe; this time, he chose Italy. Within some months stay in the
country, he became transformed financially and otherwise. But it was so painful
his poor parents never lived up to that moment; although he finally made it,
the thought of the fact that he contributed to their demise kept witch-hunting
his person.
** The End **
FDN Nwaozor
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