Damilola Babs

“Naza,” A thick masculine voice called from behind the woman who was in her early forties. She rose slowly to see who it was. The voice brought back memories, deep memories that caused her heart to bleed each time she remembered.

She turned around slowly and there, her man, her husband, the one who left 20 years ago. The sticks she held fell off, and she followed.

“Naza! Naza!” Bola rushed towards the woman and held her. He didn’t know which way to go. He had been stalking her for weeks, but where was he supposed to take her to? He didn’t know where she stayed.

“Mommy! Mommy!” A full-grown man showed up. He rushed back into the house and brought water. He poured it on her and she gasped.

“Who are you, please get up and leave, sir.” The young man told him.

“I…” he tried speaking.

“Chibuzor,” his mother called gently.

“Mommy,” he reached for his mother quickly.

“Help me in.” She told her son. The boy hoisted her off the floor. She held unto him as he helped her in.

“Naza, Naza please.” Bola continued

20 YEARS BACK

“Congratulations,” Naza said from the side of her mouth. Bola knew it wasn’t a good sign. His woman was obviously not happy about something.

“Babe, wetin now?” he asked in his usual zesty manner. The two were a team, an inseparable one at that.

“Guy, I talk anything?” Naza responded tilting towards her man.

“Oya, wetin happen, yarn your guy now.”

“Yarn you what? You took such an important decision without me. How could you have planned all of this without me? How?” she lamented.

“I am sorry babe, I just wanted what’s best for us.”

“Hmmm?” she questioned, tilting her ear towers him. “You say what? This is obvious greed Bola, obvious greed. So when you leave for Westminster, what should I be doing? Counting the ceiling?” she asked.

“No now, before you know it I will be back. We need money, a lot of it and if I travel now, I will be able to work and bring you there.”

“Things don’t work that way, Bola, they don’t.” She told him, tiredly falling into the bed in frustration. They had only one room and it contained them well, at least for the main time.

“You know me now, I am hardworking, I can make us rich, all I need is a chance to make this work.” He told her sitting next to her.

His wealthy parents had disowned him because of her, he knew no other woman but his Naza, there was no way he was going to abandon her, but they needed money before the children start coming.

“Bola, Westminster, without us?” she announced.

“Us… I don’t get you.”

“Bola, we are pregnant.” She told him touching his jaw and looking into his eyes.

“What?” He whispered happily and hugged his wife. The one he had married without his parent’s consent. Her parents blessing them was enough as far as Bola was concerned. “Babe, don’t tel me this is a prank.”

“No, it is not. I am carrying your child.” She repeated.

“Oh, mine! He said quickly hugging her and showering her with kisses. He knew he had to leave now, so he could work and return with money for them, they needed it more than ever. He was going to convince her to let him leave…

20 YEARS LATER

“One month later you left, and Bola it has been twenty years! God! Twenty years! Ha! May my God punish you!” Naza cursed.

Bola looked at the small house they stayed. His eyes were red from too many tears. It had been three weeks after the incident outside the house.

“Naza, Naza tori Oloun, ma binu simi. I am sorry. I swear, I didn’t abandon you.”

“Yes sir, that thing you are saying stop it! Stop it now! If not ehn…” his one son attacked him and it made his tears drop. The man looked exactly like him.

“No, Chibuzor, Chibuzor leave him. Do you know what I went through to bring this boy up? Ha! I suffered, even my Chi suffered with me. Look at me, just see where I am in life. All my plans of going back to school was ruined, everything. You ruined me Bola and I regret the day I met you, I swear, I regret it.” She pointed to the ceiling. Bola could feel his woman’s pain, but even his own pain ran deeper than hers. He behaved himself. He was the man and waswas his woman, still, his woman, and not even all their stolen years could change that.

“You were right about Westminster. Lanre was a trap. My parents used him to lure me to London. I couldn’t do anything, by the time I realized it, damn, it was late. I had nothing, I was completely dependent on them, my papers were ceased and I lived like a child. For eighteen years, I have been locked up in a basement. I ate from there, drank from there, I didn’t see sunlight.”

“What?!” Naza asked looking confused.

“Whi did that to you?”

“Hmm…” he scoffed and smiled, his tears followed. “Mom and dad.” He told her.

“Why?” she asked.

“They were trying to save me from you.” He told her and stood. “God knows I thought of you and my boy every day. I asked myself every day and imagined what you would look like by now. I imagined that you were married and I was out of your life and heart for good.” He broke down and wept. “Naza, I am sorry I failed you. I am sorry I couldn’t make all your dreams come to life. I am sorry I couldn’t stay for our son. I never planned for any of it tohappen, they just did.”

“So, how did you finally come out of the basement?” Chibuzor asked him.

“My parents died and the house was sold. Three months after, the new owners were clearing their basement and found me.”

“Your parents are mean.” Naza started, “your parents are wicked. How much hatred did they have for me at they chose to destroy their son’s life for it?” Naza cried as she spoke. She couldn’t believe her ears.

“I know I have no right whatsoever here and I am not here to claim I do, but Naza, I have missed you, I have missed you, and for twenty years in that dark, nauseating room. I have thought of you everyday. I still love you.” He told her.

“Naza,” a male voice called her as he stepped into the house. Naza rose on her feet quickly in a failed attempt to protect Bola. The man looked at him and dealt him a punch in the face.

“Easy now…ehn, Biko leave him alone.” she pleaded.

“You are married?” he asked, in a hoarse voice.

“No, my younger brother Nnamdi. He was just ten years old when you left.”

“Nnamdi, I-”

“Don’t even dare!” Nnamdi yelled at him.

“It is okay Nnamdi, please. I will explain to you later. For now, we must all calm down.” She calmed her bother down.

“His parents locked him up in a basement for over 18 years now all because they didn’t want him coming back to me.” She explained and scoffed. “Can you imagine the hatred and disgust? All for what? He is here begging us.

“And how is that our business?” Nnamdi perched again.

“Nnamdi calm down now.” Naza spoke again.

Nnamdi could not stand the man. He got up and walked out.

“Naza, everything I have said is the truth and…”

“I believe you.” She told him.

“Mom, ” Chibuzor yells from where he sat. He was angry at the man. They had gone through a lot. Who was he to show up and claim to have been detained in a basement for 18 years? It made no sense as far as he was concerned.

I sent my friend to your family, sometime back, she called me and told me she suspected foul play but didn’t see you. She said your parents kept looking at each other and saying things she didn’t understand.

“Beverly. They told me about her. That night, they searched the basement suspecting that I had called someone with a secret phone. When they found nothing, they let me be.”

“You are right. It was Beverly that came. But, Bola, your parents are wicked, ha! For what exactly?” she cried as she as she spoke. For what?”

“You both are all I have, please. I have been stalking you for over two months and I have been sleeping under the bridge. I trek here every day since the moment I found out you stayed here.”

“Who showed you-”

“I met Onome, do you remember her? I went to that house and saw Onome, the landlord’s wife.”

“Kpaun! kpaun!! kpaun!!!” a loud knock came on the door. It woke Naza from her sleep. She had been lying and then slept off. “Yes, who is there?” she answered with a harsh croak in her voice.

“Na me Onome, na my papa send me.” The girl responded from outside. Naza knew she had no choice but to endure the woman’s insult. she sighed and then proceeded to open the door.

“Na wa oo, how can you be poor and deaf? Anyway, my father asked me to come and…”

“Good evening Onome,” Bola greeted from behind the woman, and as the woman was verbally abusive, Onome wasn’t sure she could take it anymore. Plus, she was tired. She sighed again and went back into the room.

“Hope you have not insulted my wife? Abeg take your money.” That was all Naza heard and then her husband came in.

“Wait, did you just pay the house rent? How? Where did we get the money from?” she asked in shock.

“Babe! We are going to be fine from now on!” He shouted, his hands flying above his head.

“How? What did we do?”

“Guess who I met today.”

“Who?”

“Lanre,”

“Which Lanre?”

“Lanre now, Westminster…”

Naza kept staring at her husband. Her dream came back in a rush. There was no way she was letting him out of her sight. She dropped her gaze and kept staring at her stomach.

“Babe, say something now.”

“I’m pregnant”. She announced, looking at her husband whom she knew she was never letting out of her sight…

The End…