THE JAILBIRD (Episode 87)
THE JAILBIRD EPISODE 87
© Aaron A. A
JON FII’S RESIDENCE
The dawn after Eyram leaves for South Africa, Effe enters Chris’ room.
He is sitting on the floor when she enters.
She sees an inhumane look of sheer malice on his face.
He growls like a beast, his face absolutely abnormal.
He comes off the floor like a cat with his hands curled into fists.
He is indeed a most frightening sight, but Effe is not afraid of him.
She has only unbridled love for him.
Tears of agony comes to her eyes that the man she loves so much has been reduced to such a crazy state, that the handsome Chris can become such a terrible animal.
But no more.
They will both go crazy and die… or she is going to make him well again so that she can love him with the last breath in her.
Chris rushes at her with his fist drawn back to strike her.
She faces him calmly.
EFFE
(calmly)
Go on, Chris-Love. Hit me if it will make you feel better. Hit me with all the power you have.
He stops.
She can see the conflicting emotions on his face, and then he scre-ms loudly into her face.
CHRIS
HYPOCRITE! LIAR!! BETRAYER!!
Effe nods, and her l-ips tremble.
EFFE
(in a little lost voice)
Yes, Chris-Love. Guilty on all counts. But I love you. With all my heart, Chris. And I’m here for you. You can kill me if you want!
He scre-ms again and again, and then he turns away savagely and begins to pace the room restlessly.
Effe walks in,side, and then she sits on the bed.
EFFE
I’m not afraid of you, Chris, my love, because I believe in the power of our love. We’ve been taken through fire, you and me, because of this love between us, and we’ve survived it. I will be visiting you every day, Chris-Love. I took some months off because I’m pregnant, and I’m going to give birth to our baby. I wanted to move in here with you, but it seems it’s against the regulations. Jon Fii wants to send you to the asylum for help, but I know you’re not mad, Chris-Love. You just need to know that I love you. I refused, and told him I’ll come in everyday to take care of you.
Chris glares at her and makes whimpering sounds, and then he covers his ears with his hands, sits in one corner of the room, and hides his face in the wall.
EFFE
What do you think we’re going to have, my love? A boy or a girl? Anyway, I burnt the signed divorce papers. You see, the judge only granted my application for divorce. What it meant was that the divorce process could start and after all the necessary doc-ments are signed and settlements agreed upon there would be a final hearing where the Judge would grant the divorce and a divorce certificate issued to that effect. Since I never returned the doc-ments, that final hearing did not happen. I have withdrawn the application so we are still hitched. We are still married.
I am still your wife and I’m going to be till the sun shines no more. See, I’m wearing my rings. I’m going to spend the rest of my life making you happy, Chris-Love. And woe unto any woman who comes between us…I’ll scratch out their eyes. As for me I know no man will dare come near me because you will GojuFist their heads.
Chris turns his face and glares at her.
He is absolutely incensed with fury.
CHRIS
(shouting)
LIAR! HYPOCRITE!! BETRAYER!!
Tears fall down Effe’s cheeks, but she laughs.
EFFE
(gently)
Shame on you, Chris. I won’t mind you.
You’re also a betrayer! Look at your big f-cking head! I’ve never slept with any man but you! You’re the one who always manages to get between the legs of women on every occasion you think you’re hurt, silly justification. Meanwhile you don’t even pick sane women…only crazy women! You’re also a liar, betrayer and hypocrite! If you ever use that excuse to get between the legs of another woman I will castrate you! Look at your big head! Hmm, I think that’s all for now, except that I love you so much and I’m dying to see that Chris coming out and holding me and loving me.
Chris sits on the floor again, staring at her with curiosity.
He puts his arms around his knees and puts his head on his arms, looking at her with confusion.
She gets up to go to him, but he snarls and growls a warning, and she sits back down on the bed.
After a while, as the sadness assails her and makes her want to cry, she gets up and begins to clean the room.
JON FII’S RESIDENCE
Effe visits him every day.
She continues to clean the room and keep it aerated.
It is a slow and painful period for her.
She then begins to bring him food.
By the end of the month he is eating her food, and allowing her to sit beside him, but he still would not speak.
She sees traces of tears on his face though, through all that thick beard.
Every inch of him seems to be overgrown with hair, but he refuses to come out of the room.
She had taken a barber to him, but Chris had gone totally insane and so the poor man had fled from the room.
She had once entered the room but had not found him anywhere, and she had gone crazy with agony, thinking he had left home again, but she had found him finally in the bathroom.
He had been sitting in the bath, slowly soaping his stinking body.
They took it as a good sign, until he began taking a bath almost every hour.
This was a great worry, but he had eventually stopped after two weeks, but he continued to bath at least twice a day, making the stench disappear.
By the end of the second month he is calm and changed clothes after a bath, but he still would not shave.
He does not speak to her, but he has stopped yelling at her. When she tentatively suggests that they should visit Junior, tears come to his eyes, and he nods.
And that day and several days afterwards they make visits to their son.
She is now very close with his family, and they all come around regularly, especially Stan. And of course Wailer Vroom is still around, helping out.
Wailer had made a passionate appeal at the annual GojuFist Convention, and the governing body had reluctantly given Chris two more months to get on his feet and announce his plans as far as the GojuFist Career.
Stan comes to visit his little brother almost every day, and like Effe he stays and speaks to him.
Once Stan had spoken about one of Roland’s birthdays and about how Chris had eaten all the birthday cake their mother baked during the night and they had ended up sticking candles in a loaf of bread for the birthday.
Chris had chuckled at this, and a little smile had split his bushy face, and then tears had rolled down his eyes.
CHRIS
(sadly)
Rollie. I miss Rollie.
It was the first words he had uttered in months, and this had brought tears to Effe’s and Stan’s eyes.
STAN
(passionately)
I know you do, little bro. I know you do.
And then, one night, it happens.
Chris is alone in the room.
He gets up and walks to the wardrobe. He stands on a stool and takes down a huge bag from the top of the wardrobe.
It contains some of his clothes.
Chris unzips the bag and pours out the clothes on the bed. He then reaches into a seam at the bottom of the bag and brings out a gun.
He had illegally purchased it for self-defence after the night Darlett had almost killed him.
Chris begins to cry again as he checks the bullets in the clip and then snaps it into the gun.
He walks to the window and stands gazing outside with the gun in his big hand.
Softly he begins to speak.
CHRIS
(weeping)
I can’t take it anymore, Champ. I’m very sorry, but I can’t. Seeing you like that, supported by machines, and me being unable to help you…I just want to die, Champ!
Chris Yaw Bawa, a lost man, a broken man, a shattered man, a man in pain, puts the gun to his temple.
Suddenly a cold wind begins to blow in the room, and the window blinds begin to flutter wildly.
Chris weeps as he c*cks the gun, and his forefinger curls around the trigger.
CHRIS
Forgive me, Lord!
His big heart is filled with grief and dejection, with traumatic distress and total emotional torture.
He takes a step forward, and he steps on a polythene bag lying just in front of the window.
He sl¡ps on the rubber bag and crashes heavily to the ground, losing control of the gun.
The c*cked gun hits the floor and goes off, the bullet smashing into the flesh of his right th-gh.
Chris lies on the floor, almost deaf from the sound of the gun going off so near his ear.
The blood pumps from his th-gh, but he does not appear to feel it.
His stunned eyes are staring at his left hand with absolute shock!
He sees that his left hand is raised because the beaded rope of the window blinds is tied very tightly around his big middle finger.
It is the finger Junior always loves to hold so much!
Chris Bawa stares at his finger, held up there tightly by the rope, and he knows that it is not just by coincidence.
Somehow, somewhere, Junior is still convincing some super being to look after his Daddy.
Suddenly the webs around Chris Bawa’s brain that is giving him absolute madness breaks, and his tortured mind returns to sanity.
Chris Bawa lies on the floor, bleeding, and with his big left middle finger tied to the rope, and he cries his heart out.
CHRIS
(bitterly)
Oh, Champ! I miss you, my son! I miss you so much! But thank you. Thank you for everything, my son. Thank you! I love you. Daddy loves you! Everything is going to be alright! I love you so, Champ!
And at that same minute, on a hospital bed in a Ward 7, a little boy who has been in a coma for almost six months does something amazing.
The nurse who is tucking one corner of the sheet into the side of the bed sees that Junior’s right hand is closed very tightly, as if he is holding unto a finger…and the boy’s face is awash with tears, and there are whimpering sounds from his throat.
JUNIOR
(agitated)
I really really really love you too, Daddy!
Several machines begin to emit beeping sounds at once.
And the nurse rushes to the intercom and calls a doctor.
To be continued
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