On Trial – Episode 20

On Trial – Episode 20
© Onyinyechukwu Mbeledogu
Koje took Kaira to a new hangout in GRA – Sally’s Delight. She had never heard about it before and he informed her that it had been opened just three months earlier and was known for its privacy settings. It also served the best peppered snail in Port Harcourt. The meals were strictly native and Kaira loved the fact that she could eat a good plate of well-prepared African salad with the right amount of ugba, stockfish and garden egg leaf. She was served the dish with lots of peppered snails. She loved snails that much. If she didn’t get to eat chicken or beef she wouldn’t even mind but deprive her of snails and goat meat and you would be guilty of attempted murder.
Koje settled for the same thing.
‘I was expecting you to eat one of your native dishes.’
‘I ate a lot of that in Ijebu-Ode,’ he informed her.
‘Well, next time you travel to your home town I expect at least half a bag of Ijebu garri.’ She told him.
‘You like Ijebu garri?’
‘Of course. It’s the best,’ she replied. ‘That was my favourite provision back in FGC Enugu. I had this friend whose parents got it for her back then and she didn’t really like it much so we’d swap. I’d give her my regular garri in exchange for hers and this was something we did until I graduated from secondary school. If you love to drink garri, it’s the best any day any time.’
He looked at her and she was able to decipher his looks.
‘Even prim and proper ladies drink garri, you know.’
He laughed. ‘Now I know. I thought it was for only local champions like me. I’ll ask my grandmother to send it through one of the transport companies. My parents are already in Ibadan. And before I forget, they send their regards.’
She had met his parents on the last day of the trial just before the vacation. They had come into Port Harcourt from Ibadan. She’d learned from her conversation with them that they had been around over the months to witness their only son’s trial. She had enjoyed talking with them and understood the strain the trial had on them. However, because of the nature of their jobs, they couldn’t always be in Port Harcourt. Koje favoured both parents in looks. That killer smile of his was pure Prof Tolu Quadri and his amazing golden brown eyes came from his mother Dr Kemi Quadri.
According to Dr Kemi, Koje had asked his parents to focus on their jobs – saving lives- while he got himself out of the mess he had put himself in. She pleaded with Kaira to do her best to get her son an acquittal. Having lost her only daughter years ago under circ-mstances she didn’t disclose, she couldn’t afford to lose her only son.
‘I trust they are doing well.’
‘ Bẹẹ ni, ’ he replied and then said, ‘my grandmother was my first business partner. And interestingly it was in the supply of Ijebu garri to my fellow students at great rates with much profit.’
‘And how old were you when you started?’
‘Nine. I knew from then that I didn’t want to work for anyone. I was an entrepreneur from birth,’ he smiled.
Conversation was light and light and so she relaxed in his presence. At first she’d been unconsciously looking around in order to ensure that no one who knew her saw them dining together.
‘I want you to do me a favour,’ he’d told her on the way there, ‘don’t mention a word about or relating to my trial for the duration of this outing.’
Surprisingly, she didn’t say a word about it. At least not in the beginning. They just talked about this and that, including his preference for native dishes over foreign dishes. Then it got personal. The knowing-me-knowing-you game he’d talked about last year. She didn’t know how he did it or maybe it was the wine that loosened her tongue, but she found herself telling him about her siblings, her family in general and her childhood days. He was a great listener. That was probably why she just went on and on until she realised she had actually said too much.
‘I can’t believe I’ve been talking for almost half an hour. What did you do? Drug me?’
‘I asked,’ was his simple response. He lifted his glass of water to his l-ips.
She smiled. ‘Aha, before I forget, is it true that Ijebu men can turn you to a chicken with their eyes if you annoyed them?’
‘What…!’ he sputtered and choked on his drink and she had to reach over and gently slap his back.
‘Growing up, we were told that Ijebu people made the highest juju and if an Ijebu man says “don’t worry, you’ll see”, you’re advised to beg him for forgiveness before he turns you into a chicken, lizard or any other thing, put you in his bag and walk away with you.’
‘And you actually believe that?’ he asked, amused.
‘What do you expect? Are you denying that Ijebu juju isn’t powerful?’
‘ We dey naija, na. Juju dey everywhere for here . Besides, if that was true, you would have been more mindful of the way you talked to me.’
‘I am covered by the blood of Jesus,’
They both laughed.
‘But seriously, that’s what I heard while growing up. In fact the first time I told my parents I was representing an Ijebu man, my father told me to be very careful and try not to upset you. The man no wan hear story. ’
‘Most of the myths we grew up with were actually intended to just frighten us as children.’
‘So you really don’t have the power to turn someone into an animal with your eyes?’ she asked. There was no smoke without fire. Something must have happened to generate that talk na for it to become a myth.
‘Who knows?’ was his response. ‘After all I’m a proud Ijebu man.’
‘Okay o.’
She imagined coming to court, putting him on the witness stand only for the judge, litigants and counsel to scamper for their lives because the prosecutor trying to cross-examine the witness had suddenly turned into a lizard. God, the thought was so funny that she barely kept her laughter in. Just barely. Well, back to Koje and their conversation.
‘I have told you almost all there is to know about me,’ she started, ‘I expect you to return the favour.’
‘There’s nothing to talk about.’
‘I’ll be the judge of that,’ and when he hesitated, she added, ‘don’t you dare hold back on me.’
He laughed. ‘What do you want to know?’
‘Everything,’ she replied.
‘Everything,’ he repeated with a smile. ‘Now, that’s very dangerous.’
She smiled. His smile was contagious and came as easily as his laughter.
‘All right, tell me as much as I’ve told you and a little more.’
‘Before I say anything, what are you asking as? Counsel or a woman who is genuinely interested.’
‘Let’s just say I’m curious,’ she replied. ‘Unless you have something to hide.’
‘I don’t. I’m currently an only child, having lost my elder sister several years ago. My parents are medical practitioners. They met at the college of medicine in the University of Ibadan. They both consult as the University College Hospital (UCH) Ibadan. My dad is a Professor of Cardiology and my mother an oncologist. I have a large extended family and Christmas in Ijebu-Ode is never boring as a result. Everyone was hoping I would go into medicine like my parents but I have a degree in Economics from Ekiti State University and a Masters’ in Business Administration from the University of Lagos.’
‘Why didn’t you want to become a doctor?’
‘I hated biology,’ he smiled. ‘I loved physics and chemistry but biology wasn’t my strongest suit and I was happy to drop it in secondary school. My parents understood that I didn’t share their passion for medicine. Once I had graduated, I thought of doing a bit of consulting and my parents backed me up by referring their friends and contacts to me. That’s before I began to gather my own clientele.’
‘Your trial is hærd on your parents.’
‘I thought you promised not to talk about my trial,’ he reminded her.
‘ Ema binu,’ she apologised.
‘Well, since you’ve raised the topic. It’s definitely hærd on them. They received my arrest with mixed feelings. I had lived a very fast life while growing up. I was so into girls and wild parties and I would like to blame it on being pampered by my parents but that would be lame. My parents raised me well but I allowed peer pressure to influence my life before I got myself a thick skin. Like I said, I drank a lot, smoked a lot, clubbed a lot and chased after girls without apologies. It was like a competition, trying to prove my status as a happening guy. It took me time to grow up and move out of that life.’
‘Let me guess. You went for a test and you were confirmed HIV positive?’ Kaira surmised.
‘Something like that.’
Her eyes w¡dened and he quickly explained. ‘A girl I had been with turned out to be HIV positive. Although I had used a c-ndom I decided to run a test and the first one was positive. I was downright scared, telling myself that I was in so much trouble. After days of worrying, losing weight that I didn’t even have, I decided to conduct two additional tests before making a decision on what to do with my life in view of my new found status. The results came out negative. I conducted three additional tests in three different labs and they came out the same: negative. But I realised how easily I could have contacted HIV with my lifestyle and I decided to tune it down. After all, life had no duplicate. Plus I was being reckless in spending my money. Now, I understand why they say it’s cheaper to be married. I had to spend loads of money as they came on women who really didn’t give a damn about me other than the size of my pocket and they were happy to empty it.
When I was arrested, my parents thought I had gone back to my old life, drinking heavily and smoking weed. With that thought, it meant that there was a possibility that I had raped Laide under the influence of alcohol or hærd substance.’
‘Has anything like that happened before?’ she asked, certain that his parents wouldn’t think in that direction unless it had happened before now.
He didn’t say anything but watched her, his expression unreadable. She took his silent for an admission and it must have shown on her face because he leaned over the table to say:
‘Before your legal mind starts playing prosecutor, judge and executor, I have never raped anyone in my life whether drunk or lucid. However I would admit that I came close to doing so once and that was about fifteen years ago. I and a few friends had gone to this party. We had enough to drink. Add a little weed smoking to the equation and I was so high I couldn’t think straight. I took the lady in question home to her apartment. She was years older than I was but I wasn’t bothered. She was lovely, that was all that mattered. I passed out before we could do anything and I was hated myself when I finally woke up.’
‘She told you that?’
‘ Ra ra . The woman told me that I was like a stallion and had taken her all night until she literally begged me to stop. Being high I believed her words and actually apologised to her. It took me months to realise that the woman had lied to me. By then she’d s-cked up large sums of money from me. Monies I had been saving. I had to live a frugal life in school in order to survive.’
‘You were paying her to keep her mouth shut.’
‘Some good it did me. I was going to do right by her if she turned out to be pregnant but I needed to first complete my education. I had less than a year to go. She didn’t say anything about being pregnant until she approached my parents three months after the incident. She told them she was expecting my child. You’ve met my dad so I’m sure you would have guessed how strict he can be. I had just turned twenty and my father told me without mincing words that we would be paying the traditional rites to the woman’s family and she would from that moment become my wife.’
‘My kind of man,’ Kaira smiled.
Koje frowned at her but it wasn’t a serious frown.
‘I’m sure if you were in his shoes, you would have pulled me by the ear down to wherever it was her parents resided.’
‘You know me too much,’ she smiled, and then added, ‘on a serious note, what happened?’
‘I had regretted my action and because of an incident that had happened years earlier I had no problem paying for the traditional rights from the loan I was going to take from my father. She refused to tell my parents who her parents were or where they resided. She had obviously come for more money and not to marry me. The money I was giving to her clearly wasn’t enough, it seemed and so she felt she could get more from my parents. When the pressure to introduce us to her family became too much, she went off the radar. The next time I saw her was in a shopping mall in Ikeja with a man and a child who was the right age but who looked like a younger version of the man with her.’
‘Oh my God,’ Kaira gasped. ‘She was pregnant already and trying to pass the child off as yours.’
‘ Bẹẹ ni,’ he said in agreement. ‘I was the
mugu she met at the party. I guess she was having problems with the man at the time. I was very upset and walked away. I realised at that moment from the look on her face that nothing had happened back in her apartment and I had just been played! I don’t know the excuse she gave the man whom I later found out was her husband, but she came after me and blocked me in one of the shops. She began to explain to me that nothing had happened between us but she had needed the money to sort herself out pending when the man she later married would accept responsibility for their baby. He had finally come to his senses and proposed to her and they were happily married. She had the nerves to beg me not to say anything to her husband about what she had done.’
‘Wow. You told your parents about it?’
‘And they were relieved. But that didn’t change the fact that if I hadn’t passed out I might have done something we both would have regretted. She said I was rough with her.’
‘And you believed her.’
‘She had no reason to lie at the time.’
‘And so it was against this backdrop that your parents were worried that you might have raped Laide,’ she surmised.
‘I convinced them that I haven’t smoked weed or even a regular cigarette since I left the woman’s house fifteen years ago. I still take alcohol but I’ve limited myself to taking only red wine. And I no longer do drugs.’
Kaira was silent for a long moment and then she said without thinking, ‘And so if you aren’t drunk or under the influence there’s no way you would force yourself on a woman?’
‘No way, but you’re still convinced that I…’
‘My opinion isn’t important,’ she interjected.
‘It is important to me.’
‘As your counsel?’
‘As a woman I am attracted to and who is equally attracted to me.’
‘I never said I was.’
‘It’s as obvious as the nose on your face.’
‘For your information, I’m not here because I’m attracted to you but because you threw a challenge at me.’
‘I hear,’ he laughed. ‘If I’d left you when you first said no, you’d have spent the rest of the night damning yourself and wishing you could turn back the hands of time and accept my invitation. Besides, you took the time to dress up for me. You even bathed. I could perceive lavender on your skin and that was not your perfume.’
He’d perceived her soap! This was certainly a man who chased a lot of women! Her palms itched to slap that smug smile off his handsome face.
‘If it’s any consolation,’ he continued, ‘I also dressed up for you and that isn’t something I do all the time.’
‘And is that expected to make me feel honoured?’
‘Of course,’ he agreed without the slightest hesitation. ‘Men rarely dress up to impress a lady. It’s usually the other way around.’
She gave a derisive snort.
‘I’m serious,’ he insisted, and he did look serious. There was something about the way he looked at her that had her fidgeting. It was the kind of look a man gave you which made you feel like his wh0le world revolved around you. Then again, she might have misinterpreted his look. An attraction from this man she could handle, but something more was downright dangerous.
‘Why would you want to impress me?’
‘There’s something about you,’ he replied.
‘And what’s that?’
‘I can’t find the right words to describe it but suffice to say that there is something about you that makes me look for ways to please you.’
He reached out and took her left hand in his, entwining their fingers. She couldn’t break the contact even if her life depended on it. ‘You have been on my mind all day and I knew I had to see you again.’
She didn’t like where this conversation was headed and she quickly snatched back her hand and changed the topic. The look he gave her told her that he knew exactly what she was doing. He suggested that they go to the Filmhouse cinema and she easily agreed. Although the Genesis cinema was close to them, it would have more crowd because of its location and the time of the night. Besides, all the cinemas would most likely be showing the same movie.
He quickly opened the website on his Microsoft phone and handed it over to her to pick a movie. She picked ‘Underworld: Blood wars’. She loved the Underworld movies and had been following them from the beginning. She was a lover of vampire rom-nce novels and had actually entertained thoughts of meeting a real vampire to see if they really were as tall and handsome as the movies and books made them out to be. Not that she cherished the thought of fangs sinking into her jugular whether to convert her or just to feed no matter how s€×y looking the vampire was, she thought with a smile.
‘You love paranormal movies?’ he asked.
‘Sure. Don’t you?’
‘I’m not a movie fan unless there are lots of shooting involved.’
‘Then you will definitely love Underworld. The heroine is my kind of woman.’
He smiled.
To be continued