Dedicated to the people of Southern Kaduna, Nigeria
"Pa'a, you know me! There's no way I'm ever going to see any granny in Chibok, Rann straight it is, and that's where I would offload everything," he emphasized leaving his father reined in, "besides, Chibok is way out of my path, going or coming"
"They last saw you when you were six, I thought they would like to see you again"
"I'm afraid they won't, how much of grand blood would religious intolerants love to see when they can't even welcome their own first blood? My own mother, imagine, my Mum was turned away from her own parents house."
A bit flustered by his son's response, he shivered as every word thumped his heart.
Wondering if he'd said anything more than he just said, Kanbul watched his suddenly enfeebled father as all his strength appeared to have drained down his walking stick.
"But you know it, you won't just rub it in my face, I'm the reason your mother is homeless, vagrant, living out there between her maiden and matrimonial home. You won't just say it. If I hadn't sent her out, if only I had not..." The flood of tears that followed up from his eyes were more than enough to convey the rest of his words.
While Kanbul started to wipe his father's tears, he didn't know when he started dripping tears as well until his father wiped him dry. "It's all going to be okay Pa'a, Mother had always loved spending her Christmases with the less privilege, you remember Touching Lives at Christmas? I spoke to her on phone last night and she felt just in the right place"
"By my side right here in this Kaninkon Kingdom is her rightful place!" Papa Doya's frustration flared. "Just bring her home before watch night service, you know I can't wait to start my 2017 with her. Hurry up! Hurry Kanbul! And call me first thing once you see her." He patted him in the back. He was about to turn inside when his son called out, "Pa'a, I thought you said Apostle Jaraf must say a word of prayer with me before I left? He still has about five minutes to come, it's not yet 6 a.m or I should...?"
" Oh! How could I forget that! What won't your mother's love make me do these days, wish it could heal my feeble legs, so I could drive all way."
"No, no, no! We don't need a doctor to tell us you can't drive with that leg." He adjusted the hood of his brown capote to fend off the dry cold hissing through the door crack, leaving nothing else left to announce the arrival of Christmas. "You have said it well yourself, instead of just freezing out in the passenger seat all the way to that border town of Nigeria, just stay back and exercise your legs, clear out those two remaining rooms the way you only know she wanted best, but Apostle?"
"Yes, you have to wait a little bit for that anointed man of God. God has really used him to make all these possible; talk of my repentance from backsliding, my alcohol withdrawal temptations - he was there, even made your mother say yes all over again after all I did? Oh mine! I'd never had this sunny believe in God that those evil days are gone." He inhaled deeply and rested on his crutches to support the two year old malunion fractures sustained from falling drunk into a gutter. "Erm, ah! There he comes," he could recognize Apostle's car floodlights through the louvres. "Apostle, he is here already, never misses on his words."
Kanbul unbolted the door after exchanging pleasantries across door to confirm it was indeed Apostle in his baritone voice. Within two minutes, Apostle Jafar had finished praying with him and had walked him down to the gift studded rickety lorry of his father which was only waiting for ignition. "Hope you haven't forgotten the scripture I shared with you, brother Kanbul ?" Apostle asked.
"Never Sir! Mark 9:23, “IF YOU CAN BELIEVE, ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE TO HIM WHO BELIEVES"
"Good! And hope you're with your valid Southern Kaduna I.D or the curfew from here to Pansankori through to Godogodo won't let you pass until 7:30" Apostle added in a parting shot while Kanbul nodded in affirmative. He wouldn't talk again in attempt to conserve some heat, waiting grudgingly to hear out the very last word of the long parting shot so he could wind up the glass against the cold.
Before now, Kanbul had been stalling, for a moment he thought of his first date with Ewaloju - his newly found girlfriend who he was to meet tomorrow immediately after the end of curfew. But all that is on the line, bringing His mother home would be worth the risk. So the earlier he left the better.
Just as he expected, Papa Doya continued through his shivering jaws, "Of course he knows the recent happenings that called for the curfew, he would behave himself."
"Obey the vigilantes, don't argue with any soldier, " Apostle took his turn again "My God has said he would surely bring you and Mama back here, safe and sound."
The unending Amen that roared from his father's mouth silenced both the grunts from the lorry's ignition and the deafening coughs from its dangling exhaust, as he zoomed off.
****
To be continued next week Friday 5pm,
This is a work of fiction, all Characters, names and incidences similar to persons living or dead is entirely coincidental.
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