Episode 5
Written by Oluwatosin Odebiyi
Early the next morning, I headed to the village to confront my dad. Deep down I was extremely anxious. A part of me needed the truth while another part of me was scared of what the truth could reveal. I prayed for my dad not to be involved in the silly scandal. Of courses his involvement would affect my plans and everything I stood for. I just wasn’t myself as I drove into our compound that early morning.
I arrived home quite on time to join my parents on breakfast. Dad was of course so surprised with my unannounced visit and as soon as we were alone, he threw the first serious question.
‘’I know you aren’t here for breakfast, so what brought you home this early?’’ he asked curiously. I smiled, studying him keenly.
My old man really was a nice man who had the best plans for me. He wanted me to be a medical doctor. He wanted me to be the first doctor in the family and when I dropped out of school, he was so totally devastated, to the extent of washing his hands off me. However when I left for the city and started making my money, he was forced to tolerate me once again, even though the pain of disappointment was still very much in him.
‘’it’s because of Jude that I’m here dad’’ I breathed while he drew back with concern.
‘’how about him?. Don’t tell me something happened to him?. You know I was glad when you took him to the city’’ he muttered anxiously.
‘’the boy is fine but I just want to know how his father really died and why you guys hurriedly buried him?’’ I asked curiously.
‘’oh not again’’ he breathed looking down. ‘’you know the boy’s father was a brother i cherished the most. He never kept anything from me till his death. I was with him the evening before his death. He spoke of many things. He told me about a shipping business he was about starting in the country. He equally told me about the lady he planned marrying. Yes the lady was with him that evening. He introduced her to me but I really didn’t pay a very close attention to her because of my bad eyesight. But she’s very pretty and a bit advanced in age.
She looked about thirty to thirty three years old. Things played out so fast my son. In the morning we discovered my brother dead and all alone. The woman wasn’t there and there wasn’t any way to find her and you know leaving my brother’s body in the morgue for such investigation could drag on to a year. Who would foot the bills?. Moreover the hospital we took him to said he died of natural causes. We had no choice than to bury him’’ he explained while I shook my head with anger.
‘’dad I’m totally disappointed. You and your brothers just buried one of your own like a dog just because of this silly excuse. Can I have the keys to my uncle’s house?. I know you still have the spare?’’ I demanded with a raised tone, leaving him indecisive for some seconds. He finally rose up, went to his room and returned with the keys.
‘’find the woman and perhaps, you would get all the answers you seek’’ he said with a solemn tone as he handed the keys over to me.
———————
I quickly headed to my late uncle’s old house to see if I could find anything that would lead me to the mystery woman. I made my way to his room and calmly
searched every bit of it. All I could find was his suitcase which had many documents inside. I couldn’t go through the documents that minute, instead I grabbed the suitcase and left the house with it. My plan was to take my time in going through the documents in my house.
——————–
I returned to the city two hours later, so anxious to go through the documents. The first thing that greeted my eyes as I opened the first envelope I saw inside the suitcase was a signed Cheque meant for a lady with the name ‘’JESSICA SIMON”. My hands shook as I stared at the paper, trying to come out with an idea. But I barely had the time to think out anything when I got a phone call from Cynthia that she was being detained at a police station.
‘’please come bail me dear. I can’t stand this place’’ she begged, leaving me with no choice than to abandon all I was doing and head over to the station to bail her a-s out.
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That very same day, Jude’s side of the story
I stared at the huge lecture notes before me, clueless on how to photocopy all of them. I really missed a lot of tests and assignments even though Tracy did her best in covering some for me.
‘’I don’t how this semester will be. I give up’’ I breathed to an astonished Tracy.
‘’you just have to relax; little by little you will cover everything. Tomorrow we can start by meeting the lecturers you missed their tests to explain your situation.’’ She suggested.
‘’I have to go. I have to go cool off’’ I breathed, standing up.
‘’don’t tell me you are leaving the class?. It’s barely 12pm and we have lecture by 12:30pm’’ she reminded me but my mind was already made up to leave the class.
‘’we will see in the hostel. Just take care’’ I said to her, walked out of the class and headed to my dad’s car, where I relaxed for some seconds before driving away.
I headed straight to Kelvin’s house to cool off. On getting to the house, I found it locked, but I had the spare keys he gave me. I easily let myself in, fetched a can of coke from his fridge, switched on the TV and settled down to rest. When I tried changing the channel, I couldn’t find the remote and had to go over to his room to see if he left it there. But on getting to the room, a strange sight greeted me.
‘’I FOUND MY DAD’S SUITCASE AND DOCUMENTS SCATTERED OVER HIS BED’’
I couldn’t believe my eyes as my imaginations ran wild.
‘’how could I be so stupid to believe his friendly gestures?. Of course he killed my dad. This is strong evidence’’ I shook with great rage as I backed out of his room and headed to the kitchen to grab a knife.
To be continued.
SHADES OF LUST