The Wife ESCAPED!

“Ah ah! Americana, what happen?”, Chukwuka exclaimed as he saw a panting Timmy barge through the gate into the compound. Chukwuka himself had been heading for the gate too on his way to run an errand for the boss.

“Long story, man,” Timmy puffed as he breezed past him towards the boss’ house. Getting there, he did not bother to knock, but barged in unceremoniously. What met his eyes was what he least expected to see.

Donatus had a smiling girl in his arms and their lips were just about to get locked together in a kiss when they were interrupted by Timmy’s sudden entry.

“What’s the meaning of this nonsense, eh?”, Donatus bellowed. Timmy opened his mouth to speak, but shut it without saying anything. “What is it? What happened?”, Donatus asked in a milder tone as he, for the first time, noticed the disheveled state of the boy.

“We got robbed.”

“Eh?!”, Donatus shouted, letting go of the girl and jumping to his feet immediately. “You got what?”

“Robbed, man. I mean, boss… Uncle…”

“For… forget about that one. Who robbed you? Are you talking of my shop or your room? Tell me, tell me. What are you saying?”

“Some dude came to the shop a…”

“The shop? Heyyy! My shop o! I’m finished. My village people have finally found me.”

As he paced about the room, sweating and with both hands on his head, the girl and Timmy watched in mild confusion, not knowing what to say or do.

“Is it not two of you? Where’s Chidi?”, he asked, suddenly turning to Timmy.

“He uh… ahem… went after the robbers,” Timmy replied, ending with another ‘ahem’.

“Eh? Did he catch them?”, Donatus demanded, all expectant.

“Don’t know yet. Haven’t heard from him.”

“Ah! Le… let me call the police. How many were they? When did it happen?”

“Two dudes. Just a couple minutes ago.”

“How exactly did it happen? Tell me, tell me!”, Donatus urged as he picked up his phone and started dialing the local police station.

“Two crazy dudes, you know. Came in, took a TV and disappeared, just like that.”

“Eh? Only one TV? They did not take any other thing?”

“Just the TV. And then vanished.”

“How can two people come and just carry TV from the shop when the two… Ehen, DPO! How are you? There is a very serious emergency now. My shop has just been robbed a… No, no, the robbers are long gone. It’s one of the idiots that I kept in the shop that’s telling me… Eh no problem, no problem. I’m on my way now.”

He disconnected the call and hurried into his inner room to get dressed. When he returned a few seconds later, he waved Timmy to precede him out of the room, but then, he remembered the girl.

“Oh Omalicha, sorry I have to rush to the police station to address this problem, so you can make yourself comfortable, eh? Ehh… you can watch film and ehh… just rest. I wil not be long.”

“No problem,” the girl beamed.

Tucking his bag under his armpit, Donatus rushed to the door, but as he brought up his hand to pull aside the curtains, he suddenly stopped.

“But two bad things must not happen in one day o,” he muttered beneath his breath in Igbo. Then turning to the girl, “Eh… Folake, it looks as if you will go home o. Take this two hundred for your transport. When I come back, I will call you. You see, I don’t want these boys to come back home to rest when I’m not around, so I have to lock the gate. Don’t vex, o? Ehen. Omalicha. Sweet potato. Juicy tomato.”

With several praises and special names, he took her out of the room and locked the door behind him. All three then proceeded to bundle themselves into Donatus’ car.

“My friend, go down and open the gate!”, Donatus ordered as Timmy sighed and relaxed into the backseat. “Who do you expect to open it for you?”

Trying hard not to grumble, Timmy alighted from the car and went to unlock the gate. Dona drove through and stopped outside to allow Timmy join them. When the boy had finished locking the gate, he climbed into the backseat again and settled down to enjoy the cool interior.

As he drove further down the street, Donatus had a lot on his mind. One, in no particular order, was the shop robbery. Second was how Chukwuka would get into the house and last, but far from being the least, was how he would take back his two hundred naira from Folake since he would be dropping her close to her home on his way to the station.

***

In the days that followed the so-called robbery and the subsequent police investigation, Timmy was exempted from manning any of the two shops Donatus owned. He was left behind at the house while the rest went out to work. In a normal situation, he would be happy or bored, but in this case, he was very worried.

He was beginning to question the wisdom of his action: lying about the incident to Donatus and the police. He had done it to protect himself and Chidi too, but if the police were to find out the truth, they both might end up having trouble on two fronts and that was worse than what he had lied to avoid. There was no question about it, telling the whole truth would have been the best option. But since he had already told the lie, what could he do to salvage the situation?

“Teemothy!”, Donatus called from the parking space, jerking him out of his reverie.

“Yeah?”, Timmy answered as he rushed out of the Boys Quarters to answer the summons. He still was not used to calling him ‘Sir’ or ‘Uncle’.

“Go and open the gate. I want to go out.”

Timmy went over to unlock the gate, but did not stand by it as his boss drove past, which was what the other boys usually did.

“Lock the gate o,” Donatus called through his window as he drove out. “I don’t want to hear that two boys came inside and carried my house.”