Take Me To My Father Or Somebody Dies (3)

Take Me To My Father Or Somebody Dies (3)

I left his house that day more determined to unravel the mystery behind my existence. I knew it was awkward, living without knowing where someone is coming from. That was exactly how I was living. The painful aspect is the fact that the man had opened up some aspects of my life I never would have known. If I had not asked, the Onitsha and the Jos angles would be quite strange. I knew there were such incidents.

When I got home, Mum was waiting with my best kind of meal-okoho and pounded yam. She had swayed me in the past with such and I was sure she was hoping that it would happen again. Truth is that each time I mentioned things about who my father was, she would tell me that he was the leader of witches, and that she ran away when she discovered he wanted to kill her. I had digested all those because I felt it was not important but not anymore. To show how serious the issue on the ground was, I told Mum to put away the meal.

She looked at me in surprise. “Is it because my brothers did not give you land? Do not worry my son. I have talked to someone who would sell us a piece of land where you can build. In fact, I will assist with half of the cost of the land. You will build far away from them,” she said.

“The land is no longer the problem, I want to know who my father is. If he was a witch or wizard or whatever. I do not care any longer. Go and show me his place. Go and show me to him. Why are you making my life miserable? Did your mother trust you like this?” I reeled off.

“Was I worrying my mother the way you are doing right now? I have told you that it is better to live without knowing who he is. He is evil. I left just to be alive with you. If I were you, I would just erase that aspect of my life,” she said amidst subs.

“Erase that part of my life?” Mum, you are asking me to wake up and assume that I had no origin?” That’s too much,” I rose up and went inside the room to fetch a pistol. Of course, she was terrified when I pointed it at her after I had cocked it.

“Mother, I was angry with you. You have brought much shame to me. And if you do not have plans of telling me who the man is, I will shoot you and shoot myself. I will just end this misery for both of us. Are you ready to take me to him?”

The threat worked because my mother started confessing instantly. “His name is Stanley Okoye. He is an Igbo man from Anambra State.”

“I am an Igbo man?” I said in shock because of all my life I had believed I was from Idoma in Benue State. “Yes, I am listening.”

“Stanley told me he wanted to marry me but when I got pregnant some friends of his in Onitsha lied to him. They told him I was not faithful to him and that made us to quarrel. He beat me up that day and threw my things away. That was when I decided I would return. The pressure at home was too much, so I decided to go to Jos where I had you in a friend’s house.”

“Have you made any effort to reach my father since then,” I asked her.

“That was a long time ago. I wrote him a letter and he replied, warning me not to come close to him. It has been over 20 years,” she replied.

I breathed out like a soldier I was. “Okay you will take me to him again. Let me stand before him and see him reject me or you.”

The search took us several weeks to arrange because a lot had changed. I had to take a leave from my boss, get some money ready before heading to Onitsha. The entire city had changed so much that Mum did not even know where she was living with the man. It took days before we got a clue of whom to ask.

But that also did not yield any positive result. I was disappointed that all the six days in Onitsha could not yield any result. So I made up my mind to leave. I was rehearsing in my mind that I just needed to cope with the arrangement of life to make me a perpertual bastard, I wanted to embrace it as my own fate. I had decided that we would leave after lunch that day.

As we ate, Mum fixed her gaze on one framed picture hanging on the wall of the restaurant. She was eating absent-mindedly. At a point, she called the attention of one of the waitresses and I thought she wanted to order more food.

“Who is the man in that picture?” Mum asked.

“He is the owner of this place.” He was running the place before they made him a traditional ruler in Awka Local Government,” she replied.

“Do you know his name?” Mum asked again.

Stanley Okoye,” the girl announced and the name did ring a bell instantly. Before I would add up the facts, Mum screamed.

“Ladi, that is the man.”

“Really?” I looked at the picture and noticed there were striking similarities between us. We were closer to the solution, I reasoned.

Of course, we left for Awka Local Government that same day. It was not difficult to locate him there because he was a traditional ruler. But the minute we stepped into the massive palace, I saw him on the throne and knew blood was thick. Out of impulse, I just ran to his front and called him father. By then my mother has appeared before him, crying. He recognized my mother because I heard him calling my mum, Ene.

“This is your son,” Mum said to him amidst sobs.

Things changed thereafter. For two days, we were special guests at the palace, eating choice foods, meeting special people. Somehow, I heard people referring to me as ‘Prince’. The implication dawned on me when my father told me that I was his only male child out of 12 children from two wives. It did not end there, he has offered to marry my mother fully and bring her in as one of the Lolos.

All these would not have been possible if I had not asked questions. If you have a similar problem like me, please get up and ask questions, answers are always waiting by the corner.

To be continued…