The Dreams Of My Mother – Episode 47

 

Episode 47

 

The night sky and blanketed with pearly stars. The air blew hot, and not one cloud threatened the ground with rain. Dayo trudged through the quiet street on which their house stood. Fortunately for him, the tree on which he had flung himself was close to the fence, and from the branches he had

 

 

made a bridge to the street below. He looked in his pocket and saw that he had a few notes, they would be enough to take him to his destination. The burden of saving the people in that house laid squarely on his shoulders. It was his duty to help them, he told himself.

 

From the street, he walked on to the road that was very busy at that time of evening. Dayo flagged down a taxi cab and entered. He gave the driver the address of the house he was going to, and gave him all the money in his pocket.

 

Dayo: “Please sir, that is all I have” he said with a note of desperation. The driver drove to the address, and once again Dayo banged on the gate of the house. The gate man opened the gate and when he recognized Dayo, he grew angry.

 

Gateman: “dem send you for me? Abi o ya werey?” he asked vehemently.

 

Dayo: “I don’t know what your problem is

 

with me, but the lives of the people in this

 

house are at stake. I need to talk to

 

someone. They should leave the house this

 

evening” he said desperately. He felt like

 

shoving the man away from the gate.

 

Gateman: “You think say na by that ur

 

oyinbo? I get pikin for university, so ma

 

whine mi oh” he replied and banged the gate

 

in Dayo’s face. Dayo paced in front of the

 

house in confusion. He didn’t know what to

 

do, he thought he could meet privately with

 

the occupants of the house and warn them,

 

but this gate man was standing as a

 

stumbling block in his path. He thought of

 

going to the police but that was going to

 

 

endanger his life, if Stone found out, there was no doubt that he would kill him.

 

Dayo: “What do I do God?” he asked aloud. Back home, one of the gang members was told to go and call Dayo for dinner. Stone wanted them all to eat together before going for the operation. Every night they went out for an operation, they expected death, it was the reason they ate. Stone’s policy was that, after pursuing money on earth, a man was not supposed to die on an empty stomach. But when the gang member went to Dayo’s bedroom, he found it empty. He checked the adjoining bathroom, thinking he was having a shower, but it was also empty. He rushed downstairs in alarm, and when Stone saw his face, he knew something had gone wrong. He had been having a sense of foreboding since the day dawned, but he attributed it to anxiety before an operation. However, seeing the face of his gang member, he knew his feelings were spot on.

 

Stone: “What happened?” he asked anxiously. “Robert, Dayo, whatever he is called, is not in his room or anywhere in this house” he said with a ‘I told you so’ look in his eyes.

 

Stone: “What!” he exclaimed and bounded up the stairs. He bashed into Dayo’s room, and confirmed what the other gang member had said. His eyes went to the open window and the branch of tree which looked pulled towards the window, and then he knew that Dayo had left the house through the window. “Where would he go by this time, and

 

why did he leave like a thief. Has he

 

escaped, would he go to the police” these

 

were the thoughts running around in his

 

 

head. He was confused for the first time in a long while. He could not abort the mission because commitments have been made. He had to hope that Dayo was not doing anything that was jeopardizing their safety and freedom.

 

Stone: “We continue the operation as before” “We should have just killed that boy, there was no need keeping him. If you needed a son, you could have gotten any girl pregnant” one of the gang members said.

 

Stone: “Shut up! Nobody questions my decision, no one!” he shouted, the veins on his neck protruding like they were going to burst out from under the skin, “We all concentrate on the mission, Robert is my problem, and after the mission, I will deal with the problem. Now, let’s have dinner” he concluded and everyone fell silent.

 

They sat round the dinner table and ate their dinner in silence. Every man praying in his heart to come back from the operation, alive. At the back of their minds, was also a nagging feeling that this operation would go wrong. The fact that Dayo had left the house secretly was a source of worry to them. Stone felt Dayo’s disappearance was of no consequence to the operation because he knew nothing about it, or did he?

 

He bolted out of his seat suddenly as everything became clear in his mind’s eye. The day they were discussing the operation, Dayo had stumbled into the kitchen and he had thought that he was sleepwalking, but was he really sleep walking or eavesdropping on their conversation. He had also been seeing Dayo everywhere he turned, like the

 

boy was shadowing him.

 

“No! it can’t be” He screamed in his heart. Stone: “We leave immediately, there might be a problem, but we might be able to salvage the situation if we hurry” he said and they hurried into another room where they kept their ammunitions.

 

Dayo was sitting on a stone slab in the street, lurking in the corner and watching the house, he didn’t know yet what he would do, but he knew he would keep watch and not allow Stone to succeed in his mission. But due to inactivity, he dozed off, leaning his head on his thighs. Because he was sleeping, he did not see a car drive to the gate and Ken come out with Cassandra. They had gone on a date, and Ken had come to drop Cassandra, but he was pleading with her to let him spend the night at their place, instead of the hotel.

 

Since he got back from America for his summer break, he had not gone home, even though his mother had been asking him to come home, as she had missed him. He had been staying in Oshogbo because of Cassandra, in a hotel. Their relationship was falling apart, and Ken was doing all he could to hold it together. He had decided to marry Cassandra, not just because he loved her, for he loved her, as she was a very beautiful young lady. But, he wanted to marry her because of her father’s estate which had been bequeathed to her.

 

Ken: “Please Cassie, I am tired of the lonely nights in that motel. I am in Oshogbo because of you” he said

 

Cassandra: “And I didn’t ask you to stay. I

 

 

came home to be with my mother, can’t you just go to Lagos, your mother must miss you” she said. She wanted to end the relationship, but was afraid of hurting Ken, as the relationship went beyond them, but to their families.

 

Ken: “Just tonight, I won’t ask you for this again”

 

Cassandra: “No touching, understood?” she said and Ken nodded. The gate had the gate opened, waiting for them to drive in, and he hated the delay. He stamped his foot to register his displeasure. Ken hurried Cassandra into the car and drove into the house.

 

Dayo was startled awake by the bleating of a goat passing by with her kids. He wiped his face and looked around him. He jumped up from the slab when he remembered what was on ground. He looked at his led lit wrist watch and saw that it was almost 8pm. Everywhere was dark and silent. He looked towards the house and saw that it was lit, the curtains were drawn and the occupants of the house probably felt safe, not knowing about the terror that was about to be visited on them. He had barely finished the thought when he saw a pair of headlights in the distance. He instinctively knew that it was Stone and his gang. There was no time, he ran towards the house, shouting and screaming on top of his voice.

 

Dayo: “They are coming! Call the police, they are going to kill you. Somebody help!” he screamed. All thoughts of self-preservation had fled his mind, all he thought about was warning the people in that house. He didn’t

 

 

need another death on his conscience. He remembered when he was eleven, when he met Stone for the first time. They had killed a woman, he had for the first time, witnessed dying.

 

He had reached the gate now, but the headlights were closer and he could see the distinct shape of Stone’s van. He banged on the gate, but the gate man did not reply. However, the balcony light came on, and he saw a young lady in the balcony. He felt a sense of déjà vu, it was his dream all over again. He continued screaming and then he really looked at the lady on the balcony, she was illuminated by the balcony lights, and she looked frantic.

 

“Oh my God, it is Cassandra” he thought

 

with panic.

 

Dayo: “Cassnadra, it is me Dayo, you all are about to be killed. Call the police now, don’t die Cassandra” he screamed, his voice piercing the still night. Two shots rang out, the sound ricocheted in still night, and the bullets tore through the frail body of Dayo. He didn’t feel the pain yet, he was still shouting, and more shots rang out.

 

The pain tore through him, as he fell to the ground. Lights went on in other houses, and dogs began to bark. The thought that went through Dayo’s mind as his world turned to darkness, was that, people were aware, the mission would be aborted.

 

The van turned around in a hurry and zoomed off away from the house. But Dayo did not see this because the blackness had already enveloped him, and the last thing he saw was his mother smiling down on him. It was

 

like she was saying, ‘Well done my boy’.

 

Dayo had a smile on his lips when people

 

came out to him.

 

It was like the earth was mourning the flow of blood, as the sky opened its bowels and poured out rain. The rain washed the blood that flowed from Dayo’s body and soaked the earth.

 

Cassandra had to fight her mother and the gateman to come out of the compound. She was sure she had heard correctly, the voice that rang out in the night. It was the voice of Robert, the one she had heard on countless calls across the Atlantic, when they talked on phone through the night. But the voice had called himself Dayo, her Dayo from her childhood. She had seen the men dressed in black shooting at the young boy, and she had known then, that Dayo had come back for her and had saved her life and that of her mother.

 

Cassandra: “Mother, call emergency, Dayo is probably dying, he took the bullets that was meant for us.” She said and pushed her mother aside. She ran out the small gate and rushed to Dayo. She knelt by his side and unbuttoned his shirt as she had been taught in her First Aid class in Red Cross society. Then she saw the pockmark by his belly, it was the same that her Dayo had when they were little. She needed no other confirmation that this was Dayo and he was also Robert. There was no time to think of how things had come to this, she cradled his head in her thighs and began to coo to him.

 

Cassandra: “Dayo, I know you are in so much pain right now but you have to hold on. I

 

 

have looked in every face searching for you, and now that I have found you, I don’t want to lose you. Please don’t die, I need you, your mother still needs you to fulfil her dreams. Please Dayo” she cried and began to sing a song for him in Yoruba. She was still singing when the ambulance came and carried Dayo away. Halima and her daughter followed the ambulance to the hospital. She had heard about Dayo’s roots when he went missing. She had also met Damilola and known that Dayo was her friend’s son. She felt responsible for him. She had not been a good friend to Khadijat when she was alive, and now she swore to be a good friend to her in death.

 

Tbc