LIFE IMPRISONMENT 28
WRITTEN BY: GRACE OLAYEMI
Abraham parked his car as he was directed by the traffic warden and walked out of the car with his hands tucked in his pockets after he had successfully locked the car. He didn’t carry any bag or book. He was visiting Danger again but that time around he would not need to hear a word from him. He would do all the talking and all Danger needed to do was to just sit and listen.
“I’m here to tell you some interesting stories,” he said immediately Danger was ushered into the room. Danger hissed, kicked the chair backwards and sat facing Abraham.
“I don’t trust you and I don’t think I would be needing you as my lawyer, so get lost.”
“You can decide that after you hear what I have to tell you.”
Danger had no choice but to listen to his lawyer. He was getting bored in the cell all by himself and he felt it might do him some good to amuse himself by teasing the lawyer.
“Should I start with once upon a time or a long time ago?” Abraham teased and Danger scoffed.
“This lawyer is not just dumb but he is annoying as well.”
“James met Clara when he attended a seminar as a representative from his company. Clara was smart, beautiful, intelligent and jovial, his definition of an ideal woman. He fell in love with her at first sight and he could not get her off his mind, heart, head and everywhere.”
“He was so sad when the seminar ended and he could not get a chance to talk to her. He confided in his friend who incidentally knew one of Clara’s friends, they contacted the friend who gave James, Clara’s number and like they say, the rest is history.” Abraham took a sip from his bottle of water and continued his story.
“Clara and James were engaged to be married and everything was going on smoothly until Clara’s parents blatantly disagreed with the union. They wanted their daughter to marry a rich man so she could lift them out of poverty. James’ parents also didn’t like his choice of a wife and they got more infuriated when they learnt that her parents didn’t like him. The war started between the two families and the children were left with no other choice than to elope.”
Danger shifted in his seat as the story was beginning to sound familiar. He had been wondering what the lawyer was driving at when he started his story but when he mentioned eloping, he remembered his parents’ love story. His mother had told them the story when they asked her why they had no relatives.
“They got married and suffered the consequence of the severance from their family members. They had only each other in the world. Things seemed to be going smoothly until Clara could not conceive. They tried and tried but nothing came forth. This took its toll on Clara and even the relationship between Clara and James suffered as a result of that. He started drinking and keeping late nights and that didn’t go down well with Clara.”
“Clara started going from prophets to herbalists to find a solution to her childlessness. They told her a lot of things that pointed to their parents being unhappy with them and that was why they couldn’t have children. She relentlessly persuaded her husband to go with her to seek forgiveness from their parents but he refused.”
“That continued until five years later when she became sick and was confirmed to be pregnant. She gave birth to an handsome son after nine months and they named him Oluwarantimi (God has remembered me).”
Danger’s countenance changed at the mention of his birth name.
“Stop! Where did you hear this story? Who told you?” He screamed and his heart began to palpitate like a long distance runner’s after a race.
Abraham drank from his bottle again and shifted his gaze from his phone to Danger’s dagger-sending face.
“I’ll be the one doing the questioning today.”
“They…
“No, you would have to tell me where you heard this story from before I can continue to listen.”
“How does the story concern you?” Abraham asked him and his jaw dropped. Danger was not ready to tell the lawyer any personal thing and so he kept quiet and listened on.
“They had two other children after a few years and were living their best life with their fair share of life’s challenges until James lost his job. Things became tough for them and soon enough they lost the peace and joy a family should share. Even the children began to feel it and everything continually moved from bad to worse.”
“They watched their mother nag their father and watched him withdraw until he stopped paying attention to them and started treating them like trash. They had their mother to defend them and that became the routine of the house.”
“The children left for school on a particular day and returned to an empty house. Their mother had left them.”
Danger sniffed and Abraham saw the tears that gathered in his eyes. He felt sorry for him and his mind went back to the time he heard a similar story from his wife. He quickly discarded the thought and continued with the narration of the story that had been divinely given unto him after he prayed that the secret that would melt Danger’s heart should be revealed unto him.
“Their father told them that she had gone to marry another man and that was the last they heard of her.”
He continued to narrate how they suffered when their mother left and their father’s negligence, Ranti’s sacrifice for his siblings and his going the extra mile to help them pursue their dreams. How he sourced for money for his sister’s surgery and how their father didn’t seem to care. How he became their father and he did an excellent job playing his role. He moved them to a better apartment, a good school and gave them all the good things of life.
He continued with the story and when he got to the part where his siblings left him and chose loyalty to their father over him, Danger allowed the tears to flow. It was like a fresh wound was being punctured and he just could not keep the pain in.
Those were memories he used alcohol to drain the pain away but there was no provision for that that afternoon and he allowed the hurt go down his spine. He had thought time would make him forget the pain of sacrificing everything for people and receiving ingratitude as a reward but time only deepened the wound.
Abraham gave him a handkerchief and he allowed him to sob until he was exhausted. Who would have imagined that the untouchable, deadly criminal in the whole city could cry? He must have loved his siblings so dearly.
“You don’t know the whole story,” he said to Abraham after a brief silence and Abraham smiled.
“I sure do. I’m the narrator of the story and definitely I would tell you in full.” Danger shifted in his seat.
“What else does this lousy lawyer know about me?” He wondered.
“He agreed to join his friends in pick pocketing when his sister had appendicitis and needed surgery. He became a full blown armed robber when he wanted her to go to the university. He sacrificed his life for her…”
“That bastard,” Danger cursed.
“But she chose her father instead. She discarded him when she got to her final year.”
“Can you imagine that?”
Danger did not respond because he didn’t have to imagine what he had experienced first hand.
“The girl that was trained from secondary school by her elder brother accused him of stalking her because she was the best graduating student and he was disgraced out of her school.”
“He took his first assassination job when he wanted Edward to study his dream course. He did not make the cut-off mark to qualify him to study Medicine and Surgery in a public university and he had to source for the money for him to go to a private university.”
“As if that was not bad enough, his best friend from childhood impregnated his fiancee and they were both planning to dupe him and elope with his money. He got a wind of their plan and killed both of them.”
“He began to live life from then with full hatred for mankind and was resolute to do whatever it was he could do to enjoy life notwithstanding how others felt or the repercussion of his actions. His reckless life earned him the name Danger and he became the leader of the Tribiste Brotherhood after he planned a coup to eliminate the reigning Capon.”
“He took up vandalism and thuggery too and had delight in doing anything evil that would cause pain for others. That was his own way of paying the world back for the cruelty he faced.”
“Just to cut the long story short, that’s the summary of your life Mr Oluwarantimi Justice Adel.” Abraham smiled as he knew everything he said meant so much to Danger.
Danger had quietly listened to everything the lame lawyer said. Each time he painted a scenario as he narrated the dumb story he came to share, he felt the similarity between the story and his life. He would have guessed that the man knew him from his birth and even before his birth. To say he was surprised was an understatement. He was blown away.
The secrets he had kept for so long were being relayed to him by a stranger and he could not bear it. He knew screaming and asking him how he got the information was a foolish idea because no one knew such details about him and like the lawyer asked earlier, the story was supposed to be none of his business. All his guys were dead and his old friends didn’t know he was Danger and there was no way the lawyer could have traced them.
“How does this concern me?” He feigned ignorance.
“You’ll have to decide that,” Abraham responded.
He sat still and continued to calculate how his dumb lawyer could dig up his past like that. “He must be a genius,” he said to himself and wanted to walk away. He could not stand the look on his face. It was though he was standing naked before that lawyer and he hated the feeling of that.
“Please don’t leave yet. I have another story for you. This one is more interesting, I can assure you of that.”
Something about the lawyer’s voice made him return to his seat and even though everything in him wanted to stay as far away as possible from that lawyer, his butt glued to the chair as though it was stuck there.
“A certain man planted a vineyard, set an hedge about it, dug a place for the winefat, built a tower and did everything to make sure that the vine would grow well. He let the farm out to some men to keep it for him and then travelled far away.”
“When it was time for him to receive the fruits from his workers, he sent his servants to get the fruits. Guess what those workers did? They beat the servants and sent them away. He sent others and the workers did the same to them. He went ahead to send another set and they also suffered the same fate.”
“As his last resort, he sent his only son whom he loved dearly wit high hopes that those workers will reverence him. However, the workers conspired together and killed the only son of this man.”
“What do you think he should do to those workers?” Abraham paused and waited for his reply.
Danger sighed.
“Humans are worst than animals. I wish everyone on this Earth will just die and we will have only animals. How can a man give you a job, where to live and even wages only for you to kill his only son, because of money? Humans are wicked, brutal beasts.”
“He should just hang those bastards and make sure they die a very brutal death. That will teach others like them a vital lesson that you don’t bite the hand that has fed you.”
Abraham smiled.
“Then, why did you do the same thing, Mr Adel?”
Danger was confused at the question or rather, at the accusation.
“I didn’t do anything wrong. I only gave back to humanity what I got from them.”
“You feel betrayed by your father, mother, siblings, friend and even the people you work for. But what of the one that had showed you love before you were born; what did you pay him back with?”
“You kill his precious creatures to enrich yourself. You make them cry and wish they would die. You turned many children into orphans. You became the source of terror, anguish, worry and sorrow for his precious creatures.”
“Are you justified? I’m not saying your anger against humanity is not justified. But, what is the basis of your war against God? Why are you fighting your maker? Why did you turn your life over to the devil? Why did you become the opposite of what He has created you to be? Why did you allow anger and unforgiveness ruin your life?”
“You still have a chance today. Jesus is the faithful Lord of the vineyard. Even though you have killed his servants and betrayed his love for you, He still gave His only begotten son over to you. He wants to redeem you and give you a fresh start. Stop living in the prison of anger, hatred, bitterness and forgiveness.”
“Allow him today and your life will receive a dramatic turn around.”
Abraham stood up abruptly and walked out.
To be continued…
Well said Abraham