Five days before Patricia’s wedding, she was shocked to find out that she was getting married to Edward Njemanze, the man set to marry Louisa. She was confused, not knowing what to do. The wedding venue had been booked, invitation cards sent out already. Patricia didn’t want to betray her friend. Yet, she couldn’t do anything about it. But she must explain everything to Louisa.
Since she secretly got Louisa’s house location, Patricia had no choice than to set off to Oko-Agbon neighboourhood, in the infamous Makoko floating slum. Patricia had read about the place and furrowed her brows but because she wanted to clear everything with Louisa, she had no choice than to go.
Sitting in the canoe with Isabelle, Patricia couldn’t help but glance around at the little wooden shacks on stilts, which were sitting on top of dark water full of household rubbish and smelly stuff, which could cause one to die of germs. Patricia and Isabelle quickly covered their nose to shield from the suffocating smell.
‘This is indeed Venice of Africa.’ Isabelle didn’t know whether to laugh or cry as she said this.
The environment looked so unkempt and dirty with kids sailing canoes to survive what was called shackles of the street. Everyone living in this area would love to survive such a shackle.
Reaching the home of Louisa, they saw her smoking fish with her mother.
Louisa was shocked to see them. She invited them inside and served the both of them fish and rice.
‘I didn’t know that your Edward is the same Edward I am going to marry in few days from now,’ Patricia said.
Louisa’s eyes were filled with tears. ‘I have never blamed you for it. It’s destiny…maybe we might not make a good couple.’ She tried to encourage herself. ‘You are good for him.’
‘I’m sorry.’ Patricia was sincere.
‘It’s okay. I will get back up.’
Patricia
nodded, and said after a thought. ‘I might not be able to stop our wedding but
I am going to make you a promise…if I have a son and he falls in love with your
daughter, I will never be against it. The same goes to if I have a daughter and
you have a son…I will bring my first child to receive your blessing.’
Louisa smiled, then reached out and embraced
Patricia and Isabelle.
That night, Louisa cried like never before. She was heart broken and didn’t know whether she would be able to move on in life, but Maria’s encouraging words kept her going. And as Patricia had promised, she brought her first son to see Louisa two years later, but she met the placed demolished.
Louisa later met and married Magnus whose father made his living from scrap metal, and after three years of their marriage, Magnus joined a building construction company.
Louisa lowered her head to wipe off her tears after narrating a short story of her life to Chioma. She had kept her past hidden for so many years, but she felt that today was right to tell Chioma about it. She would still narrate the story to Andrew, maybe another day.
‘As they say, love is always wonderful in the beginning, but it has been known to go sour in as little as a day…but Chioma, you have to have faith that everything will work out fine for you and Michael.’
‘His parents doesn’t like me at all…coincidentally, his mother’s name is Patricia and his father, Edward. He has an uncle whose name is Nicholas and wife, Isabelle,’ Chioma sighed, then smiled after a thought. ‘What if they were the same people that you met years ago?’
‘Stop dreaming…I have secretly searched for Patricia all those years but I haven’t even gotten a glimpse of her.’
‘But Michael’s parents are always in the paper…Maybe, they could be your years ago friends, right?’
Just as Louisa was about to respond, armed security agents barged in and started throwing their stuff out the door.
‘Stop, please stop!’ Chioma moved forward to stop them but they shoved her away with a hard push. She was sent flying. Luckily, Louisa was swift enough to catch her, but the whole table and pot of fish stew came crashing to the floor.
‘What’s going on here?’ Louisa yelled.
‘The Lagos State governor gave this order, so don’t you dare pin it on us. We are just doing our job. You can take a look outside; you will hear the cries of people. Those residents are assaulted because they are bold enough to challenge our bulldozers from pulling down their buildings.’
Louisa didn’t know what to do. If the government had made prior arrangement to resettle or compensate the evictees before commencing the evictions, Louisa would have relocated with her children. Besides, they wanted to leave this place anyway but not this way. Today, also reminded Louisa of Makoko demolition, where many people faced homelessness.
Meanwhile, Andrew who was at the workshop immediately ran home when he heard about the forced demolition. He was furious when he saw one of the armed men, sizing up Chioma before him.
‘Who ordered you to do this?’
‘What?’ one of the
armed men looked at Andrew as though he was looking at some kind of joke in a
comedy film. ‘Anyway, since you want to know, I will tell you. This is the
government decision. Happy now?’
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