By Nightengale Ben-Onyeukwu
Patricia returned home, still feelling furious. She walked over to Edward who was reading a newspaper and complained, ‘Edward, can you please tell me what on earth I did to deserve this, why would our son fall for that slummy girl? She’s forcing my hands to make her life miserable.'
‘What’s wrong?’ Edward was confused as to why his wife was furious.
‘I just stole Chioma’s address from Michael and went to visit her…because I want to confirm if she was the daughter of the Louisa we knew years ago, but she ended up talking to me like a child. That little vixen has our son on a leash and is pretending to be a good girl in front of our son. You have no idea what she said to me when I went there.’
‘I don’t because I didn’t go with you…did you see her childhood old photo album?’
‘How could I request to see a picture of Louisa when she didn’t even talk respectively to me?’
‘Maybe, you will have to find a way to make it work. Visit them again, perhaps, in the evening.’
Patricia wrinkled her nose. ‘I can’t go to that city of the downtrodden anymore…if I must try again, we should meet somewhere else but not there'
Edward lovingly stared at his wife and he mumbled, 'Thank you for being a good wife to me.'
Patricia gave a sincere smile. 'I know how much you have loved Louisa and I know how much we've both hurt her. We'll together find her and become friends again. Of course I trust you won't pursue her again...Thank you for being my husband even though I know you had loved Louisa more. To me, you're the best and I will always cherish you.'
Feeling touched, Edward stood up and held his wife by the hand. 'To be honest with you, I was expecting you to be infuriated for my past with Louisa. but no, you have always supported me and often times took the initiatives to step up and look her...You're not a jealous wife. Thank you.' After saying that, he embraced her with all his might.
As Chioma poured herself a cup of water fifteen minutes later, she found herself thinking back to Patricia and the last words she had said about looking for someone which was the main reason she had come to Kpaduma regardless of how slummy the area was. A sixth sense told Chioma that Edward’s mother was the same Patricia her mother had mentioned to her. She drank the water and quickly went into the bedroom in search of the old photo albums. Chioma opened the large cupboard which served as wardrobe. There were neat piles of ironed clothes. Chioma rummaged through the clothes in search of old photos, she had seen Louisa put the old photos into the cupboard. But where could it be now? She thought as she went to the bed, squatting down, she pulled out an old box.
‘It might be here,’Chioma muttered as she began flipping through the pictures in the album.
Just then Louisa arrived from the market, looking very tired. ‘What are you looking at?’ Louisa asked settling herself on the bed.
‘I wanted to see your childhood photos,’ Chioma pouted. Louisa smiled, and then she stood up and went to a box by the corner of the room. She picked it up and went back to the bed. Unlocking the box, she pulled out a photo album. ‘I know what you are actually looking for. Andrew told me that Patricia went here so I guess that she must have told you something that raised your suspicion. But I just want to tell you never to raise your hopes up.’
‘Mum, what if my hunch is right?’
‘I hope so.’ Louisa took out a photo of her, Isabelle and Patrica. She was dressed in a blue voluminous dress. Louisa didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. She looked ridiculous, like a small child dressed in adult clothes. Patricia matched her sweater to her skirt. She looked so sleek in this pale pink pairing. While, Isabelle’s wine-coloured accessories gave her all-black outfit a poised and elegant look. ‘We had gone to the beach just to watch the crashing waves.’
Chioma laughed. ‘Mum, how could you dress so ridiculous?’
Louisa also laughed.
This was the first time Chioma had seen her mother with her friends. Louisa flipped to the back again.
‘This is when they visited me at Makoko. They had insisted that we take a photo. I didn’t want to at first, but I couldn’t still refuse their gentle invitation.’
Chioma leaned closer to the picture. She could see the resemblance in Michael’s mother and Felix’s mother. ‘Mum, I am certain that this is Patricia, Michael’s mother and this one is Felix’s mother.’ Chioma was convinced.
‘Do you have their recent photos?’
‘No,’ Chioma said. Remembering that they are public figures, she decided to search online. ‘Mum, here. This is Patricia Njemanze, who was once Patricia Jumbo.’
‘I think so…but I want to see her in person. I can’t just accept her as my old friend just because of these pictures in the internet. They could be photoshopped.’
‘Oh, when did my mother become doubting Thomas…it seems that when people get old, they become forgetful.’ Chioma grabbed Louisa’s hand. ‘Mum, I will find a way for you two to meet, okay?’
Louisa nodded.
Chioma looked at the clock it was almost four. ‘Mum, I have to go over to aunt Fatima’s shop and help her peel patotes.’
Louisa nodded as Chioma hurried out to Fatima’s fish and chip shop. Reaching the shop, Chioma bumped into Fatima Usman who owns the fish and chips shop, greeting her friendly. Since Chioma arrived Kpaduma she had been helping the woman of about sixty to seventy to peel potatoes for her after work while on Saturdays, which was now her days off, Chioma had never failed to help the old woman in her fish and chip shop.. After each day of helping the woman, she often gave Chioma parcels of fish and chips to take home to her mother and brother. Fatima might look grumpy, but she was a kind woman.
‘Chioma see to the fire, please. I need to attend to this customer before he chops off my head,’ Fatima joked and the customers around, including Chioma laughed.
Chioma obeyed. She seemed to enjoy helping the poor woman with her fish and chip shop. Her children are working in Calabar while she was here with her husband who was already old.
‘Drunken men scare me,’ another woman added jokingly.
‘We drink for comfort, but the pity of it is that some of us don’t have the sense to settle for one or two glasses,’ a man said.
‘My own father was drunk more often than he was sober, but my poor mother made sure to keep us from starving.’
‘I’m fortunate that my own husband only takes a glass then call it a day.’
‘Marriage is about more than luxury cars.’
‘Chioma will make a good wife. I’m sure that the family of Michael will learn to appreciate her.’
Chioma secretly let out a smile when she heard what they said.
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