After one year, Kalu was finally settled by Abuchi his uncle.
He was given a well-equipped shop with a huge amount of money and every support he needed to stand on his own.
Kalu was so astonished at his uncle's benevolence in his settlement.
Well, it could be understood that he was his nephew that was why he went the extra mile in making sure that he was given the best settlement.
Again, Kalu was the first servant he would settle since he became a master of his own.
Abuchi's own master settled him with just cash, a fairly huge amount.
He had to rent a shop and equip it by himself.
The amount left after he had paid for shop rent wasn't that big enough to fully equip the shop.
So he had to start with some goods he could afford at that time, and as time went on, he was able to save from the profit he was making and stock the shop properly.
From there he broadened and acquired more shops in the market.
After he had settled Kalu, He traveled with him to the village to visit his mother so that he could inform her that her son had been settled as supposed.
Abuchi never wished to let Kalu go due to how loyal and productive Kalu was to him, if he had his way, he would keep him with him for more years.
Kalu at a time became like a business partner to him. He was well Acquainted with every transaction regarding the business.
But not settling him at that time would go against the agreement.
The plan and the promise were to make Kalu a man on his own. Abuchi was so glad that after seven years the dream had been eventually accomplished with good health and no adverse story.
Kalu though was cheerful to spend some time with the mother after two years.
For Abuchi had not taken him back home to see the mother the previous year because his settlement was close at hand and it was inevitable that he would be going home to spend some time with the mother after that.
Besides, he would be a boss on his own and he would be able to travel at any time he desired to see his mother henceforward.
He was missing Rosaline dearly as he was enjoying the village with his mother.
He had now been integrated into the family of Rosaline that he related to them all his undertakings.
Nevertheless, their father who came around once in a while never understood that he was in a romantic relationship with his daughter, he thought that they were only friends as he was told.
And Rosaline couldn't find the courage to tell him that Kalu was her boyfriend just like she did with the mother.
Her lack of courage was rooted in the point that the father was a difficult man, though he loved Rosaline so much as his only child he wouldn't buy the idea of her keeping a boyfriend.
The man was a retired civil servant and during his days in the service, he was a prominent disciplinarian.
He had bagged many awards for discipline.
And the good part was that his life of discipline didn't end at his place of work it extended to his family.
Rosaline's father was among those few that still cling to and upheld the values of African tradition.
He believed that a girl should not be in a relationship except if she was espoused.
In fact, in the early days in some parts of Africa, a young woman would be stoned to death If it was ever discovered that she was deflowered before marriage.
That was why it was abominable for an unmarried woman to keep a boyfriend, for the probability of being disciplined and remaining a virgin in such a relationship would be thin.
Rosaline had wanted to travel with Kalu but her desire was deterred by the fact that Kalu was traveling with his uncle.
Kalu missed Rosaline so much but being with the mother was better as at that time for it had been fairly long since he had spent that kind of time with her. Even when he visited yearly, he had never stayed so long with her.
Abuchi only spent three days in the village after he had presented Kalu to his mother as a boss of his own.
Kalu's mother was so elated for finally she was alive to witness the dream of her son come true.
Abuchi also was happy for fulfilling his promise to his elder sister, and he was lauded by everyone for doing so.
They got to the village almost at midnight the day they arrived.
Kalu's mother couldn't inform the neighbors at that time of their arrival.
She waited till the next day before she could inform the neighbors who gathered at their compound that morning on hearing the good news, to welcome them.
They were living a communal life and shared most things in common there in the village.
The neighbors had always inquired from the mother how Kalu was coping while he was in Lagos.
Some of them had most of the time mandated their children in helping Kalu's mother out in attending to some house chores realizing that she was alone.
Abuchi had bought some things for Kalu's mother like a bag of rice and some foodstuff as he had always done each time he came to visit her.
From those things that Abuchi had bought for her, she organized a little celebration for those neighbors to mark the successful settlement of her son.
Kalu stayed with the mother for two weeks before he returned to Lagos.
He would sit in the sitting room each morning from the fourth day of his arrival after his uncle had gone back to the city, with the mother when they had woken from sleep, chatting.
He didn't allow the mother to go to the farm all through his stay.
Even though the mother would go to the farm, it was simply for her to get something and return as quickly as possible. For instance, if she needed a fresh vegetable to cook.
The mother would be at home all through chatting with him and preparing his favorite meals for him.
He had so much missed those native meals that were his favorites.
Those foods were hard to find in the city if at all one would find them there.
Kalu narrated to the mother his dreams and how someone that looked like the father had been appearing to him in dreams.
He was a bit confused as the mother suggested that the man appearing to him in his dreams could be the real spirit of his father.
But the love he had already developed for Rosaline and the trust he had for the spiritualist made him not believe the mother. Nevertheless, he didn't argue with the mother about that.
He didn't also let the mother know that he visited a spiritualist while in Lagos.
He told the mother about Rosaline and how he had intended to get married to her.
But he didn't tell her how he came to meet the girl.
The mother pretentiously welcomed the idea that his son had found a girl he loved.
She advised him to be careful about her, not only Rosaline but all city girls so that he wouldn't make a mistake he would come to regret.
The mother had heard so many stories about how the city girls did wreck so many young men and reduce them to puppets.
She didn't want her son to fall a victim to such a thing.
She had never wanted her son to have anything to do with any city girl, which she had advised him previously.
On the aspect of getting married to Rosaline, the mother admonished him to put aside every thought of getting married for now so that he could be able to concentrate on his newly established business.
The mother had many things to tell him about making choices in marriage but she guessed it was not the right to do that.
She still saw her son as a baby and was not mature enough to talk about marriage.
Kalu had fun in the village for that two weeks. He visited some of his friends that were still there in the village.
And he followed them to hurting as he had done while still with them in the village.
He discovered that most of his friends had also gone to the city to learn trade just as he had done while some of whom their parents were well to do and had the opportunity to enroll into the university had graduated and started working in the city.
One night while he was still in the village, the father visited him in the dream again.
In that dream, Kalu was seated in the sitting room darting through one of his secondary school textbooks when suddenly he looked up and found his father seated on his favorite seat while he was alive there in the sitting room.
Kalu, right from the time his father started cautioning him about getting married to Rosaline, had disdained to see him in his dreams.
He wanted to stand up as soon as he set his eyes on his father and depart to his room.
But he discovered that he was stuck on the chair, he couldn't get up.
He struggled for some time with all his strength but his efforts were futile.
Then he relaxed and decided to hear whatever his father wanted to tell him.
The father seated looking at him without uttering a word as he struggled to get up.
After he had relaxed, that was when the man began to speak to him.
" You have to be calm, and listen to what I want to tell you" he began " Because they are for your good!"
Kalu wanted to refute that, but as he opened his mouth to speak, he realized that no word could come out though his lips were moving.
He gave up every attempt to express his feelings as well.
The father continued as Kalu was fully relaxed staring directly at him.
"..the spiritualist you do consult all the time does nothing but to deceive you, he had never told you the truth for once. I am your father and I can never deceive you. follow my directions, now that I still have the opportunity to visit and instruct you, and by the end, you will be glad you did." He huffed deeply.
Kalu once again tried to speak, he had so many questions in his mind but couldn't voice out any.
The father was seated still once again looking at him as his lips moved in questions.
After the lips had stopped moving, his father said the final words to him.
" The earlier you keep away from that girl called Rosaline, the better for you!" he got on his feet at once and left the room.
It was like a heavy load was taken off Kalu's head. He felt light once again and was able to speak.
"Where are going?" escaped his lips at once as his father slammed the door shut behind him.
And he got up and walked back to his room.
As soon as he opened the door to his room, his eyes were opened where he was lying on the bed.
He had vowed never to allow the dream of that man that called himself his father, according to his description, to bother him anymore.
He stretched out in the bed and headed towards the bathroom to urinate.
In the morning, as he was discussing with the mother, he wanted to tell her about the dream but he changed his mind after he had already raised the issue of his dead father.
"Have you ever dreamed about my late father?" he asked the mother.
"No, I haven't since he passed away" the mother replied. "not everybody has the gift of dreaming about their departed loved ones."
Kalu didn't want to go into details about the dream to avoid further discouragement.
He knew from the little hint he got from the mother that she believed the man appearing to him was his father.
And she would persuade him to believe whatever he had been informed by the man.
Which means she would never support him anymore when the time comes to get married to Rosaline.
"Did you dream about your father again?" the mother asked.
"No" Kalu replied, " it was when I was in Lagos."
They diverted to another discussion as they waited for the breakfast which was already on the fire to cook.
As they were having their breakfast, a local dish that was prepared from cooked cassava, a young beautiful girl, dark in complexion walked into the house.
She had a warm pleasantry with Kalu's mother.
Kalu's mother addressed the young girl as Ada and eulogized her like she was the princess of the kingdom.
The young girl had been the one helping Kalu's mother out most of the time in attending to some errands.
Ada's mother and Kalu's mother had been best of friends and she was the only child of her mother.
Kalu's mother had desired that Kalu got married to her when the time comes and she had been working so hard to preserve her for him.
Though she had never made her intention known to Kalu, she was just waiting for the right time to do that.
Kalu was only two years older than the girl and had known her when she was very little, he was surprised to see how big the girl had grown.
Ada blushed as Kalu's mother explained to Kalu how the girl had been of great help to her while he was away.
Kalu noticed the way the girl was staring at him admiringly though she was trying as much as she could to avoid his gaze, as he appreciated her.
Ada went to the kitchen and dished out food for herself.
She was free in the house like she was the daughter of Kalu's mother.
Kalu loved how jovial and lively the girl was but his thought never wandered to falling in love with her, he couldn't imagine that.
Rosaline had occupied all the space in his heart and there was no room for any other girl.
The mother was secretly watching how Kalu was gaping at the girl. In her mind, she thought that her son was already beginning to fall for the girl and she was happy about it not knowing that as Kalu looked at her, she only reminded him of Rosaline.
The girl got almost the same character as Rosaline and that was what piqued Kalu's attention.
To Kalu, Ada was already a sister and nothing more.
Ada integrated into their conversation so easily like she was a member of the family.
As Kalu's mother was keeping her intention secret from Kalu, waiting for the right time, so she kept it from Ada. She was oblivious of her plan in terms of making her a daughter-in-law but she just liked Kalu based on his good look.
Ada helped in washing the dirty dishes after they were through with the breakfast and she asked Kalu's mother if there was any errand she needed her to run for her but Kalu had already taken care of most of the errands.
Instead of going home, Ada spent the whole day with Kalu and the mother.
It was already getting dark before she departed.
The mother would come for her if she had wasted a single minute more.
If Ada had had her way she would have slept in Kalu's house.
Kalu couldn't discern where the mother was going as she still spoke to him about Ada telling him how good and humble the girl was even when she had gone.
After two weeks, Kalu returned to Lagos to face his own business.
He, first of all, went to visit Rosaline the second day, after he had returned.
He had missed Rosaline so much and couldn't wait to take her out shopping for the first time since they started dating.
Rosaline had also missed Kalu so much that she could have gone in search of him if she had a means.
The two weeks that Kalu spent in the village were like two years to her.
Kalu had already had a plan to rent his apartment as soon as he returned to Lagos so that Rosaline could visit him any time she wanted.
But his uncle suggested he stayed with him for a while when he returned so that he would have enough resources to develop his business instead of wasting money at that early stage to pay for house rent.
Kalu couldn't reject his uncle's suggestion so he remained in the house while he ran his own business.
He was settled with the same shop he had managed for his uncle, so he didn't lose a single customer. Rather he gained more customers.
Abuchi did what no master had ever done for their servant in the history of the market for Kalu.
Some months after he had returned to Lagos from the village, Rosaline started disturbing for him to leave his uncle's house and rent his apartment.
Kalu couldn't go against his uncle's advice now that he was newly settled.
He explained to Rosaline the whole situation about renting an apartment of his own.
They concluded that he had to stay with his uncle for just one year, then after that, he would let him know that he wanted his apartment.
Rosaline's mother was also enthusiastic about Kalu getting married to Rosaline.
She hoped that as soon as he was settled, the next thing would be the marriage arrangement.
Clara and Alex had finally tied the knot and were living happily as couples.
Alex bought a jeep, which he said was for the family not just for himself.
He taught Clara how to drive.
Most of the time Clara would be making use of the car after she had perfected driving.
Most people thought that the jeep was for Clara, for during the weekdays, she took the jeep to work.
Alex didn't like driving to work. He took a taxi to work and made use of the car most times during the weekends.
Clara had come to discover that all the mother was saying about Alex was right.
He was a very caring man and always getting out of his way to make Clara happy.
The type of care that Clara got from Alex was enough to guarantee the enormous happiness of any woman but the fact that Rose was still in a bodiless form was imposing a dire disturbance to her each time she remembered her.
Alex never left her alone in her toils to procure Rose's body just as he had promised.
They succeeded in making the report to the police and the police had been in search of the herbalist since then but there hadn't been any positive result.
Alex kept encouraging and comforting Clara about the situation and that had been her major relief.
Though she had not succeeded in her mission she wasn't as dejected and deserted as she used to feel when no one believed her.
Sometime during the weekends, they would drive around the town in search of the herbalist.
Sometimes they would ask people for the address of any known herbalist around and they would go to confirm if he was the one they were looking for whenever they were directed to one.
Most of those people that they asked especially the ones that knew them would always suspect that they wanted to consult a herbalist. But they still didn't care about whatever anyone thought of it.
One of Clara's colleagues at work had accused her of consulting herbalist for promotion at work, the day that they had little misunderstanding just because she had at a time asked the woman the address of a herbalist the woman talked about during one of their discussions.
Such an accusation on the normal ground could make one blush with shame. But Clara having a clear conscience didn't feel an ounce of shame and never bothered to clarify herself.
She had already known that no one would believe her story if she should tell them the reason she had asked for the address of the herbalist rather they would see her as a lunatic as it had always been with people that she had narrated the story to in the past.
"Let them say anything they wanted to say, I don't care. If their gossip would make me recover my sister, I would be so much glad about it!" she thought to herself when she got home that day and was thinking about what the colleague had said to her.
She didn't even bother to tell the husband what transpired at work that day.
She realized that others might be nursing the same thought but couldn't find the courage to voice it out.
For she had been successful at work and had got promotions more than her other colleagues.
They visited the police station from time to time to know if there was any new development.
The police had at a time, made a wrongful arrest.
They arrested a man that was walking along the road, anyway the man had almost the same look as the man in the picture that Clara gave to them.
Clara was so happy when she was informed by the police that they had apprehended the man.
But she was disappointed when she got to the station and discovered that it was the wrong person.
The police had to release the man after Clara had confirmed that he was not the one.
Alex at a time begun to imagine if the herbalist was even still alive.
But he didn't want to dishearten Clara so he kept the thought to himself.
The fact that Clara was enthusiastic about finding the herbalist made him believe that her dream might surely come to pass.
Rose had been visiting Clara so regularly all through the time that she was pregnant that was before Clara wedded Alex.
But she seized from visiting her after their marriage.
On a particular Saturday, after Clara and Alex had driven around in search of the herbalist.
As they went to bed, after She had finished making love with her husband and slept off, Rose visited her in her dream.
In the dream, she saw Rose still radiating with beauty as she came out to the sitting room of their family house.
She was surprised to see that the swollen belly Rose had the last time she visited, had gone flat. Which means she had given birth.
"Have you put to bed?" she asked enthusiastically.
"yes!" Rose replied with a charming smile on her face.
"I have been wondering why you haven't come to see me for over a year now, I have missed you so much!" Clara said.
"I was taking care of my baby all those time. Moreover, I didn't want to keep you thinking about me by coming regularly so that you can concentrate on your marriage" Rose explained.
"You know I love seeing you always. By the way where is your baby?" Clara demanded.
"I can't come with her but she is being taken care of by a woman who is endowed with supernatural powers. The woman was the one that helped me in delivering the child and she is the one that is helping me to take care of the child." Rose smiled.
"Where is the woman? I want to see ur baby!" Clara requested once again.
"That is the reason I am here, the woman can no longer take care of my baby, she is big enough now. I want you to go to her and take the baby she is already expecting you. I will give you the address of the woman so that you can go there and take the baby" Rose got on his feet.
"Is the baby a boy or a girl?" Clara asked.
"Is a baby girl, once you see her you will recognize her" Rose made her way towards the door "I will see you tomorrow" she slammed the door without waiting to entertain more questions from Clara unlike her.
Clara could understand that she was in a hurry.
She stood wondering what could make Rose be in such a hurry.
As she went to lock the door, she woke up from sleep.
She turned in the bed and discovered that Alex was fast asleep beside her facing the doorway.
For she was lying inside while Alex was at the outer side of their family-sized bed.