It was the following morning, the day after Tod had beaten up Gloria his wife.
When morning came Vicky felt so much exhausted that she didn't want to be out of bed. She felt her whole body aching as she woke up to prepare for school. She was in her final year at high school and wouldn't want to jeopardize her education, especially considering what she had been through. She therefore, forced herself up and first checked all the doors. She noticed that all of them were secure as she had locked them last night after the incident with Tod. He seemed to have disappeared after he had thoroughly beaten up Gloria, Vicky's mother and almost broke Mike's neck when he pushed him against the coach. Vicky clicked angrily as she recalled yesterday's ordeal.
She went into her mother's bedroom knocking at the door before entering. To her surprise, her mother was up but clearly swollen from last night's beatings. She had many black spots all over her face and the cheeks seemed doubled in size because of being swollen. She would not be able to speak properly for a day or two. It might be possible that she had lost a tooth or two from the altercation. Vicky stared at her in silence for quite some time. Gloria looked at her and managed to speak through her swollen mouth.
"It is alright, my dear! Stop staring!" she said stop with a "shhh" sound.
"Mum you should be resting. Where do you want to go now?"
"I have to go to mama Caren's to pick todays groceries. I will need to open the stall."
"Can't it remain closed just for today, mama? I can't imagine you sitting at the market with all that pain!"
Gloria tried to smile but the pain made her stop mid-way but she went on to speak, "Ha, you mean my ugly swollen face!"
"You are not ugly mama, but yes! Please stay at home just for today!" but her mother went on to insist she must open her stall and that she had taken some painkillers that morning. She promised to carry more with her. As usual the little boys would be dropped off at the neighbor's day-care center for children. Seeing her mother was determined to let nothing obscure her daily venture Vicky gave up.
"I will then just prepare the breakfast for you before I leave." And she went into the kitchen. She hurriedly did all that was required of her and within an hour she was ready to leave for school. She then checked on her brothers, seeing that they were still asleep, she bade he mother bye and left. It took her almost half an hour to walk to school, which was four kilometers from her home. A friend met her at the school gate and the two went in talking.
"Vicky, would you kindly assist me with working out question four of yesterday's math assignment. I couldn't get it right no matter how many times I tried it!"
"What! You mean we had an assignment yesterday? Oh my God!" She then realized that her day would be ruined from the start unless she sat down immediately and goes over the home-work.
About two hours later, Gloria came to her stall with a sack full of the groceries she had managed to get for that day. She had hired a motorbike which ferried her together with the goods and as she alighted, her neighboring vendor came by to assist her.
"Mama Victoria, good morning!" she greeted. "Good morning Mama Calvin." She replied without turning so her neighbor didn't notice the marks. But after the rider had left and she turned, it was all there, bare for everybody to see. "Oh my dear! Gloria what happened to you!" She received no answer. "Is it Tod?"
"Who else can it be?" Gloria said as she struggled with the sack to her stall. Mama Calvin assisted her to carry into the stall. "So sorry my friend. I didn't know he was that rough! He seemed so humble even this morning when I met him."
"This morning? Where did you meet him?"
"Here, of course! He was standing just outside your stall when I arrived. I even thought you were with him then he said you were on your way!"
"Which way did he go?" Gloria was panicking and Mama Calvin noticed and was taken aback. "Please tell me what is going on." But Gloria remained dump-struck and silent for the rest of that morning. Her neighbor tried without success to make her talk, finally just expressing her sympathies for her friend, let her continue with her stall work.
However, less than twenty minutes later, officers from the Revenue Collection Unit arrived in their truck and pulled up just in front of the stall. Gloria was inside trying to tie up the bundles of vegetables according to her selling scales. She did not see the four officers heading straight for her stall after highlighting. One of them banged the front table-shade with the club he was carrying with him. This startled Gloria and she jumped up in shock. This made the men laugh at her sarcastically and one of them jeeringly asked her;
"Hey why do you dance around with no music?" one of them chided. Immediately he said that another officer added an insult
"Or are you performing your magical tricks so that we don't see you?" and he laughed out loudly, being joined by his manner less colleagues. Gloria looked at them, open mouthed in bewilderment. She could not say anything because they had just arrived all over a sudden and then had started harassing her. As she prepared to speak, another officer moved closer with his club in hand as if he wanted to rough her up. He looked at her sternly and said;
"Woman! You think you can get away with government taxes? You have to pay us now or else you will find yourself in hell. Do you hear that?" As soon as he had said that another officer joined him and equally looked at the poor terrified mother and harshly uttered.
"Yes! Pay up now, you lazy bones!"
Gloria tried to speak while she shook. In reality she had not secured a permit for operating that stall. She had spoken this issue with her husband, Tod, who had promised to secure one for her. But he had not yet fulfilled his promise. However, what struck her as odd was that never had any officer visited her stall to demand for the operating license before this day. She wondered why they would choose to come on just that day when everything seemed to work against her. She summed up some courage after composing herself and decided to reason with the officers.
"Officers, am sorry that I have not paid my taxes to the county treasury as yet. But I assure you that I am working it out. As soon as I am able to, I will visit your office to get my license."
"Woman! Whom do you take us for? Do you think we are your little babies sucking at your….!"
Gloria would not let him finish what he was saying. She lost her temper. "Have some respect young man! Even though you are on your duty you have no right to go around insulting everyone." She lectured him instantly because she could not take it anymore. But as soon as she had said this that she regretted it. The other officers got so infuriated you could think someone threw a beehive full of bees on them. They all swarm around her with their clubs. Some hitting her tables, others scattering her vegetables and groceries all over the floor.
"You want to teach us how to do our work! Now we will show you what we are capable of." And they went on vandalizing all of what made up her stall. Gloria ran out of the stall screaming. By this time all other vendors had come out of their stalls to witness the cruelty of these men who operated in the name of the government but were really goons. None dared to stop them for they feared their wrath turning against them. Gloria was left trying to fight them off but it was like a hen fighting off a big hawk that had suddenly swooped down on her chicks. Helpless, she watched them tear down her livelihood. They made a total mess of everything she had and they left.
The other vendors came and tried to comfort her. They picked some fruits from the grounds but none was in a condition to be put up for sale. It was worse with the vegetables. Nothing could be saved from them. Gloria had literally been made bankrupt through the ruthless manner of the said officers from the revenue collection unit. Many were left to speak words of comfort to her and helped her to the side of the road in one of the stalls. Mama Calvin sat with Gloria holding her hand and assuring her that all will be well. She was in tears all through the ordeal. One could clearly see her pains and torture that she was bearing.
After some several minutes of sitting there and crying, Gloria slowly rose up and started walking away with hands on her head. Her neighbors rushed to her trying to restrain her but she insisted she was going back home. They decided to put her on a motorbike that would take her home and they paid her transport charges. Mama Calvin and some other ladies promised to visit her later that evening to talk things over. But some could be seen slandering her in groups, especially those who hated her for her success.
"Heeeee,, and the way she normally excelled in her sales you would think she had a permit!"
"Leave alone that! What about her morality? With all the 'mature' advice she normally gives in our chamas (that is, the women guild merry –go- round fundraiser). You could think she was the number one patriotic citizen."
"Which morality? Don't you know she married a man who had abandoned his family and moved in with her? She probably stole him from that poor woman!" They said these and many more ugly things about Gloria. It was a good thing she had already gone because all these could have surely broken her completely.
At the school, soon after the morning assembly, all the students proceeded into their classes ready to begin their normal lessons after the morning remedial studies. As soon as she entered the class, Victoria took her mathematics assignment book and went through all the problems that she had attempted. Though she had done this in a hurry she was confident that she had done her best and would not fail to get at least the average mark. Since the class representative had already collected other student's books, she had to take hers to the teacher by herself. She left the class and was headed to the staffroom to find the math's' teacher. As she was about to enter the staffroom, the secretary to the principal appeared and called her.
"Victoria, I was just coming to look for you. Please follow me to the principal's office. He would like to talk to you immediately."
"Can I just hand in this book to Mr. Kinda first please, it will just be a minute?"
"No! You will give him when you are through with the principal. Let's go he is waiting for some more important guests. Hurry up." And she left. Vicky had to trudge along fast in order to keep up with the light-footed secretary. In her heart she started getting very worried. She had not been a frequent visitor in the principal's office. Normally, no student was summoned there except one with extreme indiscipline case or another pertinent issue. Vicky tried to replay the previous day's events to see if there is any place where she might have probably erred. But she recollected none.
They reached the office and the secretary informed the principal through the intercom. "Victoria is here sir!" After some seconds the principal could be heard bellowing, "Send her in!" Vicky's heart started pummeling in her chest which threatened to burst because of the anxiety she was feeling. She entered the principal's office as timidly as she could possibly be. The room was large and neatly furnished. The principal was a short plump man in his early fifties. He was of dark skin complexion and wore huge round glasses. He sat behind a huge mahogany table, on his black, leather rotating office chair. They were many files in front of him, a laptop and a telephone on the table. The other side of the room was furnished with nice, expensive coaches and tables which no doubt were his living room, the space where he unwound with his guests. Those were important guests not students like Victoria.
Victoria continued standing, waiting. The principal did not look up. He seemed not to have noticed her presence. But she waited patiently without making a sound. All the students in that school have a testimony of how ruthless the principal could be especially to those whom he regarded as naughty. He was a kind of guy who did not wait for the board of management to reach a decision to expel a student. He would instead take action then explain to the board later. And he was feared among all the BOM members. After what seemed like an eternity and Vicky becoming so uneasy in such a scary setting, the principal finally looked up and spoke in a stark heavy dry voice.
"Victoria, you understand that you have a very big fee in arrears?" he asked. Vicky struggled for some seconds to find her voice. She said a first 'yes' which was not audible. She repeated it this time a little more audible. The principal looked at her sternly and her breath caught in her lungs.
"And what are you still doing in this school, sitting with other students whose parents have been responsible enough to clear all their fees in time?" Vicky didn't know how to reply to this. Then she remembered that her mother had pledged to pay for her before mid-term, which was some two weeks away. She managed to say this to the principal but he cut her short.
"Listen young girl! Here we don't work with pledges! Get out of here and don't dare come back without the full fees. You understand?" shocked, she didn't even know what she answered but she found herself outside the office. The secretary followed her after a few minutes and escorted her to the class where she was given all her books. Still holding the assignment's book, Vicky walked out of the gate, blindly, not knowing exactly what was happening.
She walked all the way back to the market where she expected to see her mother. But she was met with the horrific glare of their dismantled stall. She saw all the commodities of sale lying on the ground and tears suddenly welled up in her eyes. Mama Calvin then saw her and came out of her stall hurriedly.
"Vicky, come here my daughter!" and as soon as she reached her Vicky burst into tears. The lady comforted her with many soothing words. "Did my mother fight with Tod, again?" Vicky asked.
"No! Tod was not here and don't worry your mother was not in a fight, well not a real fight." Mama Calvin tried to explain to Vicky what she meant but she was not comprehending. She looked at all the scattered fruits and vegetables. "But what about these…?" she asked. Mama Calvin could see Vicky's pain too. She was a mother and would not like her daughter to be in such a state.
"Come sit here then I will explain to you what happened. But first take this." She made Vicky sit down on the wooden bench inside her stall and she served her porridge made from wheat flour. Then she slowly explained everything to Vicky as she had observed and did. Then she went on to console her and also asked her some questions about what had happened the previous day for her mother to be the way she was. Vicky was careful in that she only narrated how she had woken up to the screams of her mother and that Tod had left home soon after she had run to her mother's rescue. The part of how she felt or thought was Tod's reason for humiliating, this she reserved. "The right time will come," she told herself. After talking to her at length, Vicky decided that it was time she went home.