The party turned to be an all-night, and because Edegbe found it senseless to party all-night, and since all the room had been paid for, he lodged into one. Already in his boxer briefs, he switched off the light and jumped into the bed, nudging Efe who laid beside him.
"Sometimes I feel like you don't like me," he said, very displeased that they were not going home.
"Do you know what time it is right now? Seems you've forgotten Victor's ear stretched warning about night movement."
"So what are you now, a scared cat?"
"I'm just cautious, if anything happens to you I won't be able to forgive myself."
Efe sat on the bed and laughed, not the half hearted laugh he gave to Edegbe when he pointed out someone from the party and made a joke, or the feigned chuckle he made when he told him about the couple who were too ugly to have a beautiful daughter, but a real throaty laughter. Although poised, he had been very jerky inside when Edegbe had dragged him back into the party, turning this way and that way to see if it was Soliat. He didn't want to see her and didn't want her to see him too. Okay, he wanted to see her, but not in a way that she would see him too. He wanted them to be a passing thing.
"Hey, what are you thinking about?" Edegbe kicked his sturdy back in the darkness which didn't budge. "You're so strong, no wonder everybody thinks you're my bouncer."
"Come with me to the gym and nobody would make that statement again."
"I've been wanting to ask you, why don't you involve in the conversation at a gathering."
"You're the educated one, not me. And do I look like I have the strength of meaningless discussions?" He laid back on the bed. "It's been so long we laid down on the same bed like this, do you remember?"
"How can I ever forget? We rose from the dust of poverty to promise ourselves never to lie on the same bed. And when we did, it would be because we wanted to and not because we can't afford it."
"We?"
"Sleep, we have a long day tomorrow."
Efe tsked. "We don't even have anything to do tomorrow."
Edegbe smiled but didn't reply. The music was loud outside and the vibration resonated within the room, but they found sleep and even the noise didn't wake them up.
What did, however, was the light from outside when the door was open. Efe stirred up first, and when the door closed back he thought he had been dreaming, but he knew a lot about realism to know it was not a dream.
"Did you open the door?" Edegbe asked him, sitting on the bed.
"No." He got up to turn on the light and bumped into something. "Ouch!"
"What is that?" Edegbe asked, alerted.
"Let me switch on the light." When he did both Edegbe and himself exchanged questioning glances at the girl who stood in the middle of the room. The former recognized her immediately, he had been too immense in watching her and wondering why she looked scared. Standing there in the room with her head bent, she still looked scared, but what Edegbe wondered was why she, the beautiful daughter of the ugly couple, in his room. Before he could ask her, she pulled her gown, taking it off from her head and bared herself before them, naked.
"What in the world do you think you're doing?" Edegbe asked, his eyes fixed on her face, refusing to look below to where her cherry sized breasts hung from her chest or below her waist where her hipless legs housed her hairless womanly flower.
Efe walked to where the girl stood and picked up her dress. He didn't know what for happening, but for the love of christ, he didn't want a naked girl before him.
"Are you deaf or crazy?" He did not care that the girl looked frightened to death, if she wasn't going to— this man has bastard connection, but his means of gaining them will surprise you— the words played on his ears. Did her father—? No way, it — like I said, his method will surprise you.
"Did your father send you?" He asked the girl.
She nodded, and shoved the dress down again.
Efe picked it up. "If you're sensible, you'll behave yourself," before he turned to Edegbe. "What is it?"
"The guts of that bastard. Imagine that he sends his daughter to give sexual favours to men in exchange of connection."
"It's actually not a problem in the north, by age nine some of the girls are even married off." Efe shrugged.
"Are you crazy? Isn't it better to marry her off than to do this?"
"Marry her off for money, make her prostitute for money, it's the same thing."
Edegbe could not believe what he was hearing. "Are you being serious here?"
"What I'm trying to say is send her back. Quietly. Confronting her parents will not solve anything, there are still going to keep sending her to men, if you're not going to do it, then send her back quietly."
"If?" Edegbe got out of the bed and pulled out a robe.
"See, let me handle this," Efe proposed, knowing the other man had no limits to his madness when provoked.
He walked past him and grabbed the girl who had by then wore her clothes and headed for the door, flinging it open and banging it shut. He found her parents by the far corner of the lobby probably looking for the next big man they would send their daughter off to. It fueled his anger the more.
"Are you both crazy?!" He was nearly screaming at the top of his lungs, and didn't mind that some guests had stopped to watch, curious about what was happening. "What degree of stupidity is this? Huh?"
The man whose smile had fallen off his face tried subtlety to lead him to the side, but Edegbe swung his hands off.
"So much for being dedicated Muslims I see, is this what your god tells you to do? And it seems everybody knows what you're doing," he looked at the crowd who by then had passed a few.
When he spotted Bello, the man shrugged and said, "Told you you'd be surprised."
His eyes travelled to Mrs. Yasmin who still had her pointy look, then to Alhaji who looked very amused, as though he found the scene funny. Ahmed was already drunk, sat at a corner, watching with wavering eyes.
"Hypocritical fools."He murmured, before turning to the man who was still gesturing him to the side. "See, let me warn you, don't ever try this rubbish again, not even to my shadow—" He felt a firm grasp on his arm and swung his fist in a fierce punch, but Efe caught his hand mid air.
"You have to stop this madness" Efe's voice whispered into his ears, and he dragged him away from the scene.
"This world will be a better place if people like you were dead," Edegbe looked back to say to the couple as he was been dragged, his voice getting inaudible with the increase in distance. "The blood and tears of the innocent is on you, there is a curse—" The door closed and his voice became completely unheard.
"Must you behave like this?" Efe asked, obviously upset.
Angrier, he thundered. "Like how? For the sake of peace peace you want to be like those idiots who turn a blind like to injustice?"
"And what has your senseless ranting done? Changed the man's behaviour? Freed the girl?"
"You're crazy, out of your senses."
"And you do not always have to prove a senseless point."
"You know what? Get out!" He pointed a finger to the door. "Get out of my presence!"
They stared at each other, glared, before Efe took his robe off and changed back into his clothes, angrily, knocking down things in the process. He stormed out of the door and banged it more furiously than Edegbe had that the guests passing by stopped to glare at his thoughtlessness. And maybe it was coincidence that one of those guests was Soliat. Their eyes met and she didn't look surprise to see him, maybe she had already seen him when he dragged Edegbe from the scene, or maybe he wasn't as important as he thought he was to elicit a surprise reaction. She looked how Edegbe had described her, and Efe didn't know whether he was going to pretend not knowing her. In actuality, he didn't know her, that they were passengers on the same bus didn't give it a pass. Right? If he had seen a different passenger he would have walked pass. But she had given him his number, did that give it a pass? Nonetheless, he walked passed her. His reason remained the same, he had Edegbe to babysit, one more to the high chair would make a mess of the dinner table.
Victor was asleep when he got to the car, and while he wanted to allow the man his sleep, the part of him which still boiled in simmering anger tapped on the window, his position, after all, looked discomforted. He settled in the back seat when the grogginess in Victor's eyes allowed him see who it was and opened the door. "Let's get out of this place," he told him, Edegbe could trek by the morrow for all he cared, he knew it would upset him. And he was satisfied by that, because he wanted to upset him.
"What of sah?" Victor blinked.
"He's dead, drive this car while I'm still being nice." That Edegbe was sharp tonged, he understood, but that he wasn't sensible, that he didn't know when to keep shut, where to keep shut, irked him. It was there in the way he conversed, his thoughtless bashing, his unapologetic critique, his demonizing what he antagonized with. Efe thought there was a more subtle way to do it, and subtlety was a skill his boss lacked.
Victor wasn't sure he had ever had a more confusing moment. "But—"
"If you're not going to drive, then come out and let me drive, don't waste my time."
He turned the ignition and the engine revved into motion. He was confused, but he needed to follow the order and worry later about what his boss had to say.
What angered Edegbe was that Efe said if— if he was going to do it. Saying if meant that there was a possibility that him, Edegbe, as wealthy and educated as he was, with the clear minded conscience he had, would molest a girl of twelve. It was an insult, a slap to his face, and Efe had said it with a callousness Edegbe had always wondered how he got. His anger was fueled, the next morning, by the sight of the empty space where his car was supposed to be. Did Efe by any chance take his car? Damn the man for knowing when to be a pain. It was awkward enough that there were eyes on him, and now he was stranded. Efe had better prepare himself for a confrontation.
"If you don't have a pride as big as your tongue, then join me in the car."
Edegbe wondered if it was out of pure coincidence that his path and Mrs. Yasmin's crossed more than once that day. Thankfully, he did not prioritize pride when he was in need, so he joined her in the car. Her car smelled like her, a floaty tangerine scent.
"Did your bouncer leave with your car?" She asked him, adjusting her hijab.
"Seeing that I'm here, isn't that an established fact?"
"You did not correct me, you did not say 'he's not my bouncer, he's my friend'."
Edegbe did not answer, just looked out the window as the car drove out of the hotel.
"Seems like he's more sensible than you, your bouncer I mean."
Edegbe turned to look at her.
"You called me stupid, so I thought I could call you insensible. You were the talk of the party throughout last night. Some people applaud you for your boldness, some pity you for being foolishly brazen. And there was something about how you looked at us all and said 'Hypocritical fools'."
"What about you? Did you applaud my boldness or pity me for being brazen?"
"I only looked."
"Did you know that the couple gave the girl to men for their connection?" He asked, willing her to say no.
She said yes.
"Did you do anything to help her?"
"I have too much on my plate to worry about a girl whose situation I can do nothing about about. I am not of chivalry, I do not travel to the south to make life easier, I do things that earns me money so I can live a comfortable life. "
Edegbe stared. "You're selfish."
"And I'm honest about it."
It seemed nobody had a conscience anymore. "What if she was your daughter?"
"She's not."
"I said what if."
"What if or not, she's not my daughter."
So because it wasn't her child she didn't care? Edegbe thought it didn't make any sense. "I heard you once had a husband, don't you have children?"
"Why? Do you want to make any with me?"
Edegbe opened his mouth and closed it back, he didn't know what to say. Whether the woman was trying to make a sexual joke or she wanted to shut him up, he didn't know. The question had not really been related to the girl, it was one of the things he wanted to know about the woman.
They didn't talk again throughout the drive, and sometimes he would turn to her to see her already watching him with her clear bright eyes, and his eyes would go to her head, where her hijab didn't cover her hair fully and he would see some curls on her fair skin and wondered if she was half caste or as he preferred to call it, biracial. But he didn't ask her, knew she would not answer.
When she dropped him in front of his gate, he thanked her and watched the car go down the street, disappearing from his sight before he went to the gate. Victor looked guilty when he opened up.
His anger returned. "Who gave you the permission to drive my car back?"
"Sah, please don't fire me." He could not imagine a life back in Sabon Tasha. "It was the other sah, he told me to drive."
"Is he crazy?"
Caught in between the two men, Victor didn't know what he was supposed to say. "I don't know sah, maybe he is."
"You're mad." He walked away from him and into the house where Efe leaned on the kitchen counter, shirtless, his bulging chest and biceps accentuating his manly figure, sipping a glass of water. Edegbe stamped his feet and he turned to look at him, then lazily looked away as though he did not see him.