"Why did you agree to go with her?" He asked him.
"She's a beautiful woman, don't you see what she carries on her backside?"
"Are you being serious?"
"She asked me, how could I turn her down especially when she's heartbroken you're not going with her?"
"You know why I refused." He sounded displeased.
"The party is not the problem, you are. Anyway, I had the shit you missed."
"Don't go to the party," he ordered.
"I already said yes."
"Who would help me if you leave?"
"Victor could."
Edegbe glared at him. "You want me to let him into my room?"
"We'll, it's not like he's a pig."
"No, not that. You know how he touches everything, I could just come out of the bathroom and see him lying on my bed."
Efe laughed and signaled the man who was the topic of discussion.
"Sah?"
"Bring chairs for us."
"Okay, Sah." He went to the shade and brought three.
"Why three?" Edegbe asked him.
"In case, maybe, you want to stretch your leg."
"Okay."
"Okay, Sah." He stood by the side, unmoving.
"Why are you still standing there?"
"In case, maybe, you want me to do something for you."
"No, I don't want you to do anything for me."
"Okay, Sah." But he didn't try to move.
"Victor?" Edegbe called.
"Yes, Sah?"
"If you don't want to go back to Sabon Tasha, then get out of my sight."
Efe laughed.
"Okay, Sah. But I have something to say."
"I noticed."
"Can I sit?"
"No," Edegbe deadpanned.
"Okay. Sah, I know that a lot has happened since we moved from Sabon Tasha, in fact since you came here; from the bandits, to your farm and now this and—"
"Mr. Man, for the love of God, get straight to the point!"
"But these things takes time," Efe, laughing, defended. "Allow the young man to land."
"Thank you, Sah. So as I was saying, the people and their way of life annoys you here and this is not your hometown—"
"I'm not listening to his gibberish. Say what you want to say or go."
"Sah, I just wanted to say that if you have any plans of going back to your side, I'll come with you and work for you."
"And what gives you the impression that I'm going back?"
"I'm just saying, in case."
"Sit down, Victor," Efe said.
"He should?" Edegbe stared at him.
"Yes, sit down." Tentatively, he obliged. "What makes you think we'll go back?"
"Because, kai, when these people starts targeting somebody it doesn't end on a failed attempt. If it doesn't work, they'll come again."
"So you think I'm targeted?" Edegbe asked.
"From what those police people were saying, it's possible."
"They talked to you?" He asked and saw him nod. "And you didn't tell me?"
"He just did," Efe said.
"And since when did the both of you become so close that you always defend him?"
"Oh my." He gave a dramatic wave of hand. "I smell something and why, it smells like jealousy."
"You're sick. And I wonder why you'd think somebody would kill other people just to bring one person down."
"Hmmm, Sah, have you not heard of suicide bombing? If they feel threatened by something, maybe a church, one of them can decide to wear bomb and enter the church, behaving like a member and before you know it, BOOM! Everybody, including him, is dead. They can go to the ends of the world to get what they want."
"Imagine that."
Victor went on. "In Sabon Tasha things like kidnapping are very common. One person offends another person and the offended hires a man to deal with the offender. Before you know what is happening, a whole family has gone missing. Then they would start taking ransom from the relatives of the family, and if they're kind enough, they could release just one from the family, maybe the girl who by the time you see her, would be leaping because she had been raped. Some of them get pregnant and don't even know who is responsible because more than one man climbed her. And these men are not even circumcised."
"Who in particular commit these inhuman acts? I don't believe the Islamic law allows them to act like this."
Efe said.
"Of course not," Edegbe argued. "That's why they are hypocritical. You claim to serve a god with dedication and yet you do so well what your god forbids, what form of hypocrisy is that? The highest! And what does people in authority do about this?" His question was answered with silence.
"That why I said, Sah, if maybe you decide to leave, take me with you."
"What about your family?" Efe asked.
"They're in the east. I send them something from time to time, and this is the best paying job I've had since I was born, and I like the both of you very well, so take me with you."
"Well, to burst your bubbles, we're not leaving."
"But you'll take me with you if you decide to leave?"
"We're going to spend at least five years here."
"You and who?" Efe raised his brow and asked.
"I agreed to increase your salary."
"Yes, but you did not tell me there would be a mass shooting. Can't you see that from the time you made your intention to come here, it has been from one nonsense to another?"
"Can you please not start? We keep arriving at a particular destination whenever you take this route."
"I just keep thinking I can put some sense into your head."
"Do not insult me," Edegbe warned, the mood soiled.
"Whatever helps you sleep at night. You can go now if you're done." He directed his last statement to Victor.
"Okay, Sah." He looked between the both of them. "Should I carry the chair?"
"Is a spirit going to seat on it then?" Edegbe barked. "Sometimes I wonder if you don't think, I wonder if any of you think at all." He got up. "You can take the both chairs and maybe, since you like them so much, eat it."
Victor watched him leave with his mouth agape. "But I did not even do anything," he complained.
"You don't need to do anything to get on his bad side when he's ill tempered." Efe told him.
"How do you do this?"
"Do what?"
"Tolerate him? He can be harsh at times even to you, how come you don't get angry?"
"The same reason you're begging to go back south with us when we decide to leave even though he's harsh on you. He's easy to like, and maybe that he can be harsh at times is even what made it easier."
"But, sorry to say this," he weighed his words carefully so he would not be on the man's bad side too, although he doubted, "don't you have your own money?"
"Edegbe would fall into a pit long before he realized the pit was there."
"Are you talking about me?" Edegbe's voice sliced through their discussion.
"No, sah." Victor carried the chair and hurried away from his sight.
"Why did you come back?" Efe asked.
"Come and help me pick a suit."
"A suit? Are you going anywhere?"
"The party."
Efe fought a smile. "Which party?"
"Why are you playing dumb?"
He laughed out loud. "I thought you said you weren't going with her?"
"I'm coming with you." He raised a questioning eyebrow and Edegbe had to continue. "How do you expect that I stay here all alone while you are away or let that talking machine keep me company?"
"So you're going to come with me?"
"That's what I said."
"And you want to pick a suit now?"
"Yes," he firmed.
"This is an event for weeks away."
"I know."
"And since when do I pick dresses up for you?"
"Since I need something that would fit me, something that would look good on me."
Efe couldn't curtail it any longer and burst out laughing. "I seriously cannot believe you're the one making this statement."
He murmured, "I cannot believe it myself."
…
Soliat walked behind Alhaji, conscious of herself. It was not her first time dressed in flattering clothes, clothes that he purchased for her, but she felt more aware. She looked, through the corner of her eyes, at Alhaji who seemed his usual calm self. He smiled at women who would stop to compliment his clothes or hers and humbly brush it off. She watched the guests troop in, amazed at how hyper they were, considering the ceremony. Ceremonies, whether tragic ones like this, had become part of them the same way it was with her, something they very much prided themselves in. She did not like the parties, what she liked was the gossips, the mindless chatting away and dropping off hints of what was intended to be secretive.
She saw Mrs. Yasmin move through guests, Mr. Haruna etched on her side. She looked at beautiful as she was, and it made Soliat remember how, during her childhood, she would dream of becoming a replica of the woman, how she would dress up and stand in the mirror, and changed clothes, and checked again until she felt satisfied with resembling the woman.
She felt a touch to her arm and she jerked.
"What is it?" Alhaji, attuned to her reaction, asked.
"I was just looking at Sister Yasmin, and wondering why she dresses like that."
"She says it makes things easy."
"Make what things easy?"
"I don't know, that's what she said. You know how strange Yasmin can be." He watched her too, swelling with pride as she moved. She said something to Mr. Haruna and he laughed although Alhaji doubted that she had said something funny. She sighted them and paused, maybe deciding if she should walk up to them. Deciding, she walked up to them.
"The peacemaker!" Mr. Haruna hailed Alhaji. "The last time we were here, it was obvious you and your girlfriend had a fight, now you two are looking lovey dovey with each other. Soliat, hello?"
"Hello," was her curt reply while Alhaji laughed and did not offer the man an explanation, much to her delight.
"Oh Solia, you look like you could kill a man." Bello joined them.
"It's Soliat," Alhaji corrected.
"What?" The young man asked.
"You called her Solia, it's Soliat to you, preferably, Ms. Soliat."
It was easy to understand what Alhaji meant, and silence invaded them with that same easiness. Soliat wished a volcano would erupt, or aliens would start falling from the sky, anything to race pass the awkwardness Alhaji had put her into.
"You know that's a rule you cannot change." Mr. Haruna laughed, dissipating the tension, and Soliat felt that for once his nonsense was being helpful. "I could pass for being Yasmin's boy with the way I'm glued to her, she could kill me if she wanted to."
"I would rather waste my time on something more important," Yasmin replied and nodded to the couple.
"Good evening, Mrs. Yasmin," Soliat greeted, wishing that Bello would take an excuse and leave.
"How do you do?" Alhaji asked, trying to be formal.
"Like I normally do."
"Of course," then unable to resist, he pulled her into his embrace.
"It's understandable if Alhaji wishes to take two wives, but that he's wooing them at the same time is so against the rules." Mr. Haruna said, and then his eyes widened. "Wallahi, is that not Mr. Edegbe?"
Edegbe who had just entered the party felt the stares on him. It started as fleeting glances at first, then murmured whispers followed, and soon, they were all staring.
"Is there a particular reason why they're looking at me like I went to the girl's house and pointed a gun to her head?"
"Sir, please," Efe warned.
"Sir, huh? It feels more like you're the sir than I am these days." His eyes narrowed through the guests searching for a woman with the longest hijab, the woman who had come into his hospital room with a gift and a kiss for greeting, a favour he was skeptical about returning. His eyes met hers the same time hers met his, and aware that they were being watched, they stared.