The illegal journey Taye undertook to Kano turned out an awful one. It was a bad experience. All the three vehicles he took had one problem or the other on the way. The third was the worst. One of the back tyres at the drivers side burst as they passed the Jos Bye-way and the commercial vehicle had no extra tyre. Taye made the rest of the journey to town on foot amidst fears that his father might see him because Chief Oluwole's office is on Zaria road.
When Taye arrived at Kawo Bus stop, he boarded the next available bus towards town, not minding whether the bus was going his way or not.
By the time he settled inside, he was pleased he had taken the correct bus and he felt relieved enough to begin to dwell upon the time he had spent with his dear Bose.
The bus pulled into the Bus stop near old Kindsway Stores building and Taye came down here. He was now near home. After about six minutes of steady pace he was within sight of their residence situated in the precinct of the Government College.
It was well past six in the evening already. What told him the time was not his wrist watch but rather the legion of bats which inhabited a bush near their house. The bats usually start to rouse from their nests where they remained all afternoon at six p.m and trooped on masse on a long journey in search of food.
The evergreen forest where the bats inhabit was in fact a plantation of drought resistant xerophytes planted by the government as part of a campaign to fight desert encroachment. The bats used to return at dawn littering the whole neighbourhood with defecation, an indication that their bellies were full.
Taye forgot about the bats as soon as he got to the fence that separated the next building from their compound. He listened for a while, pressing his ear to the wall. The general disposition in their house gave Taye an idea that his old man was not home yet. He then climbed the wall stealthily into their compound. He noticed that as soon as he entered the yard, the fluorescent light in the sitting room started to blink. Taye was still reading meaning to the light when 'Bob' their dog started to bark. The distance between the house and the wall, from where Taye chose to come in was about fifty metres. When he became more recognizable to Bob, she ceased barking and ran towards him wagging its tail.
Kehinde saw Taye as he emerged from under the low Mango trees. Taye was puzzled because his sister still had that disapproving look in her face. Mama appeared from the back door and switched on the outside security light.
"Welcome, but I have never seen you like this", she shouted at her son.
"One thing, I am sure of is that, good College boys I know who pass WAEC at one sitting and in excellent grades don't play about. When your father returns today, it will be between you and him!" Mama fumed and returned to the kitchen to inspect the supper Kehinde was cooking.
That was the end of the matter, as mama did not often like to report the children to their father. And so, Taye went on to perpetrate many more atrocities during that holiday but the hurly-burly of the Christmas season helped to sweep them under the carpet.
Mention must be made of some of these usual behaviour of Taye since the lovebug bit him when he met Bose at the Ibadan Railway station and they journeyed together to the north.
It was love at first sight and indeed Bose was Taye's first love ever.
Taye now often keep late nights dodging out of the house after his parents retired into their bedroom to sleep. Cinema houses in far away Kaduna South became his nightly regular rendervous to watch Indian love films.
By the time Taye came back for the mid-term break during the first term now that he was in form five -WASC class or the final class to use a few of some of the pep names for secondary class five, he already possessed a file for love letters. The file was bulging and as you might have guessed, Bose wrote most of the missives. The letters or rather the love letters in the file were in fact, replies to his own correspondences because Taye was a very beautiful prose writer. His compositions were usually models for his class and he used this ability to advantage whenever he was writing to his 'Inamorata'. That was what he called Bose. There were some other letters written by one Lola and Paulina. Taye also showed to Kehinde a diary that he had been keeping since the first day of the term at school. The diary was full. Each day was full of occasions, events, special events, tit-bits, horoscope, birthdays and so on. Mama got hold of the diary rather by accident one evening as she was preparing dinner, but as usual, she kept the matter from her husband. But she must do something because Taye was getting out of hands, she thought.
Daddy was said to have gone to the club so as to attend to a church matter later in the day. Taye was the Boy's Room unpacking and he had also switched on the bathroom heater for a warm bath. He set the heater to thirty minutes and began straightening his shirts and trousers on the wardrobe rack..
The television in the sitting room was playing the signature tune of a popular TV Hausa Comedy. A humourous society-mirror running only half an hour. Taye knew it was almost a quarter to eight and having finished what he was doing. he started in the direction of the bathroom and then suddenly the red glow of light near the bathroom door went off.
"Oh! NEPA", he cursed.
Taye heard the heavy cough of the generator in the railway station nearby then he heard the familiar horn of oldman's car and the aging Datsun 160B flooded the house with its headlights. The car came to a stop, its light focused on the garage door. Chief Oluwole came out of the car, engine revving. The Oluwoles did not have a generator and the camping gas lamp they sometimes resorted to, could not be used because the cylinder was empty. Mama was calling from the kitchen door and Chief was ordering from the garage gate.
"Let somebody bring a light to me". At the same time, Mama called out.
"Can't somebody get even a candle". Taye hurried out of his room into the sitting room and found his way in the darkness to the dinning area. There, he bumped into Kehinde who was already kneeling beside the wall-unit also looking for the candle in the usual place.
"Any luck, Kenny?" he asked.
"Yes, but the kitchen, on the tray on the fridge", Taye advised and went back to his room.
Meanwhile a baby, Abimbola, was roused in Daddy's bedroom and began to cry. The car was still idling at the garage gate and generators in the neighbourhood were out-shouting one another. Kehinde had been able to light the candle from the flame on the pot of rice on the cooker. She did not bother to look for the box of matches as soon she got to the kitchen.
The car suddenly roared and the headlights switched off and there was darkness, except the light burning steadily under the pot in the kitchen. The light reflecting from the kitchen door and window moulded long silhouettes of the pots and the top of the cooker outside.
Kehinde set the candle stock on the divider between the sitting room and the dinning area and as she turn away, the fluorescent in the sitting room sputtered on.
The light was back.
"These people are back again o", their father said as he came in from the kitchen door. Alaba and Idowu who had run out into the cold night to welcome their father came in with him, one of them carrying his portfolio and the other his coat. His wife appeared from the bedroom room, the baby in her arms. She wore a white apron on top her new guinea-brocade.
"They should please allow us the use of the light this Christmas even if it is not one of their Salah"
When the children had left their father alone in the room their mother went into the bedroom to join him.
The family assembled at the table about Nine 0' clock,. Meeting between father and son had not been very easy lately. Everyone expected a stormy session again at the table.
"Taye, what is this I see on your head?" Chief queried his son. He asked the question again and Mama inspected Taye's hair but did not comment.
"Jerry----Sir", the 'sir' he added after a long pause making it sound like an after-thought.
"The things small gals use to bleach their hair and body? Not so?" he asked. Taye's mother took off from their and began to castigate him.
The painful consensus at the table that night was that Taye had changed for the worse. It was most unpleasant to his parents. At the night prayer, Taye was the subject before God. For the first time, as the children could remember, their father asked a prayer for Taye requesting God to let him have a change of heart like the prodigal son.