Taye wrote his final examination but did not travel home immediately. He waited until the end of school year so that he would travel as usual in the company of a multitude of fellow students. His real motive was that he wanted to be among the first passengers to travel on the new Enugu-Benin-Akure-Okuku standard gauge electric train, the first of its kind in Tropical Africa. He had been following announcements concerning the extension of the modern railway to cover the nation, and the inaugural service was timed to coincide with the rush that usually accompany school vactions.
The train ride from Akure where he joined the express to Okuku to link the old Lagos-Kano train was a most memorable trip. The speed of the trains was amazing, just like the name painted on the coaches 'Eagles.' The coaches and wagons were made-in-Nigeria from the Ajaokuta Steel.
The journey from Akure to Okuku took only one hour despite the many stops en route. The time was barely enough for Taye and many inquisitive passengers to undertake a tour of the train. They continued the rest of the journey on the narrower slow line that would soon be scrapped when work is completed on the alternative line to link the coast to the North.
The Okuku central station was spacious and very beautiful terminal. Those who have been to London said it shared many similarities with the Victoria station in the British capital. It was an underground junction with trains movement in three cardinal points and the charts put up everywhere clearly showed where each line headed.
Lagos-Kano line was represented red on the chart and it ran south-North while the new electric line marked green ran in from East to join the red line. The parabola of the underground was covered in green white green tiles.
In some stations, the name of the station, as in Akure station was written all over the tiles. At Okuku, the lifts and escalators which conveyed people from the underground to the street level have capacity to carry over one hundred persons at a time.
Taye was happy for Nigeria. This was the kind of joy which overwhelmed when NITEL began to provide booths in the streets. He was proud of his country and it was the first time in recent times that he had not felt bitter and pessimistic. He silently prayed all the way for the government who planned and executed the express trains and told the news of the electric trains to all and sundry when he arrived in Kaduna.
It was Chief Oluwole's wish and hope that when the twins left secondary school, both of them would enter the university together; but that hope may be dashed with Taye's current performance. Chief did not even expect him to pass now, much less gaining entry into any higher institution. He believed, however, that Kehinde would surely scale through. But how Taye had changed completely within a year from the top of the class to the bottom was too much for Chief to comprehend.
At the table that afternoon, Chief Oluwole informed his household that the papers carried it that the result of the last school certificate was out and asked Taye and Kehinde to be ready within the week to travel to their respective schools to collect their results. They made an arrangement that the twins should wash their clothes on Monday and Taye would travel down South on Tuesday while Kehinde whose former school was in Funta, only a few kilometers from Kaduna, should be ready to go and collect hers on Wednesday. Overwhelmed by nervousness, the twins lost appetite and they merely toyed with their rations until their parents left the table before they turned the untouched meal over to Bob, their faithful dog.
Kenny, Ken, Ken, are you there?" It was Taye calling from the sitting room. She was pounding yam in the kitchen, so she could not hear. After Taye had called some more time he decided to go over to the kitchen to meet Kehinde.
"Kenny, do you think I'll make it?" Taye asked now that he stood in the door between the kitchen and the dinning area.
Kehinde stopped the pounding and replied her second half (that's what she called Taye).
"I tell you, if I were you, I won't bother about my result because I will be sure. You----". He cut in, "No, you flatter me. Didn't I tell you I didn't read. Honestly", lowering his voice now, "I confessed to you, didn't i? I was all the while thinking about the nasty letter that foolish girl wrote to me"'.
"Yes, I know but I think you said you put her out of your mind by writing her off too?"
At the end of her statement Mama came into the kitchen from the backyard. Automatically, Kehinde continued pounding and Taye sneaked back to his work. Taye had been charged to change the newspaper, which were laid in the pantry cupboard and clean the shelf.
The next day after they had finished washing their clothes in the morning. Taye took permission from Mama to go and see some of his school mates to confirm the story about the release of the results. When he got to Hassan's house he learnt that he too had read the papers and that he had traveled earlier that day. Taye also branched off to see Daria, his new girl friend. He went to her mother's shop but she was not there. Taye's friendship with Daria began soon after he returned home last holiday.
Daria was Kehinde's bosom friend and Kehinde had acted as a matchmaker. Kehinde was aware that the relationship between her twin brother and his most cherished Bose had shattered Taye's life and she wanted a comforter for him. That was her reason for inviting Daria to their house. Mama was not suspicious of the friendship because as soon as Daria said yes to Taye, she had limited her visits to Kehinde. It was Taye who was now always going to meet her at her mother's shop. On days when Daria had things to do at home, or on Sundays when they did not open the shop, she forbade Taye coming to their quarters despite the fact that Daria's house was not far from Taye's. So, on this particular occasion, Daria was not available.
Taye returned home dejected but with a vow to see her at all costs before traveling the following day. He encouraged Kehinde to go and check her friend. She came back to report that only senior Alhaja, Daria's mother, was at home and that Alhaji, Daria's father, had taken her to her school to check her result.
"Yes, I guessed right", Taye interjected but said to himself that he would try again later that day.
And he did try again but without success. Though Taye heard Daria talking excitedly beside the house, he lacked the boldness to enter the brown bungalow where Daria's father lived with his three wives and many children.
Taye passed the front of the house many times without catching a glimpse of his newest inamorata. That seemed to be Taye's special name for his sweet hearts. He called Bose that, too, but in his letters and notes to her he always prefixed with, "My affectionate inamorata".
Although, Alhaji's car was not around, Taye could still not muster enough courage to enter the courtyard because all Alhaji's wives were in purdah. Men were not usually allowed to enter houses where women in purdah reside. Taye debated it within himself and reasoned that he was not yet a man but he could still not enter. When it dawned on him that it was getting late and that his oldman might be back, he rushed back home saying repeatedly as he went.
"Today is not my day".
When Taye got home, his old man was already on the supper table. Taye changed his shirt and trousers at the Boys' Quarters from the few clothes he kept on their gardener's rack for an occasion like this. He strolled in casually and naturally as if he had been out at the backyard to remove the clothes from the line. Kehinde and Mama who knew Taye had been out all day, exchanged conspiratorial glances. One of his brothers, however, blew Taye's lid by running to hug him in a welcome embrace. This raised Chief's suspicion and he queried Taye immediately.
"Sir, I am coming from my friend to find out whether he saw the
newspaper report that our result is out."
"What was your finding?" Chief asked his son. He did not wait for Taye to reply before the Chief started to talk with his wife. Chief said he forgot to inform his wife yesterday after he returned from the club that he found out, contrary to the newspaper report, That WASCE result was not yet out.
"Your friend's husband told me that they told the press that the result was ready, not that it has been released".
"One doesn't know who to believe in this country", Mama sighed and began to lambast the press. Taye was perturbed. And, again, he felt a little elated but more importantly he had wanted to utilize the trip to the south to collect his result as a respite from the coldness the old man had developed towards him. Another one hell of a week in that house before the escape, Taye thought.
Mama regarded newspaper as sometimes unreliable, although she had a brother who was a journalist through whom she too had been a columnist in a weekly. She read lots of newspapers only as a vehicle for education and entertainment. It was Mama's view that most newsmen did not have the guts to report the news as it really happened. Then, Kehinde took Mama up. "But Mrs. Oluwole", she taunted her mother," Uncle K always asked you to write to the editors of these newspaper to tell them to their faces".
The challenge excited Chief and he released a loud throaty laugh. It was a long time he laughed like that at home. The laugh infected everyone and the dull table atmosphere suddenly changed for the better.
He could not tell when he woke up the following day or how he had slept. He gathered himself slowly and attempted to plan the day but there was nothing to plan for him. Taye realized that he had been rendered jobless in the house. The car which he used to wake up early to wash was now being washed by the gardener. The dry cleaners now wash his father's clothes and Washerman who came to wash every Saturday. His little brothers had also been drafted to washing Daddy's briefs. Nothing was left for him to do.
Taye therefore resolved to warm his way back to his father's heart.
"How time changes", he said to himself. Taye decided to toe the narrow path henceforth. He will turn a new leaf and be a good boy again whatever the result brought. Taye even made up his mind not to go to Daria's shop again.