The journey back to Kaduna was the most agonizing one for Taye. He ate nothing all through the way and did not talk to anybody. Anyone who cared to look at him would know without being told that something serious was troubling the young boy.
Taye was still in this miserable state of mind when the train stopped at Kaduna South Junction station. Although he could still travel with the train to Kaduna North Station which was just a stone's throw from his parents' residence, he decided to come down at Kaduna South Junction Station to while away some time before the meeting between himself and his father.
The time was half past five in the evening, just about the time Taye left Akure the previous day. As Taye came out of the coach, the first person he set his eyes on was Bose, his onetime sweetheart with whom he had lost contact a couple of months ago. Taye almost did not believe his eyes, but when he looked properly, whom did he see next to Bose? It was Kehinde, his twin sister. They spotted him in the crowd and hurried towards him. What could they have been doing together? Taye thought. When they met, Kehinde flung herself at him but Bose remained a few steps behind, a smile on her face though. Instead of greeting Bose, Taye posed a question to her. "How? What I mean is where did both of you meet?" Bose merely broadened her smile. They climbed the spiral staircase that led from the platform to the main street above the station and made their way to the Taxi park.
Kehinde approached a cab and after a brief chat, beckoned to Taye and Bose who joined her and boarded the car. Taye was still puzzled and Kehinde was not in a hurry to tell him how Bose came up again. When they were on the road, it was Bose who started talking.
"Taye, so you do not want to show us your result?"
"Why not?" He asked back and he handed it to her. Kehinde shifted closer to Bose who was sitting between her and Taye at the back seat of the vehicle so that he could have a proper look at the result too. The girls were both shocked and they exclaimed together in disappointment.
The taxi driver involuntarily stepped on the brake and they all jerked forward. The man however quickly apologized to his passengers, explaining that he had been startled by the sudden shout. When Kehinde recovered from the shock, she asked.
"Are you sure, this is your result Taye or you are fooling us?"
"That is my result or that is what WAEC gave me. They have spoilt my life", Taye replied, tears welling up in his eyes. The girls began to console him but in their minds they knew Taye was to blame. They knew that Taye took a sharp turn in class five from his usual disciplined way when he joined a bad gang whose stock-in trade was smoking, running after girls, going to discos, parties on-end and cinema or pornographic video-viewing at the homes of some of the boys. Bose thought in her own mind that that was the time she broke off their friendship.
The silence in the cab became rather suffocating for the three of them but they traveled on that way until the taxi driver spoke after he had parked at the edge of the road.
"You say market street junction and Kaduna North Station Quarters? We don reach Market Street, who want get down here?"
'Oh yes", Bose said and she opened the door, stepped outside but was still holding the door while speaking to Kehinde rather hurriedly not to delay the cab further. They agreed to meet the following day as the driver moved away. Taye wanted to ask Kehinde the riddle about Bose but decide that the girl would take a lower estimation of her if all he had started to think about was Bose when even Kehinde was still sad about his result.
The twins reached home downcast and as the cab stopped in front of their home, their younger sibling rushed out of the house happily to welcome them. Taye and Kehinde merely grinned. Their mother was standing in the door but she quickly sensed something was amiss after observing Taye as they moved towards her.
"Hope nothing is wrong?" she asked Kehinde, and turned attention to her son.
"Taye, how's your result?" The boy kept quiet and the woman asked again before he handed the result slip over to her. They were all still standing on the balcony, Taye's mother going through the result.
The driver of the cab who had been watching the drama from his seat sounded his horn to attract attention.
"You never pay, abi you forget"? Kehinde ran back to him, apologized and paid. The cab moved away. Mama, too, was quiet and sad now after going through the slip. She handed it back to Taye.
"Well, your father is in there, go in and show it to him. He's been waiting for you". There was no sympathy in her voice and this pained Taye. Mama entered the living room and headed for the kitchen where she had been working before the shouts of the children brought her out. Kehinde entered, greeted her father who was reading a newspaper in the living room. She went straight to join Mama in the kitchen without first going to change her dress. She however removed her shoes and kept them together with her bag beside the kitchen cabinet.
Taye entered with his younger ones, greeted his father perfunctorily and hurried across the sitting room to his room. The man was suspicious of his son's behaviour and guessed he had not performed well in his examination. He however pretended not to notice anything and waited, murmuring to himself a Yoruba adage which translates to
"He, to whom a wife is being brought, does not go over the fence to peep in expectation". Close one hour, Taye was still in his room.
"Taye! Taye! Taye! Do you want me to come and beg you for the result you went for?" Chief shouted now obviously annoyed. Taye appeared from the bedroom door way and remained there, the result slip in his hand, a sad defiant look in his face. Chief Oluwole looked at his son a long time before asking again.
"So, you want me to come and collect it where you are standing?", after a pause "didn't I warn you to be serious? Now you are hiding when the moment of truth is here". Taye's mother heard her husband's voice from the kitchen where she was and she wiped her hands and put Kehinde in charge of her cooking and came over to the sitting room. She saw Taye where she was in the living doorway and addressed him,
"You are standing there?" and she also spoke with her husband "Baba Ibeji, have you seen the result?
"No, he's still hiding it from me" Chief Oluwole answered. Taye's mother went to him where he was standing and more or less snatched the result slip from him and gave it to her husband. Chief Oluwole picked his glasses from the stool beside his chair and placed it gingerly on the edge of his nose to peruse his son's performance at the West African School Certificate Examination. "Good, very good, good indeed, yes with F9 it is straight to the university". He said, his voice betraying the pain in his heart.
"F9 or what is this? Esther, come and see", Chief roared again calling his wife's first name, which he rarely used, because his usual practice was to call her by the name of one of the twins. But when he called his wife by name, Mrs. Oluwole herself had known by experience that her husband was truly annoyed.
She went to him and sat next to her husband on the double seater.
"Baba Ibeji. I have looked at the result outside when they came back and I myself did not understand it." She chose her words carefully so that she too would not incur the man's wrath because she knew that whenever her husband was cross with anybody, those around him had better watch it or else they would share in the matter. "Well. that's his problem; thank God he's not the only one. At least, he took the same exam with Kehinde", Taye's father soliloquized, shaking his head as he spoke. "Kehinde!" she called out when the girl answered from the kitchen he called out to her to bring her own result again. She went in and after a while she came out and handed a folded sheet to her father curtseying as she did so. The man replaced his glasses again and spread the two sheets on the stool. Then he read out from both results, English F9, A3, Maths F9, C6, Physics C6, English Literature A3, Biology C6, C4, Economics C4, C4, Agric Science C6, Home | Management A3, After making the comparison he gave the two slips to his wife and put away his glasses in its case. He slipped on his slippers and stood up when Taye saw his father coming in his direction he darted across the room towards the kitchen door. "You are running. You think I have time for you. I'm not going to beat you; what will beat you will beat you. When September comes", Chief Oluwole said and entered his bedroom. His wife followed him and they shut the bedroom door.
That Wednesday and the next day were the saddest in Chief Oluwole's household in recent times. Although supper was almost ready before Taye returned with the bad news of his result, only the kids in the house ate that night. And on Thursday, Taye's father did not come out of his room till about 10.00am whereas he used to be up before six on weekdays.