23.
Ofure could hear her husband and daughter calling her name and trying to catch up with her pace, but her fears kept thrusting her forward.
‘Run faster. Your son is in jail. Run’.
Ofure did not even have enough time to sit and think about the events that had rocked her thoughts. She had been on her way to see the principal when she saw Johnny who she was sure had seen her. She had murmured and cried about her worries to the man. With a straight face he had told her to damn her husband.
‘I have decided in my heart that If you leave him, I am willing to marry you’.
‘Your children nko’
‘They are all grown up and they will soon grow up to understand love and sacrifice. My wife and I live like strangers. I am only happy whenever I am with you. Can you not tell how sad I become whenever I have to see you go home to that child, who eats off your sweat?’
Ofure knew he spoke the truth. He enjoyed her company and never treated her as one who was too ill equipped to understand his world. He also cared for her children and had assisted her in paying their fees sometimes. Life with Collins was not what she expected but the man gave her no trouble. All she had for him was not love, but pity. The only thing stopping her from damning the world and following this man were her children. Ofure reminded herself that she had started this sin for her own children and not for her own joy. When the principal saw that Ofure was deep in thought, he said, ‘It is not a decision you can make in a day. Think about it first. But now, we must go and buy some stuffs from the market. You will tell your husband that I called you to the hotel because I brought some food for you from the village’.
When Ofure got to the police cell, she had lost her voice. All she had were heavy breath and teary eyes. When she recovered, all she could say was ‘Give me my son or you will kill me too’.