The Morning After

Blackmail [hr] [B]LINK TO AVAILABLE EPISODES[/B] •Episode 2-3 •Episode 4-6 •Episode 7-9 •Last Episode

nice start ...seated

This is too much

Mnice start.

funmi stay away from dunni and bode if u want to live long

FIRE ON!

next ep

The Morning After – Episode 2: Insult To Injury WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 26th, 2014. Ogba, Lagos. Funmi lay on the bed sick to the pit of her stomach. She was physically and emotionally drained. Too weak to cry anymore. The walls in her room constantly seemed to be closing in on her or maybe she was just going insane. A tear trickled down her cheek leaving a path of pain as it travelled down. Was the pleasure of the party worth the pain that was threatening to consume her soul? The music was soothing, with flashing lights. The place smelt of rose flowers. She loved it. Dressed up in her black gown that just rested a little above her knees, her curves were accentuated by the perfect slim-fit of the gown. ‘Bode almost ate you up when he picked us up in the house,’ Dunni said teasing. ‘He couldn’t keep his eyes from the rear view mirror, always peeping backwards. I was just praying that he would get us here without any incidents’. ‘What time are we leaving again?’ She asked Dunni, totally off the line of discussion. ‘What’s your P? We just arrived,’ Dunni replied in astonishment. ‘I have never seen a bigger kill joy than you I swear.’ ‘What time?’ She repeated, smiling. ‘Eleven.’ Dunni replied ‘But you told me ten before we left the house.’ I’ve been drinking, I’ve been drinking I get filthy when that liquor get into me… The ambience in the room immediately changed as there was a roar of approval for the djs’ choice of music. Dunni ignored her as she swayed to Beyoncé’s ‘drunk in love’. ‘Hey,’ Bode bounced into the mix smiling, he had two glasses of wine in his hand. Dunni looked at Bode with the glasses in his hand and then turned her gaze on her and in the rhythm of the playing song started singing, ‘he’s been drinking, he’s been drinking, ‘pointing at Bode. The group laughed as Dunni excused herself taking a glass with her. Bode offered her the other glass but still smiling, she refused. ‘I don’t take wine, do they have something soft…I don’t want to be drunk like two cousins’. ‘Very funny. I’ll tell Dunni you called her a drunk,’ Bode said as he left to go get her another drink. ‘Keep my space, there are too many wolves in this room.’ She laughed. Maybe her instincts had been wrong all along. This Bode guy wasn’t such a bad guy after-all. And she couldn’t deny that he had a thing with the ladies as it wasn’t lost on her how the eyes of the ladies in the room trailed him. How they all wished to be in her shoes right now. Maybe she should consider herself lucky They had chatted for a long while, with Bode easing her out to a quieter place. He made her laugh, giving her glass after glass of juice as they talked about themselves. ‘Not anymore,’ she said rejecting the next glass. ‘Scared of being drunk on juice?’ Bode asked, his hand still offering the glass. ‘Scared of having to visit the toilet because I couldn’t reject another glass,’ she replied with her eyes fluttering. The scenes blurred out. The tears running down her cheeks brought her back to the present. She should have trusted her instincts, instead she chose to trust a complete stranger in Bode, gulping glass after glass of laced juice. She remembered his coy smile on Saturday as she walked past the door, into the eatery. He was not surprised to see her. ‘What will you take?’ He asked, his hands travelling across the table to wrap up hers. She recoiled, withdrawing her hands from his almost immediately. He laughed. A very devious laugh. He didn’t look so handsome anymore. He looked evil. Handsomely evil, a part of her chipped in. ‘Can we get this over with please, why did you ask me over?’ Bode ignored her and instead got out his phone. He fiddled with it for a couple of seconds, his face cold as steel. ‘Put on the Bluetooth of your phone,’ he ordered. She hated him so much, her eyes literarily spewed with venom. She saw his phone’s Bluetooth request and paired both devices. Would you like to receive a file from Bawwdey! She scrolled up to the Yes option on her phone and tapped it. Receiving ‘Valentine 2014′ Seeing the tag of the file irked her…she was just a number after all. Tucked away somewhere, maybe in a cupboard or a file, was a ‘valentine 2013′, ‘valentine 2012′, ‘valentine 2011,’ and so on and so forth. And now she was just one of them. ‘Funmi, you’re a big fool!’ She cursed under her breath. Bode was talking to a waiter, but she could tell he was watching her. As the file transfer completion rate reached 90%, her entire body system changed. The rate of her heartbeat doubled. For someone who had never had a heart attack, this sensation felt like one. 95%…97%…98%…99%…99%…99%… She bit her lips in anger. What’s with 99%, that the file was busy hugging? 100%. ‘It’s complete,’ Bode said, like he was surprised the transfer was successful. ‘Yes it is and if there’s nothing else you called me out here for, I’d like to be on my way home.’ The calmness of her voice surprised even herself and she could see that look of wonder in Bode’s face. ‘You mean, you won’t open it?’ Bode asked. It was obvious this was not the script he had played out in his head. ‘It’s in my phone and I will open it when I want to,’ she said rising up from her chair, and with her clutch in hand, left Bode’s staring eyes and half open mouth trailing her. She couldn’t remember how she got home that day, or where she got her strength from but she remembered mumbling greetings to her mum and her guest who were in the sitting room chatting. Safe in her room and on her bed, she searched out ‘valentine 2014′ in her phone and seeing it, pressed play. Her eyes opened wide in shock as the video began to play. She peered closely into her phone, refusing to recognise the person in the video. It was the same black gown and the same hair. She couldn’t see the eyes of the stranger in the video because it was shut. This stranger was a splitting image of her. ‘Damn, she’s stoned.’ She heard Bode say. He sounded very excited. She felt a crawling sensation on her skin as she watched Bode run his fingers on her neck. No, No, No she heard the stranger gurgle, but Bode was already in a state of delirium telling by the now unsteady motion of the pictures. It was a ten minute, thirty four seconds video and it was only just past one minute, five seconds. Every second was torture. She watched as Bode’s free hand reached out for the zipper of her gown while still trying very hard to keep the pictures stable and focused on her. As she saw his hand sliding down her gown in a zipping motion, she couldn’t take it anymore as she buried her head into her pillows and let out a heart rending yell. Her body vibrating as she sobbed into the comforting silence of the pillow. Dwelling on these memories was what made her both emotionally and physically drained, but the confusion made her clueless to what else she could be doing. She reached out for the pillow and like she’s been wont to do these past days, buried her head right into it. She wasn’t crying and for the first time in a long while, seemed to have a clear head. However, the longer her head was buried in the pillow, the more difficult it was for her to breathe. I can kill myself…I can kill myself…I can…I will Images of a lifeless ‘Funmi’ flashed in her mind as she pushed her head deeper into the pillow. She was determined to exorcise the stranger that had put her into this mess and suffocation seemed like a good way to do it. How come she never thought about it? Now she can escape the shame, the blame, the insults, the shock, the pain, the talk, her father’s disappointment, her mother’s rejection, her siblings’ unbelief… It’s goodbye world, from Funmi with love. IV WEDNESDAY, MARCH 5th, 2014. Ikoyi, Lagos. ‘Bode, this is wrong.’ Dunni said, looking not at all pleased. ‘Why would you record it? For what purpose were you intending to use it for?’ Bode looked rather uninterested in the conversation as he fiddled with his phone. ‘My break time actually ends by 1:45pm and I’m already fifteen minutes late. We have talked over this for the past thirty minutes and because of your too much talk I couldn’t eat the way I normally eat,’ Bode said, his face creasing into a smile that quickly disappeared as Dunni’s look didn’t seem ready to entertain jokes. ‘I beg you Bode, just delete the videos. The one on your phone and the one you say you copied on your laptop in the house. You have made my friend’s life a living hell. Please’. ‘Wait,’ Bode gestured to his cousin sitting across the table. ‘Don’t get sanctimonious with me. If I remember correctly, you were the one that collected thirty thousand bucks from me to deliver her to the party. I’m not a pastor but if my Sunday school is right, the number thirty sure rings a bell…chimes like Judas to me’. Dunni stared at her cousin with shock clearly registered on her face, she was not sure if she was hearing him talk or a ghost that resembled him. ‘I never asked that you rape her or make a video of it,’ she protested rather weakly. ‘Bode…’ ‘Hold it,’ Bode interjected. ‘I’m sure Funmi would like to know that you put a price on her and also that you knew her drink was drugged. If you didn’t want me to rape her or make a video of it, what did you want me to do? Get her autograph?’ Bode spat out, his tone dripping with sarcasm. ‘You surprise me…you really have changed.’ Dunni grinded her teeth in fury as she grabbed her bag and made to leave but Bode held her hand, his eyes entreating her to stay back. ‘Get her to come with you to my birthday bash on Friday, I’ll delete the videos. I promise’. Dunni freed herself from his grip but without the anger with which she had risen from her chair. She had acquiesced to his suggestion, as usual. Her cousin was a manipulative bastard and she had never found the strength to bluff him. Bode watched her retreating figure till she got out of sight. He had made a claim to going back to work as his break time was over but now that he was alone, he felt no desire to leave his chair. He stared at his reflection in the glass partitions of the eatery. He had changed. He knew but he couldn’t help it. He traced the lines of the now fading scar on his forehead, just at the start of his hairline with his finger. Time had tried its best to heal his physical wounds but his emotional wounds were still as fresh as that Thursday night, the fourteenth day of February, 2008. He had arrived in Benin after almost an eight hour trip from Kaduna where he was doing his youth service. He just couldn’t wait to see the look in Julia’s eyes. She would pass out with pleasure, he kept telling himself. She was in her final year and had moved in to his apartment immediately he graduated. He had actually forced her to take over the one bedroom apartment at the BDPA housing estates opposite the university’s main campus as he wanted her to be very comfortable in her last year in school. He left the apartment without taking a pin and even went ahead to pay the rents for the next year just to cover Julia’s expenses. He loved her that much and besides, he could afford it. As he stepped into the gate, he saw a black Honda CRV parked in the compound. So this is why Julia can’t stop talking about a CRV? he smiled to himself. He never knew the landlord had such a taste for cars, but you know, people change. It was all planned. The flowers, the gown, the dinner…the valentine, it was meticulously planned out. All his savings marshalled out to please the love of his life, the woman of his dreams and his soon to be wife. He was a sucker for love and he was very proud to be. He knocked on the door, with the flower in his right hand, hid behind him, while his left hand held his bag. He had his boyish smile on – the one that highlighted his dimples and made him irresistible. He was ready for the tarraaaah! When the door opened and a man in his early thirties stood at the entrance with questioning eyes. ‘Yes?’ The stranger asked. ‘I’m here to see Julia,’ he replied. The expression on his face already switched to a frown. The damage though had been done as that boyish smile, already made him look so much like a clown. ‘Jules, someone is here to see you,’ the stranger called out to her as he stepped back into the apartment, shutting the door. He stood there not sure what was happening. He knew the plot but it seemed so unreal. His own ‘Julia’ was whom this guy just called ‘Jules’ and in an apartment that was somehow still his. The door opened again and Efe, Julia’s friend stepped out. ‘Bode,’ she shrieked in shock, her eyes filled with fear. Before he could reply, Julia stepped out with the stranger whose hands were wrapped around her waist. ‘Julia’. The words had escaped from his mouth before he could stop them. They revealed his pain. ‘Meet my fiancé, Frank. And Frankie, this is my ex Bode.’ He felt a wrenching pain in his heart as she spoke out those words, he made to grab her hand, but she pulled back instinctively causing Frank to come between them. ‘I hope there’s not a problem,’ Frank said, his fingers knotting into a fist. Bode ignored him. If this was a movie, this would be the scene where he would land a punch right on the cheek of this imposter but sadly enough, it wasn’t a movie and he didn’t graduate with a second class upper in mechanical engineering by being stupid. The guy standing in front of him would beat him silly if it boiled down to physical combat and he wasn’t in the mood for a beat down – he just wanted his girl. He remembered being left behind with Efe while Julia waltzed off with Frank, right into the Honda CRV -her dream car- to God knows where. As he walked to the bus-stop to take a bus to the park, he felt a tear drop scalding his cheek. He quickly wiped it off. ‘I won’t cry for a girl,’ he muttered to himself, His face wrinkled in pain. He had never been heartbroken before in his life, Julia was his first and only love. He felt feverish and his knees wobbled, while his heart shook with every step he took, like it would fall out of position. The pain was real, heartbreak was hell. As the bus journeyed out of Benin to Abuja, he got tortured every bit of the way as the speakers boomed out one love song after another. ‘Valentine things,’ a fellow passenger cooed, smiling sheepishly. He eyed her and placed his head on the seat in front of him. He felt like a thousand needles were pricking his heart. He can’t forget the song that was playing when it happened, it was Michael Bolton’s, Baby you don’t know what it’s like, Baby you don’t know what it’s like, to love somebody…and then the loud blast of a burst tire…passengers screaming…and baam! Blackout. Countless heartbreaks, three sex tapes and a rape later, his evolution was complete. Amaka was his first sex tape victim, Funmi his first rape victim and the fun was just starting. Bode Johnson 2.0 was an animal and girls were going to pay for the pains Julia served him. He smiled wickedly at the glassed partition, liking the image of his reflection. ‘I will give them money and I will serve them pain,’ he said as he rose up from his chair and made it back to the office. ***

Stupid guy, does all that fill d emptiness in his heart.

Craziness

this is blackmail,,, she needs to act fast if she doesn't want to bcom his puppet

damnnn

That's overdoing things Na... It's enough already. I hope u come back to ur senses b4 u do more harms

The Morning After – Episode 3: Sex Tapes and Helping Hands SATURDAY, MARCH 8th, 2014. Isolo, Lagos. 4PM Dunni looked at her phone in exasperation, she had been trying to call Funmi but the calls just wouldn’t connect as her primary line was switched off while her alternate line was dropping calls. She had called earlier in the morning, only for it to ring out. ‘Atleast she should have seen my missed calls and called me back’, Dunni complained to no one in particular. The last time she had heard from Funmi was two weeks ago, the last Tuesday in the month of February to be precise, when Funmi had called her to enquire if she had succeeded in getting Bode to delete the videos. If she had been told that Bode would make a video of her friend and then blackmail her with it, she would have sworn on his behalf that it was not possible, but after what happened this past Wednesday where he even threatened her, she wasn’t so sure anymore. As for the rape? All men are rapists and she really didn’t understand why Funmi was taking this matter overboard. She could understand how it felt to be disvirgined via rape because uncle George had raped her too as a virgin when she was only sixteen and when she had told her mum about it, all she got for a response was, ‘please don’t let your daddy know, he will drive my brother, your uncle out of the house and there’s nowhere else for him to go and he’ll be homeless and that will be your fault’. She remembered very vividly how her mum had told her to keep shut about the incident as raped victims don’t get husbands when they talk, going as far as to subtly infer that it was her fault she got raped. Her dad never got to know because she never told him, but her life definitely never remained the same. She had known Funmi since she was ten as both of them had gone to the same secondary school but had only become very close friends to the point of being called sisters when her dad had come visiting her in school and met his university school mate and friend who happened to be Funmi’s dad. The bond had grown as she automatically now had two fathers, Funmi’s and hers and would later get to spend holidays at the home of the Badejos. The flip side however was that as the bond grew, so did the tendency for her dad to compare her with Funmi. ‘Funmi had seven A’s in her W.A.E.C and you could only just scrape through,’ her dad had moaned waving her result slip at her face in the sitting room. He visibly wasn’t pleased and it became even worse when Funmi afterwards got admission to read chemical engineering in the university and she didn’t make it in. He didn’t shout at her. He just waved his head, ‘and she’s your mate,’ he hissed. ‘And to think that you’re even older than her with three months’. And when she finally got her admission a year later and had gladly broke the news to him, all he said was, ‘so we won’t have peace in this house because you got admission to read sociology in school, when your junior is in her second year studying chemical engineering. I’m proud of you’. She loved Funmi as a friend and maybe as a sister but she just couldn’t help but feel a tinge of jealousy at the perfect state of her life. Nobody had the right to such a beautiful life and this was where Bode fit into the plot – a playboy extraordinaire. He was supposed to be the dirt in the glittering diamond called Funmi. He was the one to make her fall in love and like a serial playboy that she knew he was, cause her pain by breaking her heart -not rape her. Okay, maybe force himself on her but definitely not make a video of it. She liked Funmi as a friend but not as someone who made her feel like second grade. She tried calling the numbers again but they still wouldn’t connect. ‘Thank God, the petrol scarcity is over, I’ll just go and visit,’ she sighed, finally giving up on calling. *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** Magodo, Lagos. 10PM Bode checked his fridge to see if there was any remnant from yesterday’s party but all he could find were drinks. He was tired of drinking. He had slept throughout the day, a hangover from yesterday’s party. It was a blast of a party with the only hitch being the absence of Funmi. He had made plans for her but she didn’t come. Even Dunni didn’t come but there were plenty of girls around to make the place a lot of fun. It was time to up the ante as it was obvious Funmi wasn’t ready to play ball. He fingers roved on his laptop’s touch pad as he now expertly uploaded the video and sent the file. In about three hours, the video would be published and he would send the link to that bitch. She obviously thought he was bluffing. He moved the cursor to ‘Valentine 2012′ and clicked on it. A smile playing on his lips as he watched scenes from his very first sex-tape. Amaka Obi was the closest he could ever get to a perfect sex-tape. She was happily married now oblivious of her status as a porn star. He licked his lips as he thought of the phrase happily married. Funmi was his next toy and he would make sure she feels the wrath of the beast called Bode. He picked up his phone, tapping on his keypads as he sent a text to Funmi, he wanted it to be the first thing she saw when she woke up. You made a big mistake by not coming to the party yesterday, it was your chance for a truce. I’ll send you the link when the video is published, you’re about to get famous. As he smacked his lips at the seemingly perfect construction of his threat text, there was a beep on his phone. It was a text message. He picked up his phone, not sure who was texting. He didn’t want to believe it was Funmi as she had never replied any of his messages before. Or maybe she couldn’t withstand the fire in this text? He salivated as he thought of the possibility of the text being from her and fantasized about her begging him. The text was from an unregistered number and so he had another milli-second of suspense as he scrolled up to the text to read it. You made a big mistake by making a video of how you raped me. What stronger evidence does the judge need? You’re about to spend the rest of your life in hell! Funmi.   VI   SATURDAY, MARCH 8th, 2014. Ogba, Lagos. 11PM Funmi tapped the end button as she felt her phone vibrate, signalling a call. She didn’t have to look to see who it was to know that it was Bode calling. She switched her phone to silent mode as she expected a repeat call and true to her expectation and less than twenty seconds later, the backlight of her phone blinked repeatedly to signal an incoming call. She picked her phone up and looked at the screen just to confirm her suspicions of who the caller was, she was right. It was Bode. She put away both of her phones but not before placing the second phone on silent mode too, as she was sure he would call her other line if she still refused picking his call. Why was he calling? What was he calling to say? These were the questions that raced on the lanes of her mind. He obviously didn’t expect her to reply his text and even if he did, she was sure he did not envisage the nature of the reply that he got. She smiled. It felt strange at first to feel a smile cover her face after almost a month of pain. And then to think that she, ‘Funmilola Badejo’ would contemplate suicide was unbelievable. She remembered burying her head deep into the pillow, she remembered the increasing dullness of her brain that characterised the gradual fading to nothingness by suffocation until her mum’s voice snapped her out from her hypnosis. She had come to tell her that she was going out, but more than that, she had saved her life by that timely interruption. ‘Funmi!’ Jumoke had screamed on hearing the account of her attempted suicide. Her voice rich with a blend of shock and pain, ‘you want to leave me without a sister?’ She asked in a tone that exposed her hurt. She could feel her elder sister’s voice quivering over the phone. It had that tremor to it that usually preceded crying. She had seen Jumoke cry only twice. The first was when grandma died and the reason for the second she never got to know. She only realised that Jumoke stopped sneaking her out to see Ebuka after that day. Definitely Jumoke wasn’t about to cry again, unlike her, Jumoke wasn’t into crying. ‘What in the world would I have told Jason happened to his aunty? Who will be aunty to this one I have in my tummy? Who will I boast to my friends about?’ She was on a roll asking questions that had no answers and her voice was breaking with every word, ‘You are a fighter Funmi, not a quitter. You can’t let an incident or an animal make me lose you.’ Jumoke said in a voice choking with emotions. She finally broke down in heart wrenching sobs, clearly overwhelmed with pain. She was devastated. ‘I’m sorry,’ was all she could say as she listened to her sister’s painful sobs over the phone. It dawned on her that she had been selfish not to have thought of her family, those that genuinely cared for her before cowardly trying to kill herself. The next thirty minutes on phone with Jumoke changed everything. Crying together like only sisters can, made her realise she was not alone. The situation was not as bad and scary as she thought and she definitely was not weak. As Jumoke kept on saying ‘You’re Funmilola Badejo, you’re not a quitter,’ she felt a bust of strength well up in her. By the time the call was over, she had become a new person. Jumoke had even offered to travel down from London but she had stopped her, it was not too safe to fly at this stage of her pregnancy, besides she was sure she could handle the matter herself moving forward – she had been reinvigorated. This was not the old weak Funmi, ‘this Funmi is a fighter,’ she said under her breath. A plan had been set up by the two sisters and Bode was going to get a run for his money. She had just found a Violence Against Women (VAW) centre on the internet that was at Ojodu when she received the text from Bode, you made a big mistake by not coming to the party yesterday, it was your chance for a truce. I’ll send you the link when the video is published, you’re about to get famous. It was a wrong time for the text to have come in as she was in her warrior mood and with a clear head and a calm state, she had typed her reply. And when the text returned a message not sentreport because the phone had no units in it, she had patiently typed a repeat message on her other line and sent it with her name signed at the end of the text. She could still feel the smile playing around her lips, she had cried for too long, she had no regrets letting the smile continue. She switched off the light with the bed switch and welcomed the darkness to her room. She couldn’t wait for Monday, to begin her quest for justice. ‘I’m Funmilola Badejo,’ she whispered to herself in the darkness, ‘and I’m a warrior.’ *** Magodo, Lagos. 11PM Bode looked at his phone in horror as the call returned with a Number busy response. He tried again, but this time there was no response as the call rang out. The number wasn’t her regular number but he didn’t need a prophet to tell him that the text was from Funmi, after all she signed out with her name. Where did her boldness come from? He was clearly agitated as he tapped his feet on the ground uncontrollably. Beads of sweat formed on his forehead as he felt an urgent need to pee. He looked up at the air-conditioning unit to check that it was still working, and surprisingly the green light that shows that it is, was on. He got up and made for the toilet, gritting his teeth as he did. He hadn’t seen this coming at all. The tables looked to have been turned against him in this one. Whoever went to court for rape? Didn’t they say stigmatisation and shame stopped girls from reporting rape cases? So why now? Why in his case? Dunni was the key to stopping this mess before it got any messier. ‘Bode, calm down,’ he muttered, trying to re-assure himself, sucking up air in a bid to relax. He hated himself for being so lily livered. She had sent him just one text and all his organs were already working on overdrive. He searched out Dunni’s number on his phone but decided against it, seeing that it was already too late and besides, he didn’t think he could trust himself talking in this condition. Thank God Funmi did not even pick her call earlier, this was the wrong time to appear rattled. That would extinguish every form or hope of leverage he possessed in this fight. Like Kasparov in a chess game, he was determined to outwit that nitwit by the name of Funmi. He slipped into the bed after reducing the temperature on the air-conditioning unit some more, bringing the needed cool back into the room. He needed some soothing music to relax his mind and make his brain function properly. He picked up the remote for his home theatre system which was already playing but which was merely audible as he had earlier reduced the volume when he was trying to make a call to Funmi. He tried increasing the volume but just like yesterday, the control wasn’t responding. He tapped the remote control against his palm and miraculously the home theatre system responded as he could hear Fela loud and clear. He would have to change the batteries of the remote control tomorrow as he didn’t like this tapping technique at all. He pressed the buttons to skip the song, he wanted some classical tunes to prepare his mind for this impending war, it was time to listen to Yanni, but Fela stubbornly refused to stop singing. He tapped the remote control against his palm and tried again but the home theatre didn’t respond this time. The batteries were finally gone. Confusion break-ee bone-ee yepa…Confusion break-ee bone-ee yepa ‘Damn!’ He cursed, ‘this is indeed soothing.’ How come Fela is preaching confusion at the exact moment, he wanted clarity of mind? If he was not so tired he would have gone to put off the music. He took his pillow and covered his head trying to muff the sound but the music seeped through. Double wahala for dead-ee body and the owner of dead-ee body, as the music played, all he could hear was Double wahala for dead-ee bode and the owner of dead-ee bode, he sprung out of the bed and made for the home theatre, the music was driving him nuts. So even Fela now wants him dead. He tapped the ‘off’ button, silencing the home theatre but as he made his way back to his bed, he realised that the music was still playing in his head, Double wahala for dead-ee bode and the owner of dead-ee bode. It was going to be a really long night. ***

This is Starless Night that you posted naw

blood of Jesus,,,, but dis anoda story

it has been fixed

The Morning After – Episode 4: Baby Steps MONDAY, MARCH 10th, 2014. Akoka, Lagos. 9AM —— Dunni glanced at the wall clock in the class and bit her lower lip in impatience, she knew it was too early to be bothered about the time but she just couldn’t help it. She had made up her mind to see Funmi today and was only in class because the first class was Mr Fakorede’s. His classes were not something to toy with and besides, there was an assignment to submit. She had earlier checked on Funmi in her department but had been told by Agnes, Funmi’s class rep that Funmi had been skipping classes lately and had actually been absent for over a week now. ‘I should be asking you about her whereabouts, not the other way round,’ Agnes queried as Dunni laughed it away, her words stuck in her throat. She knew she couldn’t postpone going to Funmi’s house any longer after Bode’s call had woken her up so early on a Sunday morning. His message was clear. ‘We’re both in this together Dunni, and don’t for any reason believe I won’t go name calling.’ He threatened. ‘I don’t have that kind of honour.’ ‘Bode, you don’t have any honour,’ Dunni retorted, seething with rage. ‘And what will you say I did? I didn’t ask you to rape her, did I? Or did I ask you to make a video of it?’ She asked into the receiver, her palms burning the plastic cover of the phone as she plastered it to her ears. It was unbelievable that she would have talked to Bode in that manner in normal circumstances, but this here, was not a normal circumstance. ‘Nope,’ Bode quipped, not sounding offended in any way by his younger cousin’s seeming disrespect. There was too much at stake to be distracted, ‘But you delivered her to the party after accepting a bribe and you helped drug her,’ He stated calmly, ‘at-least that will be my story, whether it’s true or it’s not, is a case of debate. Dunni, I don’t want to do this but if you continue to be unreasonable, then I don’t have a choice. You’re actually beginning to sound like a broken record with your repeated moans on whether you asked me to make a video or not. What I ask is simple, just follow the plan like I explained and nobody gets hurt. How hard can that be?’ Bode asked, his voice smooth and sounding every inch like the devil he was. Dunni was quiet. No matter how much she wanted to wish this away, she knew she was already neck deep in this case and sounding the way he did, she knew Bode was ready to drown her along with himself. ‘I know you don’t want to end up like that girl on TV who got fourteen years for setting her friend up to be raped. She was named an accomplice,’ Bode said, letting out a gravelly laugh. ‘That case has not been decided yet Bode,’ Dunni replied irritated. ‘Thank God you’re following the case, you’ll soon have your face splashed on all media fronts and the blogs would definitely feast on it.’ Bode enthused. Dunni remained silent. She wanted to tell him to shut up in the loudest way possible, she wanted to rebel and not heed in to his blackmail but she remained silent. Bode rambled on for a while and ended the call with, ‘the earlier we go about our plan, the better for us. You know what to do, do it quick.’ From her few sessions in Sunday school classes, she knew those words resembled the words Jesus told Judas at the last Passover and she couldn’t help but feel like a Judas. Her mind drifted back to class as she watched the seconds’ timer tick away lazily in the clock on the wall. She wondered how the first few minutes with Funmi would be, awkward she could imagine, especially after having not seen her in well over a month or spoken to her for as far back as two weeks ago, after she had called in to report the ‘video’ situation, awkward was definitely an understatement but just like always, it was something she had to do, she had no options. *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** Ojodu, Lagos. 11AM The reception was very comfortable. Funmi looked around the office and tried to familiarise herself with the pictures of people she guessed to be important dignitaries to the centre, hung closely to the pictures of the President of the country and the Governor of the state. It was a tradition in most companies, for what reason, she couldn’t tell. ‘You can go in ma,’ the receptionist said, putting down the receiver of the phone. ‘Take the staircase up, it’s the door with the ‘HCG’ tag on it. She’s expecting you.’ As Funmi got up from her chair, a middle aged woman walked into the reception. ‘Good-morning,’ she greeted Funmi, ‘Ngozi, please if Femi comes, tell him to see me before he goes to drop the mails, I have something for him.’ ‘Yes ma,’ the receptionist replied. ‘I guess she’s the young woman to see me right?’ The woman asked the receptionist. ‘Yes ma,’ The woman beckoned to Funmi to come with her. Funmi followed her up the stairs, into a lobby and then into an office with the ‘HCG’ tag. She liked something about the woman that she couldn’t place a hand on. Maybe it was her poise or maybe it was the fact that she smiled when she talked, whatever the reason, she felt a little more comfortable than she was some minutes ago. ‘Please do take a seat,’ the woman said. ‘Tea, water?’ ‘Water ma,’ Funmi replied. She ordinarily wouldn’t have accepted anything, but she could feel really comfortable already as this woman’s smiles were working a magic on what would ordinarily have been a tense situation. ‘I’m Mrs Funmi George,’ the woman started and I’m the Head Care Giver in the centre. Funmi’s face creased into a smile, no wonder she took to the woman so easily, they were name-sakes. ‘I’m Funmi too,’ she said. Happy to mention it. The woman smiled again, ‘oh! I see, we’re name-sakes. I knew you had to be a ‘Funmi’ because those eyes look really familiar. Only Funmis have curious eyes like that,’ she joked handing Funmi a bottled water. Funmi smiled. This was going to be easy. She settled in her chair as she took the first gulp. She wasn’t so sure how to start her story. ‘It’s my fault I know but I….’ She stuttered, her voice breaking in the middle of the sentence. Mrs George stared straight into her eyes, there was no sign of judgement in them, just a smile…not a mocking smile but a warm, strengthening smile. ‘I was drugged and raped by a friend’s cousin,’ Funmi said, searching the eyes of the lady in front of her for signs of condemnation and disgust but finding none of these, continued her story. Pausing momentarily to take sips from her bottle while surprised at the intensity with which Mrs George was listening to her story. ‘First of all Funmi, I would like you to get it clear, that rape can never be the victim’s fault. You are the victim, stop judging yourself,’ she said, stretching forth her hand and closing Funmi’s hands in hers. ‘Did you say he has put the video on the internet?’ ‘He said he will,’ Funmi replied. ‘But he has not sent me the link yet so I really don’t know if he really did or it was just a threat.’ ‘Does anybody know of this yet, like family members?’ Mrs George asked what you could see were routine questions. ‘Just my sister who is in London ma.’ Funmi replied. ‘I have the video on my phone though.’ ‘Our support services include counselling, legal aid and shelter. I don’t know how much of help you will require but if you say he’s blackmailing you, then I believe your best shot is to fight back and the best way to fight back is to expose him. Blackmail only strives in dark places, when you shine the light on it, it loses its power. Our legal aid is free.’ Mrs George pronounced with a fierceness that could be literarily felt. ‘I want to fight back ma and I want you to help me.’ Funmi responded with as much resoluteness. ‘You don’t mind me calling one of our lawyers to be in this meeting right?’ Mrs George asked. Funmi’s eyes opened wide. Was she ready to do this? ‘Relax, I know how you feel, our lawyers are part of us. I’ll have Barrister Ese on this case, she was once a victim of abuse and she has never lost a case having secured nine convictions. She works with passion and trust me, you’ll like her.’ Mrs George painstaking explained. Funmi nodded. ‘First you have to go for some tests, it’s just normal procedure for rape victims. I’m sure you haven’t done that yet?’ Mrs George asked, her eyes searching for answers. Funmi nodded again. ‘Don’t worry, it won’t be a bother as you can do that here in the laboratory in our health centre downstairs. Secondly, you have to inform your parents about this, it’s very important as we can’t start any legal proceedings without the knowledge of your parents. You don’t want them finding out on the television. If you ask me, I’ll say you tell them immediately you get home today or at-least tomorrow so we can get started on this, because valentine’s day was a month ago and the longer this stays, the more difficult it becomes to prove…oh! You even said you have the video on your phone, right?’ Mrs George asked. ‘Yes I do ma,’ Funmi replied, tapping on her keypad to search out the video. Her thumbs wet from sweat. ‘That would sure help our case but I would say you should hold on a bit for now, let’s go downstairs to the laboratory so you can quickly run the tests. I’ll like Ese around when we see the video. She’s on her way here.’ Funmi followed her as she navigated through the lobby to the laboratory. Funmi’s mind was on the pictures she was about to share with some people whom some two hours ago were strangers to her. She went through the rituals of the test in an absent minded state as the technician collected all she needed from her. Her thoughts were on the forbidden thing, the video. ‘Mrs George asked that you meet up with her back in the office,’ the technician said as she filed the test tubes in their proper places. ‘Do I have to come tomorrow for this?’ Funmi asked, becoming present in the laboratory for the first time. The technician smiled, ‘you should get your results in the next thirty minutes…at-least most of it.’ ‘Oh! That’s fast,’ Funmi gasped, making her way out of the laboratory. What if it turned out HIV positive? Maybe gonorrhoea? Or even syphilis? These thoughts thumped her head as she walked down the lobby back to Mrs George’s office, shaking her head intermittently in a bid to drive the thoughts out, but they stuck on, as if glued to her brain. She turned the handle on the door and walked into the office to meet a lady talking with Mrs George, ‘I’m sorry, I should have knocked,’ she said beating a retreat. ‘It’s okay,’ Mrs George replied. ‘Please meet Barrister Ese.’ ‘Call me Ese,’ the lady said coolly. The barrister was a beautiful woman to behold, her skin gleamed under the reflection of the sun rays filtering into the office and she oozed class and quality. She was the opposite of what Funmi expected of a pro bono lawyer. While she expected to meet scruffy, this one was exquisitely dressed. She was positive the women could see the shock in her eyes but they acted indifferent, like they didn’t notice it. ‘I salute your courage, not many girls would do this,’ Ese said, she had a lawyer’s voice, sharp, smooth and sweet. The kind of voice that won cases. ‘And we need more of your type to free other women from the bondage of the torment of rape.’ Funmi’s eyes strayed and stayed on the stitch lines on the brows of Ese as she spoke. The stitch lines seemed to be the only imperfect part of the perfect oval face. ‘Oh that?’ Ese said running her finger on her brows after catching Funmi staring at the stitch lines. ‘I’m sorry,’ Funmi apologised. ‘You don’t have to be, it was a souvenir from my now ex-husband. There’s another one here,’ she said touching her upper lip, ‘but it’s well hidden behind a coat of gloss and lipstick. Five good years of battering.’ Ese said, her eyes not betraying any emotions and her voice not losing its style for a second, it was still sharp, smooth and sweet. She spoke like a free woman – free from the trauma of her abuse. ‘Aunty said the incident was recorded and it’s on your phone?’ Ese asked. ‘Yes it is,’ Funmi replied as she searched out the video from her phone and then passed the phone to Ese like it had suddenly become a plague. Ese noticed it and smiled. She pressed the play button, her eyes intent on the phone screen. The room was quiet. Funmi raised her head to catch Mrs George’s eyes but they were fixed on Ese whose eyes were in turn focused on the phone in her hand. ‘Did you say he blackmails you with this video?’ Ese asked ‘Yes?’ Funmi answered, not sure what to say. Ese passed the phone to Mrs George and at that moment, the table phone in the office rang, it was the laboratory technician on the line. Funmi could guess from the pattern of conversation that the test results were ready. Funmi couldn’t adequately guess what was being discussed on the phone as Mrs George wasn’t giving away any clues. She just had to be patient. Mrs George spoke for some five more minutes on the phone before hanging up the call. ‘That was Stella on the line, the lab technician,’ Mrs George started, her eyes focused on her. Funmi’s gaze was fixed on the woman sitting in front of her, so much so that she forgot that Ese was still in the room. ‘You’re clean, no HIV, no STDs, at-least from the primary result, which in many cases is ninety five percent accurate.’ Funmi exhaled, breathing for the first time in twenty seconds, but it seemed a little too soon as the words rolled out of the lips of Mrs George, but I’m afraid, you’re pregnant. The air in the room thinned out, she felt a suffocating feeling as everything around seemed to move in slow motion. The sound of the ticking clock became like a blaring loudspeaker in her head as the words reverberated in her head, but I’m afraid, you’re pregnant. How could she be pregnant? Pregnant from being disvirgined? Pregnant from rape? Pregnant for that beast Bode? For the first time in her life, she wished she had the gift of fainting so she could escape from this moment in time, but as much as she wished she would slip behind the blackness of unconsciousness, she remained conscious enough to feel the tears roll down her cheeks. With all the strength she could muster, she let out a shrill sound from deep within her and all she could hear was No!!!!!! She felt herself go limp and suddenly as it started, the sound disappeared, the ticking of the clock stopped, there was a deadening silence and the room faded to black.   ***

The Morning After – Episode 5: Blackmail, Detectives and Valentine 2014 MONDAY, MARCH 10th, 2014. Ogba, Lagos. 9 PM ——– Funmi gazed up at her ceilings, thinking about her day. Being pregnant was the last thing on her mind when she had woken up in the morning but right now it was her main pre-occupation. How come she never suspected anything? She had been so devastated by the rape and blackmail that she didn’t realise that she was late on her menstrual calendar by two days. What had a menstrual calendar previously meant to a virgin? She thought about how her mum’s eyes widened out in shock as she narrated her story to her. She was too weak to properly observe her mum’s further reactions as she had looked away in shame. It was easier talking to Mrs George than talking to her mum. And not forgetting the not so little ceremony of having to see Dunni after close to a month which was a bit odd especially since she had previously seen her almost every day for the past three years. Dunni had become a big part of her world since Jumoke relocated with her family to London. She was the friend who had become a sister. Seeing the way Dunni doted on her made her feel really bad for having ignored her calls for the past two weeks, after-all she couldn’t and shouldn’t hold Dunni responsible for Bode’s actions. ‘Ah! Funmi, you’re finally home, I was just about to leave,’ Dunni had said. There was a sense of awkwardness in the way her eyes darted to and fro as if she wasn’t sure of the reception to expect. ‘I called you severally but you didn’t answer the calls.’ ‘I’m sorry,’ she had replied, too weak to get into any kind of explanations. Dunni had immediately sensed like only a sister would that she wasn’t feeling too good and had immediately taken charge, pampering and helping her relax. Her ringtone cut through her thoughts, she looked at the screen of her phone and it was Jumoke again. This was the third time she was calling after she had called her earlier to tell her about the steps she had taken so far and of course about the pregnancy. ‘Did you call Daddy?’ Jumoke asked. ‘No I didn’t, but I’m sure momsie would have done that by now. I won’t be surprised if I see him tomorrow instead of the Friday he is supposed to be around.’ ‘So when are you going to see the doctor?’ Jumoke asked. ‘I don’t know yet, I’m going with momsie to the Centre tomorrow, I will ask Mrs George for help. I’m scared, at-least that much I know.’ Having an abortion had never for once filtered into her mind. How do you have an abortion as a virgin? But here she was, in a situation where the only thought she could think about was the fear of what would happen if she didn’t have an abortion. She shuddered at the thought. There was a beep…beep sound in her ears as she talked to Jumoke, so she took a quick look at the screen of her phone. It was her dad on call waiting. ‘Popsie is on call waiting,’ she said with a little bit of trepidation. ‘Pick the call, I’ll call you later,’ Jumoke replied. ‘And what do I tell him?’ ‘He has always been your boyfriend, not mine,’ Jumoke chuckled. ‘Talk to him the way only you can.’ Funmi smiled. For the first time in her life, she didn’t know how and what to say to her dad. Jumoke ended the call, causing her phone to ring out. She was at the foot of a bridge she had no option but to cross, she sighed deeply, closed her eyes and tapped the green receive button. *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** Mrs Badejo paced about her room, still shell shocked from the news her daughter had served her earlier in the evening. She could feel the effect the news had on her husband as she spoke with him. ‘I will be in Lagos on Wednesday,’ Dare had replied as calmly as he could under the present circumstances. He had just been lighted on fire with the news. ‘The minister would be coming for some inspection tomorrow, that’s why I can’t leave just yet, if he closes up early and I can make a last flight, then I will be in Lagos tomorrow, if not, expect me very early on Wednesday morning.’ Her husband loved their three kids but Funmi was his favourite. It was one reason he refused her request to join her brother Dare ‘Junior’ in Canada for her higher institution. They connected in a way only both of them could explain. And then it dawned on her, she was going to be blamed for this incident. Dare might not say it, but it was obvious that she had failed in protecting their children – his favourite. And that was the only duty she was supposed to be doing as a housewife. She picked her phone up from the bed and made for her daughter’s room, opening the door as quietly as she could. Finding her sleeping soundly with her face to the wall, she slipped beside her and wrapped her up in her arms, a posture that would have made a photographic masterpiece. *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** Akoka, Lagos. 9PM The book lay in front of her but she couldn’t read. The room had never felt so empty without Funmi and seeing her today amplified the almost inaudible voice of her conscience. The phone rang. She picked it up from her desk and like she expected, it was Bode. ‘What’s up?’ He asked, his voice full of expectation. ‘It’s done,’ she answered and cut the call. It was a five second call. Funmi had looked so stressed out, that it pricked her conscience that she had anything to do with her pain. It however didn’t change the plan for her visit. The Maslow’s hierarchy of needs that she had found so difficult to understand now made perfect sense. She was acting it out, putting her survival first before any other persons’ – even Funmi. She helped Funmi to the room, her eyes scanning her friend whom she had not seen in four weeks. ‘You need to rest,’ she said. ‘Are you alone in the house?’ Funmi asked a little bit shocked. ‘Is momsie or Blessing not around?’ Referring to a relative that lived with them. ‘Momsie said she was going out to fellowship by five, that should be thirty minutes now,’ Dunni replied taking a quick look at her watch. ‘Blessing told me she was getting something on the street, surprised you didn’t see her.’ ‘No I didn’t.’ Dunni’s eyes traced Funmi’s hands as they cuddled her phones. Those little objects were the reason for her visit. She needed to lay her hands on them but with the kind of protective cover they were enjoying from Funmi, she doubted her mission today would be successful. ‘I really need to use the toilet,’ Funmi said more to herself than to Dunni. ‘And you need my permission in your house?’ ‘Nope I don’t, but I’m just warning you just in-case you might want to go to the sitting room if you don’t want to suffocate from the smell,’ she said her eyes producing a bit of the spark Dunni was used to. ‘Your school shit smell didn’t kill me, it’s your house shit smell that would kill me abi?’ Dunni asked rhetorically, her eyes still locked on the phones even though she was only stealing momentary glances at them from where she sat on the bed. Both girls chuckled. Funmi walked in the direction of her toilet, with both phones in her hands – Dunni held her breath. Was she going to take the phones to the toilet too? And then suddenly she turned, tossing her blackberry phone on the bed, ‘I don’t need this one,’ she said. ‘And you think you need a phone in the toilet right?’ Dunni asked, trying to push the direction of the conversation so Funmi would drop the other phone. ‘Gaming,’ Funmi said winking, shutting the toilet door behind her. Dunni grabbed the blackberry phone, there was no time to waste at all. She scrolled to media, tapped, and then scrolled to the videos icon. As she tapped on the videos icon the toilet door creaked open. She quickly pushed the phone between her laps and froze. She had been caught red handed. Her heat-beat paced up. ‘Please help me with the tissue on the table,’ Funmi called out. ‘Ehn?’ she replied knowing that if she got up from the bed, Funmi’s blackberry phone would come crashing to the ground. She hesitated. ‘Don’t worry, Funmi said, darting to the table and picking up the tissue, without pausing for a second to look at her. Dunni exhaled as she heard the toilet door jam, ‘that was close,’ she muttered to herself, quickly picking up the phone again. She scrolled down the list of the videos, her fingers quivering as she ran it along the track pad and there it was, Valentine 2014 and just as she tapped on the menu button, that annoying blackberry demon that always showed up to dance in your face and momentarily pause all operations popped up. Dunni bit her upper lip both in fear and fury. Why should this phone be hanging at this time? And just as suddenly as it came up, it disappeared, pushing up the options tab. The cursor was on the Play sign, obviously this was not a time to be watching videos, even though she was tempted to take a sneak peek at it. She scrolled downwards past the Rename and Properties signs and tapped on the next item, Delete. No video, no evidence, no case! *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** WEDNESDAY, MARCH 12th, 2014. Ikoyi, Lagos. 11AM Bode was doing a round up of all the documents, it was the chance of a lifetime to impress his Managing Director and he wasn’t taken it for granted in any way. He had studied all the materials needed for the presentation and was just doing a quick review before the presentation, which was coming up by twelve noon proper. These were the kind of opportunities that positioned you in the right places in the scheme of things. His charm was on overdrive as he envisaged the smiles in the boardroom by the time he would have been through with the presentation. Gring…, the interphone rang, Bode picked it up at the first ring, it could be the MD wanting to know how prepared he was for the presentation. ‘Mr Bode, this is Mr Salako, the head security, your attention is needed at the reception.’ Bode winced. Why would the head of security be the one to call him from reception? Was Ada not on seat? Something just didn’t feel right about the call. ‘Hope there’s no problem oga?’ ‘No sir, but please do make it quick sir, they’ve been here for a while,’ Mr Salako said, sounding as polite as he could. ‘Okay then,’ Bode said ending the call. They’ve been here… the ‘they’ just didn’t sound right. Bode picked up his phones from his desk and made for the door, locking it behind him as he left. ‘You may need to leave the key behind, Bode,’ Mr Emeka said hurrying up to him. ‘Why?’ Bode asked looking puzzled, ‘the last time I checked, I don’t share this office with anybody.’ ‘MD’s instruction, she says we might need some documents for a meeting by twelve noon from your office.’ Bode was about to demand to see the MD when he saw from the look in Emeka’s eyes that there were people behind him. He turned back and just turning into the corridor was Mr Salako, the head of security accompanied by two men he had never seen. The annoying sweat beads broke out on his forehead. Something just wasn’t right. ‘Mr Bode, these are detectives Anslem and…’ Mr Salako paused turning to the taller man for help. ‘Detective Eghosa,’ the man said helping out. ‘Mr Bode, we’re officers of the Nigerian police force, Ojodu division and we will like you to come with us to the station to answer some questions.’ Why today of all days? And why now? Bode thought within himself. ‘Please officers, can’t this wait a little while, I have a presentation to make in about…’ He took a quick look at his watch, ‘fifteen minutes,’ he completed almost choking on the sentence. ‘Mr Bode or what is it you call yourself? Don’t mistake our politeness for weakness,’ the shorter, bulkier one of the two officers spoke out for the first time. His voice had the thickness of his weight and the grimace on his face showed his impatience. ‘Save your presentation, you will present it at the station. You’re being arrested for raping a beautiful, helpless young girl and you’re here talking about presentation, if you don’t respect yourself and follow us quietly, you won’t like the experience because your respect meter for me is running low.’ He stated, his eyes cold and deadly. ‘Mr Bode, you won’t have to worry about that, we have informed your management of our presence and I believe they can handle your absence. Mr Emeka I believe I’m right?’ Detective Eghosa said, looking at Emeka for confirmation. He seemed to be the more senior officer. ‘Yes you are,’ Emeka replied. Bode was shocked that he knew Emeka by name. It meant they had been around for a while and had probably even seen the MD as the ‘informed your management’ line wasn’t at all lost on him. He was probably the last one in on the loop. He handed his office keys to Emeka, who collected it almost happily. He checked again for his phones and then his wallet, tapping his suit jacket to confirm that the items were intact, after satisfying himself, he signalled his readiness. He walked down the staircase sandwiched between the detectives. It was almost like they expected him to make a run for it. He actually felt like it. He passed through the reception, putting on a prepared smile for Ada and the few colleagues he met at the reception. ‘I’ll just be two minutes,’ he said to Olivia, who was calling his attention to something. ‘Keep it for when I’m back,’ he said. It was obvious the news hadn’t spread yet, but he was also confident that by break-time, his arrest would be the trending topic in the office. ‘Can I take my car?’ Bode asked as the detectives ushered him into the taxi they came in. They had left one of their colleagues behind with the taxi driver. ‘No problem,’ Detective Eghosa said, ‘but one of us will have to drive. ‘Fine by me,’ Bode said. He really needed an air-conditioned ride to the police station or stand the risk of being soaked and dripping with sweat by the time they arrived the station in that insect looking taxi. Bode’s mind roved all the way to the station as he thought of the best person to call right now. He didn’t need to call a lawyer as Mr Salako had intimated him that Sesan, the company’s lawyer was already on his way to the Ojodu police station from an outside call to effect his bail, if there was a need for it. He was grateful to the company for that. If Dunni did exactly what she confirmed to have done two days ago, then this arrest was really no problem. He was sure Funmi would be the one to come out of the experience shamed and disgraced. He curled the words in his mouth, rehearsing in preparation for when it would be right to spew them out, she’s my girlfriend, and we’ve had sex severally. She’s framing me up because I told her I wanted a break…. He smiled, liking the construction of the words. Detective Anslem’s advice wasn’t a bad one after-all, maybe it was time to present at the station. If he couldn’t wow his MD, he should wow the DPO. The car ground to a halt in front of a building in the police station. They were clearly at their destination. Everyone disembarked, while he waited to receive the car keys from the police man that had driven the car. He straightened out his suit as he was determined to make an impression in the station. He was sure Funmi and her delegation, probably a mum or dad would be seated somewhere. He wanted them to see him looking unruffled. He followed the detectives into what seemed to be the police station proper as he saw police officers lined up behind a counter attending to all sorts of complains. It was not rowdy, but it was busy. His eyes caught Funmi at one end of the hall, close to what seemed like the DPO’s office, with a lady who was talking to an officer. The lady had her back turned to him. He grinned wickedly as Funmi’s eyes caught his. She returned his grin with a cold stare. He saw her nudge the lady lightly, obviously to inform her of his presence. He could see that she had come prepared with a lawyer. The lady got the cue and turned around. Brushing her hair off her face with her hands, her eyes searching the room, obviously looking for him. His lips purred open as their eyes connected, she was looking very sophisticated, professional and way more matured. He felt the tremors rush through his body, bringing back long forgotten memories of pain. He wouldn’t forget that face even if it hid behind several shades of expensive make up. It was the face that set him out on this journey of no return, the face that put him on the path that had finally led him to the Ojodu police station. The files in the lady’s hands dropped to the ground with a thud just at the exact time he called out her name in shock, Julia!   ***

The Morning After – Episode 6: Bode Ti Pa Mi WEDNESDAY, MARCH 12th, 2014. Ojodu, Lagos. 12:45PM ————————————————- Bode peered disbelievingly at the figure at the end of the room and convinced that he was not in some sort of trance, advanced menacingly at his target whose visage had turned ghostly on seeing him. The room suddenly became empty as he thought up a thousand ways to committing murder. As he got to number nine hundred and fifty five, he felt a hand roughly grasp his arm. ‘So you think this is your father’s house that you can just be parading majestically up and down, abi?’ An officer queried, stopping him in his tracks. Bode eyeballed the officer, his face twisting in contempt at the sight of the officer’s hands on his well-tailored suit, here he was, about to add murder to the list on his charge and this filth of an officer was busy soiling his designer suits with his fingers. ‘Are you assaulting an officer with your eyes?’ A brash looking policeman wearing a faded jean trousers, a black t-shirt with an NPF crest and a rifle hanging loosely from its straps asked, tapping the back of his head. ‘Abi you think say rape na pekere offence?’ Bode looked angrily at the officer who had just tapped his head like he was a five year old and the officer who was not one to be intimidated returned the stare with bloodshot eyes. ‘Onos why dis guy still dey wear suit? Na boxers him suppose dey rock inside cell by now,’ the jean wearing officer continued, his smoke blackened lips and kolanut stained teeth combining to add an extra sting to his words. The sound of the words ‘boxers’ and ‘cell’ jolted Bode back to the reality that in a police station, the police man was pretty a god. The officer who had just been addressed as Onos and whose grasp had stopped him from getting to Julia tugged at his suit. ‘Come and write down your statement,’ he said, obviously empowered by his colleague’s support, curling his fingers around Bode’s arm in such a way as to roughen up the jacket a little bit more. Bode followed grudgingly but without protest, turning back to steal a glance at Julia who had by this time picked up her fallen file and was watching the whole scenario play out. Being dragged along by a police officer was not the ideal image but he tried to assuage his battered ego by putting up a dignified walk, swaggering to the pull of the officer. As he received the sheet and pen with which to write down his statement, he couldn’t help but wonder why Sesan was yet to arrive at the station. ‘Officer please can I confirm the location of my lawyer?’ The officer shrugged in consent, talking to a female colleague sitting behind the counter top. Bode scrolled through his phone’s address book in search of Sesan’s number and after about three minutes of futile search decided to call Emeka. The number connected without much ado like the network was in full agreement with the call. ‘Hello,’ he replied, as soon as he heard Emeka’s voice on the other end. ‘Mr Salako told me that Barrister Sesan would be joining me at the police station, but it’s like an hour since I’ve been here and there’s still no sign of him,’ Bode said. ‘Joining you at the station?’ Emeka asked like he was surprised at that bit of information. ‘The Barrister is here in the office, he’s actually with the MD as we speak. Are you sure he’s supposed to meet you up there?’ ‘Of course he is,’ Bode replied. ‘Mr Salako…’ ‘Mr Bode, you have been charged for an offence that is not office related, why do you then think the office lawyer should be deployed to your aid?’ Emeka asked, interrupting him. ‘Besides the Barrister doesn’t work under Mr Salako, therefore I don’t think he’s in any position to determine the assignments of the Barrister.’ Bode smiled bitterly at Emeka’s statement, the finality of which wasn’t lost on him. He couldn’t believe Emeka would be so petty as to play up office politics in a time like this. ‘Thank you so very much Mr Emeka, I will get myself a lawyer.’ Bode said, ending the call without the usual ceremonies of goodbyes. Bode wiped his face with his right palm, sighing deeply as he did so. He thought up names he could call up at the moment but his mind was as blank as a canvas before the first stroke of the brush. He had never needed the services of a lawyer before today and was clearly lost on how to go about getting one. The name of his friend Ugo popped up in his head but was quickly dismissed as Ugo, though a lawyer, was based in Abuja. His roving mind continued its search and stopped on a light complexioned face with some greys on his head – Barrister Ndukwe, his father’s lawyer. The choice didn’t look attractive as he would prefer his parents didn’t hear about him being in the police station but at the same time he could not risk the consequence the delay in getting a lawyer would cause him. After dilly dallying for close to a minute, he put a call through to his mum to get the Barrister’s number, pressured into his decision by the impatient shifting movements of the officer by his side. He wondered why the officer felt there was a need to stick to him like glue, it was not like he was a criminal or a danger of any sort. ‘Lazy fools,’ he cursed under his breath as the call connected. ‘Momsie,’ Bode said immediately he noticed that the call was active. ‘Oh! Sorry aunty, I thought it was my mum on the line,’ He gushed. He tried to mask his impatience as he listened to his uncle’s wife, Dunni’s mum, taunt him about his reluctance to getting married. And then finally, she released the phone to his mum whom she said had gone to the kitchen. ‘I need Barrister Ndukwe’s number mum, I’m at the Ojodu police station,’ Bode said. ‘This is not a time for many questions mum, please do send it immediately, I’ll explain everything when I get home,’ Bode continued impatiently, interrupting his mum who had started to roll out questions. He ended the call after he was sure he had passed enough information. He couldn’t bear the thought of sleeping in this station while his bed, which by the way was not so far away lay empty. As these thoughts criss-crossed his mind, he scanned the mini chaos in the station for Julia and Funmi but there was no sign of either of them. ‘Julia…Funmi…me…in one room?’ He muttered to himself. This was turning out to be a pot full of drama. *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ****** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** Ojodu, Lagos. 12:30PM Mrs Funmi George looked in front of her, deep into the suspicious eyes of Mrs Badejo and then slowly but steadily shifted her gaze into the steely angry stare of Mr Badejo whom she learnt had just arrived on a flight from Abuja. He seemed to be more intent on seeing his daughter than wasting his time listening to the to and fro chatter she was presently engaged in with his wife. ‘I thought you said we’ll meet Funmi here?’ Dare asked his wife, his voice heavy with impatience. ‘I thought so too, I’m surprised that the centre in all its wisdom has decided to take the case to the police station without the consent of the parents,’ Mrs Badejo answered, clearly disgusted at the decision to take the case to a police station. ‘We had to act fast madam and besides, the victim here is an adult. You know, rape cases like most criminal cases strive on the strength of the evidence and how fast…’ ‘If it was your child, would you be so fast to give her up to the public?’ Mrs Badejo interrupted, her eyes burning with anger. ‘So please where is my daughter now madam?’ Dare said, hoping to kill the rising tension. He was more concerned with seeing Funmi right now than in engaging in fruitless arguments. ‘She’s at the police station and our lawyer is with her,’ Mrs George said with a cool that was more a result of her skill with people than her nature. ‘They should be back here in the next thirty minutes.’ ‘We’ll meet her up at the station madam,’ Dare said rising up to his feet. ‘I want to thank you so much for your help, I really do appreciate it but right now, seeing my daughter is my number one priority, I hope you do understand that?’ ‘Sure Mr Badejo,’ Mrs George replied with a smile. ‘Funmi will be fine, we are here to make sure she is. We are on her side.’ Mrs Badejo took her bag that was sitting comfortably on top of the desk and rose up with her husband. She ignored the flash of smile that Mrs George had served her. She didn’t want any smile, she just wanted this situation to disappear like a bad dream. Mrs George rose up from her chair in courtesy as the couple exited her office. Their reaction was the classic rape case scenario. Everybody dreaded the stigma of rape and preferred to keep it hush-hush, accounting for the very low rate of prosecution when compared to the rather high incidents of rape. As she settled back into her chair, the vibrations of her phone on the desk made a clattering sound that filled the room. She picked up the phone and her face eased into a smile on seeing the caller, it was Mrs Aina Sekibo, the MD/CEO of SEKS Oil & Gas, a company that has been a consistent partner of the centre for the past five years. ‘Her parents just left my office,’ Mrs George replied, ‘of course like many parents, they look reluctant to chase a case but I’m hoping we can count on the resolve of Funmi. I actually do believe that we can make Bode pay for this. We have video evidence of the incident and I’m really confident we can close this one up. The only thing that can stop us is if Funmi decides not to go through with the case.’ ‘I hope she doesn’t because I’m interested in this case and if it means getting a senior advocate for this, please don’t hesitate to contact me, its high time women begin to help women. It’s the only way we stand a chance as it regards violence against us,’ her voice across the phone was thin but she talked with a lot of firmness and authority. Mrs George felt a new wave of confidence sweep through her being as she listened to the passion with which Mrs Sekibo talked about the case. It was certainly a great decision to have called her up yesterday and intimate her about the case. She was definitely an excellent head in the team. The idea had struck her yesterday during her discussion with Funmi and as the words curled out of her mouth, ‘he works in SEKS Oil & Gas in Ikoyi…’ They leapt at her, SEKS – Oil – Gas. She couldn’t have missed it even if she wanted to, the company was one of the few companies that had religiously partnered with the centre for the past five years and she had called them severally to say thank you, even having the privilege of speaking with the MD/CEO, Mrs Aina Sekibo on two occasions. Mrs Sekibo had given her, her direct line the last time they spoke but she never had a cause to use the number, until Funmi came along. ‘I instructed the company’s lawyer to return to the office after I heard that he was headed to the police station to assist him. As a company, we are not obligated to defending personal lawsuits, especially when that lawsuit is rape. I used to think Bode was responsible and a gentleman, I guess his dedication at work fooled me but I can assure you Mrs George, that by the time this is over, Bode will wish he never met Funmi, even worse, he would wish he didn’t have that thing dangling between his legs.’ Her voice was cold, her message was clear and her delivery was calculated. She sounded every bit like an assassin. Mrs George could imagine those words presented in a business transaction – it was a sure hit. No wonder SEKS Oil & Gas was a multi-million dollar company and for the first time since the day Funmi walked into her office, she began to feel sorry for Bode. He had bitten way more than he could chew this time around and it would take a tremendous dose of good fortune for him not to lose his set of teeth in the process. *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ****** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** Ojodu, Lagos. 1:40PM The beep beep sound from his car gave Dare an assurance of safety that just parking in a police station didn’t give. In Nigeria nothing was impossible, not even the theft of a car from a police station, he mused. He slipped the keys into his pocket and retrieved his phone in the same move, quickening his steps to catch up with his wife who was in front of him. ‘Is that not mummy Dunni?’ Mrs Badejo asked her husband who was busy fiddling with his phone. Dare stopped what he was doing, letting his eyes trace the direction of his wife’s gaze. ‘Of course it’s her,’ he said, his eyes stopping on two ladies but more particularly on the one that was making a call. As the lady on the phone saw the Badejos, her eyes lighted up in smiles as she curtsied in respect. Dare smiled, acknowledging the greetings from both women. ‘Mummy Dunni, what brings you here and how is my friend Kunle?’ ‘Ah! Daddy, it’s our son Bode, he was arrested in the office this morning,’ she replied. ‘I’m sure you know Lekan’s wife?’ Dunni’s mother asked, touching the lady by her side, who wore a very worried look. She seemed rather disinterested in the whole re-union gist. ‘Is she Lekan’s wife?’ Dare asked, his eyes brightening with interest. At the mention of Lekan, the lady became very aware, curtsying even lower to Dare for another round of greeting. ‘Yes she is,’ Dunni’s mum answered. ‘She was home with me when her son Bode called about his arrest in the office and that he was being brought down to this division. Luckily for us, your friend knows the DPO here and I have called him and he’s presently waiting to see us. You should come with us to see him too’ Dunni’s mum offered. ‘I’m sure he can be of help to you no matter what the case is, at-least they say the police station belongs to the DPO.’ Dare smiled looking at his wife for affirmation which she gave with a slight twitch of her lips. The entourage of four filed towards the DPO’s office being led by Dunni’s mum who navigated the area like she knew her way around very well. The DPO a slim built, dark complexioned man with ‘R. UMAR’ emblazoned on his uniform welcomed them to his office. He was very surprised to see the number of people in the entourage. ‘Good afternoon Sir,’ he greeted Dare, standing up to shake him firmly. ‘So Madam, my friend has refused to come and say hello to me?’ He said, his every word accentuated with a thick dose of accent. Dunni’s mum in her usual very skilful manner laughed off the accusation before going ahead to introduce everyone in the group, making sure that she linked the person she was introducing to a direct relationship with her husband. ‘Dare is your friend’s brother. I actually met him in the car park heading for the waiting room before I asked him to come with me,’ she said, eyes directly at the DPO who listened as attentively as he could. ‘Have you been able to speak with your son yet, Mrs Johnson?’ The DPO asked Bode’s mum who had been very quiet. ‘No,’ the lady replied. ‘We actually came straight to your office.’ ‘I thought it better if we come straight to you first Sir,’ Dunni’s mum added. ‘That’s not a problem at all,’ the DPO mused, picking up the interphone. He tapped some four digits on the interphone and almost immediately spoke into the receiver, requesting the files for both parties. ‘Please can you bring to my office right now the file of Bode Johnson and erm …’ He stuttered, beckoning on the group to help him out with the name. ‘Funmi Badejo,’ Dare offered. Being the quickest to understand the DPO’s need. ‘Funmi Badejo,’ the DPO repeated, hanging up the call. ‘What can I offer you?’ The DPO asked. Mrs Badejo’s eyes opened in disbelief at the offer and her show of surprise was not lost on the DPO who gave out a little chuckle. ‘Ah Ah! Madam, look at the surprise in your eyes like you have heard a forbidden thing,’ the DPO said sending the group into reels of laughter. ‘The Johnson’s are like a family to me and our relationship goes beyond police – citizen relationship,’ he said looking at Dunni’s mum for affirmation which he got with a slight nod of the head. ‘So what brings you here?’ ‘Our daughter was assaulted,’ Mrs Badejo replied. She had rehearsed that response for over a thousand times already and was relieved to have finally used it. Dare watched as the DPO stared back, trying to properly situate what his wife had just said. ‘She was raped,’ he added. His voice low and sad. ‘Oh!’ The DPO exclaimed. ‘I’m very sorry about that.’ The Johnsons couldn’t hide their shock as Dunni’s mum’s mouth hung open, ‘but Dunni didn’t tell me anything,’ she said to no one in particular, her facial expression distorted with worry. Her daughter’s roommate was raped and she didn’t hear? ‘Does she know the person that raped her Sir?’ The DPO asked the Badejo’s who had become the objects of attention in the room. ‘If she does, I promise you that he will be thoroughly dealt with.’ ‘We really are not interested in making a very public show of this,’ Mrs Badejo said, offering her opinion as the opinion of the family. She knew she had to make use of Dare’s present indecision to kill this case as she was not ready to throw her daughter out into the open to be stigmatized. The DPO could understand the worry of the woman speaking in front of him. He had being a police officer a long time enough to know that victims of rape usually did not want the case charged to court and would rather settle out of court to avoid the publicity that usually stigmatised the victims. ‘Madam, you don’t have to worry about a court case if you don’t want one, I assure you that by the time my boys are through with whoever did this, he will wish he was never born.’ As a father of four girls, R. Umar could imagine the torture he would be in, if any of his treasures as he usually referred to his daughters were raped. He shuddered as the thoughts ran through his mind. ‘He deserves to be castrated, whoever did this,’ Bode’s mum joined the fray. She had become more active and visibly agitated since Mrs Badejo spoke. Dare was silent as everyone around him buzzed with invectives for the rapist. The only thought in his mind was his daughter – he wanted to see her. A smartly dressed officer stepped into the officer with a file in hand which he handed to the DPO before doing the customary salute officers usually accorded their bosses. ‘I asked Femi for two files,’ the DPO said as the officer turned to leave. ‘He gave me one sir,’ the officer replied stopping in his tracks. ‘Tell him to give you the other one,’ the DPO said, trying to peer into the contents of the case file to see whose file he had in his hand. ‘I think this is for Funmi Badejo,’ he said, his fingers running a thread on the paper he was reading. ‘Tell him to give you the Bode Johnson file.’ The officer saluted his boss again and left the room. ‘Haba…Haba…Haba…Haba,’ the DPO repeated to himself, every word a groan as his accent amplified the depth of his amazement at whatever he was reading from the files. Everyone in the office sat up in their chairs, with Dare tempted to go over the other side of the table to see what was written in the file. At that moment the interphone rang. The DPO picked the call, without looking up from file. ‘Yes…Yes, I have seen it. Yes…thank you,’ he said as he dropped the receiver back on the box. ‘I hope there’s no problem Sir,’ Dare asked unable to hold himself any longer. ‘We are all here for the same reason,’ the DPO said. Not too sure how he was supposed to break the news. The group stared blankly at the DPO who looked and sounded dazed. ‘I don’t understand sir,’ Dunni’s mum said, resuming her role as the lead of the group. ‘We are all here for rape,’ the DPO said leaving the group more confused. His ability to communicate properly in english seemed to have escaped with whatever he had been reading in the file as he had uttered so many words in hausa since he opened the file. ‘My son was raped too?’ Bode’s mum asked, her voice strained with anxiety. SP Rabiu Umar, the DPO of the Ojodu police station looked at the lady asking the question. He was not a man to make jest of a serious situation but he instantly felt a strong urge to let out a chuckle which he did well to stifle. The worry in her eyes was genuine and the confusion in the eyes of the others did not permit a chuckle. Sitting up in his chair and very conscious that the gaze of everyone in the room was on him chose his words as carefully as he could with his eyes firmly locked on Bode’s mum. ‘Your son Bode has not been raped. He is the person that raped Funmi Badejo,’ he said, careful not to look in the direction of the Badejos. A blanket of silence immediately fell on everyone in the room and like the lens of a ’3D’ camera, the DPO turned his eyes slowly but in time to catch an assortment of shock expressions riddled across the faces of everyone in front of him. As his eyes landed on Mrs Badejo, the voice of Bode’s mum interrupted the silence in the room. It was a voice drained and full of anguish. Bode ti pa mi. —————– ***

The Morning After – Episode 6: Bode Ti Pa Mi WEDNESDAY, MARCH 12th, 2014. Ojodu, Lagos. 12:45PM ————————————————- Bode peered disbelievingly at the figure at the end of the room and convinced that he was not in some sort of trance, advanced menacingly at his target whose visage had turned ghostly on seeing him. The room suddenly became empty as he thought up a thousand ways to committing murder. As he got to number nine hundred and fifty five, he felt a hand roughly grasp his arm. ‘So you think this is your father’s house that you can just be parading majestically up and down, abi?’ An officer queried, stopping him in his tracks. Bode eyeballed the officer, his face twisting in contempt at the sight of the officer’s hands on his well-tailored suit, here he was, about to add murder to the list on his charge and this filth of an officer was busy soiling his designer suits with his fingers. ‘Are you assaulting an officer with your eyes?’ A brash looking policeman wearing a faded jean trousers, a black t-shirt with an NPF crest and a rifle hanging loosely from its straps asked, tapping the back of his head. ‘Abi you think say rape na pekere offence?’ Bode looked angrily at the officer who had just tapped his head like he was a five year old and the officer who was not one to be intimidated returned the stare with bloodshot eyes. ‘Onos why dis guy still dey wear suit? Na boxers him suppose dey rock inside cell by now,’ the jean wearing officer continued, his smoke blackened lips and kolanut stained teeth combining to add an extra sting to his words. The sound of the words ‘boxers’ and ‘cell’ jolted Bode back to the reality that in a police station, the police man was pretty a god. The officer who had just been addressed as Onos and whose grasp had stopped him from getting to Julia tugged at his suit. ‘Come and write down your statement,’ he said, obviously empowered by his colleague’s support, curling his fingers around Bode’s arm in such a way as to roughen up the jacket a little bit more. Bode followed grudgingly but without protest, turning back to steal a glance at Julia who had by this time picked up her fallen file and was watching the whole scenario play out. Being dragged along by a police officer was not the ideal image but he tried to assuage his battered ego by putting up a dignified walk, swaggering to the pull of the officer. As he received the sheet and pen with which to write down his statement, he couldn’t help but wonder why Sesan was yet to arrive at the station. ‘Officer please can I confirm the location of my lawyer?’ The officer shrugged in consent, talking to a female colleague sitting behind the counter top. Bode scrolled through his phone’s address book in search of Sesan’s number and after about three minutes of futile search decided to call Emeka. The number connected without much ado like the network was in full agreement with the call. ‘Hello,’ he replied, as soon as he heard Emeka’s voice on the other end. ‘Mr Salako told me that Barrister Sesan would be joining me at the police station, but it’s like an hour since I’ve been here and there’s still no sign of him,’ Bode said. ‘Joining you at the station?’ Emeka asked like he was surprised at that bit of information. ‘The Barrister is here in the office, he’s actually with the MD as we speak. Are you sure he’s supposed to meet you up there?’ ‘Of course he is,’ Bode replied. ‘Mr Salako…’ ‘Mr Bode, you have been charged for an offence that is not office related, why do you then think the office lawyer should be deployed to your aid?’ Emeka asked, interrupting him. ‘Besides the Barrister doesn’t work under Mr Salako, therefore I don’t think he’s in any position to determine the assignments of the Barrister.’ Bode smiled bitterly at Emeka’s statement, the finality of which wasn’t lost on him. He couldn’t believe Emeka would be so petty as to play up office politics in a time like this. ‘Thank you so very much Mr Emeka, I will get myself a lawyer.’ Bode said, ending the call without the usual ceremonies of goodbyes. Bode wiped his face with his right palm, sighing deeply as he did so. He thought up names he could call up at the moment but his mind was as blank as a canvas before the first stroke of the brush. He had never needed the services of a lawyer before today and was clearly lost on how to go about getting one. The name of his friend Ugo popped up in his head but was quickly dismissed as Ugo, though a lawyer, was based in Abuja. His roving mind continued its search and stopped on a light complexioned face with some greys on his head – Barrister Ndukwe, his father’s lawyer. The choice didn’t look attractive as he would prefer his parents didn’t hear about him being in the police station but at the same time he could not risk the consequence the delay in getting a lawyer would cause him. After dilly dallying for close to a minute, he put a call through to his mum to get the Barrister’s number, pressured into his decision by the impatient shifting movements of the officer by his side. He wondered why the officer felt there was a need to stick to him like glue, it was not like he was a criminal or a danger of any sort. ‘Lazy fools,’ he cursed under his breath as the call connected. ‘Momsie,’ Bode said immediately he noticed that the call was active. ‘Oh! Sorry aunty, I thought it was my mum on the line,’ He gushed. He tried to mask his impatience as he listened to his uncle’s wife, Dunni’s mum, taunt him about his reluctance to getting married. And then finally, she released the phone to his mum whom she said had gone to the kitchen. ‘I need Barrister Ndukwe’s number mum, I’m at the Ojodu police station,’ Bode said. ‘This is not a time for many questions mum, please do send it immediately, I’ll explain everything when I get home,’ Bode continued impatiently, interrupting his mum who had started to roll out questions. He ended the call after he was sure he had passed enough information. He couldn’t bear the thought of sleeping in this station while his bed, which by the way was not so far away lay empty. As these thoughts criss-crossed his mind, he scanned the mini chaos in the station for Julia and Funmi but there was no sign of either of them. ‘Julia…Funmi…me…in one room?’ He muttered to himself. This was turning out to be a pot full of drama. *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ****** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** Ojodu, Lagos. 12:30PM Mrs Funmi George looked in front of her, deep into the suspicious eyes of Mrs Badejo and then slowly but steadily shifted her gaze into the steely angry stare of Mr Badejo whom she learnt had just arrived on a flight from Abuja. He seemed to be more intent on seeing his daughter than wasting his time listening to the to and fro chatter she was presently engaged in with his wife. ‘I thought you said we’ll meet Funmi here?’ Dare asked his wife, his voice heavy with impatience. ‘I thought so too, I’m surprised that the centre in all its wisdom has decided to take the case to the police station without the consent of the parents,’ Mrs Badejo answered, clearly disgusted at the decision to take the case to a police station. ‘We had to act fast madam and besides, the victim here is an adult. You know, rape cases like most criminal cases strive on the strength of the evidence and how fast…’ ‘If it was your child, would you be so fast to give her up to the public?’ Mrs Badejo interrupted, her eyes burning with anger. ‘So please where is my daughter now madam?’ Dare said, hoping to kill the rising tension. He was more concerned with seeing Funmi right now than in engaging in fruitless arguments. ‘She’s at the police station and our lawyer is with her,’ Mrs George said with a cool that was more a result of her skill with people than her nature. ‘They should be back here in the next thirty minutes.’ ‘We’ll meet her up at the station madam,’ Dare said rising up to his feet. ‘I want to thank you so much for your help, I really do appreciate it but right now, seeing my daughter is my number one priority, I hope you do understand that?’ ‘Sure Mr Badejo,’ Mrs George replied with a smile. ‘Funmi will be fine, we are here to make sure she is. We are on her side.’ Mrs Badejo took her bag that was sitting comfortably on top of the desk and rose up with her husband. She ignored the flash of smile that Mrs George had served her. She didn’t want any smile, she just wanted this situation to disappear like a bad dream. Mrs George rose up from her chair in courtesy as the couple exited her office. Their reaction was the classic rape case scenario. Everybody dreaded the stigma of rape and preferred to keep it hush-hush, accounting for the very low rate of prosecution when compared to the rather high incidents of rape. As she settled back into her chair, the vibrations of her phone on the desk made a clattering sound that filled the room. She picked up the phone and her face eased into a smile on seeing the caller, it was Mrs Aina Sekibo, the MD/CEO of SEKS Oil & Gas, a company that has been a consistent partner of the centre for the past five years. ‘Her parents just left my office,’ Mrs George replied, ‘of course like many parents, they look reluctant to chase a case but I’m hoping we can count on the resolve of Funmi. I actually do believe that we can make Bode pay for this. We have video evidence of the incident and I’m really confident we can close this one up. The only thing that can stop us is if Funmi decides not to go through with the case.’ ‘I hope she doesn’t because I’m interested in this case and if it means getting a senior advocate for this, please don’t hesitate to contact me, its high time women begin to help women. It’s the only way we stand a chance as it regards violence against us,’ her voice across the phone was thin but she talked with a lot of firmness and authority. Mrs George felt a new wave of confidence sweep through her being as she listened to the passion with which Mrs Sekibo talked about the case. It was certainly a great decision to have called her up yesterday and intimate her about the case. She was definitely an excellent head in the team. The idea had struck her yesterday during her discussion with Funmi and as the words curled out of her mouth, ‘he works in SEKS Oil & Gas in Ikoyi…’ They leapt at her, SEKS – Oil – Gas. She couldn’t have missed it even if she wanted to, the company was one of the few companies that had religiously partnered with the centre for the past five years and she had called them severally to say thank you, even having the privilege of speaking with the MD/CEO, Mrs Aina Sekibo on two occasions. Mrs Sekibo had given her, her direct line the last time they spoke but she never had a cause to use the number, until Funmi came along. ‘I instructed the company’s lawyer to return to the office after I heard that he was headed to the police station to assist him. As a company, we are not obligated to defending personal lawsuits, especially when that lawsuit is rape. I used to think Bode was responsible and a gentleman, I guess his dedication at work fooled me but I can assure you Mrs George, that by the time this is over, Bode will wish he never met Funmi, even worse, he would wish he didn’t have that thing dangling between his legs.’ Her voice was cold, her message was clear and her delivery was calculated. She sounded every bit like an assassin. Mrs George could imagine those words presented in a business transaction – it was a sure hit. No wonder SEKS Oil & Gas was a multi-million dollar company and for the first time since the day Funmi walked into her office, she began to feel sorry for Bode. He had bitten way more than he could chew this time around and it would take a tremendous dose of good fortune for him not to lose his set of teeth in the process. *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ****** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** Ojodu, Lagos. 1:40PM The beep beep sound from his car gave Dare an assurance of safety that just parking in a police station didn’t give. In Nigeria nothing was impossible, not even the theft of a car from a police station, he mused. He slipped the keys into his pocket and retrieved his phone in the same move, quickening his steps to catch up with his wife who was in front of him. ‘Is that not mummy Dunni?’ Mrs Badejo asked her husband who was busy fiddling with his phone. Dare stopped what he was doing, letting his eyes trace the direction of his wife’s gaze. ‘Of course it’s her,’ he said, his eyes stopping on two ladies but more particularly on the one that was making a call. As the lady on the phone saw the Badejos, her eyes lighted up in smiles as she curtsied in respect. Dare smiled, acknowledging the greetings from both women. ‘Mummy Dunni, what brings you here and how is my friend Kunle?’ ‘Ah! Daddy, it’s our son Bode, he was arrested in the office this morning,’ she replied. ‘I’m sure you know Lekan’s wife?’ Dunni’s mother asked, touching the lady by her side, who wore a very worried look. She seemed rather disinterested in the whole re-union gist. ‘Is she Lekan’s wife?’ Dare asked, his eyes brightening with interest. At the mention of Lekan, the lady became very aware, curtsying even lower to Dare for another round of greeting. ‘Yes she is,’ Dunni’s mum answered. ‘She was home with me when her son Bode called about his arrest in the office and that he was being brought down to this division. Luckily for us, your friend knows the DPO here and I have called him and he’s presently waiting to see us. You should come with us to see him too’ Dunni’s mum offered. ‘I’m sure he can be of help to you no matter what the case is, at-least they say the police station belongs to the DPO.’ Dare smiled looking at his wife for affirmation which she gave with a slight twitch of her lips. The entourage of four filed towards the DPO’s office being led by Dunni’s mum who navigated the area like she knew her way around very well. The DPO a slim built, dark complexioned man with ‘R. UMAR’ emblazoned on his uniform welcomed them to his office. He was very surprised to see the number of people in the entourage. ‘Good afternoon Sir,’ he greeted Dare, standing up to shake him firmly. ‘So Madam, my friend has refused to come and say hello to me?’ He said, his every word accentuated with a thick dose of accent. Dunni’s mum in her usual very skilful manner laughed off the accusation before going ahead to introduce everyone in the group, making sure that she linked the person she was introducing to a direct relationship with her husband. ‘Dare is your friend’s brother. I actually met him in the car park heading for the waiting room before I asked him to come with me,’ she said, eyes directly at the DPO who listened as attentively as he could. ‘Have you been able to speak with your son yet, Mrs Johnson?’ The DPO asked Bode’s mum who had been very quiet. ‘No,’ the lady replied. ‘We actually came straight to your office.’ ‘I thought it better if we come straight to you first Sir,’ Dunni’s mum added. ‘That’s not a problem at all,’ the DPO mused, picking up the interphone. He tapped some four digits on the interphone and almost immediately spoke into the receiver, requesting the files for both parties. ‘Please can you bring to my office right now the file of Bode Johnson and erm …’ He stuttered, beckoning on the group to help him out with the name. ‘Funmi Badejo,’ Dare offered. Being the quickest to understand the DPO’s need. ‘Funmi Badejo,’ the DPO repeated, hanging up the call. ‘What can I offer you?’ The DPO asked. Mrs Badejo’s eyes opened in disbelief at the offer and her show of surprise was not lost on the DPO who gave out a little chuckle. ‘Ah Ah! Madam, look at the surprise in your eyes like you have heard a forbidden thing,’ the DPO said sending the group into reels of laughter. ‘The Johnson’s are like a family to me and our relationship goes beyond police – citizen relationship,’ he said looking at Dunni’s mum for affirmation which he got with a slight nod of the head. ‘So what brings you here?’ ‘Our daughter was assaulted,’ Mrs Badejo replied. She had rehearsed that response for over a thousand times already and was relieved to have finally used it. Dare watched as the DPO stared back, trying to properly situate what his wife had just said. ‘She was raped,’ he added. His voice low and sad. ‘Oh!’ The DPO exclaimed. ‘I’m very sorry about that.’ The Johnsons couldn’t hide their shock as Dunni’s mum’s mouth hung open, ‘but Dunni didn’t tell me anything,’ she said to no one in particular, her facial expression distorted with worry. Her daughter’s roommate was raped and she didn’t hear? ‘Does she know the person that raped her Sir?’ The DPO asked the Badejo’s who had become the objects of attention in the room. ‘If she does, I promise you that he will be thoroughly dealt with.’ ‘We really are not interested in making a very public show of this,’ Mrs Badejo said, offering her opinion as the opinion of the family. She knew she had to make use of Dare’s present indecision to kill this case as she was not ready to throw her daughter out into the open to be stigmatized. The DPO could understand the worry of the woman speaking in front of him. He had being a police officer a long time enough to know that victims of rape usually did not want the case charged to court and would rather settle out of court to avoid the publicity that usually stigmatised the victims. ‘Madam, you don’t have to worry about a court case if you don’t want one, I assure you that by the time my boys are through with whoever did this, he will wish he was never born.’ As a father of four girls, R. Umar could imagine the torture he would be in, if any of his treasures as he usually referred to his daughters were raped. He shuddered as the thoughts ran through his mind. ‘He deserves to be castrated, whoever did this,’ Bode’s mum joined the fray. She had become more active and visibly agitated since Mrs Badejo spoke. Dare was silent as everyone around him buzzed with invectives for the rapist. The only thought in his mind was his daughter – he wanted to see her. A smartly dressed officer stepped into the officer with a file in hand which he handed to the DPO before doing the customary salute officers usually accorded their bosses. ‘I asked Femi for two files,’ the DPO said as the officer turned to leave. ‘He gave me one sir,’ the officer replied stopping in his tracks. ‘Tell him to give you the other one,’ the DPO said, trying to peer into the contents of the case file to see whose file he had in his hand. ‘I think this is for Funmi Badejo,’ he said, his fingers running a thread on the paper he was reading. ‘Tell him to give you the Bode Johnson file.’ The officer saluted his boss again and left the room. ‘Haba…Haba…Haba…Haba,’ the DPO repeated to himself, every word a groan as his accent amplified the depth of his amazement at whatever he was reading from the files. Everyone in the office sat up in their chairs, with Dare tempted to go over the other side of the table to see what was written in the file. At that moment the interphone rang. The DPO picked the call, without looking up from file. ‘Yes…Yes, I have seen it. Yes…thank you,’ he said as he dropped the receiver back on the box. ‘I hope there’s no problem Sir,’ Dare asked unable to hold himself any longer. ‘We are all here for the same reason,’ the DPO said. Not too sure how he was supposed to break the news. The group stared blankly at the DPO who looked and sounded dazed. ‘I don’t understand sir,’ Dunni’s mum said, resuming her role as the lead of the group. ‘We are all here for rape,’ the DPO said leaving the group more confused. His ability to communicate properly in english seemed to have escaped with whatever he had been reading in the file as he had uttered so many words in hausa since he opened the file. ‘My son was raped too?’ Bode’s mum asked, her voice strained with anxiety. SP Rabiu Umar, the DPO of the Ojodu police station looked at the lady asking the question. He was not a man to make jest of a serious situation but he instantly felt a strong urge to let out a chuckle which he did well to stifle. The worry in her eyes was genuine and the confusion in the eyes of the others did not permit a chuckle. Sitting up in his chair and very conscious that the gaze of everyone in the room was on him chose his words as carefully as he could with his eyes firmly locked on Bode’s mum. ‘Your son Bode has not been raped. He is the person that raped Funmi Badejo,’ he said, careful not to look in the direction of the Badejos. A blanket of silence immediately fell on everyone in the room and like the lens of a ’3D’ camera, the DPO turned his eyes slowly but in time to catch an assortment of shock expressions riddled across the faces of everyone in front of him. As his eyes landed on Mrs Badejo, the voice of Bode’s mum interrupted the silence in the room. It was a voice drained and full of anguish. Bode ti pa mi. —————– ***

The Morning After – Episode 7: Rape Charges, Courts Cases and Okafor’s Law FRIDAY, MARCH 14th, 2014. Omole Phase 1, Lagos. 8:10AM ———————————— Ese’s eye lids hurt from a lack of sleep. She had worked late the night before and had a court appearance by midday. She had planned to take a nap immediately she returned from dropping Osas, her four year old boy in school, but having done that and slipping back to bed to hug her pillows, all she could do was toss and turn on the bed. The scenes at the police station played up in her mind as she lay on her bed trying to wish herself to sleep. She saw the confusion in Funmi’s eyes as Bode advanced towards them, the name Julia ringing out on his lips. How stupid could she get? That she had not requested for the full names of the accused from Funmi was an embarrassment. It was the most basic thing to do but the thought that someone would brazenly steal another person’s dignity because the society allowed it angered her so much that it beclouded her sense of reason. She had taken this case way too personal even before the new complications of knowing that the accused was Bode, a man who’s forgiveness she had been seeking for the past six years and more desperately so, for the past three years. His teary eyes on the fourteenth day of February, 2008 was one image that still gnawed at her heart, each time her mind drifted to him. As she put a final touch to her looks, she heard the knock on the door. The last person she expected to be at the other side of the door was Bode as he was supposed to be far away in Kachia local government area of Kaduna State on his national youth service. Infact she had spoken to him early that morning when both of them had joked about him spending his valentine with the numerous yarinyas in the school where he taught, while she was left to play the role of a lonely wife. She heard the words tarraaaah! and she stiffened in the room, dropping her powder, funny how the Bode effect made her drop things and when Efe ran inside to confirm her fears with the words ‘Julia its Bode!’ She was as good as finished as her frame trembled uncontrollably with fear. ‘What do I do? What do I say?’ She asked no one in particular. ‘Tell him he’s your ex,’ Efe had said without thinking. She was equally in shock and it would be much later that Efe would get a chance to explain to her that she actually meant that she should tell Bode that Frank was an ex and not the other way round. She easily would have chosen Bode if she had the time to think but at that moment, the lines were blurred. Frank was a great guy who was her late elder brother’s best-friend. She had lost him and her dad in an accident, a week after he passed out from his youth service. Losing both of them in one swoop will forever be the lowest point in her life but it was worse for her mum who immediately became a house wife with three children to cater for, herself and her immediate younger brother already in the university, while the youngest was just about to write her university entrance examination. She didn’t expect to drop out from school but was surprised at the standard of life she could still afford even though she knew her mum had started some business with her dad’s savings. She actually went from living well in school to living average, when infact she had expected to be living on scraps – it was a miracle, and she later got to find out that Frank who had gotten a job in a multinational company was a big part of that miracle. How could she choose between two good men, one whom she loved dearly and the other who was her benefactor, someone she liked very much and whom her family adored? She was sure she would finally end up with Bode but dreaded the moment she would have to face up to Frank to tell the truth and then in that one second of stage fright she switched the scripts, ‘Meet my fiancé, Frank. And Frankie, this is my ex Bode.’ She had never called him Frankie before and she saw the excited look in his eyes as he slipped his arms around her waist and led her to the car. Bode’s face flushed with shock as he batted his eyelids to fight the tears that were in his eyes. That picture of his face over the years remained etched upon her heart and came to the fore of her thoughts more often as Frank started abusing her when she became his wife just a year later while she was still in Law school. The crux of the matter came when Frank pummelled her into a state of unconsciousness while Osas their little boy whom they had named after her late elder brother and Frank’s best friend watched on. That experience left her with scars both physically and emotionally. She could mask the physical scars which over time had sufficiently disappeared with make-up but the scars of her heart was like a yawning gap which simply refused to close up. As she poured her heart to Funmi in a bid to explain her relationship with Bode, the confusion in the face in front of her turned slowly to worry. She could sense both fear and distrust in the place where there was once trust and confidence. ‘I’ll understand if you don’t want me on this case anymore, because of my history with Bode.’ She had said, trying to look into the eyes staring at her. ‘If I keep you on the case, can I trust you?’ Funmi had asked, her worrying eyes burrowing into her mind with her fierce stare. ‘Yes,’ she replied limply, not sure if she even believed herself. Funmi clearly wasn’t convinced by the response as her expression didn’t change. ‘I’ll call you to let you in on my decision.’ She had narrated the incidence to Mrs George immediately she got back to the centre after dropping Funmi off. If Mrs George was shocked, she didn’t let it show as she spoke to her in her usual calm, soothing manner. ‘I don’t think the important thing is Funmi’s call, I think the important thing is to find out what you really would like to do if she calls and asks you to continue.’ Those words were striking and held a lot of wisdom but that was two days and Funmi was yet to call. As she settled on the thought of Funmi calling, her phone rang. She hoped within herself that it would be a good narrative to propagate the gospel of mind power, where she had used her mind to bring a phone call to reality. As she reached out for her phone, she knocked her table clock off its perch on the stool and lazily she rolled to the edge of the bed and picked it up, while the ring tone of her phone serenaded the room. As she placed the clock back on the stool, she noticed that the time was just twenty seven minutes past the hour of eight, even with all the time she had tossed and turned on the bed. She picked up the phone from the stool and checked the incoming call, a set of digits stared back at her, the number was not registered on her phone book but it was registered in her heart. Everybody has that particular phone number they can’t forget, even in their afterlife – this was hers. *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ****** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** Ikoyi, Lagos. 7:30AM Bode turned the key in the lock to open the door to his office. As he stepped into the room, he felt alive. There was the connection he felt with this space he called his office and he couldn’t believe that being absent for just one day would make him miss it so much. Everything looked the same way like he had left it on Wednesday, except perhaps for the green file-bag that was conspicuously missing from his desk. It was the same bag needed for the meeting that he had missed because of his arrest and he wasn’t surprised as it was the reason Emeka had collected the office keys from him. On hindsight, it was a good thing he did, as he would have been forced to drive back to the office to submit the keys as it was against office rules to take office keys home for the night, even though he had mistakenly done it a couple of times. On those occasions it was his relationship with the security that saved him from the usual lengthy write ups that office bureaucracy demanded for such a slip. As he took a spin on his swivelling chair, his mind coursed through the events of the past two days where his world had been literarily taking a spin. His mum had been the one he had seen first as he raised his head up from where he sat. He had called her severally to demand Barrister Ndukwe’s number but she wasn’t picking the call anymore and so he had reached out to a friend to help him get a lawyer. The thought of spending time in a cell was dreadful but he just had to be calm and wait for the response of those he had reached out to. She was talking to an officer, with a countenance that suggested deep sadness. He rose up from where he sat and as he approached her, his eyes caught sight of Dunni’s mum – it was a complete act. ‘Tell me you didn’t do it?’ his mum asked, half an hour later as they walked out of the police station. It was a question he expected and so had an already made up answer for it. ‘No ma, I didn’t. I didn’t do anything,’ he said, repeating his words to emphasize his innocence. His mum had turned her head to take a good look at him, her brows arching as her eyes asked a million questions. ‘You didn’t do anything?’ She asked with a tinge of sarcasm, ‘How come she’s pregnant?’ Bode missed his step. Pregnant? The words still rang aloud in his head as he swivelled in his chair. That she was pregnant messed up all his calculations. How could he deny knowledge of the pregnancy when he had reported in his statement that she was his girlfriend and was just bitter about a break-up hence she had framed the rape story. If his statement was to remain true, it would also pick him out as the culprit for the pregnancy. Bode hung his head on the chair, his eyes closed and his mind wandering. There was a rap on the door that brought his wandering mind back to the realities of his office. He swivelled his chair back so he could face the door. It was just ten minutes past eight and it certainly couldn’t have been work so early. Ifeoma waltzed into his office in an Adele grey tonic suit looking every inch an executive. ‘Ify baby,’ he called out to her with a smile on his face, ‘So my wife missed me so much yesterday, she has come to pay homage to her husband so early?’ She flashed him a quick smile, her sparkling white teeth parting her red lips. ‘Na so,’ Ifeoma replied, the remnant of her smile still playing on her lips. ‘Fake husband that didn’t tell his wife that he won’t be around yesterday.’ ‘Oh that,’ Bode said dismissively. ‘No mind me jare, there was something I had to do yesterday.’ He continued, taking little notice of the envelope in her left hand. ‘Madam is angry o,’ Ifeoma started. ‘Which madam?’ Bode questioned, his eyes now on the envelope that was in her hand. ‘MD of course,’ Ifeoma continued. ‘How many madams do you have in the office?’ She asked rhetorically. ‘She asked us to issue you a query.’ ‘Query?’ Bode asked, visibly puzzled. ‘For just one day absence?’ ‘I’m sure there was something she wanted you to handle and got angry when you didn’t show up and didn’t call in to inform Admin or HR,’ Ifeoma said as she gave him the envelope while also placing the acknowledgement copy in front of him. He hesitated in signing the acknowledgement copy but eventually did sign it, sensing there was nothing he could do about it. ‘So no work for me today now, you have given me twenty four hours to answer the query, I’ll spend my day thinking up a very good answer.’ Bode said in a failed attempt at sharing a joke. His anger was obvious. ‘Take it easy, I’m sure it won’t amount to anything. I guess she was just angry’ Ifeoma said, knowing she was lying in her teeth as the MD was not known to be reactionary. ‘Let me get back to the office jare,’ she said, letting her hand stroke his hand that clutched the envelope in a soothing manner. It was obvious she was not comfortable in the environment. As Ifeoma stepped out of the office, shutting the door behind her, his mind drifted back to his predicament. Julia as lawyer to Funmi was something he could never have conceived, even in his dreams. Who could have thought of such a plot? Reality really can be stranger than fiction and this case proved it. He was sure she would be at the meeting holding at Funmi’s house tomorrow as suggested by the DPO to both families so that they could try to settle their differences amicably. He would like to know what to expect. His face contorted into a devious grin as he thought of the plan he was hatching. Julia’s resurrection as Funmi’s lawyer had definitely unsettled him but he was sure he could hatch out something that would make her an asset rather than a liability in this case. He still had her manual in his head or was it her program files in his system? He smiled, whatever it was, he was determined to make good use of it. It was eight twenty six on his wall clock as he picked up his phone, the number he was about to call was not stored in his phone, but his fingers worked magically as he tapped on the keys on his phone. It was a number he had vowed never to dial again in his life but desperate times demanded desperate measures. He placed the phone against his left ear as soon as he pressed the send button, and listened to the beeping sound that indicated that his call had connected. He waited patiently for the call to become active like a predator stalking a prey. The stakes in this game for him went through the roof the moment Funmi reported to the police. One of them was going down and it definitely wasn’t him. At that moment he heard her voice on the other end, hello she said. ‘Julia, it’s me Bode,’ he replied softly. ‘I know,’ she replied. Bode grinned to himself. An ex would always be an ex – free lunch. ——————————— ***

wow long and very interesting. Bode u have no choice but to marry Funmi. Baba twins how market

nice one

that's a stupid idea u have thy,while must u use what someone did to u to punish others

stupid bode,,,, bcos a lady disappointed u,,,, u now resulted to raping and public disgrace. , if not bcos of d pregnancy,, I still want u to suffer

I hope that lawyer wouldn't change her mind abt this case

The Morning After – Episode 8: An Unexpected Deception FRIDAY, MARCH 14th, 2014. Ogba, Lagos. 9:00AM ———————————— Funmi felt a tightening around her mid-section, she clutched her tummy as she rolled on the bed. It felt like the twisting pain she normally experienced before and during her period, but pregnant women don’t menstruate she thought to herself as the cramping sensations continued. She had been feeling really uneasy and stressed out for the past few days, not just with having to travel from the police station to the VAW centre but with her mum’s attitude and comments. ‘After the meeting on Saturday, at-least you can now register for your ante-natal sessions’, she had said on Thursday morning. She had thoroughly ignored her, preferring to concentrate on dressing up for school as she tidied up her make up. She was resuming school after about two weeks absence as she couldn’t allow an investment of five years go to waste in its final lap. She would not give Bode the satisfaction of ruining her education. Life just had to continue. She felt a warm wetness trickle down her left thigh amidst her wriggling on the bed that stirred her up to her feet. Blood? Her widened look seemed to ask as she hurried to the bathroom bent over. The pains that were sharp but intermittent were becoming more sustained with each passing second as she barely held out from screaming. She tossed up her night gown once inside the bathroom and watched as blood ran down her legs. ‘Mum!’ She called out, trying to restrain the panic in her voice as she saw some mucus looking substance in the discharge. As alarmed and in pain as Funmi felt, she could also sense some tremors of excitement welling up in her, ‘Mum!!’ She groaned louder. Mrs Badejo heard her daughter’s call in the room, but wasn’t sure she heard right. Funmi had limited their conversations since she opposed her abortion suggestion and had even grown formal with her dad whom she usually was closer to, after discovering that he was also hesitant to buy into her suggestion. The next call was a bit more desperate, prompting her to rise up quickly from her chair. Dare drawn by the pace of his wife as she dashed past him and simply muttering Funmi when he asked if all was well, hurried after her as she headed to Funmi’s room. ‘What’s the problem,’ he kept asking as his wife hurried to answer the call. The Badejos half walked and half ran into their daughter’s room and their eyes were immediately drawn to the several patches of blood stains on the cream coloured vitrified floor finish leading to the bathroom. ‘Funmi,’ Mrs Badejo called out as she made for the bathroom with her husband in tow. She turned the knob of the bathroom door and the image of her daughter with clenched teeth, clutching at her tummy with bloodstains on the floor of the bathroom was enough to pass the message. ‘Dear, hospital,’ She said to her husband, whom had not gotten a chance to see what the matter was about. ‘What’s the matter?’ Dare asked as he pulled his wife back to have a look at their daughter who was clasping her hands around her belly in pain. The look from his wife made him understand that this was better handled by women, ‘Okay,’ he said as he got out of the way, ‘get her out, and let me go get the car keys.’ Funmi looked at her parents in amusement as they fell over themselves to attend to her. If there was anything she was glad to hear, it was that they were taking her to the hospital. *** *** ****** *** ****** *** *** ****** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** Isolo, Lagos. 11:30AM Kunle Johnson was clearly agitated. He was tired of telling his wife that Lekan was not just his younger brother but a grown man who had a family of his own. ‘I cannot force him to do what he doesn’t want to do, he says he will not attend the meeting and I get it, or do you think I’m happy going to this meeting?’ He asked his wife who remained silent. ‘I haven’t visited my friend in 2014 and my first visit is to go and start begging that he should pardon someone that he said raped his daughter?’ ‘That someone is your nephew,’ his wife quipped, her face wearing a frown. She was obviously displeased by her husband’s reluctance to help. ‘And Bode said she was his girlfriend.’ Kunle Johnson eyeballed his wife. Dunni walked into the discussion from school as her dad and mum engaged themselves, she had decided to leave school early so that she could avoid the usual traffic caused by those returning from work especially since she was free for the rest of the day. ‘Young woman, you’re welcome,’ Kunle Johnson replied his daughter’s greeting. ‘Sit down,’ he said, his tone of voice carrying with it a lot of authority. ‘Aah! She won’t even drop her bag?’ his wife asked in protest. ‘You will let me talk,’ Kunle fired back, silencing his wife, before turning to Dunni. ‘So what do you know about this Funmi’s case that has gone as far as the police station, that my friend Umar had to call me?’ Kunle asked his daughter, his eyes fully focused on the startled face in front of him. ‘You are her friend and room-mate, are you not?’ ‘I am sir,’ Dunni replied. ‘Good, so go on.’ ‘I know they are friends,’ Dunni continued. ‘I’m not asking if they are friends, Funmi is pregnant and she says Bode raped her, while Bode insists, they were in a relationship. He actually uses you as his alibi, so young woman what do you have to say?’ Dunni removed the sling of her bag from off her shoulder as the weight was becoming too much for her to bear or maybe it was the pressure from the questions that her dad was throwing at her. ‘Daddy, Funmi is a big girl and I wouldn’t know if she went out or didn’t go out with Bode, especially if she didn’t want me to know, but I saw them together a couple of times,’ Dunni replied, shifting very uncomfortably. Kunle Johnson looked at his daughter, not one bit convinced by her response. Dunni kept her gaze to the floor, fully aware that her dad was not satisfied by her reply to his question. Bode had called her to tell her of what his side of the story would be at the meeting and had advised that she corroborates his story, hence he needed her presence at the meeting. As usual, she had refused, as she couldn’t imagine stabbing Funmi not just in the back but right into her heart. ‘How do I look at her and lie to her face?’ Dunni asked, more from confusion than anger. ‘You don’t need to look at her, fix your eyes on the ground,’ Bode said impatiently, cutting the call. If she couldn’t convince her dad with her response, how then did she hope to convince everyone at the meeting with Funmi’s eyes tearing down at her? She raised up her head to catch her dad’s gaze, while her mum concerned herself with the news on the TV even though she was very aware of the conversation between father and daughter. ‘You can go,’ Kunle said, preferring to save his words. ‘I just hope you know that while it’s a settlement meeting, you might end up being the centre of attraction tomorrow as you’re the link between both parties.’ Dunni walked on towards her room not waiting to respond to her dad. If she had a choice, Funmi’s house would be a no-no tomorrow – she dreaded just the mere thought of being in that meeting. *** *** ****** *** ****** *** *** ****** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** Wempco Road, Lagos. 2:40PM The doctor looked down at the papers in front of him and up at the eyes staring at him. ‘What you experienced young lady is SAB, spontaneous abortion otherwise called miscarriage, erm…erm, I guess this is your first pregnancy?’ Funmi nodded. ‘From the test carried out in the lab from the discharge, the miscarriage was caused by chromosomal abnormalities which is the usual cause of seventy to eighty percent of all miscarriages I’ve handled, erm…it’s not something to panic about, we’ll give you some drugs…’ The doctor paused as he saw Mrs Badejo’s hands go up in the air while almost singing the words, ‘Thank you, thank you, thank you.’ Funmi watched in anger as her mum raised up her hands in an unnecessary display of drama. What hypocrisy. ‘Is there a problem ma?’ The doctor asked, his eyes running from Funmi’s angry face to the contrasting ecstasy in her mother’s eyes. Funmi almost spat the words, she’s happy that her grandchild died, in sarcasm, but held herself back at the very last minute. She had never insulted her mother before and she would not start now. The ultrasound results say it was a complete miscarriage, but I would need you to take some drugs from the pharmacy… the doctor’s voice trailed off as the thoughts in her mind became too noisy for her to hear him speak. She revelled in her good-luck, now she could concentrate on her strategy without the mighty distraction of a pregnancy. She was confident that playing the video of the rape in the meeting would upset her parents, if not her mum, at-least her dad, so much so that the settlement meeting that her mum has now stylishly tagged it, would end up nothing short of a fighting meeting. She pushed the track pad to the Media sign and tapped on it, she felt an urge to catch a glimpse of the video, it was her joker for the meeting, a video that she had not seen past the one minute, forty seventh second mark. She pushed the track pad past the Music and Pictures sign, allowing the highlight to rest on the Videos sign. As she tapped on the track pad to open up the section, she was roused by her mum calling her name. Funmi! Her mum called again, interrupting the procession and jolting her back to the realities of the doctor’s office. She tapped the end call button and slipped the phone back into her pocket, settling into her chair to listen to the doctor continue his speech. She smiled as she thought of the shock she was planning to serve at the meeting tomorrow, in just about seventeen hours’ time. At that moment, her eyes caught the staggering movement of the seconds’ hand of the wall clock as it steadily traversed the face of the clock chopping off several seconds from the seventeen hours. The countdown to Bodecalypse had begun. ————— ***

The Morning After – Episode 9: Video Nasty FRIDAY, MARCH 14th, 2014. Maitama, Abuja. 8:00PM —————— Amaka Obi Ezenwa looked around the room with an air of satisfaction. She smiled as her eyes fell on the boxes close to the walk-in closet, all packed and carefully stacked in preparation for tomorrow’s trip. Marriage is sweet, she reminded herself. It was going to be her second year wedding anniversary tomorrow and in celebration, her husband was taking the family to the Obudu mountain resort for a week, to use his words, to continue their honeymoon. ‘Honeymoon indeed,’ she had replied. ‘With Josh tagging along abi?’ ‘If I remember correctly, you are the one who refused to drop him off at my sister’s place,’ Chika reminded her. ‘Don’t just complain, enjoy the honeymoon for three,’ he continued laughing. Josh was four months old when it was their first year wedding anniversary and Chika, her husband, who had insisted during their honeymoon that they would be returning to the resort for their first year wedding anniversary had to put off the plan because of the baby and had instead gotten her a Toyota corolla 2012 edition. It had blown her mind. She had totally forgotten about the Obudu trip this year and was instead racking her brain on what she would like as a gift as she went shopping for her husband’s anniversary’s gift, when he dropped the Aero flight tickets on her laps on his return from the office three days ago. ‘I would have loved to surprise you with this a night before our anniversary but I remembered we have to do some packing for the trip,’ he said as he placed a soft kiss on her lips. ‘Thank God you didn’t,’ she replied smiling. ‘You would have ended up being the one surprised,’ she said as they both eased into laughter. She glanced at her watch, it was fifteen minutes past eight. Josh was sleeping in the nursery while her big baby Chika had called earlier to say he might be a little late as he had to clear his desk to make sure nothing distracts him during the vacation. She made for the bathroom to prepare herself for him, she planned to set the tone for honeymoon number two, with an eve to remember. *** *** ****** *** ****** *** *** ****** *** ****** *** ****** *** *** *** ** SATURDAY, MARCH 15th, 2014. Omole, Phase 1, Lagos. 6:03AM The beep beep sound of a text message alert on her phone filtered into her cloudy head as she unwillingly reached out for the device. She normally stayed late in bed on Saturday mornings, usually until her boy Osas would come wake her up by jumping on her. Today definitely wasn’t going to be one of those Saturdays. The text was from Funmi. Ese hurried over the contents of the text, poring over every written word, it was the first time Funmi was communicating with her since Wednesday when she had opened up about her past relationship with Bode. The text was an invite to a meeting that was supposed to start by eleven. After the meet-up with Bode for lunch yesterday, she felt less burdened with guilt each time it crossed her mind that Funmi may retain her services and she might have to lead the prosecution of Bode. She saw for the first time the fading scar close to his temple, her eyes lingered on it for a while but before it crossed her mind to judge herself for his injury, she observed the huge gaps between the Bode she once dated and the person sitting across the table. He was still dashingly handsome but there was now a dark side to him. He was charming, maybe even more charming than when they were together in school, he was smooth and flirty like he used to be, but there was something cold about this Bode. He was calculative and manipulative. The old Bode was dead – probably she even murdered him and this one sitting opposite her was a monster. As she punched on her phone to make a call to Mrs George informing her of the invite to the meeting, her door swung open and her little giant Osas, bounced into the room with a swagger only he could command. He ran his fingers on his eye brows as he approached the bed, ‘mummy, come and watch cartoon with me,’ he said lazily. Ese smiled. Her Saturday just officially hit the start button. She got out of the bed, being led by her son, she could feel it deep inside of her that it was going to be an interesting day. She couldn’t place a finger on why she felt that way, but she couldn’t deny the feeling all the same. *** *** ****** *** ****** *** *** ****** *** ****** *** ****** *** *** *** ** Maitama, Abuja. 8:00AM Chika smiled to himself as he ran his right hand on his head. It was the big day and he planned to make it special. Their flight was for ten ‘o’ clock and so there was a bit of time to do some personal stuff he reminded himself as he settled down on his chair in the study. He dragged the cursor to the inbox section after duly waiting for the laptop to come on. He had received an email prompt on his phone while on the bed with his wife and seeing who the mail was from, had decided it was safer to check it on the laptop in the study. How do you explain an email from the girl you should have married, on your wedding anniversary? It just didn’t sound right. Happy anniversary my teddy bear who became too good for me because of one mistake. I hope you are enjoying your sister Theresa wife? I saw this on the internet and being the caring person that I am, felt that you would find the tricks useful as you plan big for your anniversary night. Here’s the link http://wp.me/p3OYmd-A. Love you dearie. Never stopped. Kisses. Sylvia. Chika smiled, reading the mail a second time before proceeding to click on the link. He held his breath as the page opened up, his eyes glued to the screen. Hot couple in Valentine Action was the title on the page, the smile on Chika’s lips widened, from the blurry picture on the screen, he could see that it was a pornographic video. Sylvia had always been naughty. Why would she think Amaka was a sister Theresa? Why would she even think he would need a pornographic clip to get turned on by his wife on their anniversary? He felt tempted to close the page and delete the mail from his inbox but ‘officer curiosity’ already had him arrested. He clicked on the play button, his eyes locked on the screen to watch the valentine action. It was just like he expected, it was a pornographic flick but something about the lady felt familiar as he listened to her moans. As he made to fast forward the flick, the camera shot for once in the twenty seconds already played, focused on the face of the lady -Chika froze- it was Amaka, his wife. The saliva in his mouth tasted like murder as he growled like a wounded lion. He paused the flick and rose up sharply from his chair, pacing up and down the study, his fingers scratching the shrubs of his beard. He banged his head with his fist severally as he panted with rage, muttering bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch with every bang of his fist on his head. He was incensed. The door creaked open at that moment as Amaka looking as beautiful as a Picasso painting rested on the frame of the door. ‘Happy anniversary darling,’ she cooed, her voice sensuous and smooth. Like darts, the words pierced Chika as they rolled out of the mouth of his wife. His bloodshot eyes interrupting any romance she had brought with her to the study. ‘Is that you in there?’ He asked, his fingers pointing to the screen of the laptop sitting on the table. Amaka waltzed to the table, taken aback by her husband’s response and strange attitude, he had hushed her down as she attempted to ask what was wrong and had instead pointed to the laptop on the table. She had never seen him like this in the two years they’ve been married and in the six months that they courted. ‘Yes?’ She asked as she stood in front of the laptop staring at blurry still pictures. ‘Press the play button,’ he said in a tone of voice that clearly displayed scorn and disdain. ‘I’m not pressing no play until you tell me what is going on here,’ Amaka fired back, angry at being ordered around like a kid. ‘I’ll kill you and kill myself if you don’t press that play button RIGHT NOW!!!’ Chika shouted, his voice rising with every syllable he uttered until it landed as a scream. Amaka shuddered. With shaky hands she moved the cursor to the play button with a swift movement of the mouse and clicked on play, and just then, her jaw dropped. The setting was familiar, the pictures were fresh in her memory and she recognized the scenery. Her lips vibrated from shock as an involuntary groan escaped from her mouth. The date was February 14, 2012, less than a month to her wedding with Chika -Bode had taped their escapade. ‘I can explain,’ she found herself saying. She didn’t plan the words, they just came out like they were from a guilty partners’ handbook. Chika stared at his wife with disgust as she shook uncontrollably with tears running down her cheeks, ‘I’m leaving this house now, so I don’t commit murder, I will be back by 6pm and if for any reason you’re still here when I come back, I will kill you,’ he said, delivering the words with such fierceness the message could not be doubted. ‘That is the reason why I will not ask the gate man to throw you out, not because I want to give you respect but because I want you to be tempted to wait for me,’ Chika said, his eyes fiery and murderous. He stormed out of the study after the mini speech, grabbing his car keys as he passed by the sitting room on his way out of the house. ‘Ah, ah, ah,’ Amaka groaned continuously as she was embraced with confusion, not knowing the next step to take. She slammed the laptop shut as the sound from the video filtered into her head. ‘Heeeeey!’ She screamed, collapsing to the ground as her knees failed to keep her standing. ‘It’s Bode …’ she answered like she had been asked a question. She was teetering at the edge of insanity. *** *** ****** *** ****** *** *** *** ***** *** ****** *** ****** *** *** *** ** Ogba, Lagos. 12:15AM There was a sombre mood in the sitting room as everyone seated wore a serious look. The meeting had been on for about fifty minutes with SP Umar sending a complimentary police officer to observe proceedings even though he didn’t expect anything dramatic to occur. He expected a settlement, especially since the families were already well acquainted with each other. Dare Badejo looked at the prostrating figure of the man who had impregnated his daughter whether by rape or through concession and even though he wanted to tow the path of his daughter seeking justice, that decision seemed foolhardy and a journey into futility. ‘All I have to say…you can get up young man,’ Dare said, urging Bode who was still laying prostrate on the marbled floor to his seat, ‘There would be no need to offer to take care of the baby as there would be no baby,’ he announced, pausing for a second, to take in the surprise in the eyes of his guests. ‘My daughter here, had a miscarriage yesterday, something the doctor called spontaneous abortion and that is the reason I’m trying to hurry up this meeting so she can go and rest. This incidence has weighed heavily on her,’ he said, ignoring the gasps that greeted the miscarriage news from the female Johnsons. Bode had a sorrowful look plastered on his face but as his eyes caught Funmi’s, he gave her a mischievous wink that lasted a mini second, and then looked around to make sure he wasn’t noticed. Dunni sitting next to Funmi had caught the wink but had quickly taken her eyes off the duo just in-case another person was watching. This was the most difficult meeting she had ever attended in her life. Dare looked around to make sure he had the attention of everyone and then rested his gaze on his daughter, Funmi. ‘Funmi, you have heard everything that has been said, from Uncle Kunle, to Aunty Lara,’ he said gesturing at Dunni’s mum, ‘and then Bode’s mum and finally Bode himself. I am not the person that has been primarily hurt. That person is you, yes I’m hurt that there’s a situation like this but what matters is what you have to say,’ Dare said looking at his daughter, whose countenance had grown colder since he insisted that the young lawyer whom she had invited could not be part of the meeting. That had been the only up tempo moment in the meeting so far, as Funmi had stubbornly insisted on having the lawyer sit in the meeting before grudgingly settling to hosting her in her room while the meeting continued after being pleaded with by his friend Kunle, and the observing police officer. Funmi rose up from her chair where she sat, her eyes cold and unforgiving, and running a tour of the persons in the room. The two Mrs Johnson sat huddled together at her far right while Uncle Kunle sat to the left of her father who was flanked to his right by her mum. Bode sat almost opposite her while Dunni sat by her side, quiet and dumb as a statue. The police officer invited for the meeting sat farther apart, peering at a newspaper, raising his head from time to time to observe proceedings. He shifted impatiently in his chair, seemingly waiting for the end of the meeting, a settlement by both parties which was the inevitable conclusion to a meeting of this nature. ‘Dunni, is it true that I am or that I was ever in a relationship with Bode, just like he has stated?’ Funmi asked her friend who was sitting next to her, her eyes lowered to catch her gaze. ‘Yes, y..you were friends,’ Dunni said, her eyes returning the stare from Funmi and her mouth delivering the speech with relative calmness, except with the stuttering motion as she opened her mouth. Funmi smiled, even with the tears starting to trickle down her cheeks. She had asked the question to test the waters, to know where Dunni would stand when the shaking began and it was obvious where she had chosen to take her stand -with Bode. Kunle Johnson could not miss the ironic smile on the face of Funmi, it was the smile of one betrayed. He always knew his daughter had been lying to him. ‘Dad, if I prove that I was raped by this bastard here, as my father, what would you do?’ Funmi asked pointing in the direction of Bode, the tears now freely flowing down her cheeks but her voice surprisingly stable and steely with resolve. Bode’s mum cleared her throat, which seemed unusually loud because of the eerie silence that followed Funmi’s question. She remained quiet with her hands joined together and resting on her laps. Dare hesitated, not sure if the question was rhetorical. The silence that followed the question made him realise that he needed to answer the question. ‘I will make sure he pays, I will make sure justice is done, he would go in for it,’ Dare stated looking into the crying eyes of his daughter like she was the only person in the room. Dunni’s mum shifted uneasily, the meeting had been going smoothly until this moment, except of course for the small distraction of the uninvited guest -the barrister. She didn’t however like the direction it was beginning to take as the environment was becoming unnecessarily charged. ‘Dad,’ Funmi called in an emotion laden voice, ‘he did not just rape me,’ she said. ‘He made a video out of it.’ ‘Eh!’ Her mum gasped, her eyes popping out from shock. The sitting room was electric, even the police officer had dropped his magazine on the table and had inched closer to the group. Everyone was on the edge of their seats. ‘Yes mum, he made a video of it, it’s in my phone in the room,’ Funmi said wiping her face with her palm and heading to her room to retrieve her phone. Dare looked at Bode and the expression in his eyes was different from some thirty minutes ago where indifference had by now been replaced with fury. Bode looked squarely at Dunni as if to re-confirm that she indeed deleted the video and his gaze was met with a slight nod that only both of them could understand. He relaxed. Everyone waiting with bated breath fixed their gaze on the door that Funmi was to reappear from. There was total silence as the ticking sound of the clock underlined the suspense in the room. ***

I love this story please update more

I dey follow

I wish she has checked her phone to be sure dat she still has d video on her phone b4 telling dem she has an evidence and I hope d barrister has a copy of it,,,, and I also hope she has it in anoda folder

interesting

The Morning After – Episode 10: Warrior SATURDAY, MARCH 15th, 2014. Ogba, Lagos. 12:50PM ———————————- Funmi opened her door and made straight for her phone that was lying on the table. ‘I’m sorry Aunty, I didn’t mean to waste your time today,’ she said to Ese, who raised her head up from the book she was reading immediately the door swung open. She was sitting very comfortably on the bed and looked to have settled in quite nicely in the room. ‘It’s okay, it was my decision to stay back. I could have gone home if I didn’t want to, besides I need to speak with you after the meeting is over which I really do hope is soon because I have to go be with my boy,’ Ese said. ‘And how is the meeting going?’ she asked seeing that Funmi’s eyes were swollen, obviously from crying. ‘It’s going just the way I envisaged, not well, I believe it’s time to show my parents the video,’ Funmi replied, scrolling through the video files in her phone. Her fingers were moving at a terrific pace. ‘Oh no,’ she sighed, her face creasing into a picture of worry. Her fingers trembled as she ran through her videos the umpteenth time. ‘Oh my God no…Oh no…God please no…’ she moaned as her lips vibrated and tears trickled down the now familiar path of her cheeks. ‘Aunty, I’m finished. There is no video,’ she cried. ‘What do you mean no video?’ Ese asked rising up from the bed. ‘Are you sure you didn’t save it on this other phone?’ She asked picking the other phone from the table where it lay idly. ‘I didn’t,’ Funmi replied all flushed up and feeling sick to the pit of her stomach. ‘Aunty what do I do now?’ She asked after going through the video files on her other phone and confirming that the video also wasn’t there. ‘It’s okay, stop crying,’ Ese said as she made straight for her bag, drawing out her phone like she had been expecting this moment. Funmi watched, not sure what to expect. Who was she trying to call? She thought to herself as she watched Ese’s fingers tap on her phone. ‘Here you go, this is a copy of the video,’ Ese said as she passed her phone to Funmi, with the still pictures from the video displaying on the screen. It just needed a tap on the play button to come alive. Funmi’s eyes lighted up as she tapped the play button to ensure that the video was real. For the first time, the sight of the video brought her joy. The tears running down her cheeks suddenly tasted different -they were tears of joy. Funmi wrapped her arms around Ese in pure delight, her body vibrating in quiet sobs. ‘Thank you Aunty, God will bless you.’ She said as joy overwhelmed her being. ‘When the centre promised to help, we meant it. We’re in this together now,’ Ese said releasing herself from the tight embrace. ‘Let me take in some oxygen,’ she joked. Funmi smiled. The world suddenly looked brighter. ‘Let me go back in,’ she said excitedly, turning to leave the room but then paused at the door. ‘How did you get a copy of this Aunty?’ she asked, her eyes betraying her curiosity. ‘Remember playing the video from your phone in Mrs George’s office?’ Ese asked. Funmi nodded. ‘You remember the little incident of you fainting when you got the report that you were pregnant?’ Ese asked, her lips parting in a smile as Funmi’s eyes lightened up. ‘I remember, I thought the world fainted too’ Funmi said grinning. ‘You copied the video when I fainted?’ ‘I’m sorry, but I had to,’ Ese replied, her face wearing a much sober look. ‘Thank God you did Aunty, thank you so much,’ Funmi said, giving Ese another round of hugs before walking out. *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ****** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** The atmosphere was charged in the sitting room as everyone kept their gaze on the door. The oxygen seemed under-utilised as the figures in the room were hardly breathing -it was that tense. Dare was unsure whether to get up from his chair and go to his daughter’s room or to sit back like he was already doing and wait like everyone else. He looked at his wife, who was sitting on the edge of her chair and for the first time since this saga began, he saw in her eyes the look of anger. Bode sat back in his chair very relaxed. He had a grin on his face that was not befitting of the present circumstance. He looked like he was mocking the situation. He glanced at his mum who had been trying to get his attention and as she finally did, he saw her lips move, with no audible words being uttered. He shook his head in response, giving her a smile. He didn’t hear any questions but he knew the message she was obviously trying to pass across. As the waiting grew unbearable, Mrs Badejo got up from her chair heading to her daughter’s room and as if on cue, the door opened and Funmi emerged with a phone in her hand. As she approached the group, whose eyes were all set on her, they couldn’t miss the fact that she had been crying. Bode gloating like an over-fed baboon, stretched out his legs from where he sat. His attitude was becoming nauseating as he seemingly celebrated the tension in the room. Funmi looked at him, his face bearing a grin she was sure would disappear in some seconds and flashed him a big smile, an act that surprised everyone in the room, including Bode. ‘Daddy, this is the video, she said as she handed the phone to her dad, just the way it had been placed in her hands by Ese. She tapped the play button as her mum and Uncle Kunle huddled closer to get a better look. Bode’s grin faded as he watched Funmi place the phone in her father’s hands. As the eyes of Mrs Badejo opened up in shock, he found his voice, ‘I thought you said you deleted the video?’ He barked at Dunni who was watching Funmi’s demonstrations with keener interest than anyone else in the room. The words from Bode’s mouth caused a mini stir as gasps of shock was heard from various corners of the room. All eyes in the room made a brief stop on Bode who uttered the words before resting on Dunni, the one to whom the words were addressed. Dunni wished she could just do a disappearing act as she felt the eyes in the room prick her skin like needles. From the sad, I’m not surprised look on her dad’s face, the utter shock in the eyes of the Badejos and finally to the extreme disdain on Funmi’s face, the feedback was the same, she was less than a low life scum. *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** Maitama, Abuja. 1:20PM Amaka opened her eyes as she felt her son tugging at her dress. He had an innocent smile on his face, she smiled back. Running through the names in her head trying to pick out who to call and where to go, it suddenly dawned on her that she had not really settled into Abuja as much as she thought she had, as all the names that popped up were all based in Lagos. Her best friend Ify, also based in Lagos, had suggested that she goes to Chika’s elder sister and explain things to her. It didn’t sound like a very good idea at the time but it was the only option available on the table. ‘Aunty, are you in the house?’ She asked, speaking into her phone. ‘No ma, we didn’t make the trip anymore,’ she replied, trying to sound as composed as she could. ‘Please ma, is my husband there, he’s not picking his call?’ she lied. ‘I would like to come over to your place…yes ma…right now ma,’ she continued. ‘Thank you ma, I’ll see you soon ma,’ she said ending the call. She sighed as she placed the phone on her left lap. Talking to Ify about the video was easy but facing her sister in-law was definitely a different kettle of fish. But why would Bode want to hurt her so bad? What did she ever do to him to deserve such pain and wickedness? She let her mind dwell on these thoughts but suppressed suggestions that her circumstance was a tale of karma. Serves you right for cheating on your fiancé just a month to your wedding, she heard the voice whisper continuously in her mind. ‘It’s all Bode’s fault!’ She screamed, startling her son who was doing some construction work with his Lego. Josh turned and looked at his mother as if to make sure she was okay, his innocent eyes searching curiously like he had a grasp of the situation. After satisfying himself, or so it seemed, the little boy returned to his LEGO construction work. Amaka picked up her phone. She could feel herself falling apart but she had no idea what to do to keep herself up. Who could have thought that the anniversary that she had day-dreamed about since the start of the month could turn out to be this nightmare she was living in? ‘God will punish Bode,’ she muttered as her fingers tapped on her phone. She was making a call. *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** Ogba, Lagos. 1:20PM It happened so fast it could have been a scene from one of the parts of the Matrix trilogy. Bode taking advantage of the distraction in the room as all eyes were focused on Dunni skipped forward and grabbed the phone from the hands of Dare Badejo who was too shocked by the sudden move to offer any reasonable resistance. He smashed the phone against the hard surface of the marbled ground with an incredible amount of force, shattering the fragile device. Still in his fit of madness, he picked up a piece of the remains of the phone, sliding out what looked like the memory card and slipped it into his mouth while everyone in the sitting room stood rooted to their positions, they were a perfect definition of the word ‘transfixed’. As Bode’s fingers slipped the memory card into his mouth, the instincts of the police officer came alive as he slammed his right fist straight at the face of Bode, letting it land with venomous ferocity. Bode felt his face burn as the fist of the police officer connected with his cheek bone, spewing the contents of his mouth as he was sent sprawling to the ground with a thud. As soon as he landed on the marbled ground, he felt a loud bang in his mid-section as the police officer doing a quick follow up to his punch, slammed a vicious kick right into his belly. He yelled in anguish, his head left spinning by the pain he was feeling. The shrieks from the two Mrs Johnsons seemed to dull the combat mode that looked to have been activated in the police officer as he walked up to Bode’s heap that was coiled up in pains on the ground. The floor area around him spotted with blood stains. The police officer bent down and picked up the memory card. It seemed to be in proper condition. ‘You should keep this, I believe it will be useful in the instance that this case goes to court,’ the officer said calmly, handing the memory card to Dare. ‘Yes,’ the Badejos answered in unison. ‘The case will definitely go to court,’ Dare stated resolutely, as he received the memory card, ‘this meeting is over!’ He declared as his wife nodded to his every word. Bode’s mum was in tears as she crouched by her son, checking him out. The sight of his bloodied face opening up her tear tanks as they flowed freely down her cheeks. ‘Excuse me madam,’ the police officer said as he brought out his handcuffs, bending over Bode to cuff him. The sight of her son in handcuffs was too much for Bode’s mum to bear as she literarily broke down before her brother in-law in heavy sobs, ‘Daddy Dunni bami daa duro,’ she wailed, pleading with him to stop the police officer from arresting her son. Dunni’s mum joined in the plea as she tearfully entreated the Badejos to intervene in the arrest. Mrs Badejo looked away, her mind made up, both from a combination of Bode’s attitude to the revelation of the video. She turned to her daughter and drew her into her arms. ‘I’m sorry,’ she whispered into the ears of Funmi, ‘I’m very sorry,’ she said, cuddling her up like a baby. The sound from the ringing phone was becoming a nuisance as everyone was becoming irritated by its non-stop ringing. ‘Ma please help me take the call, it’s my phone,’ Bode said through bloodied and swollen lips, gesturing to his mum with his head as his hands were locked up in handcuffs. He was up on his feet, with the police officer securing him like a criminal. Bode’s mum picked up the phone from the chair, the screen of the phone reading, incoming call from Amak’s baby. She stared at the phone, not sure what to do with it as there were no buttons to press -it was a touch screen. She had always found these new devices too much trouble to handle, what’s wrong with having buttons? She wondered as she passed the phone to Kunle Johnson and in the process not only received the call but activated speaker phone. ‘Hello, he can’t speak right now,’ Kunle said reluctantly into the phone, hesitant to receive the call. God will punish you Bode, the caller screamed out from the phone, her voice resonating in the sitting room. She was sobbing. My God will punish you, she repeated. Everyone has ex-es, and I had you, what wrong did I ever do to you to warrant you making a video of me and putting it on the internet? Bode you have killed me. You have destroyed my home and my God will destroy you,’ the caller screamed hysterically from the other end before breaking down in quiet sobs, obviously too weary to continue the cursing. The line went dead shortly after. The room fell into an eerie silence as all eyes turned on Bode. ‘The young lady here seems not to be your only victim,’ The police officer said, ‘you definitely have a lot to explain when you get to the station,’ he continued, stretching his hand to collect the phone from Bode’s mum. ‘I will have that madam, it’s also going to be useful.’ Bode’s mum wore a blank but weary look as she handed the phone over to the police officer, without any sign of protest. The last call had drained all her energy, even the one with which to cry. She grabbed the arm of the chair closest to her and collapsed into the softness of the cushion. ‘How can you be so wicked? Can’t you see what your stupidity is causing your mum?’ Kunle asked, finally finding his voice, his eyes was flaming red with rage, ‘how useless can a child get?’ Bode’s eyes shifting away from the police officer who was answering a call, rested on his uncle. ‘Not as useless as yours, who sold out her best friend for a meagre thirty thousand naira.’ He replied scornfully. ‘You beast!’ Dunni shouted as she flung her phone fiercely at him, but it was way off the mark as it crashed on the wall. ‘Let’s go,’ the police officer ordered as he led him past the open door, away to a waiting van that was parked outside the gate. Bode’s mum got up and trudged along silently. She was too tired to beg but definitely without the heart to sit and watch her only child being led away to the police station. Lekan, his dad and her husband, had another wife and substitute children, Bode was the only child she had, he was her one and only, Bode was her world. ‘And what was the meaning of that?’ Kunle asked his daughter, immediately Bode’s mum closed the door behind her, he was pointing in the direction of the empty space that housed Bode some fifty seconds ago. He looked from his daughter to his wife who slapped the back of her left hand against her right palm, to show her ignorance. ‘You mean you connived with your cousin to rape your friend?’ He barked. Dunni’s eyes blazed with fury instead of guilt, ‘I did no such thing dad,’ she retorted, ‘and I’m amazed that you have become quite an advocate against rape,’ she said, her words clothed in sarcasm. What happened next surprised everyone in the room including the recipient, as Kunle landed a resounding slap on the face of his daughter, ‘You will not disrespect me,’ he spat out angrily. Dare moved in quickly to stop his friend from any further attacks on his daughter as Dunni’s mum grabbed her. ‘Yes hit me,’ Dunni said gritting her teeth, forcefully releasing herself from her mum’s hold, as she urged her to be quiet. ‘Hit me!’ She repeated, her voice quivering. ‘That’s what I’m useful for, to be abused. Who sees you defending Funmi would think you’re the world’s best dad but where were you when Uncle George repeatedly raped me?’ She spat, with anger and hate clearly written in her voice. ‘Where dad?’ She repeated, ‘Under your nose and in your house, your sixteen year old daughter was serially raped by a pervert uncle and what did you do? Nothing…you did absolutely nothing. I never planned with Bode to rape Funmi and even though I may have done things in this whole episode that I’m not proud of right now, you’re definitely not in a position to judge me,’ Dunni said in a rush, her pains erupting like a fiery volcano. Her mum moved closer, obviously to stop her from talking but she shrugged off her mum’s advances, with a look that spelt utter disgust. ‘I have no words for you mum,’ she said picking up her bag and walking out of the room. Kunle released himself from his friend’s hold, stunned by the words from his daughter, his eyes threatening to jump out of their sockets. ‘Tell me she’s drunk and that all she just said was uttered in the highs of being intoxicated with stupidity.’ Dunni’s mum trembled. The fear in her eyes was an answer in itself. ‘Lara, you knew about this?’ Kunle asked in disappointment, ‘You knew that George serially raped Dunni and you covered it up?’ His voice rising in fury with every word he uttered. ‘You brought your brother into my house, and I paid for his education, he ate my food and I sent him abroad where he’s presently married with children and all he could do to pay me back was rape my daughter -our daughter Lara,’ Kunle screamed, ‘and you did nothing about it, not even tell me. Now I see why you were pleading for Bode,’ Kunle said, his body beginning to vibrate. The Badejos who had become spectators in their own home watched on as the Johnsons took centre stage. Dare positioned himself strategically to make sure his friend did nothing stupid. His mind deliberating on whether to invite his lawyer into the case or to allow the young lawyer who was standing by his wife having been drawn into the sitting room by the noise, continue with the case. It seemed wise to let her continue. Mrs Badejo watched on at the unfolding drama and wondered what she would have done in such a circumstance. She skipped the thoughts, preferring instead to think about how many years Bode would end up in prison for, when he was eventually convicted. It was the first question she was going to ask the young lawyer by her side, but that would be in a while as the Johnson’s drama didn’t seem like ending soon. Ese wondered at how adversity many times found a way of knitting a family closer together as she saw the linked hands of mother and daughter. These scenes seemed impossible three hours ago, but fast forward to the present, and she has a job trying to convict a man she had once loved with all heart, trying to put behind bars a man she wished she had married, especially during the last days of her failed marriage. Shine bright like a diamond Shine bright like a diamond… Funmi walked away from the chaos in the sitting room, to pick her call as her ringtone serenaded the room. It was her sister, Jumoke calling to get updates. ‘Hello,’ she said, speaking into the receiver. ‘Hello, how did the meeting go?’ Jumoke asked hurriedly. ‘We are going to court,’ Funmi answered almost in glee. ‘Yay!!!’ Her sister screamed in delight from the other end, ‘We are Bad! Call us the Bad-ejos,’ she chanted. Funmi laughed. ‘Whoa!’ Jumoke gasped in horror. ‘What?’ Funmi asked but there was no reply. Before she could slip into a panic session, she heard her sister’s voice in the background calling out to her husband, hunnie!! I think my water just broke. Funmi could hear her sister’s groaning and a mad scramble in the background. She glued her ears to the phone trying to get a grasp of the situation from the background vocals until her sister spoke into the phone again. ‘I’m off to the hospital, I’m about to give you a niece and we’re calling her Funmi,’ Jumoke panted and ended the call. Funmi’s face glowed. When she woke up this morning, she never imagined that the day would turn out so dramatic. She never imagined that Bode would end up in the police station with his mum, trying to secure an impossible bail on a Saturday, that the Johnson’s would be in her sitting room right now, battling a truth that was threatening to divide their family or that her mum would actually apologise to her and hug her closely. It all exposed the fact that there was nothing like a perfect family, the best we could all hope for, was perfect love in a family. The drama was far from over, it was actually only just beginning, but the truth she held close to her heart was that no matter how dark the night gets, there’s always the morning after. I’m Funmilola Bad-ejo and I’m a warrior. —————– END

Thumps up I wish the story didn't end ooh So interesting Thank you

wonderful!!! I love d story but I wish I know wat happened to Uncle George

nice ending

I hope the bastar.d Bode is being prosecuted.