Five

Junior, weeping uncontrollably, takes faltering steps after the sedan, making his shattered mother reach out for him.

"My Prince," Effe whispers sadly. "Please, don't!"

Junior shies away from her, his gaze fierce and accusing, and then he runs past her into the house.

Steve bends and pick up the expensive golden watch he has given Junior as a birthday gift, and which the boy has discarded like a live snake in his urge to put on that cheap toy watch from his father.

Steve's jaw tightens with fury as he pushes the watch into his pocket.

"Ungrateful stupid little imp!" he says savagely under his breath.

Effe runs after her son.

People quickly step out of her way as she rushes through the compound and into the crowded living-room. She sees Junior rushing up the stairs, and it is evident he is going to his room. Effe's father, a distinguished-looking gentleman in his late sixties, wearing a well-tailored white African gear, quickly puts his drink down on a tray and hurries toward his daughter. He can see even from across the room that she is extremely agitated.

Effe's mother, Ivy, also approaches from the other side of the room where she has been chatting with members of her social group. She is a beautiful slender woman, well-groomed and as graceful as a gazelle.

"My love, what's wrong with Junior?" Ken Kedem asks his daughter in a worried voice. "He was practically weeping as he went upstairs. What has upset him so?"

Effe sways for a moment, still feeling breathless and light-hearted from the sudden appearance of Chris Bawa on the scene.

"It's Chris, Dad," she says breathlessly. "He came around."

Her parents exchange quick looks, and their faces express their stunned disbelief.

"What?" Ivy asks hoarsely. "Chris? You mean Chris Bawa?"

"Yes, Mom," Effe replies miserably. "He was outside just a few minutes ago."

Ken Kedem shakes his head with incomprehension.

"I don't understand this…Chris? He's supposed to be in prison, isn't he? So where's he now? Still outside?"

It is Effe's turn to shake her head, and she still looks dazed.

"No, Dad. The police picked him up. They took him away."

Ivy clasps her hands to her cheeks, and she looks horrified.

"Goodness me! Did he escape from prison?"

"I don't know, Mom," Effe says, clearly agitated now. "My guess is that he did. Excuse me for a moment, please. He was with Junior, and the boy got really upset. I've to attend to him. Will be with you soon."

Effe leaves them and rushes up the stairs after her son.

Again, Ken and Ivy Kedem exchange horrified looks.

Ken, a retired High Court judge, takes out his phone, searches through his phonebook contacts, selects a name and dials.

He puts the phone to his ear and listens for a while, and then he speaks in a rush.

"Hello, Fii. How are you, my brother? Happy New year to you. It's been a while, hasn't it? Hope you're doing well."

He laughs at something the man at the other end says, and then he rubs his brow and speaks earnestly.

"Oh, yes, yes, they're all doing fine, thank you. Listen, Fii. I've just been told Chris Bawa came around my daughter's house, but he was taken away by the police again. Did he escape from prison? Are you in a position to enlighten me on that?"

Some of the guests are looking at him anxiously, and he realizes that Chris' little drama has created quite a little furor in the general scheme of things.

Eventually Ken says goodbye and ends the call.

"What did he say, dear?" Ivy Kedem asks anxiously. "Did Chris break out of prison?"

"No, no, love," Ken replies, looking a little bit flustered. "Seems he benefited from the President's Christmas pardons. He was recommended by the review committee for good behavior and for exhibiting a positive change, whatever that means. Got something to do with his public persona as a former national GojuFist champion too, I'm quite sure. So he was pardoned. Chris Bawa is a free man."

"Goodness me!" Ivy cries hoarsely, horrified. "This can't be! Not at a time when my daughter is so close to finding happiness again! Why didn't that boy just die in prison?"

"Hush, Ivy!" Ken, a just man, says sharply. "What's gotten into you? You're a Christian and a mother, remember that. Don't you dare wish ill for a fellow human. Effe is a big girl, you know, and she has a perfectly sensible head between her shoulders. She can handle her own affairs pretty well by herself!"

Effe enters her son's room and sees Junior lying on his bed, still in his clothes and shoes. He is curled up in the fetal position, and his shoulders are heaving with his heavy tears. Effe sighs deeply and looks around the room with unseeing eyes, marshalling her thoughts and looking for the right words to console her son.

Around the walls of the room are framed photos of a far younger Junior and his father, photos taken at various stages of the boy's life, from when he was a new born baby to his fifth birthday.

Memories of him and his father!

In almost all the pictures Chris is holding his son closely and with incredible happiness on his handsome face, a face that holds that radiant smile of his, the smile that always dimples his cheeks and used to fill Effe's heart with such indescribable joy.

She had tried to take down those photos several times, but Junior's tantrums on each occasion had finally made her leave them untouched, and she had acquiesced and allowed them be on the walls.

Effe now walks forward slowly and sits down beside him. She reaches for him, and although he stiffens at first and refuses to be drawn into her embrace, she doesn't give up, and eventually he relaxes and moves into her arms.

"My prince," she says tenderly. "I know you're very upset, but you have to be brave for me, okay? Remember our motto for the year? Perseverance, Junior. In any painful condition we persevere to conquer, and we never ever give up!"

He puts his hands on her shoulders and leans back to peer into her face with huge, sad eyes.

"I miss my daddy," he says in a despaired voice. "Don't send him back to prison, Mommy, please."

Much against her will, Effe feels the first sting of tears in her own eyes.

"Hush, my prince. I didn't send him to prison. You'll see him again, I promise.

"Really, Mommy?" he asks pitifully. "You really, really, really, promise? This time you'll let me visit daddy in prison?"

Effe's face is tortured. Her eyes are haunted, and for a moment she does not know what to say, but just then the door opens and her father walks in. He shuts the door gently and stands looking at them with uncertainty.

"I called the Chaplain at the James Fort Prison, my dear," he says at length. "He informed me that Chris didn't escape from prison. He was set free, Ef, dear."

Mother and son stare at him with varying expressions. Whilst there is sudden and unbridled ecstasy and joy on the face of the boy, the woman's face falls into abysmal depths of dismay.

"Really, really, really, Grandpop?" Junior shouts excitedly, bounding out of his mother's arms and rushing to grasp the older man's hands, his face almost splintering apart with sheer happiness. "Daddy is really, really, really free? They're not sending him to prison again?"

Ken tussles the boy's hair and smiles down at him gently.

"No, Junior. He's free now."

The boy gives a screech of happiness and tears out of the room, shouting with extreme and profound joy.

Effe stands up dazedly and faces her father. There is pain and torture on her face.

"Is it true, Dad?" she asks in a stunned voice.

"Yes, my love. He benefitted from a full presidential pardon. Good behavior, changed attitude, former national hero, and a lot of other positives were cited, so yes, he's free."

Effe, once again, feels dizzy, and her whole body seems to shiver slightly. She reaches out desperately and supports herself by grabbing the bedpost, and then she slowly sinks down on the bed.

"He's changed, Dad," she murmurs in an unsteady voice. "Physically. They did something to him. He couldn't have changed that drastically in just five years. All that plumpness, that body fat, it's all gone. He looked muscular, meaner, and his eyes, Dad! I can't forget that look in his eyes when the cops told him I took a restraining order against him."

"You did what? When? Why?" Ken exclaims, shocked.

"Five years ago, Dad, when he was taken away! I did it to ease some of the pain, I think, because I was so shattered, hurt and angry! Truth is, I forgot all about it, and only remembered it today when those cops mentioned it. At that time, I positively hated him, Dad. But I'm really sorry he found out today. It killed him, Dad, it killed him." Effe replies, tears slowly forming in her eyes.

Without a word Ken sits down on the bed beside his daughter and puts a comforting arm across her shoulders.

"Look, pumpkin, what Chris did was awful, yes, and now he's got a criminal record, yes. But he never physically hurt you, or Junior, dear. And you know he's incapable of doing anything to hurt any of you, physically, that is. I know he betrayed your love and trust, and he hurt you badly in the process, but your son adores him, and loves him unconditionally. I also know that Chris loves his son unconditionally."

"Oh, Dad, yes, Junior loves that man so much! Too much, I daresay, for his own good! He's always fought me for not taking him to visit his father in prison. You would've thought that for someone that young he should've been able to move on, and let the memory of his father be a faded picture, but not Junior. God knows I've tried to take that away from –"

"Effe, my darling, you don't want to say that again," Ken says gently, his voice holding mild reproach. "I never had a son, true, and I've not had any regrets because you two girls are wonderful. But, I do know for a fact that if I had had a son I wouldn't be happy to see anyone trying to break our bond. You simply can't break the ties between a father and his son. Who knows, maybe through that love, Chris can be a better man."

"Chris will never change, Dad!" Effe hisses passionately, her beautiful face a tortured mask of pain. "I gave him my heart and my soul, my time, my breath, my all! He had all the chances to change, but he never did. He didn't even try! That's why I can never forgive him. I hate him to the very core of my soul!"

"Well, fair enough," Ken says sadly. "But don't try to keep him away from his son. Tomorrow, if you can – and I'm hoping you can – go and cancel that restraining order."