Ninety-Two

 Mrs. Lois Bawa smiles, and it is not a very pleasant smile.

"You wanted to know the truth, Stan. For years you've hated Chris, and done everything to destroy him. Well, you wanted to know why Roland loved him more.

Well, the answer is simple really. I got pregnant again, you see, before Chris. I was taken to the hospital. On admission that day was a poor girl called Rosie. She was a prostitute who has gotten pregnant, and who hated the child she was about to give birth to so much.

We were in the same maternity ward. She and I had a good talk. She didn't even know who the father of her baby was, Stan, because she was a prostitute. I tried preaching to her, but she was just so shattered she wanted to get away. Well, I gave birth an hour before she did.

Unfortunately, my baby, a girl, was stillborn. She died, yes. Rosie's child was a boy, but as soon as she got to the ward she got up and walked out, never to be seen again. I came home, but a nurse from the hospital visited me. The baby had no mother, no father, a poor boy. They knew I had lost my baby, and they wondered if I could take care of the boy. I felt sorry for that baby, and yes, I decided to breast-feed him until other alternatives were decided. 

All Diana knew was that I was pregnant and went to give birth, and a baby came home, but Roland knew he lost his real sister. Well, Mr. Brand Bawa, now a budding pastor with fire, decided to open his doors for this motherless, fatherless, lonely baby, and we adopted him. We gave Rosie the prostitute's son a home, and a name. We named him Stan Bawa."

Stan collapses into a seat, and he begins to weep bitterly. 

He is absolutely shattered, totally devastated, so much that he will not even allow his wife to hold him.

"So you see, my dear Stan, at least Diana is the son of the Pastor. But you, the one who grew up to hate my son so much, we don't even know who your father was.

Roland resembled his father, and Chris looks a lot like me, and so yes, naturally he became my favorite. I know it's wrong. I know I should've tried to hide it, and I admonish all parents here, Chris included, to make sure they treat all their children with the same love, because when siblings feel left out, it brings hatred.

And that is the hatred that you allowed to breed in your heart, my dear Stan. You thought Chris was an outcast, a scourge that has come to taint your house, based on what you heard, and wasn't man enough to ask. And so you hated Chris quite fiercely. The more you hated him the angrier I became, as a mother, and that is why things have turned out so horribly. I pray that we get over this painful period, so God help us." 

She turns away, her heart breaking, and she flees towards the door.

She stops with her hand on the knob, and looks at Chris with passionate love.

"Forgive your mother, Chrissy. I've never loved anybody more than I love you."

She goes out of the door.

Effe reaches up and brushes tears from Chris' cheeks.

She looks at the shattered Diana, and the totally inconsolable Stan, and although she feels a modicum of regret and pity for them, she just cannot hide that inner glow of happiness, especially at the wasted passion of Stan.

"Can we leave now, my love?" Chris asks, subdued.

Effe nods, and quietly leads him out.

They call Junior, and strap him in the backseat of the car. 

Chris helps Effe into the front seat, and as he turns to get behind the wheel, he hears his name being called.

It is the Reverend Bawa. He comes up to his son and looks up at Chris, and the look of love on his face is so profound that even Chris is knocked for six.

"It is necessary for all that venom to come out, my boy. It is like scratching the surface off a festering sore and allowing it to heal properly," he says in a broken voice.

Chris nods, and his jaw works tightly.

"Yeah, Dad. I believe so."

Tears come to the man of God's eyes.

"I've been bad to you, my boy. I look at you, and it strikes me that maybe you're so wonderful to Junior because I was so bad to you."

Chris cannot stop the tears that come to his eyes as he remembers the hard times he had had with this man.

"Yeah, Dad. I believe so."

The man of God draws nearer to Chris.

"I was a stupid man. I allowed my insecurities to eat at my soul. I always knew your mother loved that Chris Grant more than she ever did me. But hey, I'm the one who holds her buttocks each night, so what's my problem?"

Effe chuckles to herself.

"Why is Grandpa talking about Grandma's buttocks? Eeeeeeeewwwww!," Junior says.

Chris smiles into the tear-stained face of his father.

"Yeah, you're the man. You got it all, Dad."

"We're going to move on as a family, boy. I denied you of the joys of your childhood. But you're the prince of my house, the love of my heart. In my old age I'm going to be the father you never had. Forgive me, my son. Please forgive me."

"It's okay, Dad. I never really held any grudge. I just wanted you to love me. That was all I ever wanted."

"Oh, Chris! My boy! My son!" Reverend Bawa says, weeping. "I love you, boy, I love you with all of this very old heart!"

They seem to move at the same time, and then they embrace fiercely, and their tears flow, sealing a bond that is going to last their lifetimes.

When they break apart, the man of God takes a shuddering breath.

"Listen, boy. Tomorrow evening I want to go fishing."

Chris' face lights up with sudden expectancy, transforming him into a little boy again, radiant and incredibly handsome.

"Oh, boy! At the creek?" he asks excitedly.

The man of God nods his head.

"Yes, at the creek. I've missed that. You think you can come with me, maybe bring Junior too?"

"Oh yeaaaah! Yappity yappity yippeeee! You bet, Dad!" Chris says, whooping with happiness.

The man of God chuckles and rubs his son's shoulders, and then he turns and walks away with a huge smile on his face and a spring in his step.

Chris gets behind the wheel.

"Yappity yappity yippeeeee? That's mine, Daddy. Make your own happy words!" Junior says with a giggle.

"Shut up, you arrogant weasel!" Chris says, still smiling his incredible smile.

Effe and Junior laugh, and then she reaches across and puts her hand on his as it rests on the gear lever.

"Everything is going to be just fine, Chris-Love," Effe says happily.

Chris suddenly looks sad as he stares up into the sky.

"I wish Roland were here, Ef," he says with a sudden bout of sadness. "God, I really miss my brother."

Effe says nothing. 

She just grips his hand.

Junior leans forward and plants a kiss on his father's cheek.

And Chris knows that indeed, everything is just going to be fine.