The Missing File – Chapter 2 Part 2

All Episodes Of The Missing File

“But how na? Who go con carry the file?” Sunday asked in a concern tone. They were some metres away from a barbing salon, the light from the barbing salon was the only source of light around the area as PHCN had seized power supply. The bulb at the balcony of the salon was what provided faint light to where they were seated. The area was noisy as Sege the barber would not stop playing the latest Nigerian afro pop songs through his loudspeakers. Nobody around the area was complaining as most of them, both young and old were enjoying the music and even those not enjoying the music would dare not complain as Sege’s salon was always their place of rescue when their phone batteries were low.

Nobody replied to Sunday’s question. Nazaretha was sitting on the six inches block, his hands clasped together and on his nose, his eyes were closed.

“Boys, wetin dey happen na?” Chinko asked, joining them. He was in a lively mood, just returning from somewhere with his elder brother. The smiles on his face faded as he saw the mood of his friends, “wetin happen?” He asked, squatting before Sunday. “Them talk say una find me reach house.”

“Police don arrest Nazaretha Papa,” Sunday announced to Chinko. Chinko got up and turned to Nazaretha to confirm if Sunday was saying the truth, he needed not to ask any question, Nazaretha’s face had confirmed it.

“How e take happen na?” Chinko asked Nazaretha. “Wetin them talk say hin do?”

“My Papa dey find one file wey hin oga give am,” Nazaretha replied, taking his hands away from his nose. “Them say one open cheque dey inside the file.”

“Na the cheque dem con dey find so?” Chinko asked.

“Person don cash five million naira sef,” Charly put in.

“Five million naira!” Chinko exclaimed, accompanying it with a whistle. He began to pace around the place slowly. “Wetin we go con do now?” He spoke again after a minute of thinking.

“I don’t know, I’m thinking of going home to search for the file again.” Nazaretha said.

“Wait o, I think say your Papa lost the file ni?” Chinko asked to be sure of the scenario.

“E say na hin bag e put am yesterday and na me collect the bag keep for hin room.” Nazaretha replied.

“Una dey sure say na hin bag him keep am?”

“Yes, hin talk say na hin bag.”

“And hin no comot am for house?”

“He talk say hin no open the bag at all for house, but me I meet the bag open when I go give am for morning.”

“Whether hin don carry am come out con forget,” Sunday joined in.

“I no know o,” Nazaretha replied.

“And shey una no go anywhere after?” Chinko asked.

“We comot o, we go church.” Nazaretha replied.

“Una leave anybody for house?”

“No, na all of us comot together.”

“Na wa o, shey una no lock the door ni?”

“We lock na, na me even lock the door self.” Nazaretha answered.

“Make we go your house go check na,” Charly suggested. “The thing fit dey somewhere inside,” he added, rising up to his feet.

“But as una con talk say dem don already cash five million naira nko?” Chinko asked with a note of doubt, not really sure how a cheque works.

“Make we go check first,” Charly insisted.

They all got up and began to journey to Nazaretha’s house, they got to the place in five minutes. Nazaretha’s friends waited for him while he went inside the house.

“Nazaretha, pleeease…” His mother was the first person he met in the sitting room, sobbing. Covenant and Magdalene were seated close to her, whether they were consoling her or consoling themselves, Nazaretha couldn’t tell.

He ignored his mother’s wailing and went straight to their parent’s room, the door was locked, so he turned back to the parlour.

“Mummy, where’s the key?” He asked his mum.

“Ehn,” the woman got up to her feet immediately and began to search for the key on the sofa, with the hope that Nazaretha was ready to bring the file where he kept it. She handed over the key to Nazaretha and followed behind, Nazaretha’s sisters followed too.

Nazaretha opened the door and stepped in slowly, the room was very dark and stuffy. “Please help me bring the lamp from the parlour,” he said to his younger sister Magdalene, she was the only sibling of his whom he never spoke pidgin English with.

The lamp came and Nazaretha began to search the whole room. In five minutes time, he had to take off his shirt as the sweat oozing out of his body was as thick as blood.

“Don’t you know where you kept it?” The mother asked on seeing that he wasn’t making any progress.

“Mummy, I didn’t keep it anywhere. I didn’t open his bag nor did I touch anything inside,” Nazaretha replied her and continued his search.

Lydia paused to think, she knew her son doesn’t steal, talk more of taking a five million naira cheque. She had only thought Nazaretha out of his inquisitiveness could have taken the file and tampered with it, but with his insistence and seriousness in maintaining his stance, she began to think otherwise.

“Then who could have taken the file from your father’s bag?” She asked, this time, more considerately.

“I don’t know,” Nazaretha said and turned to face the door, he placed his hands on his waist and looked around once again, then he inhaled and exhaled deeply. “Mummy, who was the first person to return from church last night?”

The mother and his sisters paused to think for a while. It wasn’t the father, because he had waited for a brief elders’ meeting after the service. It wasn’t their mother also, she had waited to see the other members of the virtuos women society. Covenant and Magdalene did not come home quickly too, they were helping arrange some gifts meant for the school of ministry graduation service holding the next day, Saturday. The remaining two options were Nazaretha and the eldest sister, Patience.

“Aunty Patience came home before me,” Nazaretha said quickly on seeing that all eyes were on him.

“But you opened the door, didn’t you?” Patience voice sounded, she had just returned from where she went to. “You met me outside discussing with a friend when you came home and opened the door.”

All eyes fell back on Nazaretha, he was still the one muddled up in the problem.

“What did your Uncle say?” Lydia asked, turning away from Nazaretha to Patience. Both of them stepped outside their father’s room and the other two girls followed them after collecting the lamp from Nazaretha, he was left alone in the dark room.

He began to think and bite his fingers, it was true that he met Patience outside with one of her numerous “toasters” trying to flirt with her, he had walked past them, laughing in his mind at the kind of village swag the toaster had. They say your dressing determines the kind of people you’ll draw towards yourself, his sister was a perfect example. She always attracted men who dressed like “holy village brothers” like she herself did as an “holy village sister” but Nazaretha saw it more as an archaic and absurd manner of dressing, especially because his sister who was still a very young woman would always look like a woman with five kids when dressed for an outing.

…to be continued