Chapter 2 EX-CONVICT

That night I could not sleep. I kept awake in thought through out the night. When I woke up in

the morning I had my bath snubbed everybody and refused to pay the usual morning courtesy to my parents. I hated my mother because of the way she exaggerated the so-called danger of my proposal by shedding tears. As for my father who called a family meeting against me,I lacked enough imagination to put my hatred of him into words.I got dressed and, picking my handbag, I set out without ceremonies so on my way to Ibadan. It was a french leave. And nobody asked me where I was going, only one of my sisters-the one I loved most-ventured to ask in a voice marred by fear

'Are...you...Are...you going back to Ibadan Now?" I ignored her question and continued to go. Although I did not look back. I guessed that they were all standing, watching me. I crossed the threshold and continued towards the main road

People who I met on my way greeted me but I hardly heard them. My mind was busy on the impending failure of my marriage to Bimbola.

My entry onto the main road coincided with the appearance of the Lagos Express Bus which was coming with full speed. I stopped it and entered after paying the fare Our journey to Onitsha had no hitches. But we had a delay for one hour in Benin City, making us leave the town at 4 p.m.

instead of 3 p.m. as would have been the case under normal circumstances. From Benin we headed for Ore where I droppedto pick a bus to Ile-Ife.

When I finally reached Ibadan I discovered that every part of

the town smelt of Bimbola to me. It was as if Ibadan itself was Bimbola. It was worse when I dropped off in front of my house at Gbagi. The idea of Bimbola hung everywhere in the air around me. Yet I knew that I was no longer going to marry her. So when she came to me a day after my return from Yandev my hometown, I felt pity for her as soon as I cast my eyes on her.

She announced to me in great happiness that she had completed all the necessary arrangements for our marriage, including the production of invitation cards and the making of wedding cakes.

I couldn't tell her to stop making further preparations. She held me, and we were engulfed in a long romance. But I was absent-minded as I was thinking of how to tell her that the marriage was not going to take place anymore. In the process of this romance, we stripped each other naked and ended up in bed, making love

to each other several times.

She was with me for about two hours. When she was about to go she asked me to suggest the best date for the marriage. It was as a result of this request that I had to tell her that the marriage

wasn't going to hold. I didn't hear you properly? She said. My feeling of guilt increased because of her statement, for I knew that she heard me. I repeated to her that I was no longer going to marry her. I saw that she did not believe her ears.

"Are you serious or are you joking?" She queried. I told her I was serious 'Akaa you cannot be serious' she said emphatically. I told her I

was serious; that my family was against it; that to defy my family was to incur excommunication; that I came from a dreadful family...

She didn't say anything. She simply stood up. I looked at her nude figure and cursed my family. Bimbola, went to the table where we had dumped our dresses and got dressed. Still she didn't say anything. She picked her handbag and left the room without saying a word. The impact on me of the hidden threat in her silence was great. I had read from a certain book that to be silent is not to be dumb: it is to refuse to speak and therefore keep on speaking. Was she going to find a knife and return with it to stab me? I quickly dressed up and went to sit on my bed in a defensive position.

Less than forty minutes later she returned with a policeman who identified himself and told me that I was wanted in the police station. At first I nearly burst into laughter. The idea that 1 was being wanted by the police for breaking an engagement nearly sent me into a wild laughter. I knew without being told that an engagement wasn't a legal bond which could invite a legal

reprisal. But when I reached the police station I was no longer amused. I was told that I raped Bimbola contrary to certain sections of the penal code and was sent into the cell inspite of my

protests that the affair I had with her was a voluntary one in which she had consented. In fact one policeman had interjected that no criminal had ever accepted his charge. I stayed in this tiny cell for a year and attended the court sessions from there. On my third appearance in the court the presiding judge passed his sentence. He sentenced me to seven years imprisonment with hard labour. The judge said he based his judgment on the evidence of the prosecution whom I was told had moved its case beyond reasonable doubt. Medical report on Bimbola was said to have shown that she had an affair at the time in question, and there was said to be evidence of forceful entry. I listened to this judgment in total bewilderment. At the end of it all I was sent to Agodi prisons to serve my sentence.

That was seven years ago. I have served the sentence and I am now a free man, a free man in the sense that I was free to look for Job.