Chapter 9

He sat down on the throne of the king, his elder brother. His relationship so far with Emelda needed to be reviewed. He was lost in thought. He had in mind what he wanted to achieve. But what if she found out? The worst she could do was break up with him, he muttered to himself.

He had been doing it; he hadn’t kept to his promise. And what the hell was she thinking? That he would have had no romantic partner throughout his stay in England.

They had promised themselves not to get into any side relationship. They had loved and dotted themselves that she saw part of her in him. Never had she loved so maddeningly; Donald would agree. But he couldn’t keep to his promise not to date another girl. The temptation was overwhelming and he thought the best thing was to succumb.

So, when he went to England and lasted for a few months, one day came this pretty young girl approach him after a lecture.

“Mr. Donald, right?” she asked.

“Yes. How are you?” Donald adjusted his turtleneck as If it made him more confident to keep it that way.

“Cool”

She said she was impressed by the way he explained clearly, in layman’s terms, the meaning of capitalism versus socialism.

He thanked her for the compliment before proceeding to ask her name. Rachel was a pretty English lady but handicapped. She became interested in him and for the first time, Donald saw a woman develop an interest in him first. Their friendship evolved into a romantic relationship.

She had always worn her glasses, not necessarily for aesthetic purposes but to hide her left, damaged eye from being seen. Donald said he didn’t have any issue with her being one-eyed and they laughed about it. She narrated how she sustained the injury in an accident when she was younger and how her doctors said that she had to live with it for the rest of her life.

It had been difficult to accept her fate, she told Donald, but she had no option but to dance to the tune of her reality.

“I am sorry about that,” Donald said “Such pretty-looking eyes”

“It affected my self-esteem as a teenager” Rachel said.

“How old are you when it happened?” he said.

“I was only twelve”

“It’s all right. We are going to see it to the end” he said, wondering what she would be thinking. He had used ‘we’ on purpose. To show his concern, such concern that had an air of marriage to it.

“My mates said no man would ever love me with one eye. They laughed at me. They made a caricature of me.” she said, almost shedding tears.

“It is all past. You have found a lover. Me. Haven’t you proved them wrong?”

“I love you, Don,” she sobbed.

“I love you more,” Donald blinked “And I promise to protect you till you finish college. I will always be by your side”

“And if things work well, I hope they would, we are going to spend the rest of our life together. Wouldn’t that be wonderful? Black and White”

“If things work well? How do you mean?”

“Never mind. It will and we are going to lock our hands together and walk down the aisle”

“I am hopeful. You are such a nice man”

“Thank you,” he said “You study Business Administration. But your interest span across many other things?” Donald had wanted to do this all this while but didn’t get the opportunity. He had wanted to digress when she began to bring up the impression that he would marry her.

Donald liked her inquisitiveness, anyway, and how she liked questioning everything to find out the truth.

“I grew up, curious. It is part of me”

“You like philosophy this much and even poetry”

“I would have loved to study it. And for poetry. I like the sweet line of words as they tangle with human emotions”

“That is their language,” Donald chuckled.

“Lawns and Dawns. Twilight and Twelfth night. Panting and lamenting” she was bubbling with vigor.

“You are composing a rhyme” Donald threw her a friendly punch “With this sweet voice”

“Don’t flatter me”

“So, what happened? Why didn’t you go for what you love most?”

“My parents refused. They refused. They wanted me to study Business Administration so that I could take up their business”

“You mustn’t study B. A to take up their business. Must you?”

“Knowledge is important. It is the prerequisite. I understand their decision”

Donald reluctantly acquiesced.

“Anyway, I could retire with Philosophy”

Rachel was born into the middle class in Australia before her family relocated to England when she was small. She had grown up curious, always making sure she had an absolute understanding of whatever she came across.

She was the only child of William James, the respected business magnate and one of Europe’s tycoons. They had been reluctant to accept Donald even though he didn’t care as much because he was half-interested in their daughter; it seemed as if he was doing everything to please her, make her happy in the meantime, and afterwards run back to Nigeria, abandoning her.

But she was serious with the relationship, and Donald sensed how much she loved him –to a fault. And when her parents agreed to her request to invite him over, she was excited and couldn’t have waited any longer.

“You said he is from Nigeria,” her Dad had asked, inspecting the man. And Donald had wondered why the question wasn’t directed to him.

“Yes, Dad. He is from An-imbra State in Nigeria,” Rachel said.

Donald giggled at how she pronounced the word. Sir Williams laughed too as though he knew the correct pronunciation.

“They say your country is a good business place,” he asked, looking at no one in particular.

“Hmmm... Yes …and no. okay, yes. Some investors have seen the potential of the country and are taking advantage of it” Donald wasn’t sure of the data he was presenting and hoped it would stop there.

He hadn’t come for interview questions and didn’t want to experience his business intelligence on the table. They were having dinner, after all, it wasn’t good to discuss while eating.

“Okay,” Sir Williams said, cutting some part of the chicken. He was quite unsure of the young man as he stuttered.

Donald observed his body, especially his protuberant belly, and thought he was overfeeding himself. “I am a businessman, you already know that,” Sir Williams said, dropping his fork on the table; he wasn’t looking at Donald while he spoke.

Donald was thrown off guard as he hadn’t prepared for all these questions. And except for the deliciousness of the food, tonight was almost bitter for him.

“I ask questions. Don’t be annoyed. Are you?”

“Not at all, Sir,” Donald said and looked at Rachel’s mother. She hadn’t said anything. And he had been expecting her own version of questions. If Sir Williams was this generous with words, how much more his wife? Or was she the opposite of her husband?

He hadn’t prepared for all this and wouldn’t be surprised if he got jittery. But somehow, he always remembered he came from a noble family and should behave like one.

“Now from research, I found out that your country is poor. I mean, very poor. What do you have to say about that? Can you prove the statistics wrong?” he docked his head and said, “And is your family among the poor?”

“Dad!” Rachel called, irked. So many questions at a time before an innocent guest. This is how they would be chasing her friends away with their eccentric behaviour.

“Rachel” the Dad called.

“Table manners,” Rachel said.

“I am sorry about that, Rachel. But he isn’t complaining. Is he?”

“But I am complaining, Dad. Can you please leave him alone?” she looked at Donald whose mien was blank.

“Dad’s daughter, leave us, let’s discuss?” her Dad said.

Rachel told him she wasn’t happy and would leave the table if her Dad continue to pester him with questions. This was when Queen Williams came in and told her husband that he was older than the attitude he was displaying in front of a visitor.

“Oh. The queen has spoken,” Sir Williams chortled and kept quiet. And immediately, Donald’s facial expression amplified with ease.

Onwards, Donald got acclimatized with them and was visiting anytime he wanted. He got to know them better, the circumstances behind Rachel’s birth and the disgusting demeanour of Sir Williams.

Sir Williams had married Queen Williams when they lived in Australia so many years ago and before Rachel was born. He was barely making enough when he met her. He looked malnourished; his appearance elicited pity from neighbours. One would think he was sick when he was only managing himself, saving up a larger chunk of what he earned from the menial job he did.

He was disciplined and hardworking, with the knowledge that if he could gain wealth, he would gain power and have choices and preferences in life. Choice of women; choice of cars; and even choice of houses and relationships.

It was when he met Sonia, now called Queen Williams that things began to turn around for him. The first contract he won regarding his steel business was through the help of Sonia. Sonia had met him when he had nothing and when he was struggling to even eat three square meals daily; when he was living paycheck to paycheck.

Through the influence of her father, he was able to win the contract and that was the beginning of his success. She had done it out of love. But when her father discovered that he was her fiancé and would get married to him, he was annoyed and threatened to dissolve the marriage if it ever held behind his back.

They had wanted her to marry a rich, wealthy man. She had wanted to marry someone she loved. And there came the conflict. Unable to withstand the resistance, she eloped with Williams.

As time went on, Williams began to misbehave. She caught him cheating on her several times until she couldn’t bear it any longer.

After their first issue, she divorced him and went back to her father’s house. It took the grace of God, she had said, for her parents to accept her back into their home, blaming her for all the misery she had experienced, while also reprimanding her for her failure to listen to them all the time they spotted her husband’s weak character.

She raised Rachel in Australia while her husband left for England until after so many years, he came back looking for his daughter. And she wouldn’t have forgiven him and given him his child if not because Rachel was kind-hearted and had asked her to let the sleeping dog lie, to forgive and forget all the pains he had put them through.

Donald learned all the circumstances behind her childbirth. Learned about his father’s notoriety and her mother’s pleasantness. He was surprised at how Rachel kept on pouring herself on him. That was why he had told Emelda that they loved to a fault and would always be ready to tell secrets to their beloved.

He had known almost everything about her and even her family but he had been reluctant to share delicate things about his royal family back in Nigeria.

While in a relationship with her, Donald couldn’t keep himself to one woman – Rachel.

Emelda was in Nigeria waiting for him too, believing that he would stick to his promise not to date any other girl. It was alleged that Rachel found a new lover on campus and rarely saw Donald.

Or as Donald claimed, her love for him had diminished and she was behaving strangely. Rarely picked up his calls. With little or no evidence, he reproached her and ended the relationship. But even before ending the relationship, he had made her feel worthless and she would never forget his last words:

“You have one eye. I only accepted you out of pity. You are not my type. And I couldn’t have tolerated your infamous Dad and the dove you called your mother”

She was hurt. Denied cheating on him but he had already made up his mind. She called him names: beast, bully, monster, but Donald didn’t give an ounce. And in just about a few days, he had appeared with another woman, this time a black woman from Ghana.

When his brother entered the palace, he was no longer sitting on the throne, thinking. He was now busy with chess. Practicing the one thing that gave him joy.

Douglas would have chided him, anyway, had he caught him sitting on the throne only reserved for the king. And he would have challenged him as he usually did.

“Donald,” he called.

“Douglas”

“You can’t show any regard for the king”

“Regard kwa” Donald said, turning his back to leave.

Douglas ignored his manners and asked him about the Ashanti lady he told him about.

“The Ghanaian lady or the Nigerian”

“There is no tribe in Nigeria called Ashanti,” Douglas retorted.

“What about her?” Donald looked at him with more contempt.

“You said you wanted to marry. When are we expecting her?”

Donald looked at him from head to toe and waltzed off.

“I wonder what these women see in you. Bully” Douglas said after him. He didn’t hear it, otherwise, he would have returned with a retort.