Pa Folly

Everywhere was usually in disarray at the Badru's mansion after every of Makinde's explosions and Akin was expecting to meet the same when he arrived home from work. He was however surprised to see there was no staff going around with a fresh bandaid on their body.

Pa folly like he was popularly called amongst the staff was sitting inside the garden's gazebo waiting for him as usual. Pa Folly was Akin's uncle and has been working for the Badru's as their butler for as long as Akin could remember.

Pa Folly used to be Makinde's best friend. He came to Nigeria with his family on a holiday when his wife, two kids, and Makinde's wife, Pa Folly's only sister were all killed in a car crash.

He couldn't go back to England after that incident. He couldn't go back to the empty house, to all the memories and all the questions and questioning look he would be getting from their friends.

He decided to stay as the Badru's butler when he caught the maid that Makinde has been sleeping with after his wife's death pushed his eldest son down the stairs, which eventually lead to the boy's death.

Makinde's negligence act towards his children wouldn't let him pack his bags and leave his sister's kids alone with their careless father. Their friendship gradually fell apart after that till it was non-existence when he asked for the children's custody and Makinde outrightly refused, even when it was obvious to everyone that he couldn't take care of them.

"Good evening sir! Akin greeted respectfully when he got to where his uncle was sitting. "I thought I told you to stop waiting for me outside, especially when the night is cold like today... What if I didn't come back home early?...

"Stop talking then and hurry inside! As you said, the night is cold" Pa Folly smoothly cut Akin off like he wasn't even listening to what led Akin to say the night was cold in the first place. Akin just rolled his eyes upward and went inside without arguing.

"You were with her, weren't you?" Pa Folly asked as he was helping Akin remove his jacket inside his bedroom.

"Her?..." Akin asked back like he had no idea what his uncle was asking him

"Yes her... You reek of her so stop playing around because you know who I was referring to"

Akin chuckled when he saw the disapproving look on his uncle's face, "It was just a fuck Pa, nothing more. You don't have to worry yourself about it."

Akin's statement earned him a painful pinch on his arm from his uncle.

"Ouch, Pa! What did you do that for?" Akin asked with amusement dancing in his eyes while rubbing at the tender spot that his uncle just pinched on his arm.

"Every woman deserves some respect even if she doesn't deserve it... Your father had already promised her mother you would marry her. Can't you see that you still sleeping with her would mean you've accepted the agreement between her mother and your father?."

"Pa, I know..." Akin said emphatically with a gentle smile on his face. "I'm aware of the agreement that father had with her mom a long time ago, which frankly is none of my business because father didn't ask me about what I think about her before making such an agreement.

And I already made it known to Arin herself that nothing of such will ever happen between us. But even after making my feelings known to her, she still kept on offering her body to me and... I'ma keep tapping that pussy for as long as she offered..."

"Ouch! Akin almost screamed when he felt another painful pinch on his bareback while trying to remove his trousers. "That really hurts Pa! You have to stop doing that, I'm not a kid anymore!" Akin said this time with a slight frown on his face

"You also have to stop talking dirty about women! Didn't I just tell you right now that every woman deserves some respect?... I raised you better than to be like your knuckle-head father!" Pa Folly said sharply while picking Akin's discarded cloth from the floor.

"And speaking of your father... You should check on him. I don't think he has that much time to live again

"Yeah, I felt it too... But there wasn't an explosion, or was there? I couldn't see the aftereffect of any around." Akin asked. As frail and near to death as his father was, he knew his father cannot escape his next explosion. It would surely kill him!

"No there wasn't an explosion. He must have tripped on a trap."

"Tripped on a trap?..." Akin asked with confusion. He has never heard of that before ever since his element was activated and he was initiated.

"Yes!... One of these days, I'm going to teach you about the different death traps there are and how you can recognize them on their victim's body...

But don't worry yourself about it right now. Just go check if the bastard is still hanging around the living or finally gone. If he's truly gone as I suspected then don't touch him. I'll go take care of him myself."

Pa Folly hated the man that used to be his best friend. The death of Akin's elder brothers was his fault and he hated him more for getting Akin initiated into his stupid fraternity without their consent.

"I shouldn't touch him?... Why? I can't just leave him in his messy state, right? I have to prepare him for the funeral and all you know..."

"No, leave it to me, I'll handle it! I don't know the kind of trap the bastard tripped on. It might be the one that would take as many people with him as possible so..."

"Wow... In order words you are going to offer yourself as a sacrifice, is that it?" Akin seriously asked with a frown on his face. The thought of something bad happening to his uncle who has been the real father to him was not something he even wants to imagine.

Pa folly was the most important person to him in the world and the only family he had left, so Akin also had no intention to sit back and watch him endangered his life.

"Would you rather I allow you die with him then!?" Pa Folly asked Akin with the same energy with which Akin asked his own question.

"And after you've managed to kill yourself along with the old bastard, I should now do what!?... Leave the rest of my old, tired life, staring at sunsets while reliving memories of the good old days?...

Perhaps paying homage to the last generation of the Awonubi and Badru's family who selflessly offered himself to save his old uncle?...

Or I should just commit suicide then!?" Pa Folly said with a smile on his face like a bright idea just occurred to him.

"Wouldn't that be a great idea, Akin?" He looked straight into his nephew's eyes, who just stood, transfixed in one place.

"Oh, you don't have anything to say? That must mean you agree with me then? That must mean you understood the fact that I can't bear the pain of losing another son again Akin? Suicide will be the only option left for me if anything happens to you."

Akin swallowed the non-existent lump that seemed to have blocked his throat.

"You might not come out of my loins but you are mine! I raised you and watched you grow from a baby to the fine young man that you are today... My sister would be proud of you." Pa Folly said with a smile that quickly turned into a frown.

"I just hope she forgives me for what happened to your brothers..."

"Their death was not your fault Pa, don't..."

"I should have done something to stop him! I shouldn't have stood aside and watched the bastard waste their lives in a bid to gain more power!" Pa Folly shouted as a tear trickled down an eye.

"Common Pa don't do that! You know that wasn't your fault. There was nothing you could do about it..."

"I could have killed him!"

"No, you couldn't! You swore an oath to love and protect each other!..."

"Yeah right!" Pa Folly scoffed. "I was just a coward who couldn't do what needed to be done because he was afraid to die."

"No, you're not! You are the bravest man I've ever seen... A man who refuses to neither break nor buckle under pressure no matter what he's been through...

One of the richest men in Africa who chose to work as a butler so he could personally take care of his sister's children... You're my hero Pa!"

"How did you know about that?... " Pa Folly asked with a frown on his face

"Where did you get the money to send me to school abroad when dad refused to let me go?... On a butler's salary!?... Yeah right!" Akin said with a smile. "I investigated and found out about your portfolio investment, all in grandma's maiden name."

"Well, I left everything in trust for you... I mean what if I die before Makinde? I couldn't let the bastard get his hands on them..."

"I understand. Now enough of the mushy conversation Pa, it's embarrassing." Akin said and got another pinch on his exposed midribs. This one not too painful like the rest.

"Who's being mushy?" Pa Folly said and they both laughed.

"So I'll go check on him myself. I don't trust you not to touch him."

"No, we'll go together and nobody's touching him." Akin said "Whichever position he is, I would call the frat to come to get him themselves or burn the whole mansion down with his body in it...

I'm not losing you because of an already dead man." Akin finally said authoritatively, kissed his uncle on the top of his head before walking into the bathroom to have his bath.