What a Next of Kin!

Chapter Eleven

49 Chapter Eleven N di had never had a quiet and smooth night like the one he had after his first encounter with the undertree community. For the first time since he met Fai Nchotu and was told about his first wife’s double nature, and her role in his undoing, he had never had a straight six hour sleep. He had never been distracted to the point forgetting about his wealth, his worries about his next of kin and the fate of his first wife. When he got up in the morning, he felt as if he had sloughed a cancerous skin. He was a new man. Time and again, the terms, bastardization and de-bastardization came into his mind and made him purse his lips trying to suppress outbursts of laughter. He took pleasure in the words for no apparent reason. Whenever they popped up in his mind, he sniggered, shrugged his shoulders and took very deep breath. He doubted whether it was not the logic of de-bastardization that made Mr. Lyonga to indirectly bequeath his property to his barren wife’s grandson. As these things occupied his mind, time passed fast. He was surprised when Mula knocked at the door to announce that it was 2.30 pm and therefore time for another undertree adventure. He prepared fast and Mula wheeled him to the tree and left him there to have his fun. Ndi had thought he would meet an enthusiastic community waiting for him and give him a resounding welcome. But when he got to the place he saw only four palm wine-selling women arranging sitting positions, and palm wine cups on makeshift tables. He noticed that they had brought four times more cups than the previous day perhaps because they were expecting a heavy drink-for-free turnout. Word had gone round that a wealthy patient would flood the under-tree community with palm wine. After the women had arranged the place, they sat down to wait. Ndi had no choice but to wait with them and listen to their conversation. “My sister,” the eldest woman addressed the woman near her. “I hear when matron Caro brought her father here, the whole Victoria came out to pay their respects to him. I was not here. I went to Douala to see my son.” “Mamiyo! I was there myself. I tell you, I have never seen such a crowd before. Some women are more than men. Even doctors adored matron Caro. Her father was treated like a king,” the lady responded. “You see, there are children and there is a child. A person may have children but lack a child. It is better for God to give a person a child than children. To me, a child is a child – boy or girl. See, when chief Mutombi, the chief of Victoria was sick and was brought to this very hospital who knew he was sick? Yet he had a compound full of boys each praying that he should die for them to inherit property. And when he finally died, the fellows were shamelessly at daggersdrawn . But see what honour matron Caro has brought upon her father!” “That is not all,” interjected the youngest of the women. “Sister Caro has taken her father to Europe for further treatment. As they left here, they went straight to Nigeria and from there to Europe. Sister Caro’s first son, a medical doctor is married to my younger sister. I am very close to the family.” “Matron Caro has a son? When did she have him?” the eldest woman asked. “You think all women are stupid? When she found that she was not blessed with marriage, she decided to have her children. She has four children, three boys and one girl. Her children are the pride of her father. And you know what? 51 Very intelligent children. One of the boys is a chartered accountant, and the other is a business man in Nigeria. That is the one who is planning to come back home and manage his grandfather’s cocoa plantations. You see that new story building at Mukeba road junction, he is building it. The girl is still studying in the University of Ibadan. She begot the children in Nigeria and educated them there. Her father knew she was having children in Nigeria but he never told anybody in the village. So, the day...