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Chapter Seventeen
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149 A Legend of the Dead: Sequel to The Crown of Thorns Chapter Seventeen Ai yori idete ai yori no koshi. Homerareru yori soshirarenu. (Daniel Crump Buchanan Japanese Proverbs) ANUSE’S ANSWER was more than Chief Beckongncho had bargained for. That was not the kind of definite accusation he had expected to respond to. It was a slap in the face. Yet he did not lose control of himself, and was determined not to do so. It was idle, he thought, to try to refute any of the accusations because that would only provoke violent exchanges. He would do anything to avoid a scene. He did not start talking as soon as Anuse sat down. After all, they were not in any debate. He decided he would talk just because he felt such an attack could not be allowed to go unanswered. He gave himself a very long time to calm down and so make Anuse look stupid by keeping anger out of his voice. Everybody expected he would speak, and sat with nervous expectancy. With nervous expectancy because there was also the vague fear that he might decline to speak, which would have left Anuse a hero in a spectacle of shame. Beckongncho versus Anuse. It was with the greatest relief that the people saw him sit up again in readiness to speak. “My people,” he broke the ice. “I feel I should speak to you again. I usually don’t like talking long but I am afraid I have to break that rule and tell you all that is on my mind. All.” He spoke in English still, to the astonishment of everybody else. This again was done consciously. First, even if he had acted in error in speaking in English the first time, he did not want to make it look like Anuse had anything good to offer to the cultural heritage 150 Linus T. Asong of the people. Secondly, he knew that if he had anything of burning importance to say, the language of rendition would not be any hindrance to the people. “I, Kevin Beckongncho, was born in 1928 in Nkokonoko Small Monje. My father was Junkem Alfons. He died in 1935. That same year too my mother died. From 1935 to 1948, thirteen years, I stayed with Mr. Marcus Anuse. He was my father then. I say WAS because he no longer honours that relationship. Mr. Marcus Anuse took full responsibility over me. He gave me food, clothes, and paid my school fees until I entered the Teacher’s Training College. In short, this same Mr. Marcus Anuse, as I said was my own father then. “In 1948 I passed the Entrance Exam into the Government Teachers’ Training College in Obinikom. I was too big to enter a secondary grammar school. Mr. Marcus Anuse paid my deposit, 35,000francs. For the first year alone in Obinikom he spent over 75,000 francs on my school fees. He always gave me pocket money too. “At the end of the second year I passed the Government Scholarship Exam. Since that exam was supposed to have been taken in the first year, all fees paid the previous year were refunded to all the successful candidates. That means 75, 000 francs came back to me. I could have done anything for myself with 75,000 francs. This is what my friends did and nobody ever knew. But I refused to do so. It did not lie in my nature to trick people. “I bundled the money and took it home to Mr. Marcus Anuse. He thanked me and embraced me and confessed that he would never have known that the fees had been refunded. Still I did not abuse that confidence he had in me. That same day too that I brought the money to him I told him that the scholarship covered tuition, board and moderate sum of pocket money. I told him that since he had so many family involvements, he should ignore me as one of his financial problems. I said I would be able to manage with the little allowance to survive on my own in college.” There was a very long pause. “I am not the kind of person who can easily forget a favour. And I have always kept this in mind not because I intended to use it against him some day. I always remember it because whatever I am today, I don’t want to forget that I owe so...