Chopchair

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Thirteen ‘‘A re you sure saying that we should have allowed you to be killed?” Rosa queried. “I did not say I wanted to be killed. The question I am asking is ‘But why me?’ if we were twins, why should I have been the one to suffer?” “It could have gone either way,” she said. “But it went the wrong way, coming to me,” he said unyieldingly. The woman knelt down in front of the boy and discharged a flood of tear, reflected for a while and pleaded further: “Peter Nwolefeck, my child, I am begging you. Before you embark on anything, give me time to talk to your mother, my sister.” “When are you talking to her?” “Next market day,” she said. It was Peter Nwolefeck’s turn to reflect. After a whole minutes he told her:” do not talk to my mother. I will tell you when to talk to her.” *** Peter Nwolefeck’s suggestion that Rosa should not talk to his mother was simply to gain time. That same evening he reassembled his friends and released the information to them. He then revealed the next plan of action. “Since this boy whom Bambe says they call Chopchair looks exactly like me, I want us to devise a means of capturing him and keeping him away while I sit in the palace.” 52 Linus T. Asong There was first a slight relief and then an atmosphere of unease and disappointed seemed to set in. The lot of them thought he was about to let slip the one opportunity to make their lives better. This feeling was not unjustified. When the thought first crossed his mind he contemplated killing Chopchair outright and remaining sole prince. He had even ventured to voice this idea to one of them! Upon second thought, it occurred to him that such an act might provoke much more serious problems. His mother and aunt would not be spared. They may even be the first to betray him or plot his own death. He therefore settled on kidnapping. *** Bambe Peters commanded a lot of respected amongst his peers, so much so that whenever he said something, he was very rarely contradicted. They all therefore bought the idea of kidnapping the Chopchair and putting Peter in his place. Even though they were mere teenagers, they worked out the plans for the kidnapping as if they were a team of mercenaries hired to topple a tyrannical regime. It was unanimously agreed that since Bambe Isaiahs had already made himself a friend to the prince, he was to lead the mission. The plans to kidnap the Prince and put Bambe Peters in his place took exactly seven days to be realized. During this time, Peter Nwolefeck reassured Rosa that he had changed his mind about going to the palace. He settle in the Coast or choosing a particular kind of trade for a while before giving his final reply. Because she was anxious to please him and so avoid any further distress, she did not resist his proposition. As part of the plan to bring him closer to their target, Bambe Isaiahs returned the day after the decision was made to tell the prince that he had finally decided to enrol in G.S. 53 Chopchair 4-Corners Foto. On this particular trip he learned many more things: he got the colours and the sizes of the prince’s sandals in the process. But, by far the most important discovery was that although the prince and Bambe Peters looked exactly alike, the prince was not as strong, not as brilliant and not as daring as Bambe Peters. Bambe Isaiahs even declared: “I can tie up the pig with only one hand and carry away.” This automatically implied that the kidnapping would pose no physical danger. It would have been harder for them if they had to deal with Bambe Peters instead. ...