Chopchair

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty T hat same night Ngwika drew Nkem-Fuo and Eshuo Fuo aside and told them: “We are betrayed. We are dead. Do you know that boy sleeping in there calling himself Chopchair?” Eshuo-Fuo’s heart seemed to miss a beat. “Is it not Chopchair?” Nkem-Fuo asked. She told him who he was. Referring to the close resemblance between the brothers, the old man enquired: “My child, how is it possible for me to tell the difference between two drops of water?” The two men and the woman then proceeded to ask about the line of action to take. Once again there was the big question: “If the son in the palace was not Chopchair, where was chopchair himself?” “That is what I am going to know from my sister,” she told Nkem-Fuo. Peter Nwolefeck told the Chief that he would not talk to anybody until his mother had returned from the trip. *** Nzenawung was a good six kilometres from the palace and it took her five hours of toil and tumble to get there. Rosa was at home. Her heart jumped when she saw her sister. “What is the matter that you look so pale?” she asked Ngwika. Ngwika did not respond. Instead she enquired in the same worried manner: 78 Linus T. Asong “Where is Peter Nwolefeck?” “Since Peter’s voice changed do I see him again? I tell you that, that child will put a rope around my neck one day.” “So where is he?” Ngwika repeated her question. “Five days today I have not seen him.” Ngwika took a very long breath and, with lips trembling and eyes reddening, she said: “That is what has brought me here. Peter Nwolefeck is in the palace.” “Don’t tell me that…” “If what I am saying is a lie, let me cut my tongue into three pieces,” she swore and then with her heart beating so fast that it made her breathing difficult, she went on: “Achiebio does not know he is the one. He is pretending to be sick, since he is not behaving like Chopchair…” “Where is Chopchair?” Rosa asked. The woman threw her hands into the air helplessly. “Only God alone knows,” she said. “If it is Peter Nwolefeck who is in the palace, what has happened to Chopchair?” Rosa enquired. “I don’t want to believe what my heart is trying to tell me, that Peter Nwolefeck has done something terrible to him.” Ngwika shook her head in speechless silence, tears stinging her eyelids. “That devil like that,” Rosa resumed. “He can do anything. His own fire is more that that of Fuo-Akendong himself.” “My sister,” she called. “If you noticed this, why did you have to wait for me to come here? Why did you not even send somebody to come for me so that you and I could look for a solution together without involving Achiebio?” “If you blame me, sister, I will accept the blame. Our people say that if we are making peace during a war we should not be counting the corpses,” she said. “But you have to know what kind of child we are dealing with. You 79 Chopchair are talking about a child who will listen to you. You are talking about a child who will want you to listen to him. A child who sleeps out every other day, and dares you to ask him a question about his conduct.” The two women decided to return to the palace together and question the boy about his brother. Since the truth had been uncovered there was little to hide any more. They only needed to plan how to explain and plead for clemency; something they knew very well was not possible with the Chief. ...