Salvation Colony

Chapter Sixteen

93 Salvation Colony: Sequel to No Way to Die Chapter Sixteen Cosmas Mfetebeunu T he thought had been on my mind since the first day I arrived from Nigeria. I mean the thought that it would be wrong for me to sit back and see my sister’s husband abandon his marital home to follow a religion of charlatans. I told myself from that first day that I would get him out of it, by hook or crook, especially by crook! But to do this I needed to understand precisely what had actually happened to my brother in-law. My sister first telephoned to Dr. Essemo with whom my in-law, Dennis lived before running away to join ALCA. I later encouraged her to give me a letter to Dr. Essemo in Menako introducing myself. *** Dr. Essemo told me everything about Dennis whom he stressed was once his friend, but was no longer and was never to be again. He told me he was not interested in knowing where Dennis was, and did not care a thing about whatever happened to him thereafter. I could see he hated what Mr. Dennis had tried to do in his house. Since it was a lot nearer, from Menako I decided to pay a visit to the Salvation Colony. Mr. Dennis had never met me before, but as Manda told me, he knew me well well from conversations with her, from conversations within my family circle and then from my pictures and letters. 94 Linus T. Asong He received me outside the gate into The Colony. When he came out to meet me, it took me quite a while to reconcile his looks with those of the man whose pictures I had in my album. He looked so terribly thin with an elongated or a crane-like neck which was accentuated by the fact that he was a tall person by nature. In a word, he looked very unimpressive physically. His hair on his head was low and his beard though also low, was not quite neatly kept. He had high cheekbones which by virtue of the abstemious life he had led recently protruded above his shrunken jaws, giving his eyes below his hooded brows a sunken faraway look. His hands were thin, so were his fingers and toes which showed through the pair of cheap second-hand sandals he was wearing. He looked a lot older than I had been given to believe. If he did not assure me that he was in very good health, I would have sworn that he had some lung problems. He was wearing a simple jumpa made from the cheapest material - CICAM, and which gave his thin neck an elongated or crane-like shape. He was also wearing a cheap secondhand pair of trousers. *** I was holding an over-used eighty-leaves exercise book which I folded. “I am Cosmas Mfetebeunu,” I introduced myself rather hesitantly because he did not look excited at anything. “I am the elder brother of Manda Chabeule, does the name ring a bell, sir?” I inquired. “It does, brother,” he said calmly. “In what sense does it ring a bell?” I asked further. “Manda is my wife,” he said with the same lack of emotion. I went straight into the matter that had brought me there. 95 Salvation Colony: Sequel to No Way to Die “I expected you to say she was your wife, not is your wife,” I said. He looked at me and then asked: “Brother Cosmas, what makes you say so? Why would you want to put words into my mouth?” “Because I don’t see how you would call a woman your wife whom you have abandoned with your three children for a whole year,” I blasted. “Two children,” he corrected me. I could see a fluttering of twinkles in his left eye. I chose not to press the point further. I recalled how hesitant my sister had always been to talk about the third child. “God be praised, brother Cosmas,” he said. “Your sister always talked to me about you. Thanks be to God. How are they?” I looked at him and he looked at me, but there was no response. I had wanted to tell him: “If you were a responsible husband you should not be the one to ask me. You should be telling me about your family.” But the total politeness...