The View From The Window (2)

WARNING: ADULT CONTENT!

'My brother, see me see trouble,' Amba narrated his tale to a group of friends. 'As I hear the kick and Ada shouting and the mention of police, na so I remove my clothes and say make I quick comot outside for the dark. I don sneak from house finish, na so I hear hand grab me for waist. Wetin help me be say I don remove clothes. Policeman see say I no wear anything, na so he on him torchlight. He shout: "Stop or I shoot!" Ah, for mind I say shoot. You catch me with something? Even clothes sef I no wear. Na so I tear race.'

His audience were laughing and clapping. Behind the curtains of their louvred window, the Udiongs were smiling. So Amba was the guy the policeman chased naked into their farm?

'But the wahala wey dey now be say the police people no be from here. We don reach station, we no see Ada. But dem direct us to Zone 6,' Adim, Ada's boyfriend, said. 

'Ah, na Zone 6 guys? E mean the matter serious,' Amba said.

The audience made all sorts of speculation. It was only some days after when Ada returned that the picture became clear.

The incessant abductions of doctors in the state were already an epidemic and these were an irritant to the state chapter of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA). Then, a highly esteemed female professor of Medicine in the University of Calabar (Unical), the federal university based in the state capital, was abducted. The incident was the pandemic that exhausted the stock of medicine called patience in the pharmacy of the state chapter of NMA. It asked its members to proceed on strike until the state government could act decisively to protect them. The doctors stayed home and the state health sector suffered seizures.

The state government couldn't help but drop its laissez-faire attitude in dealing with the menace. It put on the cloak of a traditional father wielding a whip in one hand and a lantern in the other, with the flame raised high, moving from closet to closet seeking out the recalcitrant wards who kept tearing the fabric of peace in his home.

The lashes fell heavily on the hide of the ubiquitous operators of joints selling overtly the local gin called 'akaikai' laced with narcotics, especially hemp and tramadol and nicknamed 'combine'. The government believed the youths fed on these concoctions before embarking on their nefarious ventures.

The police made a haul of arrests during their massive raid in the shanties. In their net was the caretaker's son, Imo, and Amba's rival, Ada. Three days had past before Ada returned from the police cell. 

Not sharing the same mother tongue with Amba, being a common phenomenon here, Ada chatted in pidgin English with him on the bench on his verandah: 'The officers wey arrest us no be from here. We for know before dem come. Dem come from Zone 6.' When the police raided a remote hamlet from their headquarters, then the crime was grave. Ada added: 'Dem say dem go still come for us. Adim tell me say he pay fifty thousand naira before dem gree release me. Imo wey dem catch with two wraps of "atama", na ninety thousand I hear him go pay before dem go release am.'

'Ninety wetin?' Amba asked in sheer surprise. 'Person fit buy small land here with that kind money.'

'Dem say the boys dey buy "atama" and "ice" from us which make dem go thieve and kill ...'

'Who thieve and kill,' Amba cut in, "go still thieve and kill. My"atama" and "ice" dey give timber workers and farmers stamina to do their work for bush. Nobody fit stop me from selling dem.' 

'Atama' is a popular soup in Cross River and Akwa Ibom made from the aromatic leaf of the 'atama' tree. To preserve it, the leaves could be sliced and dried just like hemp and the two from a distance look just the same. With the similarity, folks do casually address the drug as 'atama'. 'Ice' is a substance currently trending with the youths which a white stuff on a stainless foil is heated with a lighter for the smoke to be inhaled. Pens are bought, the ink tubes are thrown away and the hollow stems are used in catching and drawing in the fumes. To add class to their acts, some smokers inhale the smoke through long rubbery tubes connected to plastic bottles with bubbly coloured liquids. A well-known attribute of the drug is it keeps you awake when others are sleeping tight which is why it is popular with young people who steal palm fruits from both private and public palm plantations around the village.

The caretaker brought his son back a dozen days after the first police raid. There was visible excitement around the compound and that seeped through the neighbourhood. The Udiongs, his secret fans, were by their window and everyone was eagerly watching and listening as the tenants welcomed their caretaker back.

'Bring the seat for me,' he ordered his granddaughter, removing his shirt to fan himself, announcing to the world he had been greatly wearied by his more-than-a-week running around to secure the release of his son from police cell.

When a stool arrived, he didn't wait for the young girl to wipe but dusted it with his shirt, gave the piece of clothing back to the child and flopped down on the seat. 'Bring me water,' he ordered.

The girl rushed back and returned with a stainless cup of water. When Utai had finished gulping it down and saw the wife approaching him with a tray of food, he halted her with his palm pushed towards her direction. 'The police would be eating pepper soup and drinking beer right now with the ninety thousand naira I had paid to them to see your son is freed from their cell. I, who cleared the bush, planted the cassava and harvested it to sell and give the money to other fellows to enjoy must pamper myself too with the cash remaining. But call your son and draw his ear, as I'd promised the police before him, if he so loves his food which the government doesn't like, and get caught with it another time, the government would keep him for as long as they want. From clearing of bush to harvesting of the farm produce, he would not assist us in any way. He is of age and should know for whatever trouble he causes, he alone would face it. I don't know how sweet is his food that he wants to swallow his fingers with it.'

Everyone laughed. Amba, all along listening on the bench on his verandah, said: 'Who ever did that before?'

'Well, wait and see. The way Imo is going, he might soon swallow his fingers with his food to tell you how sweet it is,' Utai replied.