I was stuck in the middle of a lonely road with a bad tyre and no phone. I still hadn’t
recovered from the shock of what had just happened and a part of me was hoping the car
would come back and people would pop out from the bushes with cameras from nowhere
screaming “April fool!” even though it was almost September, but nothing like that happened.
I waited for a while to see if any car would pass by so I could at least get a lift to civilization
but that didn’t happen either.
Eventually, I had to walk down the road till I could find a taxi. I had no idea how I was going
to pay my taxi fare because all my money and ATM cards were in my bag and I had just
handed it over to the kidnapper. I figured it would be better to go to Jumai’s place since she
would most likely be home.
When we finally arrived, I asked the taxi driver to wait for a while outside while I went in to
get some cash from Jumai. Luckily, as expected, she was home.
“Wow! What a pleasant surprise,” she said when she answered the door, “shouldn’t you be
at work?”
“It’s a long story,” I replied, “I’m going to need some cash from you to pay for my taxi, I’ll
explain when I’m back.”
“Cash? Taxi? What’s going on?” she asked, looking concerned, “were you robbed?”
“The money please,” I said, stretching out my palm. I didn’t feel like giving out explanations
yet and she reluctantly went to her room to get the money I requested and handed it over to
me.
“Yemi was kidnapped this morning,” I announced when I returned.
“What?” Jumai said with her jaw dropping wide open, “are you joking?”.
“I’m dead serious,” I responded. “She was kidnapped on our way to work this morning…” I
began as I narrated our ordeal, while Jumai’s jaw kept dropping wider with each sentence. “I
think we need to go to the police station,” I finally said when I finished my story. “They can
help us find her.”
“No, that’s just a waste of time,” Jumai countered. “I’ll inform Abdul to call his Dad to get the
State Security service (SSS) on the case. I don’t trust the police to handle it well.”
I couldn’t help but agree with her and I was glad the option was available. I guess that’s one
of the benefits of being married to an ex-governor’s son—power was definitely speaking.
She called Abdul to inform him and he escalated it to his father immediately.
I had to call in sick to work that day, I was too destabilised to go anywhere.
I was also scared to go home later that evening because I figured the kidnappers probably knew where we lived so I called Charly to ask if I could stay at her place at least for a while.
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At first she wasn’t excited about the idea because she had plans with Ken that night but by
the time I told her what happened to Yemi that morning, she became sober. Apparently she
had tried reaching Yemi earlier and just assumed that the network was bad when she
couldn’t reach her. I had also tried calling both my phone and Yemi’s with Jumai’s phone
earlier that day but they were both switched off. Poor Yemi! I hated to imagine what she was
going through at that moment. I couldn’t sleep that night, I just lay there awake on my bed
wondering when Yemi was going to be found.
The next morning, I had to go to work, even though I didn’t feel like it. The towing van had
managed to tow my car back to my place but I was still too paranoid to drive in it so I took a
cab instead; I couldn’t even stay in my place alone, I had to ask Charly if I could spend the
week at her place.
Unfortunately for me, when I got to work, the wicked witch was on duty. By the way, the
wicked witch I’m referring to is actually my boss—she’s the consultant heading the unit
where I work. I don’t get along with her because she always acts like I stole her husband or
I’m trying to steal him, which is funny because I’ve never even met him before. Besides I
doubt I’d want anything from such an old man. “Why weren’t you at work yesterday, Dr.
Tess?” she asked as soon as she arrived for the ward rounds. Female bosses can be so
difficult, I’m pretty sure she had been briefed about the reason for my absence but chose to
play dumb.
“I wasn’t feeling so well yesterday so I called in sick,” I replied, trying my best to sound polite.
“If you were sick, why didn’t you come to the hospital? At least that’s where I know sick
people are supposed to be and not at home,” she added sarcastically. At that point I was
already beginning to get irritated but I made up my mind that I wasn’t going to let her get to
me so I just kept quiet and continued to stare. “Weren’t you told that there were a couple of
theatre cases booked for yesterday and you were to scrub in for the BTL?” she asked
sternly.
BTL is short form for Bilateral Tubal Ligation which in layman’s terms is known as having
your tubes tied. It is a type of birth control method in which the fallopian tubes are surgically
cut or blocked to prevent pregnancy. This method is supposed to be reversible but reversing
it is not always effective and there are risks involved with the procedure itself. I think no
woman should do this unless she’s certain she’s done having all her kids—besides why can’t
men opt for a vasectomy if they don’t want their wives to get pregnant? A vasectomy is the
male version of a BTL; it is done by cutting and blocking the tubes that carry sperm. Unlike a
BTL, the procedure can be done in the clinic and doesn’t have as many risks, which is why
I’ve always wondered why men send their wives for a BTL instead of having a vasectomy
themselves, since a vasectomy is a simpler and less risky procedure… do they do that so
they can continue impregnating other women outside? Male readers please help me out
here.
Anyway back to the gist—I just kept staring at the witch till she was tired of talking, after all
the worst she could do was keep talking or give me a query. I struggled to force an apology
past my throat after she was done talking and we moved on.
I had managed to retrieve my phone line the day before and get myself another toy phone
similar to Yemi’s own that I had made fun of in Ghana. I kept thinking about her the whole
day, I couldn’t concentrate at work, I tried calling her numbers again when I returned to
Charly’s place from work later that evening. I had tried calling earlier but the phones had
remained switched off and I was getting increasingly worried because we had not heard any
word from the kidnappers or the so-called SSS that were meant to be investigating the case.
I was waiting to hear the usual message that her phone was switched off but to my surprise
it rang and my heart began to pound as I waited anxiously for someone to pick up. After a
few rings, a man with a husky voice answered the phone. “Ello! Madam Tessy,” the person
with the husky voice began, “you had better tell this woman to cooperate or else we will kill
her tonight!” At first I was shocked that the man knew my name then I figured it must’ve
appeared on the caller ID. “Please, please don’t kill her!” I begged. “If it’s money you want,
we can pay, just name your price!” I quickly added.
“Money?” the man replied like I had just mentioned something unusual. “We don’t need your
money, the one we’ve collected is enough for us,” he said with an evil laugh. “Your friend has
something that belongs to us and if she doesn’t give it to us by the end of the night, we will
hand her over to Angel Gabriel,” he threatened, hanging up without giving me a chance to
speak. I tried to call back repeatedly but the phone just kept ringing.
I just sat there even more confused than I was before making the call; what did he mean by
Yemi having something that belonged to them? Had Bayo introduced her to any shady deals
that I didn’t know about? What if she couldn’t give it to them, were they really going to kill
her?
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