SIX : Samoa Theo

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‘Bab…’

Gershom’s attempt to speak was cut off by the loud crack of a ceramic vase shattering against the tiled floor near his feet.

A few hours had passed since their return from the hospital where he had taken her to have her wounds treated. Since they got back, Yolanda had not stopped yelling and swearing at the top of her voice. Every time Gershom tried to get a word in, she silenced him by smashing something else to the floor.

He looked around at the wreckage hopelessly. Barely a week had passed since they moved into their new love nest in the affluent suburbs, yet it already looked like a war zone. Every decorative ornament lay in pieces. He gritted his teeth and rubbed the back of his neck. Those ornaments had not come cheap.

‘Babe what? What are you going to say? What will you do to make this go away? That woman humiliated me! Look at this!’ She grabbed her tablet and shoved it against his chest. ‘What will you do to make this right? How do I ever show my face in public again?’

‘Babe, I am sorry…’

‘Your sorry is not good enough!’

‘I will fix this.’

‘Really? How? My image and reputation have already been dragged through the mud. How will your sorry fix this!’ She pointed at her swollen face and the stitches above her eye.

‘Yolie, calm down. I promise I will make it up to you. Look, you can pick any car from the showroom.’

‘No. That will not do.’

‘No?’ He looked at her in disbelief. She had been dropping hints about a car for weeks. For her to turn it down without batting an eye was mindboggling.

‘No,’ she confirmed and went to sit on the three-seater Italian leather sofa, resting her arm along the back.

‘If you do not want the car…’

‘You said you would fix this, right?’

‘Yes. I will get her to apologise publicly…’

‘Just that? No. That is not enough compensation.’

‘Okay, tell me what you want and I will do it.’

‘What do you think I want, Gershom? I want you to prove once and for all whose side you are on.’

‘Yolie babez, have I not already shown you how much I love you? I am here with you right now. I do not even know how mom is doing.’

Yolanda scoffed. ‘If you want my honest opinion, she was being overly dramatic,’ she said, studying her nails with complete indifference. She glanced up and caught the displeasure on his face. ‘Anyway, you better get going. The police station is just three roads from here.’

‘The police station…?’

Yolanda raised a perfectly arched brow at him, her eyes gleaming with malitious intent. ‘Why do you have a problem with that?’

Gershom said nothing. His silence put a slow smile on Yolanda’s face.

She stood and smoothed down her outfit. ‘Good. I will go shower and rest for a bit.’ She paused. ‘By the way, I like the Mitsubishi ASX. I hope it comes with a chauffeur.’

Gershom stared after her, speechless. Had she not just told him she did not want the car?

‘Let me know when you have good news for me,’ she called over her shoulder.

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At the hospital, Theodora could only stare at the pebbled ground of the car park and apologise profusely to the family for putting Mrs. Chomba’s life at risk.

The Chombas refused to hear it. As far as they were concerned, the only person at fault was one of their own.

‘You have nothing to feel guilty about,’ Joseph Chomba Senior said, a stocky dark man with a naturally friendly face. ‘Your mother will be fine. Feggy is lucky to have a sister who will stand up for her the way you did. But please, next time try to restrain yourself, hm? What if that woman had seriously hurt you?’

Theo nodded solemnly.

Kangwa wrapped an arm around her and chuckled. ‘Pa, you underestimate her. You forget she was our street champion growing up. We never lost a single street brawl because of her. No kid on that road dared touch us because we had Samoa Theo. Apparently our dear brother forgot that.’

Her father frowned. ‘Kangwa, enough. Do not go encouraging her. We should be grateful nothing worse came of this.’

Kangwa straightened her face, then gave Theo a discreet thumbs up the moment he looked away.

While they were still talking, a Ford Ranger pulled up. Feggy and Gershom’s two elder brothers climbed out quickly. On seeing his youngest daughter-in-law, Joseph Senior sighed with visible relief. Since his wife had regained consciousness, the only person she had been asking for was Feggy.

Feggy greeted her father-in-law hurriedly before rushing inside with Dr. Henry Chomba, the eldest twin.

Watching her go, Joseph Senior felt something settle uncomfortably in his chest. Something about his youngest son’s life had not been adding up for a long time.

‘Theodora.’

‘Yes, Pa?’

‘That money credited to our account every fourth month. Would you happen to know where it comes from?’

Caught completely off guard, she could only stare at him sheepishly.

Even though the elder Chombas lived in their own home and drew income from a rental property since retiring, their children had long agreed to contribute to their parents upkeep, each taking a designated month to credit the account.

But since Yolanda came along, Gershom had stopped entirely.

It was also why Feggy had stopped sending the children over for weekends and holidays. How could she send her children to his parents when her husband had long abandoned his own responsibilities towards them? To cover for him, Feggy had quietly asked Theo to step in, promising to repay her someday. Theo had refused and done it gladly, because to her, Mr. and Mrs. Chomba had always been a second set of parents.

‘The fourth? Is that not Gershom’s month?’ Joseph Junior, the second twin, asked.

‘I thought so too. But with everything I have learned today, it is clear our son’s lack of character knows no bounds.’

‘I am sorry. Please do not be angry with Feggy. She was only trying to uphold his image in front of the family.’

‘Eish, that sister of yours is too much,’ Kangwa shook her head. ‘Even after everything he has done to her, she was still protecting him.’

‘Joseph.’

‘Yes, Dad.’

‘Whatever Theo has been putting into that account, reimburse her.’

‘Oh, there is really no need…’

‘The responsibility of caring for us belongs to Gershom. Not to either of you. If Feggy keeps shielding him, he will never be forced to grow up.’ Joseph Senior’s voice was quiet but firm. ‘Use that money to spoil my grandchildren instead. And tell Feggy I expect to see those children over the weekend.’

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Inside the ward, the moment Mrs. Irene Chomba saw Feggy, tears began falling.

‘Child. Why did you not say anything?’

‘I am sorry, Ma.’

‘No. I am the one who is sorry. It seems I did not do a good enough job raising him. I failed to raise a man you could be proud of.’

Feggy gently wiped the tears from her mother-in-law’s face. She could not bear to see her torment herself like this.

‘Ma, do not say that. You raised him well and you taught him right. He is a grown man. We cannot always hold the parent responsible for the choices a grown child makes. This is not your fault, Ma.’

‘I am sorry, my child. I will knock some sense into his head. He will come back to you.’

‘Thank you, Ma.’ Feggy’s voice dropped. ‘But at this point, I do not think it is possible. He is so consumed by that woman. If the hungry faces of his own children could not reach him, I do not know what will.’

‘It is okay, my child. God has seen your tears and heard your cries. It will be well.’

Feggy nodded, blinking hard against the tears she refused to let fall.

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The following morning, just as Theo was backing out of her yard with a basket of food and supplies for her sister and Mrs. Chomba, a police van pulled across the gate and blocked her way.

A plain-clothed officer and two uniformed men stepped out. The plain-clothed one introduced himself as Inspector Katepa. The others were Officer Banda and Officer Juba. Inspector Katepa stepped forward and waved a document in her face, informing her in a clipped, arrogant tone that it was a warrant for her arrest on charges of assault.

Before she could fully process what was happening, the uniformed officers had already cuffed her and bundled her into the van.

Joseph Chomba Senior, who had been about to ride with Theo to the hospital, stepped out of his gate at the exact moment the police tossed her into the back of the van like a sack of grain. He ran after it but it accelerated and disappeared around the corner before he could even cross the road.

He stood there for a long moment, then reached into his pocket and called his eldest son.

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It took the Chomba siblings the entire morning to locate the station where Theo was being held.

When they discovered the charges had been filed by Yolanda, with the blessing of their own brother, the room went quiet.

Joseph did not waste time with the officers who seemed determined to make things difficult. He made a single call to his wife’s brother, a lawyer, and handed the matter over.

The moment the call ended, he got into his car and drove off.

Kangwa and Henry exchanged a look. They both knew exactly where he was going.

‘Should we follow him?’

‘No. Gershom deserves whatever is coming his way,’ Henry replied, his expression measured. ‘Go back to the hospital and make sure Ma and Feggy do not get wind of any of this. I will stay here and try to get access to Theo.’

Kangwa left and hurried back to the hospital, where she found her father pacing the corridor.

‘Did you find her? What happened? Why was she arrested without warning?’

‘Gershom happened, Dad. She is sitting in a cell because of the woman your son is seeing.’

Joseph Chomba Senior said nothing for a long moment. The disappointment settled over him like a weight he had not known he was carrying.

He had lived too long to be witnessing this. Never, not once, had he imagined he would watch one of his own children behave with such shamelessness.

As a parent, he could not help but turn it over in his mind. He had tried to live an exemplary life, having seen firsthand what infidelity does to a family. He had never thought the lesson would need to be learned by one of his own.

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Joseph Junior’s Ford Ranger came to a hard stop outside GC Motors.

‘Gershom!’

His voice cut across the showroom floor as he strode past the gleaming row of cars. It was nearly lunchtime and the staff had been about to head out, but seeing the look on the face of the man crossing the floor, they stayed. Every single one of them.

Gershom emerged from his office frowning.

‘Ba Jos…’

Joseph’s left hook connected with Gershom’s right jaw before he could finish the word.

The blow sent him staggering backwards, the right side of his face instantly numb, his head spinning.

His employees watched in silence, and more than one of them was quietly cheering. For a long time they had been weathering problems of their own: months without pay, and the months they did receive it, the amount always fell short of what they were owed. All of it beginning around the time Gershom started seeing the college girl, whose existence he had paraded shamelessly before them.

This felt like something.

‘What kind of son are you? What kind of man are you?’

‘Ba Joseph, calm down…’

Joseph grabbed him by the collar and shoved him against the wall. ‘How do you expect me to calm down? You left your own mother dying on the floor. Can you even call yourself a son after that?’

‘It was not like that…’

‘No? Then explain it to me. And while you are at it, explain why you had Theo arrested.’

Gershom shoved his brother’s hands off him and worked his jaw carefully, trying to bring some feeling back into it. ‘Theo got what she deserved. And do not blame me for what happened to Mom. Theo started all of this. Who asked her to involve herself in things that do not concern her?’

‘Can you hear yourself? Why would Theo not step in? Feggy is her little sister. What kind of sister would she be if she stood by and watched what you are doing to her?’

‘She poked her nose where it did not belong. Let her deal with the consequences.’

‘Call your mistress and have her drop the charges.’

‘No.’

‘I am not going to repeat myself, Gershom. Have that woman drop the charges against Theo.’

‘Show some respect, okay? That woman is my woman. Her name is Yolanda.’

‘Gershom. Are you truly willing to lose everything for that loose woman?’

Gershom’s hand shot out and grabbed his brother by the collar, spinning him into the side of a car. ‘Do not make me forget you are my big brother. Let this be the last time you use that word about my woman.’

Joseph shoved him off and straightened up, holding his gaze. ‘So this is how it is going to be. You are choosing her over your own family. Fine. Remember that when everything falls apart, and it will. Do not come looking for me when it does.’

He turned to leave.

And stopped.

Yolanda had just walked in through the showroom entrance, dressed in a striped halter-neck jumpsuit, oversized sunglasses pushed up onto her head.

‘Babe, will you settle the cab fare? Mulamu, hai.’

Joseph let out a long slow teeth-kiss and kept walking.

Amused by his open contempt, she scoffed quietly. ‘Whatever,’ she murmured, then raised her voice just enough to carry. ‘Babe, is my car ready?’

Joseph, still within earshot, could only shake his head.

‘Have a look around and pick whichever one you like. Let me go settle with the taxi,’ Gershom called back.

She crossed the floor towards him and leaned up to kiss him, completely unbothered by the audience. As she reached for him, her eyes landed on his jaw.

‘Oh my God, babe! What happened to your face? Did he do this to you? What is wrong with the people in your family? They are all savages!’ She spun to face the nearest employee. ‘You, go and get us some ice.’

Then she took Gershom by the arm and steered him back towards his office.

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VOCAB

Ba – honorific added before a name to show respect