"Adeolu!" The Queen called as she cordially tapped him on the shoulder. She was in his room, sitting on a chair just at his bedside. She just arrived home from a tour and was surprised to meet the absence of her son at his accustomed spot where he often busied himself with his men.
The clock, hung on the wall, ticked faintly. As the Queen glanced at it, she observed it was noon. This was the time half of the villagers might have eaten lunch, the time the sun had luminously shone up in the sky and the time several farmers would be toiling on their ranches. While that was valid, it was a different moment for Prince Adeolu who was still on the bed, sleeping and snoring strangely. It frightened the Queen who knew full well that the discovery was unusual for her son. It occurred that the Prince did not sleep in time the previous night. Perhaps he let his encounter with Aduke and Adigun deny him a sound sleep. He feared his dream of marrying Aduke would not be actualized.
"My Prince," the Queen patted him furthermore. As he felt the movement of her gentle tap, Adeolu reclined on the bed, yawned and unwillingly sat on it, "What is wrong? Why did you sleep this long?" "Are you okay?"
"No, mother. I am not okay,"
Fear gripped the Queen tightly and she shuddered that a piece of paper fell from her hand onto the rug. Hurriedly, she helped herself to the feet and made to sit beside him on the bed.
"What is wrong, please?" The Queen impatiently asked.
"It is something serious, mother. It is something serious," he stuttered.
"What is wrong," the Queen asked again, her heart pounding with fear.
"I saw something that could prolong my existence in life," Adeolu sneezed, "Not having It lead to my untimely death," he stated.
"God forbid!" The Queen chanted, placing her hand on her shoulder, "What is it? Show it to me that I may send the maids and the guards to fetch it for you," the Queen said.
"It is not an 'it', mother, but a 'she'," his voice was sad and his eyes joyless.
"A she?" The Queen felt alarmed, "I hope it is not what I am thinking, Adeolu, and I hope the 'she' is your betrothed Princess Adesewa,"
"You cannot force me to marry the woman I don't love, you cannot force me. If you must, then it calls for my death," he exploded.
"God forbid," the Queen chatted and folded her arms in terror. She incredibly treasured her son. She could not bear to lose him, could not afford to see him grim. She would do anything to restore his peace and plaster cream of sparkling smiles on his face. But she dreaded the looming battle that might ensue between her husband, king Ajisafe, and king Agboola on learning that the Prince was backing out from tying the knot with Adesewa who was betrothed to him several years ago.
"Who is she in question?" The Queen asked.
"Aduke!"
"Aduke! Who bears Aduke?"
"The daughter of Pa. Simon, Kabiyesi's secretary and friend,"
"What!!!' The Queen yelled, "It cannot be, Adeolu," she perfunctorily added.
"Then It takes me nothing to commit suicide,"
"Please, do not do that," she pleaded earnestly, kneeling before him, "I shall convince your father. Something will be done about it. Promise me you will stay alive for us; Promise me you will not die,"
As Adeolu heard those words from the Queen, he went back to bed like the sick.
•••
The Queen's heart was greatly tense as worry ate deeply into her. She no longer cared about meals. Even If she did, it was obvious she lacked the appetite to eat. She was more concerned about the safety and joy of her Prince. She waited for the King to come back to break the gloomy news to him. She was confident that it was one thing for the King to be livid at the decision the Prince made and it was another thing for something to be done to avert the unforeseen omen.
The alarm sounded clamorously at 2 pm. The severity of the sun had grown and sparkled up to the point where the people were forced to take a swift bath because the heat of that bright afternoon was scorchingly much. It was the same heat that sweated the Prince like a footballer on the football pitch and finally roused him from his deep siesta. He sat on the bed now and wiped his forehead with the side of his duvet. This time around, his eyes were even dilated. Moments later, he heaved a sigh and shook his head in the horror of losing the woman he inexplicably loved. After a while, he reluctantly hoisted his toothbrush and toothpaste from the wide desk placed against the wall of his room and dashed to the bathroom to brush his teeth. His footsteps made a thought slice through the circle of the Queen's inner thinking. She sprang from her seat and then pried towards the Prince to be sure he was not up for suicide as he earlier threatened. Her realisation of the Prince's mission which was not in line with her assumption gave rise to relief in her.
"What would you like to eat?" the Queen asked as soon as the Prince was done brushing and bathing. They were both alone in his room now.
"I am not hungry, Queen," he icily said and yawned.
"I did not kill my mother. Do not kill me, Adeolu. You have not eaten anything since dawn and you are not fasting either, and the sun is even travelling to evening. I have told you that your bidding would be done. Your father is the cause of the delay here. He will be back soon. Eat something for my sake," the Queen pleaded, her heart whipping rapidly. From his facial expression, she figured out that her words struck him and she was expecting a positive response to calm the storm in her.
"Mama, I do not mean to put you in tension, but I need to let you be in the know that I have never experienced this kind of feeling I have for Aduke. It is natural. I don't think I need any other girl as a wife aside from her. Perhaps it is the reason I am haunted by it day and night. Making my wish come true will glad my heart," he digressed as though he really did not hear what the Queen had said.
"Something will be done to make your dreams come true. He who still breathes is the one that can make dreams come true, not the dead. As you know, depression can lead to death. In a bid to stay alive, there is a necessity you eat to keep the energy of fulfilling your dreams alive," the Queen said with the posture of a motivational speaker.
From sitting on his bed, Adeolu rose and walked after the Queen to the dining table. His meal and drink were already specially arranged. It was a meal of rice and fried chickens. He perfunctorily ate in silence while the Queen furtively observed him. After he had spooned up two spoons of rice and had sipped a glass of water, he hesitated:
"Have you eaten, Queen?"
"Yes. I have eaten my portion of the rice," she lied amid fear.
"Thanks be to God," Adeolu remarked and continued with his meal, chewing slowly. After a while, he dropped the spoon, gulped a glass of juice and plodded to the sitting room to perch on a couch. The Queen intently followed him. There, they sat down in subdued quietness, his face, darting round the sitting room as if he were looking for the shadow of Aduke, but all he could see was the polished floor, the walls and the high ceiling painted white where the air-conditioner softly blew cold air into the lounge. Then, his eyes came back to the Queen who was watching him with furtiveness, and finally to his own hands as they rested on his lap, playing on his shorts.
When the chickens were about to go roost, the king, in the company of his chauffeur, arrived home from the journey. He looked hungry and languid. He had eaten no meal aside from the coffee he hastily drank in the morning. It was his policy, as a learned man, to completely refrain from eating outside his house since he became the king of the land. In truth, he loathed it. Only his missus was allowed to prepare and serve his meal and his drink. Such caution was necessary because he pictured life as a field of danger where no one could be trusted. As he stepped into the lounge, his sully son prostrated himself on the marbled floor. It was the way of the custom, the way of the people. In his attempt to acknowledge the Prince's greetings, King Ajisafe touched his head and his back with his horsetail. It was in the process of freeing himself from laying on the ground, next to the emperor, that the king himself became alerted, for he sensed, through the Prince's melancholy-looking countenance, that something was amiss.
"Why do I feel that Adeolu is unhappy?" king Ajisafe questioned, turning to the Queen whose face was also contorted in despondency, "and even you, Queen, you look too dull! I am now amid incineration. For me to come out of the burning fire, I need to be taken out of the suspense. What is wrong?'
"You should eat first, Kabiyesi. It is nothing serious,"
"Whether it is serious or not, just take me out of suspense," he insisted. Tiny beads of sweat-like pimples covered his forehead and nose.
"You look tired, my lord. You need to eat and relax. We shall discuss the case in bed," she said and quickly knelt on the ground to avert the King interpreting her act as a sign of disrespect.
"All right," the King muttered and walked to the room with his mind full of suspense, the suspense of what the Queen had in mind to tell him. He hoped it was not something plaintive. He peeled off his white agbada, his pair of trousers, his red beads and his cap and had replaced them with his homely dress, he paced the room to solve his own curiosity about what was going on, yet the answer was far from him. He waited.
***
"Come to think of it. How could he make such an insensitive decision when he knows full well that he already has a fiancee?" The king commented immediately the Queen had informed him that night. He stood up from the bed slowly and proceeded to pace the room to and fro. Then he came and hovered beside the curtain near the window. It was obvious that he was as mad as a hornet with the Prince. The couple was as silent as the grave. Only the sonorous songs of the chirping birds intruded into the silence.
"This case needs to be handled in time before it is escalated, my lord. Recall he threatened to do something funny, something unexpected and capable of causing grief and you know he is the only son we have, a son to succeed you on the throne if God agrees," the Queen whispered. She clasped her hands helplessly and stammered. Her chest was heaved with gloom. She wished her son had not met Aduke at all, she wished fate did not bring the girl to him.
Oba Ajisafe walked back to the bedside and as he sank onto it, the bed creaked.
"What will now become of the promise pledged to Oba Agboola and his family?" What about his daughter? Won't she feel resentful and offensively dejected? Since I am made the emperor of this land, It behoves me to respect the feelings of my people. I shall have a manly discussion with Adeolu in the morrow,"
"I pray for a positive outcome. May you reign long, Kabiyesi," the Queen hummed in her enchanting voice.
"Ase!," he responded, halfway relieved from his rage. He caressed his wife at the back before he plastered a cream of a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a an an an a kiss on her face. From there, they flung themselves on the bed and swerved into sleep.
•••
Mama Adigun's other farm was located near the renowned river where almost all the villagers could draw potable water. The water was neat and cold. Every morning, during the dry season, girls and boys, bachelors and spinsters, would troop to the spot. None of them was allowed to swim in the wide river because years earlier, the elders of the land had issued a stern warning to all citizens of the land, including the neighbouring communities, not to dip their feet into the river as a result of how to dip it was and because it could drown a victim. The youth and anglers were reluctant to believe the word of the elders. They refused to be convinced. The elders, the youth unanimously assumed, did not desire us to have the fun of swimming in this stream. It cost three drownings before the aggressive youth could be convinced. The drownings were later rescued with the help of professional specialists. From that day, no one could go beyond the limit assigned to the river. When attempting to fetch water, the villagers would stand on the dais and carefully use a bowl to draw water into the cans.
One morning, Adigun was working on the farm when he overheard two royal maids discussing matters related to Aduke and Prince Adeolu.
"That ordinary girl, Aduke Simon, is determined to ruin the palace and to disembowel the Prince as she has intoxicated him with her enchantment," one started as they walked on the path with earthly pots to the river to draw some water. Their voice was sharp and loud. They believed that no one was listening to them because the place was silent at the time they were conversing.
"It is a serious case. I learnt the Queen sentenced herself to hunger last night because the Prince's strength languished in travail," the other slave remarked and shook her head in wonder.
"I am afraid of the kind of imminent hazard Princess Adesewa would display once the news filters to her,"
"Could she possibly assassinate Aduke?"
"Who won't? It is a matter of love, and you know that love is a serious matter in itself,"
"But the Prince has shown all evidence that he is not interested in Princess Adesewa anymore,"
"I sense a fire on the mountain, though,"
"May the god of the land take control of everything,"
"Ase!"
Adigun had listened to enough from the gossips. He sadly sighed. He suspended his toil and sat on his accustomed rock. Everything looked laughable to him including the Prince himself. No wonder, he was clapping his dusty hands in silence, the Prince reacted strangely on accidentally catching him and Aduke in a warm embrace and a kiss. He found it difficult to believe that the Prince could be hospitalised as a result of such an occurrence. He laughed silently, toyed with a short stick and threw it towards the bush. But in a moment, his laughter gave way to desolation, his cheerful face turned to a scowl. He would wisely react. No one would know. He had got all it took to protect his lover. He wondered who was the mentioned Princess betrothed to him. He would find out if he was to get a good result and to have Aduke to himself. He would find out whether fate would like it or not. He expedited his activities on the farm during which he gesticulated and occasionally bit his lower lip. As the sun descended from the sky, he staggered toward home.
•••
For the first time in his life, Adigun was provoked to go straight to Aduke's compound with no fear in his mind. The whole situation on the ground had led to his taking the bull by the horn. The first step he followed when he arrived at the steel gates of Pa. Simon's compound was to probe the surrounding, determined to be off the sight of the draconian mongrels. He knocked on the gate. No one answered. No, even the gatekeeper was there because he had resigned a few months ago. Adigun banged the gate a second time. He was again greeted by silence. It was during the third knock that a figure walked to unlock the ironed gate. The figure was Aduke's mother. She was short, plump and had a light complexion. She wrapped her waist with a colour-faded wrapper and matched it with a T-shirt.
"Welcome!"
"Thank you, ma'am,"
"Whom do you seek?" Janet asked, still holding the gate.
"Aduke,"
'She is napping in the sitting room. How are you related to her?"
"A friend, madam,"
"Come in," she permitted.
"Thank you, ma'am," he said as he was led to the living room. Aduke was sleeping on the long couch. She was halfway awake by the sounds of the steel-ironed door as her mother pulled it. She was about to return to sleep when the other side of her eyes caught the presence of Adigun. She was surprised. Instantly, she jumped up and embraced him, forgetting that her mother was staring.
"I hope you're all right. I came to see you about the assignment given to us in school," Adigun said, feigning as though she and Aduke were of the same school and the same course. It was then that Aduke's mother felt relieved.
"Okay. Let me quickly get my jotter from the room. Just a moment, please,"
Adigun tottered until he was asked to sit. He did. He was offered a glass of water, but he declined it with a thank. When he was rejoined by Aduke in a moment, the secret lovebirds worked out a topic, speaking fluent grammar that Aduke's mother less understood. At a point, Adigun tucked a rectangle of paper in between the excised book brought by Aduke. It was a note to be read by her.