The Dream (Concluding Episode)

By Taiwo Odumala

 

She looked at him again, knowing in her heart that she would keep this one. She would keep him safe. Her voice came up then, strong. “No”, she said. The man in the car did not need to ask what she meant, he understood. The man told Sesan to get out of his car. Sesan opened his mouth as if to explain the situation but the man's countenance showed he wasn’t ready to listen. He told Sesan again, this time, firmly, to get out of his car. Sesan got down and the driver sped off with the lady and the boy still in the car; with the lady still clutching the boy to her breast. He was her little one now. He must be safe...

In the car, the man inquired of her identity and how she came by the warehouse.

At first, she didn’t think she should answer. She didn’t know who the man was and how he got to know Sesan. She was afraid he might be one of the kidnappers she and the children just luckily escaped from. “I’m just the Nanny”, she said, at first, faintly as if testing her voice.

Then more confidently, she said it again. She explained how she had been employed by Audu and upon discovering that the boys were kidnap victims, she had called Sesan who was a close friend of hers and asked for help. Sesan had gone to the police and informed them of the kidnapping ring but they had simply arrested him instead.

A few days later, he called her to say he had been released, and had a better plan. He told her to get information about the boys from the room where their personal effects were kept as the boys were usually kidnapped in school or at the park. She had told him the latter part when she had first contacted him. With that, they were able to trace some of the parents and left them anonymous messages to be at Sasha Street that day. He however didn’t tell her how he got released.

The man kept looking straight ahead. If she hadn’t been paying close attention, she wouldn’t have noticed the slight movement that told her he heard her quite alright.

They got to a house, gigantic!

The gates alone were intimidating and she imagined herself in such a house. From the outside, it was impressionable. From the inside, she knew she could never escape from here if the man decided to keep her captive if she didn’t let go of the boy.

If it came to the latter, would she be ready to let go of the boy or would she remain with him? Lost in thoughts, she didn’t notice the car door open for her. She only came out of her reverie when the man jolted her to get out of the car.

“We should get him checked as soon as possible”, he said, looking at the boy. “He doesn’t look too good”, he added. That was when she first noticed the jerk. 

And then he jerked again!

And again! And then again!

 

“He needs a doctor. He needs a doctor right now”, she shouted, heading back to the car. “Take him upstairs, my wife is a Doctor. She’ll attend to him.” Hearing that, she ran blindly into the house, not knowing where to go, yet, she took the first flight of stairs she saw. The man was however behind her.

When she got up the stairs, the man made a move to take the boy from her, she refused. He then led the way into a room; it was big and had the smell of antiseptic. There was a small bed to the right of the room and she quickly put the boy on it. That was when she noticed another figure in the room. The figure moved to the boy and began to undress him. Then she cleared the bed area for injurious things as the boy was still convulsing. “What happened to him?”, the figure asked in a voice tinged with sadness. “Drugs”, came the response from the nanny.

The woman got to work on the boy while the man and the nanny looked on, helpless. She checked his breathing and seeing as there was no obvious trouble in respiration, she gave him an intravenous shot of Naloxone and started a conventional benzodiazepine therapy on him afterwards to help with withdrawal symptoms should the boy come to.

After a while, the boy stopped convulsing and was sleeping. “He’ll be alright now”, the woman said, “though we need to watch him for a few days to make sure we get everything out of his system”. Then she looked away from the boy at the Nanny. “Is he yours?” she asked. Before she could respond, the man answered. “No, he’s not. She’s just the Nanny”.

Then he went ahead to explain to her how Sesan had intended selling the boy to them, obviously keeping the information that the boy is to be taken from a kidnapping ring away from them.

“He must be returned”, the woman blurted out in anger. “No one has a right to deprive a parent of their child”. “Yes dear, we will take him back, the man replied. Adopting a child as we tried to do was wrong in the first place”.

“It was the pain”, she said, “the pain that came with Tomiwa”.

Then she faced the Nanny and said, “Tomiwa was our baby, our pride. We lost him two weeks ago to cancer. Since then, everything shut down for us, for me”.

With shaky hands, she pointed at the bed, “That was his bed, he died in it. He was just 10.” The man moved closer to the woman and simply held her. After a while, he said, “We’ll try again. We will have another baby and he won’t be taken away from us like Tomiwa.”

Then he turned to face the Nanny, “but first, we have to take him back.” It was a silent agreement as they all watched the little boy peacefully sleeping on the bed.

“Sade Festus”, the voice called again. Sade was nudged awake by one of the applicants who had become her friend, at least that’s what she’d call the stranger with whom she had been chatting since she arrived at Telekoms for her interview this morning. It was her turn to go into the interview room. She quickly wiped the sleep from her face, got up, straightened her clothes and made to follow the woman who led her towards the room. “Wish me luck”, she mouthed to her new- found friend.

The End.