REMOULDED

Chapter Twelve

Later in the late noon,Earnest checked into his watch to confirm it was well past three. They eventually settled at Welson inns after much debates. Earnest had preferred cold drinks and pizza at a restaurant in Houston but Daisy had suggested she would be more comfortable at a place further from home.

After the waitress left to grant their order,Earnest relaxed on the wooden chair while Daisy fell instantly into the narration of the mystery behind Mr Roberts being a racist.

Fifteen minutes into the narration,Earnest had learnt that Daisy grew up at the BLOOMY and that her father was before a white man with the love of the black at heart. Mr Roberts had spent most of his youthful years touring in African countries and had camps at Angola and Togo which were his usual targets for the winters.

He had even made a close black friend at Angola who introduced him to the pretty Mbiana who later became his wife. And out of his much love and trust in her, he had relocated her from Angola to the States and she bore him a girl child some months after their marriage.

"Are you the child?" Earnest interrupted, his face lit in surprise and his voice raised almost for everyone around to hear.

"Yeah" She affirmed shyly.

"Oh my" Earnest could not keep his amazement. So,Daisy too has a connection to Africa. She never looked it. So,why has Daisy's father hated black so much when he had had a blissful experience with them.

Earnest sank further into his chair and folded his arms across his chest,the end of the story must really be heard.

Daisy understood the gesture and she continued. It seemed she had been so willing to tell someone about it,maybe she had found no one ever since and maybe she had found Earnest worthy to be told the secrets.

In the last phase of the story,Earnest had seen reasons for Mr Roberts racist acts. Barely after their first child,Mbiana started going wayward, behaving naughtily in the house and lurking in the dark to receive secret and threatening phonecalls from whosoever.

A year after,she was nowhere in the house,she had packed her things and moved across to an apartment at Canal where she had filed a divorce and weeks later,she was out of the States with a good share of his fortune.

Much later, when Mr Roberts had decided to visit his friend back in Angola to relate the turn of events to him,it was a big surprise that welcomed him. His friend no longer resides in Angola and as related by people nearby,he had absconded with Mbiana, the same Mbiana,with large wealth.

"Really!" Earnest screamed,a bigger surprise hitting him. He had always believed men are the bad ones. He had always taken inferences from Gideon's maltreat of his home and family. "I always think men are the bad ones" He said with disgust.

"You will be a man one day" Daisy reminded.

"I know. That still doesn't influence my judgement"

"You think Mbiana was the bad one here?" Daisy asked.

"Who else" Mbiana was. She was shown love and wealth from where she would never had expected it. She had a blissful marriage for two years and a beautiful daughter. She was taken from the slums to fulfill a wonderful life she would never had dreamt. How much more can a woman be satisfied.

"What of the man that betrayed his friend,gave him a wife and then took her away and even swindled him" That was Daisy's view about it.

The man was behind all the moves, it was a planned trick from the start. Mbiana might not have wished to go back to him but the man kept on disturbing with secret and menacing phonecalls.

The man would have forced her to draw a divorce and arranged for her disappearance from the States,the man was certainly the wolf in the matter.

"Oh," Earnest's eyes bulged in their sockets,"Mbiana was taught evil and she did it"He blurted,not realizing he was actually talking about her mother,but Daisy was not bothered either and he continued, "I think that's a case of personal decision,not someone enforcing anyone. Since she left the man,she should have no connection with him if her heart was truly away from him. The fact that she left her family and her child and also filed a divorce showed she was worse." Earnest gave it back in equal level.

Daisy suck a sigh between her teeth,this was meant to be an outing and not a debate.

"Alright." She said,swaying her tresses back, "I agree anyone can be bad. It's a matter of who you are,we shouldn't discriminate between black and white. Man and woman. We are all humans" She preached.

"And to err is human" Earnest added.

"Truly,yeah" Daisy smiled and picked up her drink,ready to turn it to a real outing.

The topic was changed afterwards and continued to change over the next hour. From struggles and fun of high school life,to the CAAS,sports and music and then to ambitions after high school,which was what got their lips occupied on their way home.

Earnest veered to Tolis court when it was almost dusk. No one really needed him at home and Daisy had warned him not to escort her home. So,he had taken the decision to have a street walk. Home sucks him on Saturdays,when Mohammed and Susane would be on a rest while he fills in Mohammed's duties and even galls him the more whenever Mercy was around for the weekend.

He wished it could be only him and his sweet mother throughout the weekend, she cooks the food and he goes around playing tennis and eating, but Mercy always come home for random weekends to cause him a lot of trouble.

He was hardly in good terms with Kemi whenever Mercy was around. Mercy always stay in the habit of picking out his misdeeds in a manner that irritates and also turns Kemi against him.

Not that he would not always fight back and bring up an equal level of shouts and disagreement.

But right now,shouting was the least he would want to do. He would rather love to lay his head on his bed and have a recall of what a day it had been so far. He would love to relax and recall the annoying time at the BLOOMY,the story of Mr Roberts and Mbiana and all and all ---- but he would still not go home.

He crossed over to the tennis court at Tolis,praying silently there would be someone to have a little game with. And yo,his prayer was answered, but not someone he would have wanted to see at the moment. It was Michel,fumbling with a bat.

"Can I have little smash there" He called out behind him,having no choice. He was just not prepared to go home.

Michel turned back and saw him,"You are done with her?". And that was what came out of him.

"With who?" Earnest questioned like he did not get the message. Michel would have seen him with Daisy,he do stop at Welson to have cold gulps after music practices.

"You took Daisy to Welson,isn't it?". There was an edge of jealousy rising in Michel's voice as he spoke. He must have been really hurt to see them together but Earnest would not care. Daisy had told him Michel was nothing but a mere friend.

" Any of your business?"Earnest snapped back.

"You knew there was music practice today,didn't you?" Michel smirked.

"Still none of your business" Earnest fired again and regretted the next seconds that he had not just turned back and head straight home when he had seen that it was the envious and inquisitive Michel that was at the court.

"I'll like to admit that,but it hurts me too" A sinister expression drew on his face.

"That you saw me with Daisy" That was the only way Earnest could think to. Michel would have really been struck hard with that.

"That Ms. Dake chose a new lead singer" Michel slammed and his eyes went gloomy like he was going to cry anytime soon.

"What!" Earnest's ears rang.

"She is Morenike. And she is ---" Michel stopped, his voice going cracky. He dropped the bat and rubbed palms on his gloomy face before darting out of the court,frustrated and sobbing.