Balogun

DOWNHILL

"You say the meanest things to me. You play me like a ball, tossing me wherever you want me to go..."
- Abike

xXx

Murewa was already dressed and ready to leave when Abike came in the next morning.
He looked up from stuffing his bag when the door opened and she smiled at him as she shut the door behind her.

"Good morning, my Prince."

He zipped his bag and looked up again.
"Good morning, ma." He walked towards her.
"No milk?"

"Nope. I came straight up."

He held her face in his hands and tipped her head up to look into her eyes.
"Did you sleep ok?"

"Yes."

He bent to kiss her neck.
"I have to leave now, ma," he said just as they heard the fall of footsteps approaching the door.

"That's Jamal," she said with a pout.

Murewa laughed. "Don't leave this room, Mama. Wait for me, yea?"

"Okay." She nodded just as the door swung open and Jamal walked in.

"Don't you knock?" Murewa turned to glare at him.
"Sorry." Jamal smiled and turned to Abike. "Abike, hi."

"Hi." Abike lowered her head.

"Head up," Murewa whispered in her ear and she obeyed, raising her head to look up at Jamal whose smile widened like a Cheshire Cat.

"I'd be back soon," Murewa said softly as he pulled away. "You would wait here?"

"Yes." She nodded and he stared at her for a few more seconds before exiting the room with his friend.

xXx

"They are doing ok." Jamal commented as they watched the boys practice the lessons on defense he had given them yesterday.
They already had the hang of it and were doing really well.

Muyiwa also seemed calm this morning and was generously showing some of his mates how to go about the moves.

Murewa nodded. "They are doing alright."

Jamal turned to Murewa.
"You seem distracted. Is it Abike?"

"Are you mad?" Murewa turned to his friend.
"Don't I have a mind of my own? Do I have to think about her all the time?"

Jamal raised his arms in surrender. "Okay, okay."

"You know Jolayemi is missing..."

Jamal nodded. "I know."

"And you know Ola has him. I am sure Ola has him. Along with the ownership documents..." he wanted to tell Jamal of the secret his Father told him about the documents, but he couldn't. He had sworn his secrecy.

"Yeah." Jamal nodded. "We can't make any moves, yet. Your father said we should wait for word from him."

Murewa turned away from his friend.
"Yeah...I feel like the first thing he is going to do is to ask for the return of everything we took away after the war."

Jamal didn't catch on in time.
"That's cool. We are wealthier than that. The gold and oil we took didn't add anything to our economy, neither will it subtract from it if we return them all," he said and Murewa sighed and turned back to the boys.

The reaction was resigned and calm, it had Jamal thinking. Why was it bothering Murewa so much that King Ola would ask for his gold and oil back? It was so infinitesimal compared to the resources they had in Ore.
They didn't even take the oil and gold because they needed it, they just took it to teach the man a lesson on stealing.
Even the servants they carted away didn't mean...wait!