BENIN
THE GOOD FRIEND BOOKER
"Afo, odu ke mong?" Where are you?
"Ami ke dem esa; kendi o!" I'm in the backyard, I'm coming!
"O, eyen sub di o! Obubit makara ette oto Canaan edi ke bet fi mi!" Oh, child, hurry up, the black-white man from Canaan is here waiting for you!
Collins is happy to hear his language again after being in Edo state for two days yet. The proprietress of the Good Friend Booker eyes his Paris designer jeans and his shiny Italian leather shoes with undisguised interest. For the second time she asks him if he will eat her Ekpang- nku- kwo. For the second time, he says no. Its mid day. The sun has started to sap moisture and energy from him. This is his twenty third stop in the Canaan kitchen network that he was checking out; and it looks like it won't be the last.
The skinny, 'thirty-ish' lady he is supposed to see finally comes waltzing in to the canteen, her face caked in brown powder, her mouth dripping with lip gloss, "Good afternoon, sir. I'm Loretta," she shakes his hand.
"Hello madam. Your customer at the ministry of Works and Housing, Dr. Ajumogobia, directed me here. My name's Okon. I'm looking for an Ibibio woman who may have owned a canteen like this one ten years ago. Her name is Miss Aydee. She's come into a lot of family inheritance, back in Canaan City, and I'm the family lawyer. Do you know of her?"
Her eyes narrow knowledgeably, "You mean, the Maye Hatta's! Unyime, Katherine, Inyang or Idara Aydee...?"
He blinks, his left eyebrow lifting, "Excuse me?" Yesss, Idorenyin Kate Aydee! Hiram Duke's lineage of Aydees! At last! What was it, that the governor said? The ruling house of Eyam Attah is from a long line of Ibibio Canaan Kings, since 1845. For clarity, the accused witch of 1891, is also the runaway bride of lord Justice Benedict Hall, and thus her name should be Idarabong Attah 'Aydee,' from the disgraced house of Eyam Attah. So, who are the Maye Hatta's? Is there anyone bearing such a name in this generation? Of course, Idara is quite popular, but Maye Hatta? He remembers seeing it on Dr. Jay's neat schematic map of founding families, on his office white board... Maye Hatta. The boss scribbled something odd about it, like, an upside down or something totally sci-fi... That man! Collins smiles, encouraging Loretta to continue.
Loretta explains, "Kate's mother died when she was very young. Kate was known as Grandmother Aydee. After she died, Inyang Aydee and her daughter left the entire business to Nonyin...Nonyin Osayandez." The way she says Nonyin Osayandez makes him think there might be bad blood between them.
"I'm not sure I understand; why did they leave the business to an Edo woman, where they in debt?"
She shrugs her shoulders, "It was strange, then. We don't have time to think about it now. Not after ten years."
Ten years ago. Here. "So where do they live?" he asks.
"We don't know. One day they were there, the next, they were gone."
Her mother nods, hissing. She stands up from the stool she's been precariously perched on and wobbles her great bulk through the chairs and tables towards the hot kitchen, "I must prepare for lunch," she says, without turning back. To Loretta, her daughter, she rattles off an instruction in Efik; show him the photo on the wall, let him see that we were friends, in case that inheritance is too much for family alone. Loretta points to her left. High on the wall is an old black and white picture framed in aging wood. He goes to stand before it to try to make out the six smiling faces. Three little girls play a local board game at the feet of three very different, and distinct women. He studies it in rising excitement.
YOU ARE READING
SOLOMON'S BRIDGE {Part II/WORK IN PROGRESS}
General FictionThe Pitch: The Custodian of Canaan is reborn, but so are the major players in the injustice that was done to her, in 1891. This time around, she is the villain. Revenge has never been so sweet, so irresistible, and so utterly confusing. Because come...
