A few hours earlier, he was on a Crescent Amtrak train headed for Atlanta from New York when they made a stop at Toccoa, Georgia and he saw the police get on. The train was built in a way that passengers could wander from car to car without having their clothes or hats blown off by the wind. So, he got up and moved to the next car. Children played with a ball. No one stared at him strangely, only a man wearing the light green mitre of a bishop. The train was yet to move.
He had gone through four cars when he chanced a backward glance. The police were hot on his tail. He entered the Heritage dining car and on to the lounge. From there he saw people waiting on the platform near the entrance of the next car. He moved. As the door slid open he dashed into the crowd, throwing them backwards and knocking a few down in the process. Gaius got up quickly and started running. Progress was slow for him, but the hue and cry of the chasing policemen closed the gap with every passing second. He spotted a tunnel and turned into it, but about half a dozen policemen were there, weapons drawn. Behind him, a dozen more approached. He gave up and was taken into custody. He was handed over to some Nigerian immigration officials and taken back to New York by helicopter.
“It is people like you who give our country a bad name,” the official on his right told him. “You left Nigeria to do drug business here?”
Gaius looked at him, wondering if anything he said would hold water. “I never did drugs. I was only helping a girl who was being attacked by some men.”
“Shut up, big fool! If I have my way, you will rot in our jail to teach people like you lessons.”
Gaius’ voice quivered. He knew it. No one would believe him. Not even Dapo, his cousin in New York, had believed him then. Where did the plan go awry? If he had ignored the cries… This was no time for regrets. But he could not help thinking he would have made it big in America.
Almost a year earlier, he was at the Departure Lounge of the Murtala Mohammed International Airport in Lagos, waiting to fly to New York. It was finally happening. After years of dreaming, America was finally a reality. Effiong, the visa man had delivered as promised. Gaius was feeling light. His feet were hardly on the ground. He looked around the lounge and flinched.
Sitting a few feet away to his left were the two last people he expected to see. What?! Dennis and Edna were travelling on the same flight! He knew that Effiong also arranged their papers, and they were all alike. But why on earth did he book the same flight for all three of them? It was too late to change his mind. So, he cleverly turned, angling away from them completely. To his right sat an old couple. They were Americans – Claire and Miles Aylesworth. He later helped them recover a pouch that was stolen from her at the airport which contained her life-saving pills. They had fussed over him till they boarded.
He had managed to elude Dennis and Edna, but the Aylesworths were not going to let him go easily. “You saved her life,” Miles kept saying.
So, at the JFK International in New York, they were together again moving towards the check-out. This time, Dennis and Edna were ahead. She was being checked and Gaius was alarmed when they took too long and finally had two officers escort her away. He watched as Dennis moved up to the desk and the same rigorous routine began.
Someone tapped him on the shoulder and he flinched, turning to see Miles and Claire smiling at him. They asked him where he was staying and he wrote out a name and a telephone number for them. Claire then excused herself to go to the bathroom and Gaius waited just a few minutes and followed suit.
He hid in the toilet for about three hours until that wing was shut down for cleaning. When he emerged, he ran into a cleaner from Ghana who helped him with a change of clothes, some money and a description to the address he was going to.
Koffi’s last words: “Go and find your cousin. Take a cab to Times Square, and if he’s not at work, take a subway to Manhattan.” He leaned closer. “The fair is $2, no ticket-scalping and don’t attempt to skip the turnstiles. This is America. You don’t get off easily from stuff like that.”
As he sat in the plush seat of a yellow cab approaching Times Square, he realised that it was similar to running through a waist-high marshland. Your best efforts at forward movement were met with horrendous traffic that sapped dry your patience and sanity. He had read somewhere that the city had about 12,000 yellow cabs and ten times that number of bicycles. It seemed most of them converged around Times Square. The sidewalks and streets were filled with people in trench-coats milling about, hurrying to and from wherever, all of them factors in this beautiful chaos. A cacophony of sounds – horns, voices, music and more indecipherable chatter raised the chaos a few notches. Then above the din came the occasional siren of the police or the Fire Service.
He sat back in the cab in endurance and took in more of the sights. Skyscrapers packed like sardines side by side gave the skyline the look of a hitherto healthy tongue with traumatic growths sticking out, attempting to snuff it out. Peddlers and hawkers harangued pedestrians with their wares. Newspaper stands and hot-dog carts competed for space. He also saw a giant screen running a coca-cola advert and various marquees in bright colours. The cab driver saw him looking about and cleared his throat. “Hey, your first time in New York?”
“Hmm?” Gaius looked at him, not knowing what to say.
The driver explained. “I kin always tell who’s coming for the first time. They wanna take in the sights alla once. It don’t work that way, pal. New York’s like a huge cake, you kint eat it all in one bite. Best you kin do, my man, is take it bit by bit on every visit. That way, all da confusion you see now be nothing but lines ‘n’ dots in a maze. Take it from me, I know. I been in this city ten years and I still learning it.” He finished with a laugh.
“Thank you,” Gaius said and wondered why the driver volunteered so much information. He paid the driver at 42nd Street and got off. Descending into the subway tunnel, he took a train to Manhattan, than a cab from the station to the address where Dapo, his cousin, lived with his girlfriend, Chloe. They were both studying at Columbia University and worked part-time as train attendants. The Aylesworths had called about his luggage, saying they had stowed it in a locker at the train station. They would send the key once they arrived Atlanta.
Dapo had tried to help Gaius get a job, but he rejected them all. They were either too dirty, demeaning or both. He told them he had not come to the United States to wash plates or clean corpses as most African immigrants did. He was an IT professional and had the impression that America was his Mecca. His plan was to get a decent, high paying job and start raking in good money. The streets of New York were lined with gold and he attended to look in the right places and pick. He also told them that he had walked out of a good job offer from a leading bank and an offer of partnership in an IT firm in Nigeria. He had even been engaged to the daughter of a business mogul but his pride had made him reject any favours. He reasoned that such favours would amount to debts. Debts which could be recalled at anytime. Gaius was prepared to wait for the right job.
His wait turned into weeks, then months. Chloe was very accommodating and never complained. She actually liked it. His presence ensured that Dapo had no time to flirt with other girls. Watching television became a full-time job. He kept up with American Idol and 24, falling in love with Paula Abdul and the character of Kim Bauer respectively. But even the best of entertainment had its downsides. He began to feel useless. What with eating free food and wearing clothes handed down by Dapo. He was yet to receive the key, and so no access to his luggage. Not that it contained much anyway. But they were his clothes at least.
So, one day he tired of television and hit the streets. He had walked for an hour in various directions but sure he was not lost yet, when he came up to an alley littered with trash cans. He was surprised to find that much filth in the centre of a city like New York. It was no different from Lagos or any other city in Nigeria. He hissed and was about to continue when he heard a girl scream.
He dashed into the alley in a trot towards the sound but trash littered his way and he had to kick and jump over some, making a lot of noise. He got closer and saw two men holding a young girl. They let her go when they saw him and pushed past him, almost knocking him to the ground.
That was how he met Angela. The beginning of fresh problems.
He had taken her home because she convinced him that her life was in danger and that those men could still find her and do things to her. She was lying on the couch facing the door when Dapo and Chloe came back from work. They were shocked to see her. Chloe later went down to a nearby grocery store while Dapo took Gaius outside for some serious talk.
“You can’t bring strangers home, no matter what their stories are,” Dapo’s voice was heavy. They were standing in the hallway.
“But she needed help,” Gaius protested. “She was almost raped. If I had not heard her and gotten there when I did, that innocent girl would have been abused.”
“Look,” Dapo said. “What you did was good, but there are phonies here. Many of them are junkies. We cannot accommodate her.”
“Dapo, it’s just for a few hours. Those men will find her if we send her away now.”
“We’re not debating this one,” Dapo became adamant. “She goes now. You will go in there, wake her up, and tell her you have to go do something and she has to go. Simple.”
“It’s not that simple.”
They argued back and forth before they re-entered the apartment. Angela was still sleeping, but this time her back was to the door. She must have turned in her sleep, Gaius reasoned. He hesitated before waking her up. He was sorry to see her go but she promised to come back soon. He told her it was not a good idea. Then she gave him a telephone number to reach her on. As he handed her the $40 he had borrowed from Dapo for a cab, she kissed him on the mouth and muttered a thank you, and was gone. He felt good and decided to hang around. Watching people move about had never been so much fun. Could he be waiting for another damsel in distress?
Gaius began to whistle under his breath as he headed back. Chloe should have been back now. He opened the door and found her crying. Dapo looked up and glared at him. rage and disgust jumped from his eyes. “See what you’ve done, Gaius. Your angel cleared Chloe’s jewelleries and the money we kept in our bedroom. She took all our money. We were going to buy a car, and now the money is gone!”
Gaius did not know when he sat on the ground, but he knew that his mouth hung open in shock. What had he done? So, while he was outside talking with Dapo, Angela had somehow managed to get into the bedroom to take Chloe’s stuff and… He shook his head. He had noticed how her sleeping position changed. No! It was impossible. He walked to the telephone and dialled the number she had given him. It rang once and a recording played. Voicemail. He tried again, but it was the same thing. He’d just been had!
“Why don’t you call the police and give them this number? May be they can find something.”
“And get involved with drug dealers?” Dapo asked. “This would not have happened if only you had listened.”
There and then, he knew what to do. Plan B. It was time to move on.
HIS CONTINGENCY PLAN included a string of cyber-dates he had cultivated over time; they were going to be his assurance of American citizenship. They were scattered all over the country.
So, while Dapo consoled Chloe, Gaius was going through his next plan. He pulled out his wallet and scanned through. There were names of girls and the cities they were located. It took him a minute to come to a decision.
“I’m leaving for New Jersey,” Gaius announced. It was the nearest.
Dapo turned in shock, Chloe stopped crying.
“I’ve been of no use. Instead, I’ve brought more pain to you guys. Maybe I’ll get lucky down there. I know someone there. Look, as soon as I get a job, I’ll begin to pay you what you’ve lost here.”
“Nonsense!” Dapo spat out. “You are not going anywhere. No one is going to take care of you in this country better than your blood. It is every man for himself here. We’ll get through this, but you will have to take a job, any job. Until you get a better one.”
There was no argument there. The job at the deli was still open. They specialised in African food and prominent Nigerians were among the regulars. So, Gaius began washing dishes on a cold morning in November. The pay was meagre but the shift meal was good, though he took some time adjusting to taste and content. Another perk was a beautiful Nigerian girl from Benue, Eneh who worked there as a waitress. They hit it off immediately and spent breaks together. They even went on a movie date the first weekend, but nothing else happened.
Not to the manager anyway. The 60-year old Puerto Rican, Juan, had plans for Eneh. He hated Gaius instantly and made his shifts hellish. When Gaius got promoted, it took Juan a week to demote him as punishment for being late one evening. Gaius was only seven minutes late. This he endured for another week before that fateful day when a young man entered with an entourage.
Eneh ran into the kitchen to tell him about it. This young man was a popular Nigerian. She told Gaius that the man was a regular, though it was his first time in the one month that he had been there. They came out and saw the man. Gaius flinched. He knew him. They were classmates back in Port Harcourt. He was so excited. Maybe finally, he was going to get a worthy job. So, he wiped his hands dry and headed out to greet him, apron and all.
“Tonye Fugbara!”
Tonye turned in shock to look at him. There was no recognition in his eyes. His two bodyguards moved in closer. One of the girls asked Tonye who Gaius was and he replied: “Many Nigerians who know my father and have seen my pictures claim to know me. He must be one of them.”
Gaius could not believe his ears. “Tonye, it is me, Gaius! We were in the same class in Stella-Maris College, from class two to five. Then you went away to University of Ibadan and I went to Nsukka. We were even neighbours in Borokiri. Bonny Street. Remember?”
Tonye paused a while like he was about to believe him. Then he laughed. “Everyone knows that. So, just buzz off!”
Gaius did not take kindly to insults. He pushed the table away, items clattering in different directions. Tonye’s bodyguards moved in on him. The last thing he remembered was Eneh screaming that he should be left alone. When he came to, Juan had no problem with firing him. He was back to square-one. Again. His right shoulder hurt.
He walked the whole way home. It gave him time to think and he decided he had had enough of New York. There was a delivery left outside the door. It had his name on it. Neither Chloe nor Dapo were home. He opened the package and saw it was from the Aylesworths. They apologised for the delay in sending the key and would love to make it up to him by inviting him out to Atlanta. Claire’s surgery was successful and she had fully recuperated. What a break! There really was light at the end of the tunnel.
So, armed with the key and the letter, Gaius ran out and took a cab to the train station. He was in high spirits, so much so that when he took a cab and left, he failed to see a Ford SUV stop in front of the building and four men, adorned with chains, tattoos and bogus designer clothes alighted. The music was loud and urban. A fifth one, smaller than the others but obviously the leader, and smartly dressed in a colourful suit and shirt came down dragging a girl with him. As they neared the entrance, people gathered to watch.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GAIUS OPENED THE LOCKER. His luggage was there alright. Then his phone began to ring. It was from Dapo. Perfect timing.
“What have you done this time?”
Gaius was amazed. That was fast. They had found out about his job? “Things just got out of hand, so the manager made me quit.”
“Quit?” Dapo asked. “You quit your job too?”
“I thought that was why you called.”
“Your redoubtable little angel brought a gang of drug dealers to the house today. She claims she gave you some drugs to sell. You were not here and things got out of hand. There was some shooting but the police came early before anyone was hurt. Where are you?”
Oh no. It was happening again. The attacks were coming in droves. He started walking towards the ticket counter.
“I’m at the station picking up my luggage. The Aylesworths finally sent the key and also invited me to come visit them.”
“Good,” Dapo said. “This is fortuitous. One door opening as this thing is happening. You must leave New York right away!”
“I know that.”
“Take Train 19 which goes straight from New York to New Orleans, with many stops on the way. Atlanta is one of such stops. So, buy a Crescent Amtrak ticket right away. Dump your phone, else they’ll track you down. Good luck!”
Forty minutes later, he was on the train but did not breathe until they left the city. He called Miles and told him he was headed for Atlanta, but said nothing about his troubles. Then he switched off the phone. He sat beside an old man who constantly pointed out stops. At Charlottesville in Virginia, the man got out. They crossed into South Carolina and began the approach for Georgia. The first stop was Toccoa.
He was just looking out the window, routinely admiring the structures when he saw the police enter and he knew his journey was about to end. Atlanta was less than an hour away.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ON ITS FINAL DESCENT, the plane dipped and the tiny dots and vague landscape gave way to trees, moving cars, buildings, and the smooth runway of the Murtala International Airport in Ikeja. Gaius shook his head, sadly. The handcuffs sent cold chills into his body and he shuddered. His dream had ended. It was only a mirage.
Meanwhile, over twenty thousand miles away at the 1688 Peachtree Street Station in Atlanta, Miles and his wife Claire were waiting. The train had long come and gone on to New Orleans. They made a few calls and found out from Dapo that Gaius had been deported to Nigeria. They turned away sadly, revealing nothing to anyone. But in the briefcase on the backseat were documents they had prepared carefully. Documents that would have made Gaius their sole heir. Gaius had saved Claire’s life and they had no children. The Aylesworths were worth over $250 million.
2 comments:
wow!! life isnt fair..is it
this isnt fair....not fair at all
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