The Spider King's Daughter Read Free Page B

armed robbery.’
    ‘You could have become a hawker.’
    ‘It was not so easy in those days. The soldiers could come at any time and lock you up for illegal trading. I used to leave her here and work on a nearby street. I soon discovered that poverty was not enough to be successful.
    ‘“You are lucky to have been born like that,” I said one day to a beggar who had no left leg. He smiled with teeth that were bloody from chewing kola. “Oh, this one no be luck,” he said patting his stump. “I still dey pay for it.” God forbid! God forbid bad thing. Then her skin stretched tighter and her belly began to protrude. I went back. He gave me an address. I went there and—’
    ‘Were you awake?’
    ‘Of course I wasn’t awake! What type of stupid question is that? You think it hurt less because I was unconscious?’
    ‘Calm down, please.’
    ‘I am calm!’ He banged the cardboard, his head jerking up and down. I stood, eager to distance myself from this beggar who was attracting stares. ‘Come back. I am calm now. You can come back. She died two weeks later because I was too foolish to remember that you can’t beg while your stump is healing, you can’t think for the pain, you can’t feed your two-year-old daughter.’
       
     
    I stood there unable to find words that would blend sympathy into my suspicions. Where were his parents? His relatives ? His friends? And how had he slid into poverty so easily? Even in Lagos, the white collar was not so loose that one could be an insurance man on Monday and a beggar by Friday.
    In our case, there had been clear signs. The domestic staff were the first to go. Then our garage emptied, then the flat-screen TV was sold, leaving a square patch lighter than the rest of the wall. Yet, it was only when the landlord came to our house with policemen that I realised that this phase of our lives was not temporary.
    Still we didn’t become beggars after we left Maryland. No relatives came to our rescue – my mother is estranged from her family and my father’s relatives are too poor – but his friends gave generously in the months following his death. Even if there were no family members, did this beggar have no friends that could have tided him over till he found another job? And that he would have found another job, if he had really worked in an insurance company, was almost certain.
    ‘The prophet promised that one day the opportunity for revenge would arise,’ he said.
    ‘Pardon?’
    ‘So what is your name?’
    ‘They call me Runner G on the road. What is yours?’
    ‘They used to call me Mr T in my office.’

    Chapter  5
     
     
    ‘Is it possible to make a car break down on purpose?’ I asked Hassan as I handed him the hawker’s ice cream.
    ‘Eh?’
    Milky saliva flew through a gap in his teeth and landed on the dashboard.
    ‘Don’t say eh ? Say pardon me?’
    ‘Pah doon mi?’ he repeated, his inflections twisting the words into the vernacular.
    ‘No, not like that. Say after me: Paaaar-duuuuuhn-meee?’
    ‘Paaaaaah-dooooooooooo-miiiii?’
    It was hopeless.
    ‘Is it possible to break down a car on purpose?’
    ‘Pahdoomi? I get am correct?’
    ‘You only say “pardon me” when you did not hear what the other person said.’
    ‘Mo pah dọ.’
    ‘Pardon?’
    ‘If “pahdoomi” means I no hear you, then “mo pah dọ” means I have heard.’
    ‘Just answer my question. Is it or is it not possible?’
    ‘Aunty, if you press your foot down and push the—’
    ‘So you know how to do it.’
    He nodded.
    ‘Tomorrow I want you to break down the car at the place where we see the hawker.’
    ‘Aunty, no. I cannot do such a thing.’
    ‘No?’
    ‘I’m sorry. Your daddy no go like it.’
    ‘My father has nothing to do with this, Hassan. You are my driver and you will make this car break down tomorrow or you will not have a job by the end of tomorrow.’
    ‘Yes, ma.’
    * * *
     ‘Start. We’re getting close.’
    Hassan looked at me through