After school, Olwethu was walking alone. She deemed it better to be alone than to walk with a friend who was secretly competing with you.
“Hey why are you walking alone? Where’s your best friend, Prudence?” the voice came from a car passing by slowly.
“I don’t have a friend. Why don’t you call her?” she asked.
“No, I was actually looking for you. I have been looking for you, I even asked for your mobile number from Prudence but she refused.”
Olwethu’s face lit with a smile. This was her moment.
“Oh you did? Well, I knew she could refuse, we are no longer friends,” she said.
The man pulled over to let her in.
“Look, don’t ask Prudence about me again,” she added with a serious face.
“Okay, I’m sorry. She said a lot of bad stuff about you, then she refused to give me your number,” the man uttered.
“She did what? I’m not surprised, she told me a lot of bad things about you too.”
The conversation got exciting, they now had a mutual enemy. Terrence took her to the same restaurant, he then took her shopping. He bought nice clothes for Olwethu and an expensive cell phone. After, he dropped her off. Olwethu’s face was full of undying smiles. She had made it without Prudence, finally.
*****
Japheth took it upon himself to confront Jairos at his house.
“Home, sweet home son. This is a lovely surprise,” the old man muttered with a sense of irony.
“Why do you love toying with people’s lives? So you wanted to frame me for murder? Or what were you trying to do?” Japheth was fuming.
“Toy with people’s lives? Son, what are you talking about?” his grandfather asked.
“You know damn well I am talking about. That corpse you brought to my night club. You did that so that I can go to prison, right? He did nothing wrong. I am the one you want, so why kill him?”
“Killing him? what are you… Oh, you mean James? Don’t worry about him, he deserved it,” said Jairos, floating with enthusiasm.
“You’re such an animal. How can you say that about a human being? Is that what you say about my father? My mother? I know you got your goons to fake her car accident.”
“Son, James is nothing compared to your parents. I loved them dearly. James was a snitch, he owed me and threatened to report all my dealings to the police. He’s the one that turned your father against me…”
“Don’t you dare talk about how you loved my parents!” Japheth interjected. “Why the hell did you frame me, knowing I have CCTV in my club, and that everyone knows James is not the type to go to my club?” he asked.
“I couldn’t have the police snooping around here, asking me questions about a murder of a scumbag like him. I forced him to overdose at gunpoint and I threatened to kill his wife and kids if he didn’t. He knew me very well, and so killed himself. I called my goons to break into your club, uninstall your cameras and drop him there.”
Shakes was right again, this old man always had a plan of bringing people down.
“You have the guts to tell me that you loved my parents after killing them?” Japheth asked in disbelief, hoping not to get an answer.
This was the first time he saw a tear rolling from the old man’s eyes. Jairos wiped it off abruptly.
“It was do or die son. Your father was my son, he was stubborn, smart and strong. I only sent James to scare him off with his balaclava on, but your father, he knew a criminal in a balaclava was immature. So he fought him and overpowered him. And this soft piece of trash called James, pulled the trigger, he took my son.”
The old man paused and cried out to the heavens.
“I wanted your father to be scared of running the business by himself. I wanted to work with him but he wanted to be his own man. He took my clients with him. He took Shakes, my only reliable man with him. But I wanted him to live, I didn’t want him to die.”
The boy felt no pity for his grandfather. Japheth looked at him and pulled out his gun.
***
Tell us: Do you think Japheth should shoot his grandfather? What would you do?