Chapter 12

Mrs. Grace stood there, too dumbfounded to talk. Mrs. Lupita walked over to where she was and put her hand on her shoulder. “I know most of my plans failed with your son, Matthew, but please Mrs. Grace, let’s give it one last try. I have a very good idea and I’m sure it will work this time,” she said as she tried to weave a smile on her face.

Mrs. Grace stood beside her thoughtfully. Should she allow Mrs. Lupita to give it one more try? It would be benefitting for her son if it worked, but it could also make her son angrier if it didn’t.

She was brought back to reality when she heard Mrs. Lupita clearing her throat. She smiled at her. “Oh, Mrs. Lupita, just give me some time with Matt okay,” she said and headed towards the stairs.

She knocked gently on Mr. Matthew’s door before turning the brass knob, causing it to open. Mr. Matthew looked up from his book and watched as his mother entered his room. He put his book down as he prepared to listen to all she had to say.

~~~

Miss Stacy hushed the children as she shared some fullscap white paper sheets to each of them. “Now I want you to put your heads on your desks and close your eyes as I write the questions on the board, am I understood?” she said as she opened her lesson note. She had written all the test questions there as that was part of the regulations of the school.

The children all put their heads on their desk amidst giggling and whispers. Miss Stacy had made sure she arranged their chairs and desks with adequate spaces in between them. When she was sure they had all put their heads on their tables, she wrote ‘English Test’ in bold letters on the board and then proceeded to write the questions.

“Miss Stacy, Edgar is not closing his eyes,” Susan yelled from her seat. Miss Stacy looked back and hurriedly picked up a cane that was close to her.

“How did you know he wasn’t closing his eyes Susie?” she asked. Susan kept mute. “I’ll whack anybody that opens their eyes again, do you hear me?” she asked as she waved the cane at the pupils.

“Yes ma,” they chorused. She nodded satisfactorily and continued writing on the board. She started with comprehension questions before moving on to grammar and lexis and structure. Apart from English Language tests, they also had Moral Studies and Verbal Reasoning that day and she didn’t want them to waste any time.

“Alright, raise your heads up now and start writing your English test,” she said as she walked back to her seat. The students all raised their heads and ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ rented up in the air. Miss Stacy shushed them up quickly, she didn’t want it to be said that she couldn’t handle the third grade class.

She watched them as they began to write and monitored them to make sure no one was cheating or whispering answers. She then brought out their scripts of yesterday and arranged it on her table according to the subjects, just as Mr. Matthew had advised her to do. The previous day, they had done Basic Science, Home Economics and Quantitative Aptitudes tests, so her table was heaped with lots of test scripts that needed marking. She smiled as she picked up a script to start marking. “Mr. Matthew was right to tell me to begin marking early,” she thought as she began to see the reason Mr. Matthew had told her not to heap it all up, waiting to mark it on the last day. It would have been too tedious and strenuous. She wondered how he might be doing at that moment.

She felt pity for him on remembering how he had to follow some older women advice in what didn’t concern them. She wished she could help him but sighed when she remembered that she too had problems at home.

~~~

Mr. Matthew took a deep breath as he parked his car in front of a big eatery. His mother had managed to talk him into going on with one of Mrs. Lupita’s plans again. “Alright, but please after this, I want to be left alone to find whoever I would marry, please, I'm twenty five years old, I believe I'm entitled to this right without anyone’s intervention,” he said as he changed the car’s gears to parking.

Mrs. Lupita and his mother both nodded and gave him a reassuring smile. Mr. Matthew then walked out of his car and shut the front door gently behind him before walking into the eatery to carry out Mrs. Lupita’s third plan.

Mrs. Lupita picked up her phone and dialed a number. “It’s time, he’s in place,” she said and hung up on the call.

Mr. Matthew came out of the eatery moments later carrying a bottle of Coca-Cola in his hand. He walked towards the road which was in the opposite direction of his parked car. He saw the woman who was involved in Mrs. Lupita’s plan; she had made her researches about her, Miss Wendy Butterlily, before coming to Mr. Matthew’s house that morning. She stood by the side of the road making a phone call.

As he was getting to her side, a man wearing a grey oversized hoodie and black jeans snatched her purse and began to run away.

“Help! Thief!” she yelled. Mr. Matthew gave her his Coca-Cola drink to hold for him and then started chasing the thief.

Some people also tried to chase the thief but he managed to slip them by taking turns and corners. Mr. Matthew later reached the drop-off point panting a little bit. The man in the grey oversized hoodie was there already. He handed the purse to Mr. Matthew and then opened his palms for his reward. He had been promised a fixed amount of cash if he could pull off that stunt successfully.

“Oh, yeah,” Mr. Matthew said as he reached into his pocket and brought out a little bundle of money which was rolled up neatly. He then dropped it in the man’s palm and the man took off immediately in another direction. Mr. Matthew then started heading back to where Miss Wendy was, unaware of the dark figure that stood at a far distance watching the whole scenario unfold.

He reached Miss Wendy in no time. “Here you go,” he said as he handed her purse back to her. She thanked him and told the police officers who she had been reporting the issue to not to worry again. They looked at Mr. Matthew which made him feel uneasy before walking away.

Mr. Matthew felt relieved when the policemen left. “Thieves, right?” he said as he smiled. She smiled in return.

“Uhm, do not be offended, but I took a few sips from your drink when you went, I was very thirsty,” she said as she smiled some more, hoping Mr. Matthew would not take offence. Mr. Matthew smiled, the plan was working. From Mrs. Lupita’s researches, she had found out that Miss Wendy loved Coca-Cola so much, and they knew she would take a sip out of Mr. Matthew’s drink, causing both of them to go back to the eatery to get more.

“Ah, it’s alright, I guess you like Coke so much?” Mr. Matthew asked her. She nodded.

“I love it, like a lot, it’s just me and coke back at home,” she said and laughed gently. Mr. Matthew laughed also.

“I'm Matthew Bale,” he smiled as he started, “and you must be, hmm, Tina? No, no. Trisha? Nah, you definitely look like a Wendy,” he finally said.

She gasped as she used her hands to cover her mouth. She looked at him surprised. “Oh my gosh! You are a genius! How on earth could you have just guessed that and gotten it right? Yes I'm Wendy, Wendy Butterlily,” she said delightedly.

Mr. Matthew smiled. “So, Wendy, I was thinking if we could get more Cokes cos I'm getting thirsty as well, there’s an eatery back there where they sell soft drinks,” he said as he pointed towards the eatery.

“Why, yes of course,” she said as she and Mr. Matthew both walked towards the eatery. Miss Lupita and Mrs. Grace both burst out for joy as they saw Mr. Matthew and Miss Wendy walk into the restaurant taking happily.

“I knew this plan would work, yes I did,” Mrs. Lupita said to herself happily. Mrs. Grace looked up and thanked God that the plan worked. She was beginning to think it wouldn’t.

Thirty minutes later, Mr. Matthew walked out with Miss Wendy; they were both carrying white grocery bags. They talked for a little while before they finally said their byes. Mr. Matthew watched as Miss Wendy walked away before coming to his car.

He dumped the grocery bag in the back seat beside Mrs. Lupita and entered the driver’s seat smiling. His mother and Mrs. Lupita both pat his shoulder when he entered.

“Well, looks like your plan worked this time Mrs. Lupita, I also managed to get Miss Wendy’s phone number and house address,” Mr. Matthew said as he started the car’s engines.

A policeman walked towards his car quickly and told him to stop. “Young man, please step out of the car, gently,” the policeman said. Mr. Matthew paused before opening the car door and stepping out.

“There’s nothing to worry about officer, I have my license and my documents here,” he said as he turned to bring out the papers which were kept beside the car door.

“It’s not that, there’s this young woman here, she has some accusations against you young man, come with me,” the police officer said. Mr. Matthew gulped when he heard accusations. “What is this officer talking about?” he thought to himself as he slowly followed the policeman to the police car which was parked behind his.

Another policeman was there talking to a woman, a woman who Mr. Matthew recognized quickly. It was that same woman from the library, the one he had also met at the birthday party after he tried to woo Miss Ivie. He frowned. “What could she possibly want here?” he thought to himself.