The Same Central Apple

Mr. Charlie B as he was known by the village kids is sixty-one. His mother was eighty-five. The story surrounding that man is high and deep at the same time. Too many versions even though they retain that greater element of central sameness that give It validity. The central message in it was that the man with a son behaving like a sorry version of him was once a near priest. Nearly?

The story about the guy goes this way. He was raised by his now eighty-five years old mother alongside two other elder sisters. His father died when he was a year and three months old. Being the baby of the family that replaced his dead father in the eyes of his mother and sisters, he was spoiled to the hilt by them. No male influence his father would have assured. He was what they called Mama’s boy. 

   If you want verbal and physical war and find no opponent, just go pick on Charlie B and see your formidable opponent in his mother and her two daughters. They would come after you with all they have and they always have enough in that regard in those days in that interior villages of Umuntu land.

Charlie B grew up among girls and had few male friends he sees only in streams and schools. Other times was in the midst of their mother and sisters that didn't want him out of their sight in the name of security as if they were capable of preventing calamity from descending on him if the mad gods remembered him.

He plays their games, cooks like them, eats like them, makes a noise like them, laughs like them, and first-class gossip like them. Religious pass time in the village among women is nothing but gossip and that was what Charlie B is exposed to by the females surrounding him as he grows. He knew not well any other thing outside gossip he sees nothing wrong with but as an instrument to pass through each day. He is delighted by them. The guys he found himself in their midst at that young age can't tell A from B as far as good behavior goes. So, they see nothing wrong from what Charlie B always brings to the table once in their midst. That is the subject he has. Not hunting, not excursions into others farms, not soccer or fishing. No. Latest happenings in others families, businesses and marriages.

After primary school in the village church school and the priest there in their characteristics way of catching them young in vogue then, had tricked almost all the boys and their families that passed through that school into filling seminary school forms and when result came out, almost seventy percent of the mothers objected to their sons becoming a priest. Male boys are scarce commodities then and inasmuch as all of them want to sacrifice to God what they can, cocoa yams and yams is enough not their sons that will continue the family lineage. 

Many were brainwashed into believing that it is just to train them to be a better citizen and that they can drop out at any time or after schooling. “Charlie is all I have. His father died early. I just don’t want him to be a priest. Who will take care of our family?”

The mother had sobbed to the priest. But she was assured that the church is there to train him and others for the family and afterward he can get a good job and get married. The priest had assured her and those with her. Charlie B found himself in seminary school with rules more stringent than any he had encountered in his young life and for the first time, away from the influence of the females that formed Jericho’s wall around him since birth.

“You are all welcomed to the Holy Innocent Seminary school. We are happy to have many of you enroll in large numbers this year, the second highest in the history of this great institution. I am sure that Father Emma has oriented you well in the dos and don'ts of the institution and that is what your first Bible is. I am believing that he told you also that your foundation here for anything is anchored in the Holy Bible. This regulation is your first version. If you can't keep the simple rule of man, you can't follow that of God and when you can’t in both which the first will indicate to us, you rush out in seven ways even though you came in through one. Do I make myself clear?”

A chorus of “Yes” Superior echoed in the hall.

Back in their dorm after each day’s orientation of one thing or the other, the new intakes were exhausted from sitting and listening and falling in lines while going and coming like soldiers who have little time to rest and digest it all but our dear Charlie B sees that little space of time as gossiping time to the annoyance of few that needed quiet time. He saw what others didn’t see in the same hall they all came back from, and read negative meaning into everything said and unsaid. See fault in food, serve them and hungered for normal carbohydrates his system is used to. “Why feed us leave mainly, are we goats or what?” smirking from a few trying not to be rude to him and afraid to laugh out of fear of punishment instead of warning him off, encouraged him each day as his gossiping cum Joking time expands.

Most of the stringent regulations centered on watching TV and programs to watch and when. Reading books in the dormitory library and how to behave. Our Charlie is gaining a reputation as a jester for his gossiping has evolved into indirect ratting on others in public and calling it a joke, not gossip. From whatever his eyes see coming out of his mouth among his fellow junior seminarians to senior ones and from there to management. In his second year, Charles turned into the full-time Informant to the school authority who believes In having a willing eyes on the ground among the students for cameras mounted here and there isn't doing the work well. No security gadget can beat the human brain as of today, not even these Ai generating hell of noises these days. Nature on the ground does the work far better.

Among the teachers, Charles is gaining notoriety too. He seems to be envious as some teachers see it. He always complains about his marks after each test once some people got higher marks than him. That behavior wasn’t lost on some teachers and students. But the management and disciplinary committee have an explanation based on science for their complaints. 

But students are better judges of themselves than teachers. Many never wasted time in distancing themselves from Charles for security reasons.

They believe that many that were dismissed have Charles’s signature on them. Even senior students with few years to get to their destination were dismissed after being ratted on by Charles and when he goes to do those damages is confusing to many that are doubting if he was the one doing those damages and murdering as students termed it. That notwithstanding, he was without real friends throughout his stay in the school. Borrowing things from others was almost non-existent. They Nicknamed him Grand Mullah without beards. A terrorist of Taliban standing. That never dampens his gossiping and laughing that is his second nature.

 He was there to learn the ways of Christ and can quit at any time. He knew that from day one but certain groups have their auras that once tested is hard to surrender. That was where our Charlie B found himself. He wanted to eat that cake for too much respect he never experienced before. So, he started seeking a way to eat it and have it at the same time.

In his senior apostolic work days, he had fallen smitten to pieces with a reverend Sister he met in the church he was serving in, the sister had returned home for a few weeks to stay with his family, and he had tried to penetrate her but the sister has her sight set firmly upward, annoyed, he decided to try the reverend sister’s younger sister. They never see anything wrong with his gossip, crude jokes, and wandering eyes and hands. His history didn’t follow him to apostolic works but his karma did.

Months after besieging the Reverend Sisters’ younger sister, she became pregnant and our Charlie B was overjoyed and the girl over sad. She contemplated abortion but Charles quoted two verses against it in the bible and instead made arrangements for the girl to go to another region until she gave birth and a motherless baby home to deliver the baby was arranged by him too. 

His plan was for the girl to hand over the baby and when he becomes a priest in a year plus, he will go and adopt the same baby as the Good Samaritan and send him back home to live with his mother and continue their lineage. Excess respect and prestige he never knew existed he found in being a priest. Some of his mates prayed for his dismissal, he wanted to laugh in their faces. Killing two birds with a stone. He found himself invincible. 

But karma was more intelligent how what he believed to be a wonderful plot done under the covers of darkness and watertight was brought to light beats the fuck out of him and fear set in. Who is doing the ratting on him?

Who was following him around with Kodak?

Who is following the girl around with Kodak?

Who has this patience for eleven months and covers two regions of the country following two people around at the same time with Kodak?

On receiving the summon to appear in the reactor's office one cool morning, he never anticipated what hit him once he put his head in the door and viewed the semi-crowd there and their faces, mostly those from the disciplinary committee. He knew immediately there is no peace in there but his invincibility has gotten to a challenging point. He forced himself to stare at those eyeing him with visible disdain eyeball to eyeball but was making bad moves of that.

“ Mr. Charles lgboka” the manner the mister was pronounced compounded his fear. Nothing religious in it. Too earthly in fact, too interior that his mind did a somersault. His village flashed vision-like and faded. He wonders if others in the room saw it too.

 He was jolted back to the present when he heard a noise different from the one that had been talking even though he never heard or understood a word. He eyed the Manila envelope dropped in front of him and saw all red eyes scrutinizing him. 

He was eyeing the envelope and eyeing those in front of him. His mouth was too dry to make a sound. The reactor indicated the envelope and asked him to explain that.

“Explain w… what?” he managed to utter.

“Please we have other important things to do today. Open that and tell us your part”

He picked up the envelope still defiant and eyeing them back. The first image was of him on top of the girl holding her two legs up while pumping with her eyes closed. His hands started shaking as he went through a few of the pictures and his brain registered nothing anymore from the fourth pics. 

“Tell us your part and hurry that up” 

He started to stammer and can not even hear himself. "M...My lips are sealed" " Unseal it and hurry it" he continued to mope. When the reactor pressed the button on his table to summon five security guys, he never knew. It was when ten hands started pulling him roughly up from the seat that he realized he wouldn't be seeing those faces anymore, at least in that office in his capacity.