Court hearing
The weather at the court looked different, likely changeable. The wind sent wetness across ears, really working hard to lessen the innumerable murmuring of the crowd. Opula stood by the boot of her cab, watching the arrival of the judge, before the grand jury and then a black Range Rover SUV. Nku was the first to alight from the SUV. He was neatly dressed in Armani Track top and then Sen. Madu and his voluptuous wife amidst security lit up fire in their French suit. The journalists she thought weren’t around, quickly sprang up from no-whereand came at them with their recorders and flashes of camera. The security personnel wedged them back while the three of them hurriedly walked into the hall. She started gathering her files and outfit in the cab. She held her heart, wishing it could stop pumping up pools of anxiety.
“Even if the one you love doesn’t care about you love her until your feeling becomes her fun,” Azuaka said very close to Opula’s right ear.
She was so lost in her thoughts that she barely could notice the arrival of his truck from within. “Oh thank you, Az,” she said and hugged him. “I can always count on you.”
“It’s ok, you haven’t won yet. I got all you need. In my truck are junk foods, and drinks and these two armed police men will watch our back and take our bullets if need be. My crew are at the media home, ready to publish today’s story,” he said and one of the police stayed at the truck while the other followed them.
Opula shared a menacing stare among them; from Nku to Sen. Madu and his wife, Aku. She wondered why smile was etched on Sen. Madu’s face and irritatingly he kept whispering into every ear around him; mostly his entourage. With her poked mouth, she counted the jury. They were about ten in number, uniformly peering through eye glasses that dropped on the bridge of their nose. Her heart started pounding her confidence down to her stomach. She could feel the belly movement of a young lawyer whose first appearance at a crowded court was for the only man she ever knew. Quietness swept across the murmuring crowd when the bailiff stood up to announce the first hearing.
“Next is the case of sexual abuse between Sen. Madu and Mrs. Opula!”
Opula was startled. She frowned as she fought the judge and jury with her stare. It should have been ‘…case of sexual abuse between Sen. Madu and Nku.She wondered why they masked Nku. She could feel her knees parting her laps as the overpowering stench of rotten justice troubled her breath.
Right in the hall the knocking oxford of a chubby lawyer dressed in his gown and wig caught the attention of everyone. He was the last person to enter the hall and such was an end to a murmuring crowd.
Azuaka drew closer to Opula. “Heh, if that guy is his lawyer forget it. You’re losing this case. He is the best thing that has ever happened to law in Lagos. His audacity has retired many lawyers,” he said to Opula who kept quiet, trying to lock eyes with Nku whose face looked whack.
The judge availed Sen. Madu’s counsel to open the floor. Then the chubby lawyer walked out, whirling around and staring at the crowd as though they were his choir.
“Without wasting much of your time, my Lord, I would love to quickly get the coin from the mouth of the fish. Let me invite the victim of the so-called sexual abuse to affirm if he was really abused.”
Nku walked out and mounted the podium. He stared at Opula and fought at her piteous stare. But he had told her it was over the moment she saw the patches of blood in his buttocks, prophesied his love for Sen. Madu and sneaked out of the hospital, not even her Jericho wall would make him change his mind. He stared at Sen. Madu and his heart leapt for marriage, that very day their bone and flesh would lose its mark of individuality.
“I was never abused! I have been the humble cook of Senator Madu and his wife,Aku Madu! He never for one day touched me!” Nku’s voice sliced into Opula’s heart and calmed Sen. Madu’s.
Opula’s eyes were welled up with tears as she walked out of the murmuring crowd with her head crouched. Azuaka stayed back. He would not want Sen. Madu to spot him with Opula and serve him death for dinner. He kept ducking in the crowd until the jury reached the verdict which really hit him hard. He wouldn’t need to convey to Opula that Sen. Madu escaped the verdict of guilt. Legal Daily would do it better.