by I. Izegbuwa
‘Things got so busy around here, I just had to bring someone in,’ Tara explained. ‘I put up a vacancy announcement and got fifty responses in all. Helen seemed to be the most competent of the lot.’
‘Well, I guess we would have had to hire an extra hand eventually,’ Imade replied unsurely.
Tara nodded. ‘Helen is an angel. Her coming has really eased the workload.’ She leaned forward and whispered mischievously. ‘I can tell you that I’m not the only who’s happy to have her here. Gaius, the admin manager next door, seems to like her a lot. I’m just afraid she might not stay. The pay is small and she’s ambitious. I overhead her telling Gaius that this job was a stepping stone to something bigger.’
‘What about you?’ Imade asked, feeling more concerned for Tara than Helen. The few weeks she had been away made it clear how wonderful Tara was at Pro-Touch. It would be good to have her around over the long term. ‘Are you planning to stay?’
Tara was silent for a minute. She came to Pro-Touch with her own agenda, but God caught her in the process. ‘Come,’ the preacher called out, at the last Sunday service. The conviction was so strong, she couldn’t hold back.
‘Something happened while you were away,’ she said, suddenly overcome with emotion. ‘I became a woman of like precious faith with you.’
It was the best news Imade had heard in a long time. ‘I knew it,’ she exclaimed, reaching out to hug her. ‘I knew God wanted to touch you. I just didn’t know when or how.’
Tara nodded. ‘He definitely touched me,’ she replied. ‘And of course, I’d like to stay with Pro-Touch.’
‘Good. We’ll review your commission arrangement. It’s time we put you on a regular salary. I think you deserve it.’
~~~~
Helen, the new hire at Pro-Touch, came into the office early in the morning with an unexpected announcement. She dropped her bag on the table and without bothering to sign in, went over to Tara.
‘May I speak with you for a minute?’ she asked. She had barely rested her back on the chair when she burst into tears. Tara was taken aback. She got up from where she sat and went towards her.
‘Helen!’ she exclaimed. ‘What is it? What is wrong?’
Helen related how she had just received a call from her home town. Her mother was sick and had sent for her. Tara squeezed her hand comfortingly and handed the sobbing girl the roll of tissue paper on her desk.
‘I’m sorry about this, madam.’ Helen said with a sniffle. ‘I know it’s a busy week but I don’t know what else to do.’
It was true. It was early December and Pro-Touch had never been so busy. Numerous end-of-year activities were taking place all over town and their services were fully booked for the week. They needed as many hands as they could muster. Tara hadn’t anticipated that Helen would be called away so suddenly. At the risk of sounding insensitive, she tried to persuade her not to leave at once.
‘Is it very serious?’ she asked. ‘Could you delay your trip for a few days, just until we’ve cleared out our events for this week?’
Helen shook her head. From the news she received, her mother was in a very bad shape. She feared that if she didn’t hurry home immediately she might be too late.
Tara nodded. ‘I understand. Of course you must go. You must leave at once.’
She reached for her bag and searched through it. There wasn’t much cash in it, but she gathered all the money she could find, put it into an envelope and handed it to Helen. She would have to borrow some money to get home when Imade came in later that day.
‘It’s not much,’ she said. ‘But it should cover your transportation needs, and you should have a little left over to buy drugs for her if necessary.’
Helen thanked her and went to tidy her desk. She arranged the documents that belonged to Pro-Touch on the table and packed her personal items into a bag. It didn’t take her long to set everything in order and within an hour, she was ready to go.
‘I shouldn’t be away too long,’ she said, pausing at the entrance of the door. ‘I hope everything returns to normal as soon as possible and then I’ll be back in the office in no time.’
‘No problem. Take good care of your mother and give her my regards.’
By the time Imade arrived at the office, Helen had left. Tara explained to her about the emergency. ‘What do I do now?’ she lamented. ‘We have two events coming up the day after tomorrow. Helen was supposed to oversee one while I handled the other. You have a meeting that day with a potential client. We might have to cancel some of the events.’
‘And ruin our reputation?’ Imade asked. ‘Impossible! I’ll see to Helen’s job. I guess I’ll just have to put my own meeting on hold, after all, a bird in hand in worth two in the bush.’
~~~~
It was a week since Helen travelled home. Her phone remained switched off and no one had heard from her. Imade was worried. They were hoping she would call to let them know how she and her mother were doing, but up till now they hadn’t received any news.
‘I hope she made it safely and everything is alright,’ she told Tara. ‘I can’t imagine why she didn’t send us any message.’
The office phone rang as they were discussing and Imade answered it. ‘That might be her right now,’ she said hopefully.
It wasn’t Helen, but Habiba, a fast rising music artiste and one of their most recent customers. Pro-Touch had just handled the launch of her new album. She was calling to tell them how impressed she was with their services. It was the event Helen was to have overseen, but Imade had jumped in at short notice when she was called away.
‘My guests had the time of their lives,’ Habiba said proudly. Imade smiled, thankful that her last minute intervention had worked out well, adding to her growing list of satisfied customers.
‘I’ve made the balance payment into your account.’ Habiba concluded, beaming as she spoke through the phone.
Imade wasn’t aware that any such payment had been made, so Habiba offered to fax a copy of the teller. When she picked up the faxed teller from Uncle Marcus’ office, Imade noticed that both the account name and number to which the payment had been made were incorrect.
‘Habiba sent in the wrong teller,’ she told Tara. ‘Could you call her back to let her know?’
Tara took a look at the teller and immediately knew what was wrong. ‘This payment was made out to Helen,’ she pointed out. ‘That’s her middle name right there. She must have asked Habiba to pay the money into her account.’
‘Why would she do that?’ Imade asked. ‘She never mentioned that she collected any payments.’
Tara scratched her forehead. ‘I better do some double checks.’
She called the second client, whose event she had handled the same day as Habiba’s. The gentleman was surprised when Tara asked about his payment. ‘Helen has already been here to collect the cash,’ he explained. ‘I have the receipt she issued to me right here.’
Tara swallowed hard. She thanked him and hurriedly dropped the line. ‘Something is fishy,’ she said, turning to Imade. ‘It seems money has been changing hands without our knowledge.’
They tried to make sense of it all. Maybe it was the trauma of her mother’s ill health that made Helen so forgetful. The phone rang again. The woman on the line introduced herself, but neither Imade nor Tara could recall her name. Unlike Habiba, this client wasn’t happy.
‘What’s going on?’ she demanded. ‘My luncheon starts by 12 noon. You promised to complete the decorations overnight. I get to the events center this morning and the whole place is bare.’
‘Madam,’ Imade replied, extremely confused. ‘Please calm down. I don’t have the slightest idea what you’re talking about.’
The woman exhaled heavily into the phone. ‘Helen was here with me yesterday. She promised to have the hall ready when I came in this morning.’
Helen again! Imade couldn’t believe what she was hearing. ‘Did you say she was there with you yesterday?’
‘Yes, and she demanded full payment for your services. It was against my better judgment, but I obliged her and now nothing has been done.’
Imade opened and closed her mouth repeatedly. She wanted to say something but no words came out.
‘You better get down here and perform a miracle,’ the woman snapped. ‘I want this place transformed in the next three hours.’
The line went dead before Imade found her voice again. ‘Tara, what on earth is going on?’ she demanded.
‘I’m just as lost as you are,’ a distraught Tara replied.
‘The lady said Helen was with her yesterday. That girl didn’t travel anywhere. She’s in town and she’s duping us right under our noses!’
Tara stared at her, lost for words. ‘We must find her,’ Imade said, grabbing her purse and rushing to the door. ‘I’ll go and see this woman immediately. Find her Tara, before she does any more damage.’
CHAPTER NINE
The taxi driver took Tara into the central environs of Ikeja. They asked for directions from two pedestrians along the way before turning into a bumpy dirt road with a dangling street sign that read ‘Shaibu Street’. The street was littered with run down kiosks that looked ready to collapse from the slightest impact. There were one or two residential buildings with the paint peeling off the walls from years of neglect. The driver stopped in front of a grey building beside a mallam’s kiosk and parked the taxi at the side of the road.
‘What did you come here to find?’ he asked, looking around. ‘Dis side of town, very dangerous!’
‘But its broad daylight,’ Tara responded.
‘Ehn, but dis area; full of hooligans!’ he added. ‘Dey pick your pocket, dey throw things at you.’
Tara exhaled, not sure if that was what she needed to hear right now. She just needed to find Helen and get out of there quickly. Pulling out some money from her purse, she paid him for his services and got down, but turned round on second thoughts, his remarks still fresh in her ears.
‘Could you wait for me?’ she asked him. ‘I won’t be too long. You will take me back to the office.’
‘Aunty, hurry up o!’ he warned.
‘Okay, okay. I said I won’t be long.’
She entered the building. It had a row of flats on either side of the dark narrow corridor arranged in a ‘Face me, I face you style’. The left row had the odd-numbered flats while the right row was marked with even numbers. She strolled on until she got to the door marked Number 4. She rapped on the door with her knuckles and waited. When there was no reply, she knocked again and leaned towards the closed door to listen for any movements that might shows signs of life inside the flat. After a few seconds, she heard someone coming and inhaled deeply, expecting to see Helen at the other end to the door.
An elderly woman opened the door, holding a tray of black-eyed red beans. It was obvious she was getting ready to prepare a meal. She was slightly bent over and her two front teeth were missing. She had only a patterned wrapper tied under her armpit which she adjusted with her free hand as she surveyed Tara.
‘Good evening ma’ Tara greeted and curtsied slightly.
‘Hm. Ow ah you?’ the woman replied, her words mumbled.
‘I am fine. Ma, I am looking for Helen.’
‘Ehn? E-leen?’
‘Yes. A lady named Helen. I believe she lives here, at number 4.’
‘Dis iz nomba 4’ the woman affirmed ‘E- leen?’
A young man came out of the opposite apartment, marked number 3 and locked his door. He heard the two women struggling to communicate with one another and came to the rescue.
‘Are you looking for someone?’ he asked.
‘Yes sir. I am trying to find a young lady. Her name is Helen. She said this is where she lives.’
The man turned to the old woman who had placed the tray of beans on a nearby stool beside the door and was waiting to understand the mission of her visitor.
‘Mama,’ he addressed her in a native tongue ‘She says she is looking for one Helen.’
They spoke for about two minutes in a language Tara did not understand then the young man turned to face her.
‘There is no one here by that name.’
‘This is Plot 16 Shaibu Street right?’ Tara asked ‘The lady I am looking for is fair in complexion, a little shorter than I am but slightly chubby. She had on some curly braids the last time I saw her.’
The man shook his head slowly, looking pensive. ‘There is no one in this building that fits that description. Mama lives in this flat with her two grandsons who are both in secondary school. There is no young lady. Maybe you could try the next building.’
Tara thanked him. She curtsied once more to the old woman and bade her goodbye. The second building was directly across the road from the one she had just exited. It was similar to the first one but looked slightly older. Towards the opposite end of the corridor, three guys stood together, talking loudly amongst themselves and smoking cigarettes. They looked young; in their late teenage years. She observed them for a minute and instinctively clutched her bag closer to her. If they were residents here, it would be easier to ask for their help rather than knocking randomly on another stranger’s door. But if they were among the gang of pickpockets the driver spoke about, she wouldn’t want to get close. Two girls walked by carrying buckets of water on their heads, and the boys began whistling and making catcalls to them until they slipped into one of the flats. Tara took advantage of the distraction to barge into their conversation. She walked quickly to the boys hoping they would not start whistling at her as well. They saw her approaching and quieted down. She stated her mission. The boys seemed eager to help.
‘But you have to drop something first,’ they told her.
‘Drop what?’
‘You know now, you drop something for us, we find Helen for you.’
‘Oh, is that the way it works around here? Do you even know the Helen I am talking about?’
‘You say she is fair and a bit fat?’ the oldest of the boys asked, puffing smoke into her face. Tara coughed and nodded in affirmation.
‘It must be Chime’s sister,’ he said. ‘They live at flat 6.’
Helen had indicated flat 4 on her resume, but Tara was hopeful. The boys seemed to know somebody’s sister who fitted her description.
‘It is Chime’s sister’ the oldest boy repeated again. ‘Give us something and we will go and call her.’
Tara sighed. This mission was costing her more than she anticipated. As she opened her purse, one of the boys inched closer to try and see exactly how much she had. Tara used one hand to shield the contents from him, stepping back slightly as she did so. She brought out a note and gave it to him.
‘Add to it,’ he instructed.
Impatiently, she shook her head. ‘That’s all I can afford,’ she said. ‘Please find Helen for me.’
He shoved the note into his pocket and nudged the youngest boy who dashed out immediately. Tara moved aside to allow the other two guys continue their conversation while she waited. She paced up and down the length of the corridor impatiently.
Moments later, she heard voices and the sound of footsteps approaching. The teenage boy was returning and bringing a lady with him. He came in through the door and rejoined his friends. Tara looked past the fair skinned, chubby young lady who came in after him as she braced herself for a confrontation. Helen had better have a good reason for doing what she had done and even if her explanation was plausible, Tara would still have some strong words for her. The lady came up to her.
‘They say you are finding me,’ she said to her in broken English.
‘No, no. It’s not you.’ Tara replied in exasperation
‘This is not your Helen?’ the boy who had brought her asked.
‘No! I am looking for someone else. Isn’t there any other Helen here?’ she motioned to the girl. ‘Another lady, she is a bit older than you?’
The girl shook her head much to Tara�
�s disappointment. The boys had seemed so sure of themselves. The youngest of the boys apologized to the girl for bringing her all that way for nothing, she shrugged in return.
‘So is that it?’ Tara cut in, as the boys began teasing the girl who seemed in no hurry to return back to where they had fetched her from.
‘We thought you meant Chime’s sister,’ the oldest boy explained.
‘So where is my money?’
‘Which money?’
‘The money I gave you, you didn’t find the person I am looking for.’
He snickered. ‘Aunty, that money is gone o! We found one Helen for you, you said no. If you want us to find anoda Helen, you drop anoda money!’
Tara stared at him. These boys must be high on something, she concluded. She had better leave before those cigarettes made them crazier. It was three against one and this was their turf. With a shake of her head, she hurried outside the building and stood on the sidewalk, contemplating what to do next. She didn’t want to go back and tell Imade she hadn’t been able to locate Helen. From the side of the road, the taxi driver began honking impatiently and threatened to drive off and leave her in this foreboding alley if she did not hurry up.
‘Wait, please,’ she tried to plead with him.
‘Wait for what?’ he thundered. ‘I will leave you o!’
‘Go, then!’ Tara fired back. She was irritated. What was wrong with him anyway? Wasn’t it customers like her who paid for his daily bread?
The driver shouted some invectives at her for wasting his time, turned around and sped off, his screeching tires sending clouds of dust into the air. Tara stood alone on the sidewalk and looked around in frustration. What a day it had been! And where on earth was Helen?
Honestly, I am going to kill this girl when I find her, she thought to herself. For what she is putting me through!
~~~~
The persistent ticking of the clock was a harsh reminder of the impending humiliation which the celebrant would face when her guests arrived. As soon as Imade got to the events center, she was confronted by a furious woman who gave her a piece of her mind, letting her know that she didn’t take kindly to being neglected this way. She shoved a sheet of paper into Imade’s hands. It was a Pro-Touch receipt which confirmed that payment had been made for their services. The handwriting was unmistakably Helen’s. Imade looked around and knew there wasn’t much she could do before the party started. The hall was quite large and she didn’t have her decoration materials with her. Besides, it would be practically impossible to get across to the workers she usually hired on a part time basis to do the decorating. They wouldn’t make it to the venue before noon. She tried her best to maintain her composure.