I felt a chill running down my spine as I thought of what he could have hid from us.
He was responsible for Azim's disappearance?
One of those seven men was his relative?
He and Jumai were sisters?
I was confused, hoping for an answer.
Now, I could feel Sally's curvy waist rubbing against my hand.
I ain't gonna lie, that felt good.
Yeah.
But I had something else on my mind.
So did she.
Adewale's "secret".
Jumai, speaking for the first time that day, said that he had told her was it was earlier.
Of course, he did.
Those two were "two" close.
"I stole Azim's head."
Of all the crazy and non-PG stuff I was expecting, this wasn't it.
But bro, what the hell?
You stole someone's what?
We all stared at him, flabbergasted.
Oh, I love that word!
Our looks were demanding an explanation.
"When we walked into the room and you all were in shock after seeing his bodiless head, I also was surprised but didn't believe it so I decided to squeeze the head."
We looked so traumatized I could only imagine Jumai's reaction when he had told her earlier.
"So when you were all distracted by your long and blue faces, I touched the head in and held it in both of my hands. Then..."
"Then what?" Sally asked impatiently.
"...the seven men appeared." Adewale said, looking quite embarrassed.
Sally and Tochukwu looked so surprised but I had only one question on my mind.
"Then how did you steal the head? Is it with you now?"
Jumai retreated to a cupboard where Adewale kept all his sharp objects like blades, knives, scissors and his shaving...never mind that.
She opened it and after rummaging around for a while, she brought out an orange coloured bag and tossed it to him.
He frantically zipped it open and showed us the head.
It was inside the bag and it looks lifeless and kinda bloody.
Sally and T-boy shrieked in horror but I was quite emotional.
Why?
Thatwas probably the last piece of Azim anywhere in the world.
I felt myself praying and wishing that Allah would bring him back.
I was so in pain.
Everyone looked quite sympathetic and sad seeing my face except for Adewale who looked even guiltier than Diddy.
After a while, we had all calmed down and Adewale headed towards the kitchen to cook some rice.
We ate and relaxed for a while.
While doing so, Sally mistakenly rested her head on my shoulder.
My brain went off.
While eating, I noticed Adewale and Jumai eating from the same plate.
This display of affection made me wonder how many times Jumai came to visit Adewale and what they did together when that happened.
I wasn't bothered or oppressed. I had never been a ladies man like Azim.
He was notorious for bagging baddies and I was notorious for being friendzoned.
But when I had that crazy growth spurt in the last year of junior high, I entered senior high four inches taller and with much less face fat, people said the story had changed.
But I didn't believe.
I don't know why, I just didn't believe them.
But then, Sally was staring at them with envy.
I was amused.
Sally could ask almost any guy out and he would accept without thinking or breathing.
After all, ninety percent of males at school were crushing on her. (ninety itself is a moderate estimate)
I am also talking about juniors, teachers and even the non-teaching staff as well.
Crazy.
Like why would the gateman be crushing on a school girl one third of his age?
It's something, I tell you.
But Tochukwu seemed to have forgotten how to eat rice because this nigga was using a knife and fork.
Oh Lord!
What seventeenth century English movie had he been watching?
Queen Romeo and Elizabeth?
After we were done with all that, I raised another question.
"Why were you insisting on calling the police when you know you could be in trouble for being in possession of that head."
Adewale looked embarrassed
"Because he was scared, okay Kazim?" Jumai said, holding his hands.
"He knows what he did was wrong but he wants to rectify it, okay?"
Tochukwu looked tearful.
I was sure it was tears of hunger.
As Jumai continued to justify Adewale's headnapping, i was just amused.
The same way who was preaching about logic just did something extremely "illogical."
I still don't know if that is a word.
"So what's our next move then?"
Sally's question made us all stare at each other with meditatively.
"Lie low." Jumai said. "I and Adewale will figure something out."
Now, I also hated this idea.
Who did they think they were?
The main characters in some sci-fi movie?
Tochukwu voiced out my next thought.
"What about the head? What would happen to it?"
Jumai and Adewale exchanged looks of alarm.
"I will keep it here for a while. After we figure all of this out,we could use it for Azim's burial. Only us in attendance " they concluded.
That sounded like a pretty good idea.
I wondered why my 1G brain didn't think about that.
It was a good idea but...
It posed a lot of problems.
What if the police inspected Adewale's house?
That time, it wasn't unusual for the police to unceremoniously inspect someone's else.
Sounds weird but it was because of someone posted a particular video on W (sorry, I mean X) about bombing the area and even showing the bombs.
When I heard the news, I was like: why would anyone want to bomb this area? This isn't Bombay. Ha ha ha.
Other questions were quite disturbing but I won't reveal just yet.
You can probably guess them.
So we left Adewale's apartment (leaving Jumai behind. sus as hell.) with heavy hearts and our minds focusing on what Jumai and Adewale might cook up.