Chapter 3
Two more weeks passed, before Bewaji heard anything from Seun. Actually, they texted back and forth during that period, but there were no phone calls. When Seun finally called, he had a good explanation forthcoming.
At some point, according to Seun, it seemed like Connie was no longer interested in finding out who her mystery lover was. She refused to address the issue whenever Seun brought it up, and had even begun to avoid him at work. Seun had decided to back off, pending the time when Connie would be ready - if ever - to commence the investigation. So, they all waited. They did not have to wait long.
One Thursday afternoon, Connie approached Seun with a puzzling question:
"Where you come from, do all your relatives always fall sick simultaneously? I mean, I know Africa has lots of diseases and hunger-stricken people, but do people really fall sick that often?"
Seun had ignored Connie's irritating, back-handed remarks to Africa as a country, and had also chosen to ignore what he termed the "Western misconception of an entire continent," and decided to address Connie's question. If there was anything he had learned as an immigrant living in America, whenever Africa or more specifically, Nigeria was mentioned in a sentence riddled with negative imagery and unpalatable adjectives, reacting in anger was never the answer. In the words of his friend, Priye, he had to "pick" his battles. And at that moment, Connie's questions pointed to a more troubling issue.
After questioning her further, she had explained to Seun that up until then, she had sent this man money whenever he talked about needing money for a business-related purpose. He had never actually directly asked her for money until now. All of a sudden, his father was lying ill in the hospital with bronchitis and needed a certain amount of money for urgent medical treatment. Two days later, he had called her in the middle of the night (which was of course, early in the morning at his own end), to alert her that his pregnant sister had suddenly suffered internal bleeding, and needed money for blood transfusion to save her life. Connie had immediately rushed online to send him $ 500 from her own personal savings account. But that was not all.
Less than a week later, he had called her again on a Sunday afternoon, claiming that his sister had caught a rare strain of tuberculosis and as such needed some rather expensive drugs for her quick recovery. When Connie asked him if this was the same sister who was pregnant and needed a blood transfusion some days before, his reply was that this was another sister. In fact, he continued, this was his step-sister, the daughter of his father's second wife, but who was very close to him being that they were born a week apart.
"Something is not right. There was something about the way he had a ready answer for every single question I asked, that raised my suspicions. Plus, he took that opportunity to pick a fight with me, and said that I wanted his sister to die of a curable disease."
Connie had told Seun all these things on a Thursday afternoon. On Friday, Seun finally called Bewaji and gave her the update.
Seun called Bewaji when she was preparing to leave for a night vigil in church. In fact, she was literally heading out of the door when her phone rang. By the time Seun had finished bringing her up to speed on the latest developments, Bewaji was convinced more than ever before that something fishy was going on, and she wanted to know what it was. The truth was that stories like Connie's were quite common. Bewaji had read about some of them. But this was the first time she would be involved, first-hand, in un-masking one of those involved in these "romance scams." Indeed, Bewaji had already concluded that this was just another romance scam. As far as she was concerned, there was nothing in the facts that suggested an alternate theory or explanation for the relationship that existed between Connie Burnell and Olu Ade.
After offloading the gist that had been burning a hole in his throat for almost 24 hours, Seun excitedly added that Connie had already sent the $ 300, which she had decided was Bewaji's investigation fee. After accepting Seun's explanation that $ 300 was an appropriate fee for an investigation of such a nature, and after reassuring Bewaji that any other unforeseen expenses would be duly compensated, he gave Bewaji the particulars of the Western Union Money Transfer including the secret question, secret answer and information of the sender. The only thing Seun left out was the "secret handshake," which Bewaji would need to give the agent at the Western Union branch, when she went to retrieve the funds. But, she felt sure it would be unnecessary.
As she boarded the single bus that would take her close enough to her church, she almost skipped for joy on her seat. Not only was she $ 300 richer, she was also about to embark on an adventure, the outcome of which could potentially change the lives of two people living on two vastly different continents.