by KM Cory
[Then]
Mc DADDY FLASH [to Mr. BONOLO]
How can I be of help to you, Sir?
Mr. BONOLO [admiring the kindness]
Can I get a number, too, please to karaoke?
Mc DADDY FLASH [candid]
I am sorry, please. There is none to perform unless when we organize another night like this again.
Mr. BONOLO [retreating]
Thank you!
[He walks out of sight as Mc DADDY FLASH continues talking to the two volunteers who might have come in early with CASANOVA and Mr. BONOLO might not have seen them getting in quick enough to meet the Mc]
SCENE 7
[OUTSIDE VESPAR NIGHTCLUB]
We are outside Vespar Night Club now, and we do not hesitate to notice CASANOVA getting out of the night house with a sea of weariness surrounding him already, and a web of uncertainty hangs over his shoulders. He makes sure no one is up against him as he finds his way through the semi-bustle street and quickly goes out of sight. Within a jiffy, Mr. BONOLO also comes out of the night house and looks all around him. Feeling he is defeated, he wears his hat and wanders off in the same direction taken by CASANOVA while walking hurriedly, too, and ensuring that he is searching all around with his eyes like a Police Officer on the run-down for a suspect.
SCENE 8
[SCHOOL GROUNDS]
[CASANOVA has managed to find his way from the street back to the school premises]
CASANOVA walks with a lot of caution like that of a crouching tiger through the narrow path leading to the sleeping hall. Just as he is about to push open a small gate covered in falling tree branches of a huge tree, a flashlight grabs his attention, and it startles CASANOVA at once, and he loses his sense of direction. He decides to cover up his eyes to avoid the brightness of the light, almost encircling him as a sharp male voice draws out from the direction of the light commanding him,
Man
GET DOWN ON YOUR KNEES, SIR!
[CASANOVA does not have any objection but to obey]
Man
Where are you from, Sir?
[CASANOVA attempts no reply for fear of not knowing whom he is talking to]
Man [insisting]
It is a simple question, Sir. Where are you from?
[CASANOVA again does not open up his mouth]
Man
I get it. But it is such a pity!
[CASANOVA covers up his face further]
Man
I have been scouting you out and your bunch of lousy friends, but I think they didn’t tell you. Did they, Sir?
CASANOVA
Tell me about what?
Man
About the fact that you and your lousy friends are being watched out, that you had to become careful since then. Couldn’t you have been told something like that?
CASANOVA
I have no idea about it all!
Man [amused]
Oh! Such hypocrites and how evil they are!
[CASANOVA does not react for he knows the repercussions]
Man
I am now at a dilemma of saving a poor soul like you, Sir!
[CASANOVA covers up in the ugly silence]
Man
Here are two options for you, poor soul.
CASANOVA
And what are they?
Man
You either leave this school as option number one with a fake reason and return after a fortnight when the choir is not with you or, you appear before the DH’s committee and face him since you are aware of the outcomes of doing so today morning!
[Feeling no immediate response from the options given]
Man [commanding]
Now, go to your sleeping hall before anyone finds you here for further trouble!
And the flashlight, together with the voice, disappears infinitely as CASANOVA rises onto his feet and finds his way through the small gate. We can tell he is now being faced with a bitter challenge he cannot comprehend there and then lest he decides poorly.
SCENE 9
[INSIDE THE SLEEPING HALL
CASANOVA, right away feeling sleepless in Lantana, is duly over-weighed with thoughts as he sits on his bed in a sea of darkness save for a light eased out onto him for visibility towards the audience.
We hear the words echo again in his mind.
VOICE
You either leave this school as option number one with a fake reason and return after a fortnight when the choir is not with you or you appear before the DH’s committee and face him since you are aware of the outcomes of doing so today morning!
CASANOVA [disturbed]
What am I going to do, oh no?
[And then two voices that are off-stage pop up in play like they are in his world of thoughts and decision making]
MALE
Leave the school unnoticed and return after a fortnight, nwa.
CASANOVA [defiant]
But where will I be staying for that entire fortnight and eat until I return to school?
FEMALE
Yes, indeed. Where will you be staying and also, what will you be eating? I think you should stay and face the DH with a false pretense like BOYO did, nwa.
CASANOVA [reflective]
But he saw me, with his two eyes at Vespar, and we crossed eyes. So, how can I make a false pretense?
MAN [jubilant]
Yes, how can you do that in front of someone who clearly saw you, and you did see him too?
WOMAN
He can cook up something. He can ask BOYO to tell him how to do so. The DH is easy to fool around, nwa!
MAN
I guess you are missing out something important.
WOMAN
What is it?
MAN
Before the DH, you fool him once, shame on him. You fool him twice, shame on you, not him. And this is because he is a lawyer. So, you can’t let a troubled friend do acrobatics before such a man!
WOMAN
I believe he can be fooled no matter whether he is a lawyer!
Man
I am feeling you’re not helping and being friendly here.
Woman
I am not. It is you instead, who is! You cannot send him to the streets for a fortnight without anything to eat and where to sleep yet, he can have that as he faces the DH!
Man
I need to remind you, then.
Woman
About what?
Man
About the fact that Lantana is a town that can’t choke you up but, it can make you feel brand new and inspired!
Woman
Unless when you have friends in it! And I doubt he has any.
Man
Don’t you have friends, nwa?
CASANOVA
Oh, yes! I actually have friends, more than two.
Woman
And you trust them to keep up with you for a fortnight, yet you know how expensive it is to be accommodated in this town?
CASANOVA
I trust them, and they love me. They will be nice to me until I return to school feeling brand new and inspired.
Man
And that way, you shall be able to make a false pretense to return after a fortnight before the DH since he will be worried about you, nwa!
Woman
Okay. But it has to be thought out twice.
Man
He has already done that. He only has to be really cautious!
Woman
I give up.
Man
I hereby disappear too!
CASANOVA
I hereby make up my mind too!
[And the moment of meditation ends with CASANOVA closed up in darkness]
ACT FIVE
SCENE 1
[BUS STATION]
[THE NEXT DAY]
The passengers are countable, and they are waiting for the bus to travel to different destinations within the large town of Lantana and beyond.
Among the patient passengers is CASANOVA, wearing his school uniform and carr
ying a backpack on his lap.
The buzzing activity of the town is audible by the street sides, and as we feel pity about CASANOVA and his decision to go away from school unnoticed, a voice reads out something he must have written before exiting the seat of wisdom.
MALE VOICE
Dear OBAN, Dear LIHANDA, Dear BOYO,
By the time you will finish reading this letter, I will probably be in the next town after Lantana with the Karaoke Girls, whom I met the previous night in the company of their Asian manager, MASTER PATEL. It was a night of uncertain events to me but well known to you, my colleagues, who had earlier on warned me.
I happened to meet the loser at Vespar last night as I wanted to karaoke, and I ran for my safety back to school, only to be trapped by someone I never knew and will never know who flashed a light at me as I sneaked back to our dormitory. That someone seemed to know our every activity at school.
He must have had knowledge of everything we talked about in the Dining Hall. So, he caught me and gave me two options of either leaving the college unnoticed and return a fortnight later or face the loser with a false pretense like you, BOYO did. But I chose to leave unnoticed since the loser wouldn’t give me a fair hearing having appeared before him in his office. Now, I am out of school, and you are inside. All I can promise you is that I will return and write to you through a correspondence you will know. Just promise me that I will come back to read and couch me through everything I will miss in class for the period I shall be out of college. And in case anyone asks about me, inform them that you don’t know where I am or, perhaps, tell them that he is on the road of betting with success already!
Yours,
CASANOVA
It appears like the addressees of the letter have been reading it together. They are sharing a metallic chair situate within the compound of the school.
SCENE 2
[DINING HALL]
[It is a mid-morning break from studies, and students are engaged with their friends and eats. Their silence seems like that of the North Pole, and they are wondering about the contents of the letter.]
OBAN
What could be the name of the next little town after Lantana?
LIHANDA
There are like three small towns. Quite a distance, though. But the one nearest to Lantana is known as Soweto.
BOYO
Then our friend must be heading there.
LIHANDA
True. I don’t know how it looks like even.
OBAN [determined]
Whether we don’t know how it looks like or what, I am going after him.
[BOYO and LIHANDA snap at this statement of bravery]
OBAN [anxious]
What, nwa?
BOYO
You’re going after CASANOVA?
OBAN
Yes, nwa.
[BOYO shakes his head in disbelief]
LIHANDA
You are right to go after him, nwa. He is more of a brother to you before we even became as one all of us. And that is the greatest love of all he needs right now. I don’t think he wrote this letter to us without expecting none of us who would react to it. He was clear, and I could read that between the lines, nwa.
OBAN
I see you are very much alive to reading between the lines, nwa.
LIHANDA [boasting]
That is why I am a candidate in the literature class, nwa.
BOYO
I think I need to know the real reason why you want to go after CASANOVA. You want to bring him back to school or? Please.
OBAN
I promised his uncle that I would make sure everywhere he goes, I go, and that I would make sure we get back to Soraya after our studies here. So, that is the task I committed myself unto, nwa.
BOYO
It seems you’re so close to one another beyond what we see in both of you here.
OBAN
Oh, yes! I have watched us grow from kids up-to this age, when we met both of you. We know each other better than anyone else, nwa.
BOYO
I can now understand. No wonder he wrote this letter beginning with your name, and we came second and last.
OBAN
I get it.
[A moment of silence ensues]
LIHANDA [out of the blue]
For the sake of friendship that came between both of you and us, I am coming along with you to find CASANOVA, nwa!
BOYO [taken aback]
Really? Are you feeling alright, Lin?
LIHANDA
I am, nwa. In fact, better than that now!
OBAN [smiling]
CASANOVA will be pleased to see you, nwa.
LIHANDA
Me too, I shall be more than pleased even!
BOYO [bereft]
Come on, nwa! This cannot be happening right now in a short moment like this!
OBAN
It is happening, nwa. We have to find CASANOVA. Remember, he is dearest to us all, and he has always been. So, to show him that we are one no matter what, we have to go and find him in Soweto!
BOYO
Oh, nwa! Okay, let us say we’ve gone to find him and what if he is not in Soweto or? Because I don’t think he was aware that there were three towns off Lantana and out of it! So, where shall you and Lin find him, nwa?
OBAN
I will go anywhere to find CASANOVA, nwa! If that is what it takes, I’m more than ready to sacrifice anything!
LIHANDA [to disbelieving BOYO]
Look, nwa –
BOYO
I cannot look at that, nwa.
OBAN
Lin, you won’t change your friend’s mind by convincing him to join us. This act you and I are going to do is one that comes from
one’s mindset. It doesn’t require one to be told what to do,
how to do it, and when to do it, nwa.
BOYO [agitated]
We talked to CASANOVA in the dining, and he never listened to us neither did he rather to give an opinion as he made a fool of us by asking if we’re ready to bet with success! And now, both of you want to fall in his allurements, yet you know how much we’re always told about the difficulties of trying to make it out there on your own when you are not ready neither have any proper guidance, nwa. Right now, our nation is bleeding calamity upon calamity on everyone, and you want to face it! Can’t you see to that, please?
[And there is a moment of reflection.]
OBAN
Then nothing can be seen without a friend worth being seen, nwa!
[He suddenly shoots up to his feet]
OBAN
The first question that united us was whether we were willing to bet with success, and by coincidence, it looks to be the same query that is going to disunite us! Isn’t that enough to make you see, nwa?
[OBAN walks away from the company of his peers]
LIHANDA
I think OBAN is right, but it would be hard to understand him, both of us at the same time right now, nwa.
BOYO
And what could his words mean to me?
LIHANDA [onto his feet now]
That the first question that united us is likely to become the same question that is going to break us apart! And I remember it was you who brought it up amongst the four of us as we embraced one another for being able to meet again at this school after that market day fair, nwa. Just think about it, and you get the meaning.
And we see LIHANDA also walking away from the presence of his peer, thereby heading off to a direction where OBAN can be seen standing now in the company of some fellow classmates who are feeling jolly to be in his company. LIHANDA joins them, and it becomes a cabin of endless laughter as BOYO watches both.
BOYO [muttering to himself]
Yes, nwa. I really do remember that it was me who inspired the friendship we have right now. And it was a sweet dedication to see us getting united again and moreover, in the same class. But I am old enough to decide what is good for me as a goose and what is not nice to
me as a goose, nwa!
[And at this moment, the school bell rings to indicate that the break time is over, and it is high time students went back to their respective classes. BOYO first watches his friends disband with their colleagues]
BOYO [to himself further]
I guess you ought to be told the same nwa –
That just think about it!
[BOYO eventually retreats from the hang out for class]
SCENE 3
[THE DH OFFICE]
Mr. BONOLO is busy making himself a cup of tea from one of three huge flasks that has been brought inside his office by a female matron decked in an orange uniform. As he is busy serving himself too with bread and eggs from the nearby tray, a certain gentleman wearing like an askari comes into view and stands by the entrance upon knocking on the door.
Mr. BONOLO [on seeing the figure]
Get in please, AFANDE!
[The AFANDE doesn’t hesitate to do so]
Mr. BONOLO [as he sits]
Feel free to sit anywhere you want, AFANDE.
AFANDE
Thank you, Sir!
[He pulls a chair and sits opposite Mr. BONOLO as he takes a sip of tea from his cup, and upon doing so, he requests the female matron to give them a moment. The lady does so with her tools of the trade at hand and exits the room]
Mr. BONOLO
I don’t see the boy, AFANDE!
AFANDE
Me too, Sir. I have tried looking for him, but he can’t be seen, and I guess he followed your instructions you handed me after seeing him the previous night.
Mr. BONOLO [romancing the cup of tea]
Just as I intended. I wouldn’t allow him to be on the choir travelling next week for the gala with his manners of breaking school rules.
AFANDE
That is right, Sir.
Mr. BONOLO
I only hope the fortnight teaches him a lesson, and he returns a better student like he was before.
AFANDE
I am sure he will learn, Sir. This town is good at disciplining students like him.
Mr. BONOLO
I like that. But could you help me with some little task?
AFANDE
At your service, Sir.
Mr. BONOLO
I want you to keep an eye on his three friends.
