ramblings of a MAD village champion - 2

.....My brother had travelled on monday to parts unknown, his cellphone was switched off - had been for days. I just kept muttering to myself, "God please, please, let this be a dream please." Ofcourse it wasn't, it was reality, one I had hoped to never encounter in life. I subconciously summed the net worth of everything I had in my room. The phrase, a bleeding heart, finally made sense to me, after all these years of reading texts and barely giving it a deep thought. You hear how people are been robbed or mugged and you tell them how sorry you are, when you really can't imagine what they are going through. It finally dawned on me, the severity of what I had walked into. The house was robbed lastnight - yes, we had been robbed.
My room had been violated. No other word comes to mind to describe what I saw when I opened the door. First thing I noticed was how different it looked, it had been thoroughly thrashed, and searched. My jewellery cache was missing, I had things in there I was supposed to pass down to my daughters: the gold bracelet Uche gave me before she travelled, the bracelet aunt Amina gave me when she came visiting, my really costly charm bracelet, the first ever gold necklace I bought, some new gold ensemble recently acquired, the platinum earrings I had nagged Lanre to death to get me, my wristwatches, a gold brooch discovered in my mums' old trunks and some other trinkets of value. I noticed my box wasn't there either. Aunty Catherine gave it to me, the last time I went to see her. I loved that box, it was real classy and huge and it had been hers. My laptop was missing too.
OMG!
They even discovered my stash of perfume. I am a perfume collector and I had a pretty extensive collection: from the amen I had gotten from my dad, the organza I had used for 3years very minimally, right down to the little black dress Nne sent for me last year.
Everything was gone; the uber cool salvatore ferragamo shades I had just gotten and was so proud of, the only cool-looking wallet I owned, my cellphone, all the money I had at home - even the 40naira change in my cross bag, my handbags, shoes, even clothes - I think they will have to reduce them before selling them off.
I was heart broken. Its not as if I have a job and would be able to replace some things soon, no, I am at the mercy of my family once again. They think I just don't want to get a job and be off their hair - someone please explain to them its a cut throat world out there, and am trying, but there's only this much a mere mortal can accomplish.
Human beings, we are really a fickle and vain bunch. There I was, mourning my stuffs and raging at the most high, when I should've knelt down and given him thanks for better things to come.
The thing is after conducting a search of the property, there was no sign of breaking and entry, this meant whoever did this, knew my house really well, knew the back door leading to the balcony upstairs wasn't locked, and had monitored the house and was certain no one was in. The person wasn't exactly a 'skilled thief' judging by what they took , the pressing iron and standing fan in the ironing room wasn't taken, my very portable CD player in my room wasn't missing, neither was the 14inches TV in my brothers' room - or maybe they didn't think them portable enough.
Chima, mama Nescos' son - the woman opposite my house who sells stuffs - and his friends' told me they saw Eka on wednesday, and asked me to question him.
Eka lived with us about 5months ago for a period of 4months, on and off. He schooled really close to my village and had carryovers and missing scripts in school which he needed to write. He used to be roommates with my cousin, and we gave him a place to stay after my cousin badgered us to. His stay with us was uneventful, until the day another of my cousin noticed their house had been broken into. I had been really suspicious of him - he was extremely uncomfortable around me and was always sneaking about. I know this aren't the best of reasons so I will chunk it up to my instincts. Long and short of it, he confessed to climbing my uncles' house with a ladder and robbing them - inspirational Cds, some of my missing pair of shoes and wires(??) were among the things we recovered.
We asked him to leave and never show himself in the village, ever again - well I wasn't exactly civil about the whole thing jare, I raged and yelled.
So there I was, wondering loudly, "what was he doing here, dressed in black, with a face cap? He doesn't know any family in my village besides ours."
He became my primary suspect, and I had to do something. After he was driven, his sister came to the house crying and begging for forgiveness. She was so sincere, I begged her to stop torturing herself. She kept telling us tales about him, and the problems he was giving their family. Truth be told, I was eager for her to leave, so we would just chalk that incident to one of the numerous bad choices we'd made in life.
I traced their aunts' house two days after the robbery, and collected his sisters' number. I called her and recounted the events to her, also telling her Eka was the main suspect.
About 30 minutes later, she called back, telling me how she's so upset and how much I hated her brother - that's why am accusing him. She kept on saying he never left their village, which by the way is not so far from mine, and that her mother and siblings were his alibi.
She really expects me to buy that? A grown man, regularly monitored by his family? Yea right!
She kept ranting, like her brother had never stolen before, ever. Her mum, cursing at me from the background like I was the villain. This is someone who knelt and begged before, just so we wouldn't report the case to his school authorites. I yelled back at them for awhile, then realised how silly I sounded. I was going to play it by the books.
I asked them to come to my village, Eka in tow, so he would challenge Chima and the others' that saw him. Ofcourse they refused, they think I should take their word for it, Ekas' word, a liar, and a thief? Who does that? How do you refuse to clear every allegation against you if you are innocent?
So, let's say, he really wasn't involved in this. Then I do owe them a massive apology, thank God am not to proud to know when I've been defeated.
Thing is, after typing this, I am a lot calmer, the anger has evaporated abi diffused. Things like these, always work themselves out, I think. I might have lost my stuffs, but am alive - that means, I am worth more than material goods( funny how it makes so much sense now), and those items can be replaced no matter how long it takes. Plus, mama was right, God never makes mistakes. So let the drama unfold, because there is always a price to pay for every action - I should know that, knowing how much I have paid for some past actions too.