Free Taduno's Song by Odafe Atogun Page A

report. ‘The temperature is expected to rise as high as forty degrees. The city will burn most of the day, but for those at TBS, a gentle breeze will lift to dry their sweat by nightfall.’ She signed off with sad but hopeful eyes.
    Aha! thought Taduno. That is why a mammoth crowd often gathered at the square, to wait for the gentle breeze that would dry their sweat. Aha! he thought again.
    *
    He had been bracing himself to break the news to TK, but he did not know exactly how to start. TK had met Lela on several occasions, and he wondered how he would take the news of her kidnap.
    He cleared his throat. Not so loud as to scare TK, but loud enough to get his attention.
    â€˜They kidnapped Lela,’ he said, looking away from TK, afraid to see the reaction on his face.
    TK dropped his glass of water on the table. He fixed Taduno with a look of disbelief.
    â€˜Which Lela? Who kidnapped her?’
    â€˜The same Lela you know – my girlfriend. She wrote me a letter in exile. It prompted me to return home. I returned to discover that no one remembers me, and then they told me Lela had been arrested by government agents. I did a little investigation, and I learned that she was actually abducted, not arrested.’ He decided not to tell TK about the most recent letter from Lela.
    â€˜Abducted by who, and why would they abduct her?’
    He told TK the story from the beginning.
    *
    The time was getting past midday. The TV was still on, but neither of them paid any attention to it.
    â€˜I returned from exile not knowing what had happened to you,’ Taduno explained, rounding up his story. ‘I thought you were still at the studio, and I did not want to pay you a visit because I was afraid that, like the rest of the world, you would no longer remember me. But then it became clear that I must learn to sing again to secure Lela’s release. So I went to your studio, and I learned you had sold it. I went to your house too. Baba Ajo told me all that happened. He said he did his best but they wouldn’t listen to him.’ Taduno spoke slowly, as if to give TK the opportunity to digest his every word.
    â€˜I was taken before the President after you went into exile,’ TK said. ‘He wanted me to produce you, but I told him I could not. He vowed that he would make sure I never made music again. After that, the process of my ruin was rapid. He put machinery in place that ensured mycomplete destruction. I lost the studio, and then I lost my house. I left with just one small bag. They took everything I had, the people I lived with all my life. They shared my clothes, everything. I tried to plead with them; they said I brought them too much shame and pain. I walked away, and I walked for two days afterwards, without sleep, trying to understand the wickedness of their hearts.
    â€˜For two days I had nothing but liquor. It helped me to dull my pain. It even helped me to understand things better. And then it became too much and it tipped me over. I thought I would never be able to live without a drink. And then you found me, and now I know I will never touch it again.’
    Taduno nodded in support. He did not trust himself to speak, so he just nodded, in a manner that suggested that the worst was over, that all would be well.
    During the long silence that followed, TK digested all he had heard while Taduno reviewed all he had recounted, wondering if there was anything he had left out. As yesterday and today became connected by the slowly uncoiling thread of memory, they remembered all their hopes and dreams for tomorrow. Eventually they returned to the present. And when TK spoke, it was with a thoughtfulness born out of the silence that had passed.
    â€˜Listen to me, Taduno,’ TK spoke softly. ‘Please listen very carefully.’
    Taduno sat up. ‘Yes,’ he said.
    â€˜We are going to make beautiful music together again.’
    Taduno nodded eagerly. ‘Yes.’
    â€˜But