He stared into her eyes and read the honesty there. She seemed to be interested in him for himself. He preferred to gloss over his life with most people; it was not their business. Now he found himself having to be more open and honest. His heart began to pound; maybe this was what he had foreseen when he‘d earlier decided to keep away. The question was: could he walk away now? The longer he spent with her, the more difficult that became. He recalled his resolution when he had walked up to her at the cocktail party. He would give this his best shot and not try to undermine it. Hopefully he would not regret it.
“I‘ll keep your confidence, Edward.” What was he about to confess?
“I was born in the year after the civil war to a teenage Hausa mother. According to the records she left, my father was Graham Bestman, a young Rivers guy who had come North after the war. Of course I didn‘t know all this growing up; all I knew was that I had been born unexpectedly at the orphanage, my mother was dead and no one knew my family. I got this information from an orphanage official who I spoke with after I had left my last foster home.”
Gladys recalled he‘d earlier mentioned growing up in an orphanage and nodded.
“My mother arrived at the orphanage sick and at the point of death. She sought refuge there when she felt the labor pains. Before then she lived on the streets after her parents sent her away for being a disgrace to the family. She died in the process of delivering me at the orphanage. She left my father‘s name but not hers or her parent‘s, and she left no addresses too.”
Edward paused and took a deep breath. Gladys gripped his hand tightly. She could feel his pulse racing and didn‘t want to break his flow of thought.
He continued after a while, “The orphanage is Nasarawa Children‘s Home and I was named Sani Jubril. The first was the name my mother had wanted me called and the surname was common to most of the children at the home whose parentage was obscure. Growing up was tough but it wasn‘t as bad as many people imagine.”
Gladys tried to inject some humor into the thick atmosphere. “Funny, but Oliver Twist always comes to my mind when I think of orphanages and children that grow up in them.”