“Cobbles in her Path: The Sequel (2022, Amazon),” is written by Toyin Ladepo. It is an 11-chapter prose fiction set in both Nigeria and Houston Texas, United States of America, and it spans 24 years. It is the sequel to the 146-page prose fiction, published in 2020, Cobbles in Her Path, written by the same author, Toyin Ladepo. Toyin holds a degree in Dramatic Arts with specialisations in Directing, Radio/TV and Film Production at Obafemi Awolowo University. She is a veteran of the United States Army. This book begins where its precursor ended. Anjola Daniels and Joey Madu rekindle their romantic moments.
Joey has found the woman who stole his heart. Anjola is now much more at ease with him. They both make steamy love at Joey’s house.
But now their love cuddle is punctuated. In the heat of passion with Anjola, Joey receives an unlikely visitor. His Aunty Emily and Jake her husband arrive with a woman. Joey recognizes her to be the woman who took him to the hospital in Ketu 24 years ago and abandoned him there. She is his mother whom he had presumed was long dead. And here she is in his living room in Houston, Texas.
In the first chapter of the work tagged The little House at Ketu, the author gives the reader a snapshot of the stormy marriage of Madu, Joey’s father and his mother. The family is described as a combustible: one moment, Madu and his wife are necking and kissing, and the other they are punching and yelling at each other. Sometimes the trouble can be triggered by Madu just pouncing on anyone in the house on the flimsy excuse like not washing the dishes.
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But the visit of the visitors at Joey’s house in Houston kick starts a series of flash back narration through the author’s deployment of the third person point of view with her narrative panache. So in the chapter, The Dead and the Living, we are told the story of how at age 10, Joey and his mother had been beaten and sent out of the house in Ketu after a brawl over Madu’s anger at seeing dirty dishes in the kitchen. Joey is taken to the primary healthcare center for treatment of malaria and wounds on his back caused by heavy flogging he received from his father.
After dropping off Joey at the hospital, Nkiru’s plan was to go look for money when she was caught up in a truck accident. He body was deposited in a mortuary along with others, left for dead. She came back to life after two days. But she had lost her memory.
She is seen in Ilorin where she is caught in the crossfire of the protests that greeted the annulment of the June 12 1993 presidential election. She finds herself in the home of a couple who accommodate her.
Meanwhile, Mr. Madu is discovered to have died in his room. Mama Simbi their neighbour helped with his burial and got in touch with Madu’s family. After his burial, Emily adopted Joey and took him to Houston.
In Ilorin, Nkiru is given the name Mariam and a new lease of life with the help of Alhaji Rabiu. She is now a successful fabrics dealer in Ibadan. But soon, she and Alhaji get married. But she is soon caught up in a ghastly motor accident. On waking up in a hospital bed, memories tucked away for 24 years come rushing out. She is now able to recall the events leading to her accident and waking up in the mortuary 24 years ago. She retraces her way to Ketu, Lagos, to the east where she learns that Joey had been taken to the United States of America.
She is now reunited with her only son, Joey, 24 years after leaving him at the hospital and going to look for money for his treatment.
In the novel, Cobbles in Her Path: The Sequel, Nkiru’s recovery of her memory leads to another round of discoveries and long hidden secret about Bolu Martins and his partner Ola, and this new discovery appears to throw cold water on the blossoming love between Joey and Anjola. Incidentally, Bolu Martins is inescapably seated in the same room with Nkiru.
Joey’s mother tells him that she has forgiven the men who duped her husband. In the chapter, Regrets, she admonishes him to forgive Bolu Martins and his late partner, and understand that Anjola should not be punished for the crime of her father. She asks him to go for Anjola and apologize to her for the way her treated her and her Uncle, Bolu.
But Anjola has traveled to Nigeria and her grandparents in Ibadan. Her half-sister Nike will be getting married and she will be attending. But she is home chiefly to see her grandfather who is recuperating from a fall in the garden of their home in Ibadan.
Joey finds out that she is in Nigeria and he goes looking for her.
But back at home, there seems to be a wave of conspiracy against Anjola and her relationship with Joey. Jimi Coker wants her very badly. And he has decided to do everything to make her his. He appears to be gaining the upper hand against Joey because Wemimo does not like Anjola despite the fact that Anjola is her husband’s older half-sister. Wemimo opens the door for Joey who has come looking for Anjola, and she lies that she is in Lagos. Contrarily, Anjola is in the house. The chapter, Forget Me, Forget Me Not gives us the details and all the intrigues.
However, Joey and Anjola meet in Ibadan. But it is an unlikely and awkward meeting. Joey is at the hotel owned by Jimi Coker in the company of a lady. Anjola runs into them. In the course of Joey attempting to talk to her, she shoves Chioma into the swimming pool, angry at the lady’s attempt to come between them. But Anjola storms out of the scene.
In the work, all conflicts are resolved at last. But how did the conspiracy against them pan out? Did Joey get the chance to make his apologies to Anjola, who obviously has been avoiding him? The last two chapters of this work have the answers.
However, Joey Madu finally locates the grave of his father. He gets his mother to see it. He finally meets his mother’s guardian angel turned husband.
In one of the motifs of the work, the author takes a swipe at the church and the approach of some pastors to grieving people. Yemi’s mother is still mourning the death of her daughter. She is introduced to Pastor Nebu, a Nigerian pastor who appears to control her every move. She does not have time to take care of herself, her home and husband. All she now does is lock herself in the room, spend all her time on the phone with the pastor all day muttering prayers and burning candles.
Rather than help to calm her worried mind, Pastor Nebu is busy fleecing her. She is now preoccupied with chasing out non-existent evil spirits from the house with incense and candles, at the expense of her health.
The work also discusses gender based violence and its consequence on family harmony. Once a happy family, financial stress soaks Nnamdi up and pushes him into violence against his wife and son. His constant battering of his wife and son later scatters his family.
The fiction, Cobbles in Her Path: The Sequel, is loaded with large doses of romance and suspense. This 189-page novel is a testament to the author’s strong storytelling skill and ability to weave many sub-plots into the main plot of the work, creating a multi-layered story told in scintillating narration. Once again, Toyin Ladepo has sweetly combined the narrative traditions of the classic Mills and Boon series and Hadley Chase with so much dexterity. This is a book well written.
. Olatunbosun is a broadcast journalist, fact-checker and book reviewer at Splash FM 105.5, Ibadan. He can be reached via 08023517565 (SMS only) and molatunbosun@splashfm1055.com.
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