5: Meet Franca

Chapter 5. Aunty Franca

”She is no longer returning €500 every week like we agreed. You are the cause of it. You will pay me my money if you want to marry her. Do you hear me? Don’t try me this man. I will finish you in this France if you try me” That was Aunty Franca on the phone.
How she got my phone number remained a mystery.

”Oh no, not again” i said out loud as soon as she finished ranting.
Judging by the way i was going with Naomi, it was obvious that Aunty Franca would interfere. I didn’t know it was going to be less than a week after moving with her.
The first thing that came to my mind was to ask Naomi to leave my place but that would make me the greatest coward of all time.
One thing i hated with these people was the way they always started with a threat on how they would kill me or destroy me. Who thought these people that everyone was afraid of threat?

In life, i believed that each and everyone we meet in our lifetime was for a reason. Naturally, there were positive and negative reasons. It was always left for us to determine which one we should adopt.
I was created not to run away from some troubles especially the ones i had a chance of defeating.
As it was, there was a small chance of defeating Aunty Franca. First of all, i was alone in Europe. No children, no wife, no work and nothing to make me look back behind my shoulders.

It seemed that the girls had no right to fall in love. That was the most wicked thing to do to any teenage girl anywhere in the world, no matter the circumstances. That was the age when they really fall in love.
In the African context, as soon as a woman reached the age of 25 and above, marriage was usually the thing on her mind. Falling in love would become secondary. But love was the real thing when they were in their teens.
That was the age, Jennifer and Naomi fell in.
I knew what happened between me and Jennifer back in Portugal. She had completely given herself to me. It happened that way because she was just a teenager who had found someone she loved. Of course the love affair was going to delay their returns to their Madams. It was a naturally thing.
If i were their Madams, i would find a way to manage the situations properly, not asking them to live in mental slavery simply because they had some money to balance you. That was not fair. That was not humane.
I wrote my own laws and according to my laws, every woman has the right to fall in love. There is nothing anybody can do about that.

I had called Naomi inside the room and told her what happened between me and Aunty Franca on the phone.
”Is she my God” Naomi had said with anger.
That was the assurance i needed to stand behind her.

I had called Aunty Franca back in the presence of Naomi.
”Aunty listen, i don’t have any problem with you. I came to Paris and found a young girl who loved me. You should not have any problem with that. If she owe you money, she can still find work somewhere and pay you. It doesn’t have to be through Prostitution” i had said.
As expected, she had started shouting again.
”What kind of work will pay her €500 weekly to give to me” she had said.
”Aunty Franca, does it have to be €500 weekly? You can reduce it to €1000 monthly” i said.

”Is it your business how I take my money from my girls? I have warned you, leave her alone or you will see what will happen to you” She said and cut off the call.

That was exactly the problem. These Madams had their organisations where they determined how much their various slaves would be paying. They had also put fears on the girls with one Voodoo or the other.

What exactly was i supposed to do? Circumstances had brought Naomi and I together. I liked her too. It was true that she didn’t came to Europe against her wish, she must have known what she was coming to do in Europe. But still, we had all taken decisions that we regretted.

As a result of all the issues with Aunty Franca and Naomi, i decided to overlook whatever Naomi was doing. I never asked her to stop sex work, i never asked her to stop paying Aunty Franca.
I didn’t want to get involved with those Human traffickers again. I could still remember vividly, what i went through in Portugal while trying to rescue Jennifer. Jennifer who eventually betrayed the love i had for her simply because i traveled to Nigeria. Naomi could even do the same thing after i might have finished a useless war with Aunty Franca.

The question on my mind was whether Naomi was worth fighting for.

Peharps She was. For the time being, she had taken every domestic chores in the house. She would clean everywhere, wash plates, cook foods and grace my bed. What else could a man ask for.

At a stage, i thought about looking for money to balance up Aunty Franca rather than fighting her.
I had started going out into Paris to meet people. I would tell them that i had connections for drugs. I told them that i could bring in drugs into Paris if they would pay.

I met a Romanian criminal in Grigny. He was a major drug distributor who knew Bijlmer very well. We were eating in th same restaurant when i heard him talking on the phone with someone. He was peaking English which meant that he was probably dealing with a Nigerian in Bijlmer. I had approached him and told him that i knew Bijlmer very well. He knew Bijlmer well enough too and as a result, we had exchanged numbers and started discussing about drugs. His name was George.

George and I started dealing eventually. I had called Robin and asked him to send me some pure drugs. I had called George in my house and showed him. He had paid for them and took them.
I made about €1200 in that single business. I saved up €1000 from it and sent the rest back to Holland. I had hoped to save up €5000 and start paying Aunty Franca installmentally until i paid up but something happened immediately after the first business.

Aunty Franca sent two people to my house. They had followed Naomi back home and had criminally entered my apartment.

“Will people ever be wise enough to refuse to follow bad leaders or to take away the freedom of other
people?”