Nobody in the whole of Abeokuta could explain how the purple truck got there.
It just appeared one Monday morning parked in front of Mama Shade's provision store like it had always been there, like it belonged on that street like a truck was the most normal thing in the world But it wasn't normal truck colour, It was the kind of purple that made you stop walking and just stare. Loud unapologetic purple, with no writing on the side no company logo, no plate number that anyone could read clearly, Just plain purple.
By eight o'clock a small crowd had gathered.
"Who owns this thing?" Baba Remi asked, walking around it slowly with his hands behind his back like he was inspecting something at an exhibition.
"Nobody has come out of it since morning " said Mama Shade from her doorway arms folded. "I have been here since six, nobody came outand nobody went in."
"Maybe it broke down and the driver went to find a mechanic " someone offered.
"Then why is it purple?" Baba Remi asked, as if the colour was the suspicious part of the whole situation.
Nobody had an answer for that.
It was Shade, Mama Shade's fifteen year daughter, who noticed the letter. She had come outside to see what all the noise was about, and spotted it almost immediately an envelope tucked neatly under the windscreen wiper on the drivers side, White envelope, thick with nothing written on the outside.
"There's a letter " she said.
Everyone turned.
"Don't touch it " Baba Remi said quickly.
"Why not?"
"Because you don't know what it is, you don't touch things you don't understand."
Sade looked at him, "It's an envelope."
"It's an envelope on a purple truck that appeared from nowhere, hmm just Leave it."
Curiosity is a powerful thing and fifteen year olds are not known for listening to Baba Remis, When the crowd shifted to the other side of the truck to debate something among themselves Shade reached over and took the envelope.
She opened it there.
Inside was a sheet of paper folded twice, she unfolded it and read it then she read it again then she looked up with an expression that was hard to read.
"What does it say?" her mother called from the doorway.
Shade walked over slowly, handed her mother the letter without a word.
Mama Shade read it, her hand came up to cover her mouth.
The letter was from her brother Kunle, The one who had traveled to Lagos fifteen years ago and never come back no calls, no visits no word of any kind for fifteen years, the family had said things about what happened to him over the years, some said he was doing well and was just too busy, others said something bad had happened nobody really knew.
The letter said he was alive, It said he was sory, It said he had spent years being too ashamed to reach out because of how he had left without saying goodbye without explanation, just gone..... It said he was in Ibadan now that he had built a business, that he had a family and that he was ready to come home if home would still have him.
At the bottom he had written I wasn't sure you would read a letter from me so I asked my friend Dotun to park his truck outside your shop so you would be curious enough to come out , sorry, about the colour that is how Dotun is.
Mama Shade laughed at it, it came out strange half laugh half something else, the kind of sound that happens when too many feelings arrive at the same time.
"Mama what is it?" Shade asked quietly.
Her mother folded the letter carefully, held it against her chest, "Go and get me my phone I have a number to call."
Baba Remi appeared at the door looking impatient "So what did the letter say?"
Mama Shade smiled, "That some things that have been lost are not as lost as you think."
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