What can she
be here for? Even my mother isn’t asking
her anything.
Suddenly, her stern face drops and she
seems sober.
“G–good day,” she greets us. I have read
her lips to
get what she says.
“What do you want?” my aunt challenges
her. She didn’t
invite her in.
“I–I come to apologize,” she must have
said, going by
the gesture she makes.
My aunty didn’t take her serious at first,
but eventually,
she did.
Toyosi tells us that she has regretted her
actions. She
says that she wants us back in the
house. When my
mummy tells her that it won’t be
possible, she began to
beg her.
My mummy tells me the whole story in
detail;
according to her, John is getting worried
over not
having anybody to take care of Bode and
himself. He
visits Toyosi in her matrimonial home
often until she
advised him to take back his wife and
children.
“Don’t worry, John will take a very good
care of you and
your daughter,” mummy says, mimicking
in sign
language how Toyosi has said it.
“So, after throwing our loads out that
man still have the
gut to beg us to return, huh!” I say
angrily.
“Hey, Rose, he’s your daddy, so you have
no right to call
him that man!” Rachael says. “By the
way, this is just a
kind of an answer to our prayers. Didn’t I
tell you
yesterday that if you go there tomorrow
to beg him, he
will listen to you?”
“Heard,” I gesticulate. “What about that
wicked wh’ore,
did she apologize to you before she
leaves? Remember
she was bragging few days back that she
will do
something terrible to us.”
“She did apologize,” my mother says.
“Remember I say she will come and do
that in one of
our prayers,” Rachael says. She always
love bringing
God, church, bible and prayers into every
little matter. I
love her for that anyway.
“Younger sister, you are a prophetess,”
my mummy
makes fun of her and pushes her head
slightly.
“That’sa gift from above sister,” Rachael
says. “Even
before my husband died, I foretold his
death; it came as
a vision, but my husband didn’t pay
attention.” Rachael’s
face develops into a grotesque.
Remembering her
husband has remained her ugliest
moments; a cross to
bear.
My mother turns to me and says, “Rose,
infact Toyosi
promised to come and spend this
weekend with us so
that she can have time to have fun with
you.”
“With me? Why?” I say in an unforgiven
manner.
“Rose, let her come, there is no big deal
about that.
Afterall we have prayed to have peace
with everyone
and our prayer is being answered right
now,” mother
says. “Rose, she even said that you will
teach her the
sign language when she comes.”
My aunt makes her mouth into
something for a while.
She must have coughed, going by the
way the lips are
set. Seems she doesn’t approve of the
idea that I teach
her sign language.
My mother looks at her face for a while.
A sparkle of
shock is on her face. It is as if the cough
is a
significance of something I don’t know.
“First thing tomorrow morning, Rachael,
I’m off to my
husband’s house,” mummy says
eventually, shutting her
eyes, sobbing.
I can’t sleep at night. I just keep rolling
around on my
fat bed. My eyes are clear. My mind
flashes back to past
events; those harassments from my
father. I weep. I
hope it won’t continue.
My dream is the sweetest ever; I ride on
a horse with
my father. I speak with him verbally,
Bode sitting with
my mummy on the other white horse. A
long horsetail
is in my grip. I feel like a queen.
I come off the horse’s back and fall to
the ground.
“What the hell!” I have just rolled off my
fat bed to the
ground. Dream is silly indeed.
To be continued
