It is such a great hell for my dad while
he was at home
those two weeks. The man loves to go to
work. If
possible, he will make his workplace a
permanent
abode, just to avoid what he calls a sick
home.
John tells my mother to allow me remain
at home with
him, but the woman rejects blatantly.
What is my father’s motive for
demanding such thing? I
am just eleven, so what do I know?
At school, I begin the question again:
“Is there any reason for God creating us
like this?” I
ask my clasateacher. She was rash at
saying yes, yet
she couldn’t state a reason.
“Rose, you ask too much. Stop thinking
of what you
can’t do; think of what you can do.”
“What can I do?”
“You can see, walk and…”
“That’s normal,” I say. “Everybody else
can do those
things too.”
“But Joshua and Gbade can’t do any of
those things,” she
says.
My hands drop. To raise them, no vigour.
Each time I
remember the case of Joshua and Gbade,
I always feel
like climbing a ladder to heaven to pull
God down and
fight him.
Joshua is paralysed and at the same
time blind. Gbade’s
case is the worse; he is deaf and dumb
as well as blind
and lame. If John is Gbade’s father he
would have
thrown him inside the Oke Afa canal.
Some sweat pour down my neck and
soaked my school
uniform. Now I begin to imagine how
Gbade has been
able to survive the hardship he is into.
It is just two days left for my father’s
suspension to be
over when something strange happens.
That day,
mother carries me home in father’s blue
volkswagen
car. We open the door of the house and
to our surprise,
daddy and another lady were kissing
each other in the
parlour.
They see us but did as if they didn’t.
I began to see many mouths moving. I
began to
imagine the conversation they were
making:
“What is happening?” my mother cries
out.
“Is she your wife?” the woman says. It
seems she has
just come out of her senses.
“Em…you are my real wife, not her,”
daddy says without
any humane feeling.
“John!” my mother cries. The man just
looks away
lackadaisically and hissed.
“Em…Toyosi, leave that scallywag alone
and let’s
continue our love.”
Right before my eyes my mother is being
denied of her
marital right. This is not right. I made a
shrilled sound.
At least I can shout even though I am
dumb.
Daddy gets irritated and comes for me at
once. Mother
stands in his way. The wicked man
pushes his wife out
of the way. She loses balance and falls. I
guess mother
must have broken some bones in the
process.
Now I remain still, harden myself so I can
be prepared
for daddy’s beating. He looks on at me
and I don’t know
why he didn’t pounce on me as his
manner is. He stands
gazing at me for a while, then he carries
my mother up.
She can’t stand on her own anymore.
I have to check on my mother in the
hospital the next
day. I have missed school that day. She
is on
wheelchair, her hands and legs on
bandage. We look on
at each other. She can’t communicate
with me right
now because she can’t move her hands.
“Get well soon mummy,” I say, kneels
before her and
went down on her laps, weeping.
“Mummy, what is the matter with
daddy?” I ask in tears.
My mother can’t move her hands so there
is no way she
will signal her response to me.
To be continued
