Mrs Omotayo enrolled me and her children in a school for special people. She arranged a taxi to
be taking us to school and bringing us back everyday.
It was already second term but I had to begin with them like that.
Toyosi had also found something doing,
therefore she
wouldn’t be home every time, unlike
before.
I was enrolled in Jss 1 with Laide, the
lame daughter of
Mrs Omotayo, while Biodun was in JSS 2.
We all had our
different classrooms. Biodun was in the
class of the
blind where they had to use Braille for
reading.
Whenever we were back from school, we
would stay
within the compound and have fun. I
began to fall in
love with Biodun, not minding the fact
thay there was
no way we could communicate since he
had no eyes to
see my sign language and I also had no
ears to hear his
speeches. Love is blind indeed, I thought,
since the
love of my heart, Biodun, is blind. Having
true love is
not when you fall in love with people
with riches or
with people in perfect conditions, but
when you fall in
love with those who are not perfect,
overlooking their
imperfections.
Laide became our middleman. She would
relay anything
I wrote on paper for Biodun by speaking
directly to him
and Biodun would speak back to her,
then she would
write whatever Biodun said in a paper
and give it back
to me.
I also had my functions. I would lead
Biodun around,
holding his hands. Sometimes I would
put my left hand
around his neck to show affection but he
would recoil,
removing it for me. I would feel
embarrased.
Are we not old enough to play love? I
thought. I am
already thirteen and Biodun is fourteen,
so what else
are we waiting for before starting a
relationship? I
thought childishly.
I also helped Laide push her wheelchair
around the
house. She loved being pushed around
because it
always gave her the feeling that she was
walking.
However, we always came across one
confrontation
and that was Bode. Whenever Bode was
back from
school, then for sure trouble was around.
Though the
youngest, he would brag around us,
trying to show
false seniority.
Bode was just eight years, but his wicked
acts seemed
too much for his age. Bode would pinch
Laide on her
back and push Biodun out of his way.
They would shed
tears sometimes and curse him.
I couldn’t do anything to him because of
his mother.
Each time he was oppressing us, I would
clench my fist
as if to punch his face, but my muscles
would relax
again at the thought of what Toyosi
could do. Toyosi
could pull me out of school again,
despite the fact that
it wasn’t her but Mrs Omotayo that was
paying my
school fees.
My childish love for Biodun developed so
much. I had
already derived pleasure in leading him
around.
I had watched the television and had
learnt how to kiss
in it. I was going to practise that on the
love of my
heart, Biodun. But each time I wanted to
do it, my heart
would thump for fear.
I knew what to do; I would tell him that I
loved him and
I wished to be his wife in the nearest
future. I
wondered how Laide would feel.
That particular day, I entered the toilet to
pass excreta.
Laide and Biodun were in their parlour
because they
wanted to avoid Bode who was a thorn in
their flesh.
I had to rush everything I was doing so
that I could go
to them and have fun with them.
Perfunctorily, I
cleaned myself up and began to rush to
their room. I
met a mess–both Biodun and Laide had
fallen down. I
had to quickly help them up. It was an
accident; Biodun
fell while he was walking around in the
room. He fell on
Laide who was on wheelchair and both of
them fell to
the ground.
I couldn’t show Laide the loveletter
again. I was
disappointed. The loveletter was
supposed to be read
into Biodun’s ears, but since they were
not in a good
mood, I couldn’t do that again.
Biodun and Laide began to speak to
themselves,
weeping profusely. I couldn’t hear them
but I perceived
they were depressed. It seemed they were
very bitter
against someone, perhaps against God
for not
preventing them from the evil which
befell them when
they were still babies.
I made a signal to Laide that she should
tell me what
happened. She understood my hand
movement so she
requested a pen. I got it for her. If
Laide’s left hand was
also paralysed like the right one, there
wouldn’t have
been a way the three of us could
communicate. I
thought that was something to thank God
about; he
would always leave a space of thanks in
everything.
Laide was left-handed so she had no
problem writing.
She passed the note to me when she was
done. I
began to read:
Rose, this life is too hard on us the
disabled people.
Why are we not able to do what able
people do?
Imagine, if danger arises how do we run?
I have no
legs, he has no eyes and you have no
ears. Why? We
are tired of living, Rose. Yet Bode would
keep
complicating issues for us by beating us
up and kicking
us. I and my brother wish him nothing
but death. Bode
would not stop at that; he would also
call us names and
make us go mad…
I felt their heartrending pain. I wept with
them and
began to write something. Laide would
read it in
Biodun’s ears.
My write-up was geared towards making
them know
that if they put their minds on
something, they would do
it better than the able people. At that
juncture, I
remembered my class-teacher and my
mother who
kept telling me that I was able, but I kept
telling them I
was not back then.
Now, I needed no one to tell me that I am
able, having
lived without my parents and guardian
for over ten
months. I had even checked Mrs Oyin in
her home
some weeks back but I met another
family there. I got
a note and asked them where she was.
They told me
she sold the house to them.
I left with the understanding that she had
travelled to
London to join her family there.
Laide read my write-up and began to
frolick on her
wheelchair as she read it in the ears of
her elder
brother, Biodun. The boy was also happy,
laughing with
all his strength.
My Write-up
Oh how I missed my teacher, Mrs
Oyindamola. She is a
honeycomb with sweetness. She is an
eagle with
foresight. She is an elephant with
intelligence. She is a
Lion with courage. She is a horse with
strength. She is
my mentor and my monitor; my hope and
the reason
why I could cope. Last year, when I didn’t
stop calling
myself a deaf and dumb, she told me to
stop saying
that. She even told me that I could hear
and speak. She
told me that there are too things, either
everybody is
deaf and dumb or everybody can hear
and speak. I
disagreed and asked her to show me the
practicality of
her argument.
My clasteacher did something funny. She
invited a
normal person who could speak and hear
to our
classroom and told us to ask him
questions in our usual
sign language. We began to bombard
him with a lot of
questions but the man appeared dumb to
us because he
couldn’t respond a word. He couldn’t
understand us.
What is your name? Where do you live?
What are you
here to do? Would you like to eat
something? Do you
have kids? So and so went our questions
but he pulled
up a confused face, then we began to
laugh him to
scorn, pushing at ourselves as we used
him to catch
fun.
He is dumb! He is dumb! we signed to
each other that
day until the man hurried away from our
presence. My
classteacher then told us that being deaf
and dumb
doesn’t contain in the lack of using the
mouth to speak
alone. So far we could use other means
to
communicate, then we are not deaf and
dumb.
So, Laide you are not lame because you
could move
with your wheelchair and Biodun is not
blind because he
could use his foresight and his inner
eyes.
WE ARE ABLE!
To Be Continued
