“Ada m, i lòla!” mama called out excitedly from the dining room, where she sat chatting with Nmesomachi, without getting up.
I just returned home from school for a three-day midterm break and I was excited to be home. (Did you attend a boarding school? Kai! The wahala nor be here ooo. I hated the most that mama had to be out of sight every now and again. Then those seniors that wouldn’t come with their personal “boyi” from their houses.)
I dropped my bags in the sitting room and walked briskly into mama’s embrace. “I am so happy to see you, mama m”, I replied in my high-pitched voice. “You have come back again with this your olu ogene. You must damage someone’s ears to send your message across,” Nmeso fired at me.
I sat on mama’s laps laughing. “Nmeso, I missed you o. I maka zi. You people are feeding fat in this house,” I teased her. “But wait! Instead of saying welcome and telling me you how much missed me, you are yabbing me? Don’t worry I’ll go back again.”
“Is going back a threat? Biko wait I want to hear better things. Or do you want to go back now?” Nmesoma responded giggling. “There is food in the pot if you’re hungry. We were talking before you came in.”
I went to the kitchen to help myself with a plate of jollof beans and then I rejoined them at the dining table.
“…that was when he grapped me and threw me on the cushion – that long cushion. I cried and begged him but he wasn’t listening to me. He was already undoing his belt when Emeka’s daddy knocked. I don’t know if he heard us, but his coming delivered me,” Nmeso finished.
“Are you planning a new movie? Who wan rape you for this world?” I asked curiously.
“My dear! Ada m, your father is on a new low. Nmeso is just telling me what happened here two Fridays ago, while I was at work,” mama said disenchanted.
“Okay, this is a joke right?” I said, unable to hide my disgust. “Nmeso this won’t happen again. I trust mama to make sure of that.”
“It won’t happen again Ada because I’m moving next week. I already made arrangements with my course mates in town,” Nmeso replied. “I don’t want to create such chance again. I won’t tell my father, as I had intended. Rather, I will go”, she concluded.
I didn’t argue because I understood her need for safety. I just wondered why mama had to be the one cleaning up these messes. I wondered what good marriage served, especially for women.
Transforming Word Series 