we are able ep 6,7&8
CHAPTER SIX
Daddy didn’t pay attention to us for one week. Mrs. Oyin
accommodates us throughout those times. Every
evening we will go to our house to beg him, but he is
adamant.
However, he allowed me to enter the house and pick
all my clothes, including my school uniform. Bode sticks
out his tongue at me, mocking me.
We left the house again on the seventh day, but only
Mrs Oyin returned to speak to him. He agrees to take us
in.
— — — — — — —
Bode didn’t stop to offend me. But I did all I can do to
avoid having trouble with him. At an instance, Bode
slaps me. It is a big shock for me. Nobody has ever
slapped me and go scot free before. Even Bose, the big
girl everybody fears in school, is not up to my standard.
I can remember the day I beat her and poured sand in
her mouth.
Bode is four years younger than me, yet he will not
respect his senior. He is becoming very pompous,
maybe because Daddy is overprotecting him.
Bode is too dull for my liking. His exercise books are
painted all over with zeros. Maybe he is having that
dullness in common with his mother, because as for
me, I am not dull in school, meaning that my parents
are not dull too. But if it works that way, why then am I
deaf and dumb when both of my parents are normal?
That is a question for my science teacher.
It has been better if Bode’s pomposity is all the pain my
mother has to cope with. Toyosi his mother always
come to check on him every weekend. Bode will tell
lies to her about me and the woman will begin to blab
and threaten me. She says that if anything bad happens
to her son, then I should count myself dead.
It’s like daddy still likes Toyosi a lot. Anytime she
comes around, daddy will take her to his room and lock
the door. Then they will send my mummy out of the
room. They must have been having extramarital affair.
One day I ask my mummy to divorce daddy, but she
refused.
“Rose, I can’t do that,” she says. “God doesn’t like
divorce.”
“If God doesn’t like divorce then why can’t he also
prevent things that can lead to divorce?” I grumble
over my nose.
“Don’t say so, Rose!” mummy shuns me. My eyes are
wet already. I am going to shed tears. She comes
around me and put her arms around my neck. Her long
hair falls on my nape. She doesn’t like seeing me in
tears. “Rose, in the end we shall overcome,” she says
eventually.
I advise my mummy to trace Toyosi to her husband’s
house and reveal the secret once and for all, but she
waves away the idea. Instead, she picks up that boring
song again ‘We Shall Overcome’.
My Common Entrance Examination will soon be here,
but daddy refuses to get past questions and answers
series for me. Mummy tries her best and gets them for
me.
My school is Ejigbo Standard School. It is both for the
normal people and the special ones. Since the day I
make that resolution that I will be calm, I haven’t
fought anybody. I didn’t even talk to anyone let alone
quarrelling with them and this again becomes my
classteacher’s headache. She will call me into her
office and ask me why my name doesn’t make the
name of noisemaker list anymore.
“But you have told me to cease from making noise
many times, and now I’m doing that, what again?” I say.
Mrs Oyin keeps quiet. She doesn’t know what to say
any more.
… … … … … … …
One day, I iron my white cloth as I get prepared for
school. That particular morning, I wake up happy. I don’t
know why. Mother notices it before she leaves for
work. Now I go to school myself because I am twelve.
I am the one to take Bode to school as usual. His own
school is just a stone throw from our house, but I have
been mandated to take him there before going to my
own school.
Bode has been yawning since the time mummy wakes
him up to take his bath. The last time I check on him, he
just got into the bathroom. I didn’t want to be late
because I am the Time Keeper of my school.
Sometimes whenever I ring the bell it looks funny to
me because I can’t hear the sound of what I am ringing.
But I have come to learn something: the blind cannot
become a time keeper because they don’t have eyes to
check the time. Yet, they are always the first set of
people to come out of their classes at the sound of the
bell, touching the walls for guidance and support. It’s
like the walls themselves are useful. Nothing in the
world is a waste Mrs Oyin will tell us many times, just
to make us know that WE ARE ABLE.
As a Time Keeper, I am supposed to be in school early,
but this morning I haven’t seen the possiblity; not when
Bode hasn’t taken his bath not to talk of eating his food,
yet it is 7:24am already. It is obvious I will be late to
school this time around. I can’t really remember the last
time I go late to school.
I leave my cloth to check on Bode if he has finished
taken his bath, to my surprise he is not in the bathroom.
I check the toilet to see if he is there. No, he is not
there. I resign and return to the table where I am
ironing my cloth, to my surprise, the cloth has been
soaked up with red oil.
I raise the cloth up. Tears flow down my cheek when I
see that my cloth has been burnt up with iron. I did put
off the pressing iron when I went to look for Bode, so
how come my cloth is now burnt up?
Bode crawls out from under the table, laughing. He
gives me a note and runs away. I read it:
I don’t want to go to school today
I become mad. Is it because he didn’t want me to take
him to school that he has to burn and stain my cloth? I
am enraged within me. I sit quietly and fold my hands.
Bode comes and sticks his tongue at me as usual. He is
taking my silence for cowardice. He should have gone
to my school a year ago to ask them my name: Rose
The Tiger. Even Bose the Big Boss cannot face me let
alone this small Bode.
Bode spreads his ten fingers at me. I hardly joke with
my mother. How can he be cursing my mother? Okay,
what has my mummy got to do in this matter? The tiger
in me begins to form when I see those dirty fingers.
His cup is full. It is time to teach him a lesson.
No, I think. I have resolved in my mind that I will be
gentle a year back and I have endured for that long, so
let me not fight back.
Bode seems to be in the mood today. He wants to get
me angry by all means. He comes behind me and taps
my nape. Kpash! It sounds like thunderbolt. I become
mad at him.
I raise Bode high up by the neck. The rest is a story. He
falls down. Dead? Still alive? I can’t tell.
“Ah!” my brain speaks. “I have killed somebody.”
My class teacher rushes in. It is 9am already. She was
very shocked when she saw Bode lying on the floor.
“What happened, Rose?” she asks me.
“I–I have k–killed him,” I tell her.
“How? What did you do to him?”
“I held his neck tight,” I say.
I explain the whole thing to my teacher. She carried him
to the hospital immediately. I followed her there,
shaking like a leaf.
This Bode must be an ‘ogbanje’, I think. How can he die
because of that little squeezing of his neck? Have I not
done something similar to Bose a female counterpart
for that matter and she didn’t die?
I sit at the waiting room expecting to hear the doctor’s
verdict. If Bode is dead, then I’d rather die too, else my
daddy will kill me by himself. I have seen it in films
how people kill themselves. They call it suicide. Maybe
that is what I will also do, I ponder. God will
understand.
My teacher tells me that Bode has regained
consciousness. He has been diagnosed for asthma.
“Asthma?” I say. I become scared. “Did I cause it?”
“No you didn’t Rose,” she says. “You only triggered it
when you choked him; it is good this happened, else
the boy would keep living with it without knowing.”
I look at my teacher’s face on and on. How did she
know that something was happening in my home for
her to have rushed down there at the nick of time?
Maybe it’s because I didn’t ring the bell in school when I
should. I ask her, “Ma, why did you rush down to my
home like that?”
She smile and says, “God told me to do so. Actually, I
couldn’t rest in my spirit when I didn’t see you in school
on time, so I decided to check on you.”
“I thought as much,” I reply.
Daddy comes around after work. My teacher must have
explained what happened to him. The look on his face is
as if he should tear me apart for almost killing his son. I
fear what Toyosi will do if she learns about it.
My mother also calls at the hospital. This time, she
speaks harshly to me.
“Rose, do you want to kill somebody?”
“I am sorry mother,” I plead.
“Shut up!” she signalled harshly to me. I weep. This
time around she didn’t console me and I understand
why; I am a threat to her matrimonial home, I think.
When mummy and I returned home after Bode was
discharged, we met our loads outside the house. Daddy
is kicking us out again.
We have to put up in my aunty’s place for weeks.
Toyosi even came to the place to insult us. She hit my
mother on the face with the pointed part of her stiletto.
“You want to kill my child for me? I swear, what I will
do for you, you shall both regret it. I will blow whistle
with your nostrils, you wicked nuisance. Ah! In my life
shall I live to enjoy the fruit of my womb but I swear
that deaf mute idol you are calling your daughter will
die soon, as glory be to God! Call me b-----d if it
doesn’t happen!”
My aunty was angry. She rushes to confront her, but my
weeping mother didn’t allow her do that. The sight is
unbearable to me. I run down the staircase and roll
over accidentally.
The woman stands over me and claps her hands over
my head:
“Good! This is just the beginning for you. Call me
b-----d if I, Toyosi the daughter of Balogun, don’t ruin
your family!”
I didn’t have much injury when I fell. I get up and my
aunt comes around me to pick me up. She so much
loves me such that she has mastered the sign language
too. She is even the one who tells me everything
Bode’s mother was yelling about.
“Rose, just be who you are. Don’t fear, she can’t do
anything to hurt you,” my aunty assures me afterwards.
Mummy says it is time to divorce my daddy as I have
advised her earlier. It seems okay by me, at least it will
help me to steer clear of trouble every now and then.
___________________________________________________________
CHAPTER SEVEN
Rachael my aunty is a widow. Her children are in
boarding school. She is a civil servant. She is a very
hardworking and religious type. She seems very godly
and I appreciate her lifestyle. I feel at home in her
house more than in my father’s house.
Racheal is about five feet seven inches tall. Her natural
hair is what she has on her head but it looks very long
such that it makes me doubt that it is natural. My
mother’s natural hair hasn’t been as long as half of hers.
They cut often.
Rachael is only two years younger than my mother, yet
she is already a widow. Her husband died in a plane
crash some years back. They are wealthy. She is lucky
however that her husband is distant from family
members while he was alive, else they would have
sent her packing.
Rachael doesn’t play with church issue. She will never
skip church activities for anything. Her faith seems to
be very strong. She believes in moving mountain with
prayers. She loves to fill my head up with challenging
testimonies from the Bible. I wonder why I haven’t
witnessed any such testimony in our real life today.
“It’s faith,” she says. “People in our contemporary
world don’t have faith anymore. They are more hasty
than God.”
In one way or the other, I used to believe in God
anytime I am with her. The love and care she shows,
the warm accommodation–even the devil himself will
tend to repent of his sins after spending a week or two
with her, I think.
My aunty suddenly comes up with an idea. She says that
she has a very strong faith that my deafness and
dumbness will end before the end of that month June. I
doubt it.
“Rose, my faith is lifted,” she says. “Only believe, you
will speak and hear this month,” she assures me. As
usual, she will always have testimonies to back up her
claims. She is better off being a motivational speaker. I
wonder what she is doing in the civil service.
Rachael tells us that there is a Crusade coming up and
their general pastor will be coming all the way from
Abuja their headquarters.
“Rachael, the lame have walked, the blind have seen,
the sick have been healed. I am strongly sure this is
your time, Rose. The pastor doesn’t need to lay hands
on you before you receive your healing.”
“Are you sure aunty?” I ask in doubt.
“Yes! Will I ever lie to you?” she reassures me. I take
her by her word.
It is a holiday period for me already because I have
finished my common entrance examination without my
daddy’s support. She(Rachael) is even the one who
takes up all the responsibilities then.
The crusade will be a five-day crusade. An open air
crusade it is called. No canopy at all–we have to chase
rain away with our prayers. The first night it rained
heavily. We become wet from head to toes.
My aunty calls it showers of blessing.
“When Elijah was about to do exploit, it began with
showers of rain. Rose, this is the assurance that you
will get your divine touch,” she says. I believe her.
The second, third and fourth days passed without any
thing. I begin to doubt what aunty says. However,
people come out each day to share their testimonies.
Two blind people also came out to say that they were
blind but now they see. Even a deaf boy shares his
testimony.
Before the dawn of the fifth day, my aunty prays for me
personally. She cast out the spirit of deafness and
dumbness but nothing happens. That spirit inside my
mouth and ears must be too stubborn for remaining
there, going by how my aunty was shouting vigorously
(I know she was shouting going by the look of her face
as she opened her mouth).
On the fifth day, the embarrassment becomes so
pronounced, not only on me but on my aunty too when
nothing happens to me. She weeps bitterly.
“Why? God why?” she weeps.
“God hates me,” I say.
“Don’t say so!”
“Or there is no God!”
“Hey! Rose, don’t go there!” my mother reprimands me
at once.
That night, I slept and had a nightmare…
My Nightmare
In my dream, I saw a woman sitting beside a native
doctor. They were speaking, but I didn’t hear what they
were saying since I was deaf and dumb. They were
looking inside a small calabash filled with water. I saw
my image in that calabash. They bent over the calabash
and going by the look of their mouths, they were
shouting something. They kept shouting and shouting
inside the water, but nothing happened.
I wake from sleep. I tremble. I tell my mummy and my
aunty what I see.
“Praise the Lord, Rose!” my aunty shouts. “That woman
you see in your dream is your enemy. She has taken
your name to the herbalist and they are calling your
name to death. But since you can’t hear them, you didn’t
respond. If you have responded, Rose, that is the end.”
“Ah!” my mummy shouts.
Now I thank my star that I haven’t received the miracle
of speaking and hearing. If I have, then I would have
heard and replied the wicked people calling my name
and then I would have died.
“Thank you Jesus,” I say.
____________________________________________________________________________
CHAPTER EIGHT
My aunt and my mother are still in the euphoria of the
great thing God did for us, even three days after the
dream I had. Now I have begun to see that some
advantages can be in being disabled. Well, I still don’t
fully agree to it anyway. But that woman I see in the
dream calling my name, I have never seen her in real
life before. Who can she be? I wonder.
Rachael soon began to pester my mother to return to
my father. She says that divorce is not a good Christian
practice. It seems as if she wants me to ‘hear’ what
they are saying so she talks to my mother in sign
language:
“Hannah, Hannah, Hannah, how many times did I call
you?”
“Twice Rachael,” my mummy answers.
“Not twice, three times,” she signals.
“Yes, three times,” my mummy answers.
“You have to return to your husband right now, please.”
“I can’t!” she replies. “John is selfish! All he wants is
other people’s inconveniences to please himself. He
keeps beating me and my daughter up. Before he kills
us we have to stay away from him. Sister, tell us if you
are tired of accomodating us and we will just leave
here for another place.”
“Ahn! Ahn! Why are you talking like this, Hannah? Did I
complain that I am tired? Infact my sister, you have
disappointed me for saying such a thing,” she frowns.
“I am very sorry my sister, it is just that I am confused
about the whole thing,” my mother sobs. A tear rolled
down my left cheek. The worry was too much
conspicuous on her face.
I wish never to return to my father. I don’t know why
Rachael is raising that forgone issue now. Why can’t
she just let us be? At least it is not every woman that
must stay in her husband’s wife. She is an example,
since she has been living alone since her husband’s
death.
I come into thw issue:
“Aunty Rachael, daddy doesn’t want us anymore, don’t
you understand? He used his own hands to throw our
loads out of the house. Even if we beg him, he won’t
agree for us to return,” I say. I wait for her to say
something. Her throat is dancing to the gulp of the
water passing through it. She is drinking water in a
glass cup. Aunty bangs the tumbler against the table
and says, “Rose, it’s not true, your daddy will accept
you, at least you know that it is not possible to chase a
bad child away for a tiger to tear apart. Just humbly go
to him and kneel down before him, then he will take
you back.”
“Okay, okay, we will do that if you will go with us
Rachael,” my mother says.
“That’s not a big deal, Hannah, I will come with you
anytime you are ready. Can we go now?” she says.
I squeeze up my face. The thought of returning to my
father is like returning to earth after making it to
heaven. My world has changed so much within the few
days I am with my aunt. She is the kindest person in the
world.
“Okay, we shall go tomorrow,” my mother promised.
“Accepted by me,” Rachael says.
“Not accepted by me,” I barge in stubbornly. Rachael
smiles and says, “Majority carries the vote. We are
going right there tomorrow.” She comes around me and
kisses my forehead. Then she lowers her right ear to
my chest to feel the thumps of my heart.
“Never worry Rose, all is well. Your father will treat
you well henceforth,” she says, then she folds me up in
her hands.
My mother’s left hand clutched into a fist which she had
rested her chin upon. Her face looked more depressed
than mine. When I look into her face she seems
ageing. I rush to her.
“Mother, don’t think too much, you are ageing rapidly,” I
say.
“Ageing?” she manages to ask in smiles. “I am not
ageing my daughter.”
“Well…if you say so…anyway, I am here to tell you that
all is well, a message from Aunty Rachael.”
“Okay o, jolly little daughter, I have heard you,” says
mother. A knock rocked the door.
“Yes, come in, who is there?” my aunty must have
shouted, going by the movement of her mouth. The
door got opened gently and someone ambled in.
Toyosi!!! It is my stepmother stepping in as if to murder
us. My heart jumped off my body!
Daddy didn’t pay attention to us for one week. Mrs. Oyin
accommodates us throughout those times. Every
evening we will go to our house to beg him, but he is
adamant.
However, he allowed me to enter the house and pick
all my clothes, including my school uniform. Bode sticks
out his tongue at me, mocking me.
We left the house again on the seventh day, but only
Mrs Oyin returned to speak to him. He agrees to take us
in.
— — — — — — —
Bode didn’t stop to offend me. But I did all I can do to
avoid having trouble with him. At an instance, Bode
slaps me. It is a big shock for me. Nobody has ever
slapped me and go scot free before. Even Bose, the big
girl everybody fears in school, is not up to my standard.
I can remember the day I beat her and poured sand in
her mouth.
Bode is four years younger than me, yet he will not
respect his senior. He is becoming very pompous,
maybe because Daddy is overprotecting him.
Bode is too dull for my liking. His exercise books are
painted all over with zeros. Maybe he is having that
dullness in common with his mother, because as for
me, I am not dull in school, meaning that my parents
are not dull too. But if it works that way, why then am I
deaf and dumb when both of my parents are normal?
That is a question for my science teacher.
It has been better if Bode’s pomposity is all the pain my
mother has to cope with. Toyosi his mother always
come to check on him every weekend. Bode will tell
lies to her about me and the woman will begin to blab
and threaten me. She says that if anything bad happens
to her son, then I should count myself dead.
It’s like daddy still likes Toyosi a lot. Anytime she
comes around, daddy will take her to his room and lock
the door. Then they will send my mummy out of the
room. They must have been having extramarital affair.
One day I ask my mummy to divorce daddy, but she
refused.
“Rose, I can’t do that,” she says. “God doesn’t like
divorce.”
“If God doesn’t like divorce then why can’t he also
prevent things that can lead to divorce?” I grumble
over my nose.
“Don’t say so, Rose!” mummy shuns me. My eyes are
wet already. I am going to shed tears. She comes
around me and put her arms around my neck. Her long
hair falls on my nape. She doesn’t like seeing me in
tears. “Rose, in the end we shall overcome,” she says
eventually.
I advise my mummy to trace Toyosi to her husband’s
house and reveal the secret once and for all, but she
waves away the idea. Instead, she picks up that boring
song again ‘We Shall Overcome’.
My Common Entrance Examination will soon be here,
but daddy refuses to get past questions and answers
series for me. Mummy tries her best and gets them for
me.
My school is Ejigbo Standard School. It is both for the
normal people and the special ones. Since the day I
make that resolution that I will be calm, I haven’t
fought anybody. I didn’t even talk to anyone let alone
quarrelling with them and this again becomes my
classteacher’s headache. She will call me into her
office and ask me why my name doesn’t make the
name of noisemaker list anymore.
“But you have told me to cease from making noise
many times, and now I’m doing that, what again?” I say.
Mrs Oyin keeps quiet. She doesn’t know what to say
any more.
… … … … … … …
One day, I iron my white cloth as I get prepared for
school. That particular morning, I wake up happy. I don’t
know why. Mother notices it before she leaves for
work. Now I go to school myself because I am twelve.
I am the one to take Bode to school as usual. His own
school is just a stone throw from our house, but I have
been mandated to take him there before going to my
own school.
Bode has been yawning since the time mummy wakes
him up to take his bath. The last time I check on him, he
just got into the bathroom. I didn’t want to be late
because I am the Time Keeper of my school.
Sometimes whenever I ring the bell it looks funny to
me because I can’t hear the sound of what I am ringing.
But I have come to learn something: the blind cannot
become a time keeper because they don’t have eyes to
check the time. Yet, they are always the first set of
people to come out of their classes at the sound of the
bell, touching the walls for guidance and support. It’s
like the walls themselves are useful. Nothing in the
world is a waste Mrs Oyin will tell us many times, just
to make us know that WE ARE ABLE.
As a Time Keeper, I am supposed to be in school early,
but this morning I haven’t seen the possiblity; not when
Bode hasn’t taken his bath not to talk of eating his food,
yet it is 7:24am already. It is obvious I will be late to
school this time around. I can’t really remember the last
time I go late to school.
I leave my cloth to check on Bode if he has finished
taken his bath, to my surprise he is not in the bathroom.
I check the toilet to see if he is there. No, he is not
there. I resign and return to the table where I am
ironing my cloth, to my surprise, the cloth has been
soaked up with red oil.
I raise the cloth up. Tears flow down my cheek when I
see that my cloth has been burnt up with iron. I did put
off the pressing iron when I went to look for Bode, so
how come my cloth is now burnt up?
Bode crawls out from under the table, laughing. He
gives me a note and runs away. I read it:
I don’t want to go to school today
I become mad. Is it because he didn’t want me to take
him to school that he has to burn and stain my cloth? I
am enraged within me. I sit quietly and fold my hands.
Bode comes and sticks his tongue at me as usual. He is
taking my silence for cowardice. He should have gone
to my school a year ago to ask them my name: Rose
The Tiger. Even Bose the Big Boss cannot face me let
alone this small Bode.
Bode spreads his ten fingers at me. I hardly joke with
my mother. How can he be cursing my mother? Okay,
what has my mummy got to do in this matter? The tiger
in me begins to form when I see those dirty fingers.
His cup is full. It is time to teach him a lesson.
No, I think. I have resolved in my mind that I will be
gentle a year back and I have endured for that long, so
let me not fight back.
Bode seems to be in the mood today. He wants to get
me angry by all means. He comes behind me and taps
my nape. Kpash! It sounds like thunderbolt. I become
mad at him.
I raise Bode high up by the neck. The rest is a story. He
falls down. Dead? Still alive? I can’t tell.
“Ah!” my brain speaks. “I have killed somebody.”
My class teacher rushes in. It is 9am already. She was
very shocked when she saw Bode lying on the floor.
“What happened, Rose?” she asks me.
“I–I have k–killed him,” I tell her.
“How? What did you do to him?”
“I held his neck tight,” I say.
I explain the whole thing to my teacher. She carried him
to the hospital immediately. I followed her there,
shaking like a leaf.
This Bode must be an ‘ogbanje’, I think. How can he die
because of that little squeezing of his neck? Have I not
done something similar to Bose a female counterpart
for that matter and she didn’t die?
I sit at the waiting room expecting to hear the doctor’s
verdict. If Bode is dead, then I’d rather die too, else my
daddy will kill me by himself. I have seen it in films
how people kill themselves. They call it suicide. Maybe
that is what I will also do, I ponder. God will
understand.
My teacher tells me that Bode has regained
consciousness. He has been diagnosed for asthma.
“Asthma?” I say. I become scared. “Did I cause it?”
“No you didn’t Rose,” she says. “You only triggered it
when you choked him; it is good this happened, else
the boy would keep living with it without knowing.”
I look at my teacher’s face on and on. How did she
know that something was happening in my home for
her to have rushed down there at the nick of time?
Maybe it’s because I didn’t ring the bell in school when I
should. I ask her, “Ma, why did you rush down to my
home like that?”
She smile and says, “God told me to do so. Actually, I
couldn’t rest in my spirit when I didn’t see you in school
on time, so I decided to check on you.”
“I thought as much,” I reply.
Daddy comes around after work. My teacher must have
explained what happened to him. The look on his face is
as if he should tear me apart for almost killing his son. I
fear what Toyosi will do if she learns about it.
My mother also calls at the hospital. This time, she
speaks harshly to me.
“Rose, do you want to kill somebody?”
“I am sorry mother,” I plead.
“Shut up!” she signalled harshly to me. I weep. This
time around she didn’t console me and I understand
why; I am a threat to her matrimonial home, I think.
When mummy and I returned home after Bode was
discharged, we met our loads outside the house. Daddy
is kicking us out again.
We have to put up in my aunty’s place for weeks.
Toyosi even came to the place to insult us. She hit my
mother on the face with the pointed part of her stiletto.
“You want to kill my child for me? I swear, what I will
do for you, you shall both regret it. I will blow whistle
with your nostrils, you wicked nuisance. Ah! In my life
shall I live to enjoy the fruit of my womb but I swear
that deaf mute idol you are calling your daughter will
die soon, as glory be to God! Call me b-----d if it
doesn’t happen!”
My aunty was angry. She rushes to confront her, but my
weeping mother didn’t allow her do that. The sight is
unbearable to me. I run down the staircase and roll
over accidentally.
The woman stands over me and claps her hands over
my head:
“Good! This is just the beginning for you. Call me
b-----d if I, Toyosi the daughter of Balogun, don’t ruin
your family!”
I didn’t have much injury when I fell. I get up and my
aunt comes around me to pick me up. She so much
loves me such that she has mastered the sign language
too. She is even the one who tells me everything
Bode’s mother was yelling about.
“Rose, just be who you are. Don’t fear, she can’t do
anything to hurt you,” my aunty assures me afterwards.
Mummy says it is time to divorce my daddy as I have
advised her earlier. It seems okay by me, at least it will
help me to steer clear of trouble every now and then.
___________________________________________________________
CHAPTER SEVEN
Rachael my aunty is a widow. Her children are in
boarding school. She is a civil servant. She is a very
hardworking and religious type. She seems very godly
and I appreciate her lifestyle. I feel at home in her
house more than in my father’s house.
Racheal is about five feet seven inches tall. Her natural
hair is what she has on her head but it looks very long
such that it makes me doubt that it is natural. My
mother’s natural hair hasn’t been as long as half of hers.
They cut often.
Rachael is only two years younger than my mother, yet
she is already a widow. Her husband died in a plane
crash some years back. They are wealthy. She is lucky
however that her husband is distant from family
members while he was alive, else they would have
sent her packing.
Rachael doesn’t play with church issue. She will never
skip church activities for anything. Her faith seems to
be very strong. She believes in moving mountain with
prayers. She loves to fill my head up with challenging
testimonies from the Bible. I wonder why I haven’t
witnessed any such testimony in our real life today.
“It’s faith,” she says. “People in our contemporary
world don’t have faith anymore. They are more hasty
than God.”
In one way or the other, I used to believe in God
anytime I am with her. The love and care she shows,
the warm accommodation–even the devil himself will
tend to repent of his sins after spending a week or two
with her, I think.
My aunty suddenly comes up with an idea. She says that
she has a very strong faith that my deafness and
dumbness will end before the end of that month June. I
doubt it.
“Rose, my faith is lifted,” she says. “Only believe, you
will speak and hear this month,” she assures me. As
usual, she will always have testimonies to back up her
claims. She is better off being a motivational speaker. I
wonder what she is doing in the civil service.
Rachael tells us that there is a Crusade coming up and
their general pastor will be coming all the way from
Abuja their headquarters.
“Rachael, the lame have walked, the blind have seen,
the sick have been healed. I am strongly sure this is
your time, Rose. The pastor doesn’t need to lay hands
on you before you receive your healing.”
“Are you sure aunty?” I ask in doubt.
“Yes! Will I ever lie to you?” she reassures me. I take
her by her word.
It is a holiday period for me already because I have
finished my common entrance examination without my
daddy’s support. She(Rachael) is even the one who
takes up all the responsibilities then.
The crusade will be a five-day crusade. An open air
crusade it is called. No canopy at all–we have to chase
rain away with our prayers. The first night it rained
heavily. We become wet from head to toes.
My aunty calls it showers of blessing.
“When Elijah was about to do exploit, it began with
showers of rain. Rose, this is the assurance that you
will get your divine touch,” she says. I believe her.
The second, third and fourth days passed without any
thing. I begin to doubt what aunty says. However,
people come out each day to share their testimonies.
Two blind people also came out to say that they were
blind but now they see. Even a deaf boy shares his
testimony.
Before the dawn of the fifth day, my aunty prays for me
personally. She cast out the spirit of deafness and
dumbness but nothing happens. That spirit inside my
mouth and ears must be too stubborn for remaining
there, going by how my aunty was shouting vigorously
(I know she was shouting going by the look of her face
as she opened her mouth).
On the fifth day, the embarrassment becomes so
pronounced, not only on me but on my aunty too when
nothing happens to me. She weeps bitterly.
“Why? God why?” she weeps.
“God hates me,” I say.
“Don’t say so!”
“Or there is no God!”
“Hey! Rose, don’t go there!” my mother reprimands me
at once.
That night, I slept and had a nightmare…
My Nightmare
In my dream, I saw a woman sitting beside a native
doctor. They were speaking, but I didn’t hear what they
were saying since I was deaf and dumb. They were
looking inside a small calabash filled with water. I saw
my image in that calabash. They bent over the calabash
and going by the look of their mouths, they were
shouting something. They kept shouting and shouting
inside the water, but nothing happened.
I wake from sleep. I tremble. I tell my mummy and my
aunty what I see.
“Praise the Lord, Rose!” my aunty shouts. “That woman
you see in your dream is your enemy. She has taken
your name to the herbalist and they are calling your
name to death. But since you can’t hear them, you didn’t
respond. If you have responded, Rose, that is the end.”
“Ah!” my mummy shouts.
Now I thank my star that I haven’t received the miracle
of speaking and hearing. If I have, then I would have
heard and replied the wicked people calling my name
and then I would have died.
“Thank you Jesus,” I say.
____________________________________________________________________________
CHAPTER EIGHT
My aunt and my mother are still in the euphoria of the
great thing God did for us, even three days after the
dream I had. Now I have begun to see that some
advantages can be in being disabled. Well, I still don’t
fully agree to it anyway. But that woman I see in the
dream calling my name, I have never seen her in real
life before. Who can she be? I wonder.
Rachael soon began to pester my mother to return to
my father. She says that divorce is not a good Christian
practice. It seems as if she wants me to ‘hear’ what
they are saying so she talks to my mother in sign
language:
“Hannah, Hannah, Hannah, how many times did I call
you?”
“Twice Rachael,” my mummy answers.
“Not twice, three times,” she signals.
“Yes, three times,” my mummy answers.
“You have to return to your husband right now, please.”
“I can’t!” she replies. “John is selfish! All he wants is
other people’s inconveniences to please himself. He
keeps beating me and my daughter up. Before he kills
us we have to stay away from him. Sister, tell us if you
are tired of accomodating us and we will just leave
here for another place.”
“Ahn! Ahn! Why are you talking like this, Hannah? Did I
complain that I am tired? Infact my sister, you have
disappointed me for saying such a thing,” she frowns.
“I am very sorry my sister, it is just that I am confused
about the whole thing,” my mother sobs. A tear rolled
down my left cheek. The worry was too much
conspicuous on her face.
I wish never to return to my father. I don’t know why
Rachael is raising that forgone issue now. Why can’t
she just let us be? At least it is not every woman that
must stay in her husband’s wife. She is an example,
since she has been living alone since her husband’s
death.
I come into thw issue:
“Aunty Rachael, daddy doesn’t want us anymore, don’t
you understand? He used his own hands to throw our
loads out of the house. Even if we beg him, he won’t
agree for us to return,” I say. I wait for her to say
something. Her throat is dancing to the gulp of the
water passing through it. She is drinking water in a
glass cup. Aunty bangs the tumbler against the table
and says, “Rose, it’s not true, your daddy will accept
you, at least you know that it is not possible to chase a
bad child away for a tiger to tear apart. Just humbly go
to him and kneel down before him, then he will take
you back.”
“Okay, okay, we will do that if you will go with us
Rachael,” my mother says.
“That’s not a big deal, Hannah, I will come with you
anytime you are ready. Can we go now?” she says.
I squeeze up my face. The thought of returning to my
father is like returning to earth after making it to
heaven. My world has changed so much within the few
days I am with my aunt. She is the kindest person in the
world.
“Okay, we shall go tomorrow,” my mother promised.
“Accepted by me,” Rachael says.
“Not accepted by me,” I barge in stubbornly. Rachael
smiles and says, “Majority carries the vote. We are
going right there tomorrow.” She comes around me and
kisses my forehead. Then she lowers her right ear to
my chest to feel the thumps of my heart.
“Never worry Rose, all is well. Your father will treat
you well henceforth,” she says, then she folds me up in
her hands.
My mother’s left hand clutched into a fist which she had
rested her chin upon. Her face looked more depressed
than mine. When I look into her face she seems
ageing. I rush to her.
“Mother, don’t think too much, you are ageing rapidly,” I
say.
“Ageing?” she manages to ask in smiles. “I am not
ageing my daughter.”
“Well…if you say so…anyway, I am here to tell you that
all is well, a message from Aunty Rachael.”
“Okay o, jolly little daughter, I have heard you,” says
mother. A knock rocked the door.
“Yes, come in, who is there?” my aunty must have
shouted, going by the movement of her mouth. The
door got opened gently and someone ambled in.
Toyosi!!! It is my stepmother stepping in as if to murder
us. My heart jumped off my body!
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