We are able episode 4&5

~~~~~~~CHAPTER FOUR~~~~~~~~~
Mother was discharged after two weeks. Her right hand
is bandaged and attached to her neck so that her bones
can heal up fast. She has her right leg in POP. Now I feel
the real meaning of being deaf and dumb. I have to be
at home to take care of her, but home was hell to me.
No one to communicate with me.
Mother watches me as I do my sign language before
her face. She can only shake her head vertically or
horizontally to either concur with me or disagree to any
matter I raise. Now I have to endure the true meaning
of suspense: if you ask me, I can’t understand what
really transpires between daddy, mummy and the other
woman in question, but it seems mummy now knows
all because I see daddy talking to her at length. She
weeps endlessly and her face swells when father
speaks then.
My teachers have come to pay my mother a visit when
they discover my absence in school. Mrs Oyin, my
classteacher comes around and rapports with my
mother. She then tells her the whole story:
John, my father, begins to deal in extra marital affair
when I was three–then it has just been confirmed that
I am completely deaf and dumb. John needs an able
child desperately then, such that he has to spread his
tentacles to a woman whom I will refer to as a
prostitute; her name is Toyosi.
Daddy so much keeps his affair away from my poor
mother such that she didn’t suspect that he is doing
such a thing. It seems that Toyosi in question is a
young teenager who is not through with her secondary
school education then. She gets pregnant and daddy
asks her to abort her pregnancy because my mum was
also having her second pregnancy by then also
(mummy’s pregnancy was not successful).
That’s the end of their affair–Toyosi disappears without
the knowledge of my father. He can’t tell if she has
aborted the pregnancy or not. Things goes on normally
for my daddy until Toyosi shows up in his life again two
weeks back–the day we find them kissing each other.
Toyosi, whom I have only seen once, is a light-skinned,
wide browed pretty lady in her twenties. Going by my
teacher’s narration of the story, she should be about
twenty-five years now, because she tells me that
Toyosi gets pregnant when she was in J.S.S 3.
Toyosi has a lionesslike waist and the hair on her head
that only day I see her makes her take the form of a
lady in a beauty contest. Her teeth are spaced at the
centre to add to her pulchritude. Her purplish-brown
tinted eyelashes must have been artificially brushened
up to exude such lustrous appearance. To call a spade a
spade, Toyosi looks angelic (or maybe I should say
demonic) in her make-ups.
The cleavages she reveals alone could have made my
father go lusting for her again. Her miniskirt is what I
would refer to as a minipant if there is anything like
that. But why is my father so bold as to rough-handling
his real wife because of a mere outlandish appendage
as her? She is supposed to be punished under the law
for her act, but she is spared. That is even too much for
her, let alone treading the path of my mother, coming
into her matrimonial home and kissing my dad with
those red lips of hers.
My teacher doesn’t want to hide anything from me
regarding the matter despite the fact that it can be very
bitter.
“You see, Rose, you have to be a strong lady and take
heart. How old are you now?” Mrs Oyin signals to me.
“Eleven,” I signal back and protrudes my lips in
dissatisfaction.
“Good! You are already mature–puberty, everything,”
she says and sighs at my bust as if she is just
discovering the development on me. “Rose, your
mother doesn’t want me to hide anything from you as
regards that matter.”
“Which matter?” I ask.
“That matter now; that woman you see with your
daddy, ehn, that woman.”
“Okay, go on ma, I’m all eyes,” I say. She smiles. She
must have been wondering how I come about some
idioms let alone using it to suit my taste.
‘I am all ears’ is what I turn around to ‘I am all eyes’.
“So, Rose this is what actually happened: your daddy
went into extramarital affair eight years back for
reasons best known to him…”
That reason is best known to me than John himself, I
think. Then I am just three, that year it is confirmed that
my eardrums weren’t in place at all. So dad must have
gone into the extramarital relationship because of me.
“Your daddy impregnates T-o-y-o-s-i, a Yoruba girl
from…” she pauses as she sees me trying to spell out
the name with my hands since such name hasn’t been in
my vocabulary of words earlier.
“Toy? Is she a toy?” I ask strangely. Mrs Oyin signals
the name to me again; there is no break between the
letters when she is spelling the name, so she is not Mrs
Toy Osi as I have thought earlier, but Toyosi is just a
single name.
Something about me is that I am too outspoken. Maybe
God knows that I will turn out to be a parrot if he has
created me with a mouth that can talk that is why he
didn’t do that. Well…I am still waiting to hear either my
mother or my teacher tell me the gain of being disabled
since they have both said that there are gains in it.
“Rose, listen, Rose,” my teacher says after pulling me
to see her speak. I was looking away earlier. “When
your father impregnates Toyosi, he gave her money to
terminate her pregnancy because your mother was also
pregnant at that time. Toyosi collected the money and
since then your father didn’t know her whereabout until
last two weeks when she showed up in your home as
you can see.”
“Did I hear you say my mother was pregnant?” I ask her
at once.
“Yes, she was pregnant at that time,” she nods in
affirmation.
“Where is my sibling then?” I ask.
“A stillborn, Rose. It was dead at birth.”
I am ‘mute’. So I should have had a brother, a younger
brother, I thought and shook my head in self-pity.
“Ahh!” I yell as if a big bedbug has just punctured my
skin. “So I should have had a brother or sister!” I
intensified my response to show my utmost
displeasure.
“Yes Rose, you should have had a brother,” she says.
“Well… goodnews Rose, now you have a brother,” she
smiles. “And your brother will be here any moment
from now,” she adds.
“A ghost brother? Stillbirth?” I am horrified.
“No, no, no, Rose. Your brother will be here any
moment from now–your brother from another mother,
Bode by name.”
“What! Who is Bode?” I ask and shout with my useless
mouth.
“Bode is Toyosi’s son she had for your daddy. He would
be here soon to live with you. He’s only seven years,
Rose, so take care of him very well when he comes.
Don’t fight him at all. You are from the same father, so
please take good care of him.”
My head begins to knock like a car engine as sweat
covered me up. I begin to envisage the beginning of
torture for myself and my mother. That Toyosi in
question, a second wife? Yes, this is the beginning of
torment for myself and my mother, I think.
I leave my teacher in the parlour and go straight into
my mother’s room. She is sitting on a wheelchair, being
confined to such since the day she was pushed by my
daddy.
“Mummy is it true?” I ask with utmost seriousness
written on my face.
She shook her head in affirmation, weeping.
“Aargh!” I scream in sign language.

___________________________________

Chapter Five
I feel a bit relieved when I learn that Toyosi herself
isn’t going to be staying with us. Only her son will be
staying.
Toyosi has just met with a man she will marry but she
isn’t going to let that man know that she has a child,
that is why she wants to return Bode to his father.
With the knowledge I have, my father begs her that
she should stay with him. Mother says she eavesdrops
on them and hear them speak.
My father kneels down before her, begging her to be
his wife; he is even ready to throw my mother and I out
for her sake.
“Toyosi, please come home. This place is a hell to me.
Please stay with me, Toyosi,” John laments.
“You have a wife already,” says Toyosi. “I can’t be a
second wife; I mean it’s too early for me to get into
rivalry with another wife. Please let me just leave Bode
here. Joseph is my husband. He loves me a lot,” Toyosi
says.
“Listen Toyosi, I quite understand you, okay. If you
don’t want to be a second wife, that’s right. I can drive
Hannah and her useless good-for-nothing child out of
the house immediately…”
Good-for-nothing! If only my mum tells me that
immediately my dad says it, I would have taken it hard
with him. Maybe God doesn’t want me to go wild, that’s
why. I only hear that few days back after my mother
has recovered. She says she eavedrops to hear that.
Well, ‘Good-for-nothing’ is what I am afterall. Dad hasn’t
told any lie. When Bode comes to the house and
discovers I am deaf mute and my mother is on a wheel
chair, the boy runs back and holds his mother tight,
saying, “Is this where you want me to stay, aunty? I
can’t stay in the house where everybody is disabled.”
“Ssh! Bode, shut up! At least your daddy is not disabled,”
Toyosi says and blinks her eyes.
“But aunty, why can’t you be staying here with us? So
that that woman on wheelchair will not ill-treat me.”
“She dare not,” says Toyosi to my mother’s face. “If
she will do that to you my son, then it had been better
for her not to be able to get up from that wheelchair
forever.”
When mother shares the experience with me, I wept
sore and began to hate little Bode and his mother. How
could they say such a thing? I will teach him a lesson of
his life. Bode must be mute like myself too, I think.
I put a knife on fire and pour some red oil. I will put that
knife down his throat. He will lose his voice.
Bode has finished eating. He is fond of making fun of
me. He has even plucked a leaf and put it inside his
mouth to mock me. Then he writes something down in
a paper and tucks it inside my hand. I read:
You are as deaf as a goat
Am I the one this small boy is calling a herbivore? I
think. The boy laughs and runs about when I wanted to
catch him to deal with him. I wonder who teaches this
boy to be so heartless. Despite how my mother cares
for him, he still does this to me. Why?
Bode soon return when his eyes are heavy with sleep.
He falls on the bed and off he goes. I make sure he is
fast asleep and ties him firmly to the bed. Then I put a
knife on fire and pour red oil on the hot knife.
I will teach Bode what it means to be permanently
speechless in life. Perhaps he doesn’t know that the
most painful thing in life is the inability to express
yourself as you wish. That is why people always
complain that the deaf and dumb people are the most
rebellious, because we get angry when we are very
much pushed to the wall because of our inability to
speak out our mind.
I am going to teach Bode that I am even more terrible
than a stammerer. How can anybody encroach on our
right and go scot-free? I should have done this thing
earlier. Why did I delay up to this time? This is not the
first time Bode will be ridiculing me by putting a leaf in
his mouth. I have signalled to him several times to
stop that but he won’t. Now he will have to bid his
vocal cord a goodbye.
I sit at the edge of the bed and then stretches my body
towards Bode who is fast asleep. I wouldn’t know if he
is snoring because I can’t hear a thing. I hold the hot
knife close to his face. Nothing is going to stop me
from dipping it inside his throat.
I can’t do it. I begin to weep. No! This is not happening.
This is not me. How dare me? My hand shakes. I begin
to retreat.
Bode’s eyes flashed open. He was terrified. I see the
movement of his mouth. He must have shouted,
“Murderer!”
Bode shakes the bed vigorously. I cut the rope with the
hot knife and the boy flees in horror. He didn’t return
until father arrives.
My father becomes enraged. He beat me black and blue.
I’m done for it.
Father locks me out of the home. Mother herself isn’t
allowed to come inside. He accuses my mum of
bringing a b-----d to his home and calling her a child.
That is me daddy is calling a b-----d.
That day we have to pull over in Mrs. Oyin’s house. The
woman becomes disappointed in me.
“Rose, how many times have I warned you to always
behave gentle? You are mature for christ sake! Take a
look at your bre*ast, Rose. You are a big girl.”
I couldn’t say anything. I just keep weeping. I know my
mother doesn’t deserve to be locked outside her
matrimonial home. I feel very guilty.
“Rose, why did you want to kill your brother? He is your
brother, no matter what? And you raised a knife to his
neck to cut off his neck? Rose, Haba!” Mrs Oyin speaks
on. I have no strength to raise a finger, let alone my
two hands to speak. I am not in the mood to say a
word.
“Do you remember what happened to Cain when he
killed Abel his brother in the bible? Rose, don’t you ever
be pushed by anger to do evil in life, because the result
of such doing will remain a stigma forever in your
life…”
That is all my eyes could grab and send to my brain for
interpretation: don’t you ever be pushed by anger to do
evil in life, because the result of such doing will remain
a stigma forever in your life.
I resolve to be calm, no matter the situation. I didn’t
gesture it out for them to see, but in my mind I have
made the decision not to bother myself over offenders.
I will never raise my little fingers, let alone my hands,
to fight back anymore. I will be calm like a peaceful
river.
“Mrs John, we shall return to beg her father to take you
back very early tomorrow morning,” says my
classteacher.
“Thanks so much Mrs Oyin. We are grateful,” my
mother says. I wonder why she doesn’t blame me for
whatever happens. Is she a caring mother or she is just
in the process of spoiling me?