chapter 6

03:20 pm, September 10

Kogi State, Nigeria.

It was the naming ceremony of the Mádégún twins. They'd just been named Oluwatade, Hairum and Oluwajoba, Haysam each as they were Muslims. It was a joyful ceremony as everybody wanted to bless the twins with gifts. Even  non-indigenous guests from the cities had come to grace the occasion, mostly the new parents' family and friends. Gifts of different shapes and colour just kept piling up under the gift canopy to the delight of the glowing parents.

The village women now busied themselves circulating food around the numerous tents in front of the house. There were varieties of local dishes; Mọ́ín-mọ́ín, ẹ̀kọ, àmàlà, jollof and fried rice, iyán, ẹ̀fọ́, and many more to feast the eyes and mouth on.

Eniiyi was feeling extraordinarily happy today. Everything had gone well since morning; she hadn't encountered Taiwo or Lastborn — who were now on her black list of perpetual enemies, Grandma had taken her to the local supermarket in the next town to shop and, to her own gratification, hadn't fed the one thousand naira note to goats like she'd promised (That had nothing to do with her fear of goat, did it?) and had bought a pair of baby beanies with pompoms and wrapping paper for the twins. And now food was flowing in like wine and she couldn't help sampling a little of everything even though she was a light eater.

She was busy sampling some hors d'oeuvre: a mixture of sweet, sour and bitter fruits, veggies and garlic. And the taste was so amazing that she decided to go for second helpings. One had been served per person so she had to make her way to the back of the house where food was coming from.

' . . . said she needs to spend about two more weeks to fully heal,' a voice was saying, as Eniiyi got closer to the backyard.

'Eewo, kílódé tóbẹ̀?' another woman said.

'After all the fourteen domestic fowl and other expenses made?'

Eniiyi paused at this. She didn't want to venture into the midst of so many women, especially since she didn't like most of the village women. And, it'd feel so awkward going there, she wouldn't know how to greet, and if one thing, she'd found out that the village people took umbrage if not greeted by a child (rubbish, if you asked her). Moreso, she wouldn't know who or where to face exactly with those numerous scrutinizing eyes that'd be pinned on her. If she faced one person and greeted, the others would think they'd been ignored and it wasn't possible to face them all at the same time. Ugh, villagers are stupid and boring!

'He sha knows what he's doing, abi? Has he not cured many others?'

'These diseases those city people bring upon themselves. And she won't even admit it, instead, she keeps insisting she has this stupid cancer,' another lamented.

'What's to expect? Living in those ill-aired places where the air is constantly polluted by modern contraptions, and eating all those junk òyìnbó food?'

'I'm worried, my brother's son lives in that Abuja, too, o.'

'No need to, Iya Moji, just send them local herbs on regular basis.'

From what she'd heard, Eniiyi believed they were talking about that woman she'd met for the second time the previous day. Anger bubbled from deep inside her. So these were the people harming that woman! Well, they deserved to get a piece of her mind.

She didn't know when she stomped out of her erstwhile spot and faced into their midst.

'Rubbish!' she declared. 'That fake man is just exploiting you, he has nothing to cure cancer, he's not a doctor!'

'Whose spoilt, uncultured child is this?!' a woman said in disgust.

'You're brave but stupid, omà láyà o, didn't your mother teach you anything? Was this one even brought up by a woman?'

'Get out, now, before I land my turning stick on your head.'

Eniiyi stared around at the women in contempt feeling angrier by the second for the poor woman. 'Remove the woman from there when it's not too late and find a hospital. If you don't she's going to die very soon!'

There was a collective gasp from the women at this. Some were already standing up with clubs and sticks in their hands. Eniiyi's heart skipped a bit. Were they going to maul her to death? They wouldn't dare to do it, would they? She backed up a bit. They couldn't possibly be so cold hearted!

She didn't notice the woman that got to her first on the right side, that is until her cheek was smacked with such an energy as to break her neck.

She yelled, touching a hand over the offended cheek. Icy stings spread all over the left side of her face in less than a second and she knew the mark of the hand would stain her face for days. She could feel bells ringing in her ears, every other sound was blocked out. It really was painful, she'd never been smacked before in her entire life.

She whimpered and stared up at the wicked witch that had inflicted such pain on her face. To her surprise it was none other than her grandmother.

'Gran . . .'

'Jẹ́ kí orí ẹ pé. So now you've gone from spoilt to rotten? I see, you need to be taught a lesson. By the time I'm done with you, that evil spirit tí kò jé kò gbádùn will leave you!'

'Evil child,' someone said.

'Aláìlẹ́kọ́ ọmọ, mannerless child!'

'Mama Nurse, you'd better do something about this granddaughter of yours and fast.'

'Did you hear what she did to Iya yard and Iya Idowu last week?'

Grandma didn't answer any question and kept glaring down at the child, heaving. If possible, red-hot fire would have been pouring out her nostrils and scorched the small girl to death.

Suddenly she raised her hand again to slap the child, but the girl was fast to see the raised hand and dodged out of her way. She gave a pained scream and ran out of the place.

Her grandmother collapsed into the nearest chair, not ready to chase after her and cupped her cheeks in frustration.

'When other children were going to marry their kind of people what did my own children do? The elder one went ahead and went to go and marry Ibo* girl and the bride price cost us an arm and a leg. That one is even better, the other one, he saw all the Nigerian girls, did he marry any? No! He went ahead and married a foreigner, whether African or not she's still a foreigner, white family! How is a child supposed to be brought up properly in that kind of family ehn, tell me!'

A day after  . . .

02:16 pm, September 11

Kogi State.

Eniiyi limped down the porch steps down the street towards the neighbour's house, headphones turned up to a high volume just to block out her surroundings. She was angry, frustrated and sore from yesterday.

Grandma had come home later in the day, dragged her out of her hiding place by her ears with a long, slender, flexible cane in her hand meaning to flog the life out of her, but she'd been saved by the person she had least expected to: Taiwo. Why, she'd tried her very best to be extremely rude to him, but he'd obviously not taken her behavior to heart. He'd spent about twenty minutes giving Gma reasons she shouldn't punish the nine year old. Which was all good for the girl. She'd been planning to pull fainting act anyway but had doubted it'd work on her grandmother.

It hadn't ended there, wicked Grandma had taken her round the houses of all the women present earlier and had made go on her knees and apologize to each and everyone of them. As a result of that she'd gone to bed on an empty stomach, numb, and with aching bruised knees. Her poor knees still hurt till now although she'd been given food this morning and afternoon. It was all so painful she couldn't cry, even if she plucked her fingers deep into her eyes. 

Thinking about all her woes just made her angrier, at herself, at the whole god-damned backward village, at her cold unfeeling parents for dumping her here. She was already starting to nurse the idea of running away. No one was going to miss her. No, not her parents they never loved her before, anyways. She could run away to the East and pretend amnesia, nobody would ever find her there. She sighed in frustration, it was easy to propose, but difficult to accomplish.

She sighed again and turned the volume to the highest. Sia's Move Your Body Remix boomed out from the pair of speakers.

Immersing herself in the music she quickly reached her destination; the residence of the baby mother. She'd come hoping to touch the babies since that was the only thing that gave her joy in this mind-numbing backward village.

She turned off her headphones then knocked on the door once, twice.

'Ẹ̀ wọlé,' a voice said, inviting her in.

She pushed open the door into a living room. The babies' mommy was sat back in a recliner. An older woman was sat in an adjacent chair, cooing over the babies.

Eniiyi greeted both of them and relaxed when they answered back. Their cool attitude meant they hadn't heard about yesterday's incidence. She went over to sit by the woman who started to sing a song to the happy babies.

Agile monkeys full of pranks

If I had you, I would be glad

Princes among children

Even if you're rude, I'll follow you home

Shove me off and I'll not depart from you

You entered the house of the poverty stricken

And transformed the fortune of your parents

You entered the home with only two children

And enlarged the family beyond measure.

The woman had sang it in Yoruba then English and Eniiyi tried hard to comprehend the meaning of the song but it remained blank to her.

'What does the song mean, ma?'

The older woman smiled at her fondly. 'Twins are special children that arrive in a home to bestow wealth and good luck on their parents and those who contributed to their upkeep . . .' the woman started to explain when a knock came on the door and Taiwo came in.

He looked like he'd run all the way here. He was out of breath.

'Taiwo,' said the mother of the twins.

'Ẹ káàsán, Mommy twins, Grandma,' he greeted then turned to Eniiyi. 'Come quick, your mother has called from Japan.'

Eniiyi sprang up, excited. She hurriedly said her goodbye and dashed down the street to their house. 

But to her total disappointment the network had disappeared and disconnected the call. Her heart sank from her breast down to her moccasin shoes.

She went and locked herself into her room in dejection.

*An ethnic group living mainly in Southeast Nigeria.