So I made my first ever post some minutes ago. I think this place is really fun though. Two really crazy things happened😂. I posted my into article twice, by mistake. There's no delete article option (at least not that I've found yet) so I let them there. And worse? I think I replied to a bot on the comments section😂😂. I was overexcited I guess. Comes with the newbie craze. Now I'm leaving here an old story of mine, inspired by true events. Hope you like it.
I ran back to my mother's hut. I dashed with the speed of light to where Mama kept the water pots. I fetched a calabash from the rack above the waterpots and took little water from one of the pots. Mama was unconscious, again. This was the fifth time today, and every time, I repeatedly sprinkled water from the same calabash to revive her.
Papa always beat up Mama. Papa had a bad temper and like fire in a dry bush, burned everything that crossed him. He was reputable in the village as the most undaunted hunter of the time who never listened to anybody for guidance, not even the mouthpiece of the gods. And this paid off well as Papa proved everybody wrong about everything, even the gods. He was very successful.
At home Papa never took nonsense, especially from Mama. He always beat her up for everything; for waking too early, or too late. He beat her for talking too loudly, for putting too much pepper in the sauce, for even being Mama. He would complement those beatings with sharp, abusive words and expressions like "I mmarried a responsible woman, don't turn yourself to a stupid fish." He said that about three times today, out of the five times Mama fainted from his beatings.
I watched Mama tie up the rest of her wrappers in one big wrapper. I sat in a corner of the hut and watched her closely, sucking in my sugarcane. Her eyes were red and swollen from crying. She kept sniffing and telling me, "It's going to be alright" as if it was me that needed to calm down. I did not understand anything. I did not know how we ended up in Papa's huts in the first place. I had to be burdened with the voice of Mama's sobs from the inner room everyday.
"We will teach him a lesson! He thinks it's to finish a whole gourd of palm wine alone. How can he lay his hand on you? Our beloved sister, the most beautiful of the village. See what you look like now..." That was Uncle Nkokom's voice, Mama's elder brother. I was outside rolling small stones on the floor but since Mama and his brothers were yelling at the top of their voices, I could hear them from here. I reckoned they were going to deal returning blows on Papa. But what did I care anyway? I did not understand anything going on.
We were back at Papa's hut. They seemed happy together again. It reminded me of Papa's face when he saw me for the first time when I arrived this world. I wondered how long it would last. Papa's smiles warn of impending danger, always. Tonight will be no different. As I blew out the candle in Mama's hut and lay on the mat to sleep, I heard a loud boom from Papa's hut. It was Papa's hunting Dane gun and I wondered what Papa was shooting at. Then Mama screamed at the top of her voice. I made for the calabash and pots of water in the darkness and ran to Papa's room. She lay on the floor, unconscious. Her blood had formed a dark pool around her body. Papa was nowhere to be found. As I watched Mama's consciousness slip away into the darkness, the calabash fell from my hands and broke. My first tears, ever, rolled from my eyes. Now, I understood.
