Mother was a very strong figure in the family because she ruled with an iron fist. Every one of my siblings would always tremble at the sound of her voice. But I was the last born so there wasn't much for me to tremble for because my mother loved me like an only child.
On Saturdays mother, usually prepares a special meal that I loved so much. The meal is called pepper soup, and whenever mothered prepared it, it usually tasted like heaven. I was so in love with the food that every Saturday after everyone had eating and went to bed. I would stay awake timing the perfect moment to go for my soup heist. And when the house was silent like a graveyard, I would sneak into the kitchen quietly. Open the pot slowly and smoothly, and then begin to count my blessings one by one.
It was a routine that I soon cultivated into a habit. But this particular day, it appeared that I had beaten more than I could chew.
Mother prepared the lovely pepper soup as usual and we all ate and went to bed. From the moment we went to bed, I started planning my hostile takeover. And when the house was extremely silent, I rolled the dice and put my plans into action, coming out successful in the end.
I went back to bed, with a happy smile, and a satisfied taste bud.
The next morning, we were woken up by a loud cry.
"Femi !!!, Tunde!!!, Jide!!, Aisha!!", It was mother screaming at the top of her lungs, what could she want? I went downstairs with my other siblings who mother had also called. Before I knew what was happening, I found myself in the kitchen with my mother and my other siblings. The sleep in my eye finally vanished as I saw mother standing with the dishing spoon in one hand and the pot cover in the other. I could feel my heartbeat rising like an ocean wave.
What have I done?
"Which one of you long throats, came to my pot?". Her face was like a dragon about to spit out fire on its unfortunate prey as she stared us down waiting for the culprit to confess.
"Mommy, it wasn't me oo", I quickly exonerated myself from the situation, using my get out of jail free card, which was the love mom had for me.
"Shut up!!" She said angrily waving the spoon in my direction. "I think she knows I did it, was all I could think of as mother displayed her readiness to vanquish her enemy.
"One of you came to this pot, to steal my meat. And if you don't start confessing, I will skin you tiny creatures alive". For the first time I could feel the fear in the air, I now understood how my siblings always felt and I didn't like it.
"I didn't do it", "I'm not the one", "mommy I'm innocent!", "Mommy I don't know how to steal", we all cried out trying to defend ourselves.
But mother wasn't bulging at all but knew I needed her to believe me. So I decided to go all out, I cried like a child about to die of hunger, screaming at the top of my lungs, until she noticed me.
"Jide, come over here", she said waving her spoon, indicating that I should approach her. I went happily, "finally I'm free*.
"What's this?" She asked pointing at the soup stain on my trousers, my foot, and my flip flop.
The soup, last night must have dripped onto my clothes, leaving a big footprint that I failed to notice before drawing attention to myself, I thought to myself. I was silent not knowing what to say.
"Jide, I said what is this"
"Mommy, I don't kno..." Before I could complete my statement, she gave me a dirty slap, so hard that I began to tell the whole truth in an instant, even including the ones I had done in the past, plus ones my siblings committed
That day, I received a hell of a beating, my television rights were revoked for a full month, and I was not allowed to eat meat for six weeks.
I didn't need a prophet to prophesy into my life, I didn't need a pastor to cast out my evil ways, all I needed was my mother, and her life-changing slap, to send me in the right direction.
