Dark clouds with heavy storms were beginning to gather from the east, yet the sun shines here in the west. From afar, you can smell rain and dust. Even though it was sunny, the breeze felt cold. Ajike squatted under the pear tree, washing off the bitter juice from the bitter leaves to make soup.
Her mind was with Papa, who had gone to the farm. If it rains, Papa may become sick again. He had always fallen sick during the cold season. It is an affliction he had to deal with all his life.
She did not want to be late in preparing the bitter leaf soup at all, despite Akanni's pestering her to fall in love with her. She had refused to date Akanni, a common mat weaver.
Soon, the clouds in the west became dark and darkness covered the earth while it shines in the east. Ajike said that "Papa may not get beaten by the rain after all."
"Akije, I am not like every other man in Ugbotako." Akanni said, reassuring Ajike that he is a different breed.
Since the clouds were dark, everyone had returned to their huts, children, and women too. Akanni was not pushed that the wickedness in the clouds is about to unleash a terrific downpour on the lands of Ugbotako.
"Young man!" You are not my type. Ajike made the speech like she cared for the emotional pain Akanni may be going through at the moment. She started to pack the bowl and sieve used in washing the bitter leaf.
Akanni made a move to follow Ajike into the hut; she looked back and stared wickedly at him as he stood still.
Whereas, the rain was heavy in the east. Papa tried to stay under the shed to avoid being beaten by the rain but the storm was quite heavy. It rolled like the waves of the sea.
After the rain subsided, Papa got on the way. He wasn't feeling cold today. In his hands was a bag of snails and mushrooms he picked from the farm.
Papa got home and saw a surprising scene. Ajike rolled from one part of the bed to the other while a male figure was teasing her. The shock of the sight left Papa bewildered. Still stunned, he came to the bedside, knelt, and started to sob.
The two love birds were still rolling, not seeing that a third person had entered the hut.
"All my effort……, to make a living for you and I……, all you could do is to bring a man home." " rolling on the bed like the waves of Ugbotako river." Papa said, in a gentle voice as Arakunrin jerked up from Ajike, picked up his tiger skin shirt, and fled the scene, while Ajike sat in the bed, her hands on her head pleading with Papa to have mercy.
Silence had enveloped the scene at home after that incident. Ajike never got the attention of Papa. She tried her best possible to make him speak but he just kept playing dumb. She knew he had something to say but never grew enough guts to confront him.
It's been a whole month, Papa would go to the farm, and bring home more food items but never tasted anything cooked by Ajike. Since she was his only relative, there was no one she could run to. It was like the world was crumbling. The silence was killing her, softly.
One night, when the moon came out in full, Papa slept on his pilgrim slat, under the pear tree. The hut was hot due to the heavy reflection of the sun at noon time. Under the tree, as he sleeps, Papa fell into a trance where saw Ajike trying to elope with her secret lover.
"Ajike!" Papa had called on his little angel turned woman. "Let your lover marry you like a princess." Ajike turned to Papa but didn't utter a word, as she took a step to move away, Ajike said to "Your silence….." She was not done talking when a bead of thickening dew from a pear leaf, dropped on Papa's forehead, he woke up and realized that he had been sleeping outside all the while.
As he folded his slat to continue his sleep in the hut, the shadows of two fellows walking away to the thick bush arrested his attention. "Ajike! Would you fall prey in the hands of a strange man against your father?" Papa said without knowing whose shadows he had seen. His instinct had always been right.
Upon hearing those heavy and heart-touching words from Papa, Ajike came back with tears in her eyes. "Papa, your silence was killing me, softy. Papa, looked at his daughter, with beads of sweat on his forehead, he held her close to his chest. He would not shed tears for his daughter. A man wouldn't do that. At least, not of his calibre. As he held her tight, Arakunrin was so bothered that his chance to elope with her had crumbled.
Papa calmly talked like whispering to her ears, "Ajike, Ade ori okin" (meaning: Ajike, the crown on the head of a peacock). "Let your integrity be like that of a princess, preparing to be queen, one that would rule with her husband the king, over a people, and not fall in the hands of a scoundrel." Papa's selection of words were hitting the right spots in the heart of Ajike.
"Hmmm!" Men!! Fear men." Papa continued. "They will roll you like dice. When they are done, they will grind you like pepper in the mortar." Her tears flowed down her cheeks as Papa kept talking. "And when they are done eating you like eja kika (round fish), they will discard you as bones, useless." Ajike knew how terribly she had hurt Papa, down on her knees she went, pleading for mercy while Arakunrin watched in disappointment in his hifing place as Papa and Ajike entered their hut and said goodbye to the full bright moon.