We Are Able

Episode 23

“She is crazy!” I said vindictively. “She must be mad!”

My aunty and my classteacher had just finished telling
me that Toyosi came for the purpose of taking me back
to my father.

“For what reason? So that she can kill me?” I signed.

“Just put your mind at rest, Rose, you are not going
anywhere,” my teacher assured me.
I wished Toyosi nothing other than evil. Why can’t she
just slump one day, never to rise again? I would think. I
tried all ways to cease thinking evil about her, but no way.

“Why can’t she be hit by a vehicle once and for all?” I
said in the presence of my aunty two days after Toyosi
visited our home.
“Hey, don’t say so!” she said. “Have you forgotten what
the bible says? Pray for your enemy.”
“But the bible didn’t specify the type of prayer, aunty. So
maybe I would just be doing the right thing by praying
for the death of my enemy!” I said stubbornly. For the
first time my aunty was speechless over my
mindboggling opinion.
Mrs Oyin would soon be joining her husband abroad. Her
husband had instructed her to get a buyer for that house
we were occupying with her. She wasn’t happy about
the turnout of things.

“I am not selling this house,” she replied her husband
through a letter. “Don’t you understand, I have a family
staying there with me.”
Her husband insisted on her selling it. It was an
arrangement they had had between themselves while
her husband was departing few years back. He didn’t
have the intention of returning to Nigeria and his wife
was going to join him there permanently too.
My classteacher told us the story in details. There was
a loan they obtained four years back, through which
they had been able to acquire much of the wealth they
had. The loan would be due for repayment in six
months. The house and few other property were used
as collateral security back then, that was the reason
why the house would be sold and the cash so obtained
would be paid to the bank. Mrs Oyin would use part of
the money from the sales of the property to acquire a
visa.

“Mrs Oyin, if your husband asked you to sell this house
then you have no option than to sell it,” Rachael said.
“I can’t!” she responded. “If I do so where should I
push you and Rose to?”
“God will take control and be a refuge to us,” my aunty
replied with those smiles bequeathed with dimples as
she was wont doing.

Two people barged into the door, Toyosi and John my
father. I developed goose pimples when I saw John. I
felt like shooting at him, but unfortunately I had no gun.

They began to open their mouths. They had veins on
their necks as they spoke. I could perceive that they
were speaking harshly to us.
My aunty took me aside after a hot brawl with my
father. She began to speak slowly with her hands so
that I could grab the whole detail:
“Rose, they are here to take you back,” she said.
“Why? They imprisoned my mother and caused me
much pain. I can’t go back into that house! Over my
dead body!”
“You will go, Rose,” she said. “John your father has
much say over you. He is your father.”
“A disowned father!” I shouted. “He doesn’t want me
and I have disowned him already!”
“Rose, at the moment things isn’t going to be the way
you are thinking. They have a lawyer already; your
father has threatened to charge us to court for child
abuse.”
“How?” I was baffled and confused.
“They said that you were being maltreated and left
without care here. They said they would win the case
easily because he is your father and you are not
supposed to stay outside his house without his
permission.”

What gave me much concern was that confession that
I was being maltreated and left without care. That was
a blatant lie. How could they say such thing? Mrs Oyin
had really shown much care for me, far more than any
care I had ever received.
“What evidence would they provide in the court of law
that I was maltreated here?” I asked my aunty.

“Toyosi said she saw you running helter-skelter in the
rain with a boy. She said she wanted to know why we
left you at the mercy of a boy. She said we would have
to supply an answer to that question by the time they
get us arrested.”
I was shocked! How did Toyosi spot us in the rain that
day–myself and Moses, the boy who was running about
with me in the rain that day? Yes! I remembered I saw
Toyosi on a motorcycle that day but thought it was just
her lookalike.
This Toyosi must be a monitoring spirit, I thought.
My father and Toyosi insisted on taking me along with
them immediately, but my guardians disagreed. They
promised to bring me to them by themselves.
I wondered why Toyosi had all the time going about
with my father when she was supposed to be in her
matrimonial home taking care of her husband. She had
only been a thorn in the flesh of my family.
Why on earth did my father want me in the house? I
thought I was a burden to him, so what would he have
me do after imprisoning my mother? I was scared of
what my future with him would hold. Without my
mother in that house with me I would be dead in few
weeks in that house.

I fluttered out of the room and charged at my father in
the parlour. My father looked at me and shook his head
as though he was having pity for me.
“Rose, forgive me,” he said and wept. When I saw the
sign made by my teacher to interprete what he said, I
couldn’t believe my eyes–my father asking for my
forgiveness after all his evil acts towards me? It was
incredible!
I took advantage of the situation to ask something
from him.
“I shall only forgive you on one condition,” I said.
“Release my mother.”
“We shall do so,” they replied with smiles, herself and
her concubine. They lowered themselves at me and
cuddled me up in a warm hug.
The day after, my aunty took me to them. They had
prepared a special dish for my aunty and I. I was
reluctant to eat the food but my aunty asked me to eat.
“Now I have come to realise that everybody is useful
in the society. Rose is my daughter but I have always
been cruel to her. Now I have promised to take good
care of her like a princess. I will bring her mother back
into this house. I have gone to see the Chief Warder
yesterday and he has assured me that everything is
under control.”

When my aunty was departing, Toyosi asked me to lead
them in prayers to my amazement. I concurred, my
aunty being the one doing the interpretation for them.
Is this an answer to our prayers? I pondered.