We Are Able

Episode 32

Mrs Omotayo enrolled me and her children in a school
for special people. She arranged a taxi to be taking us
to school and bringing us back everyday.
It was already second term but I had to begin with
them like that.

Toyosi had also found something doing, therefore she
wouldn’t be home every time, unlike before.
I was enrolled in Jss 1 with la!de, the lame daughter of
Mrs Omotayo, while Biodun was in JSS 2. We all had our
different classrooms. Biodun was in the class of the
blind where they had to use Braille for reading.
Whenever we were back from school, we would stay
within the compound and have fun. I began to fall in
love with Biodun, not minding the fact thay there was
no way we could communicate since he had no eyes to
see my sign language and I also had no ears to hear his
speeches. Love is blind indeed, I thought, since the
love of my heart, Biodun, is blind. Having true love is
not when you fall in love with people with riches or
with people in perfect conditions, but when you fall in
love with those who are not perfect, overlooking their
imperfections.

la!de became our middleman. She would relay anything
I wrote on paper for Biodun by speaking directly to him
and Biodun would speak back to her, then she would
write whatever Biodun said in a paper and give it back
to me.

I also had my functions. I would lead Biodun around,
holding his hands. Sometimes I would put my left hand
around his neck to show affection but he would recoil,
removing it for me. I would feel embarrased.

Are we not old enough to play love? I thought. I am
already thirteen and Biodun is fourteen, so what else
are we waiting for before starting a relationship? I
thought childishly.

I also helped la!de push her wheelchair around the
house. She loved being pushed around because it
always gave her the feeling that she was walking.

However, we always came across one confrontation
and that was Bode. Whenever Bode was back from
school, then for sure trouble was around. Though the
youngest, he would brag around us, trying to show
false seniority.

Bode was just eight years, but his wicked acts seemed
too much for his age. Bode would pinch la!de on her
back and push Biodun out of his way. They would shed
tears sometimes and curse him.

I couldn’t do anything to him because of his mother.

Each time he was oppressing us, I would clench my fist
as if to punch his face, but my muscles would relax
again at the thought of what Toyosi could do. Toyosi
could pull me out of school again, despite the fact that
it wasn’t her but Mrs Omotayo that was paying my
school fees.
My childish love for Biodun developed so much. I had
already derived pleasure in leading him around.

I had watched the television and had learnt how to kiss
in it. I was going to practise that on the love of my
heart, Biodun. But each time I wanted to do it, my heart
would thump for fear.
I knew what to do; I would tell him that I loved him and
I wished to be his wife in the nearest future. I
wondered how la!de would feel.
That particular day, I entered the toilet to pass excreta.
la!de and Biodun were in their parlour because they
wanted to avoid Bode who was a thorn in their flesh.
I had to rush everything I was doing so that I could go
to them and have fun with them. Perfunctorily, I
cleaned myself up and began to rush to their room. I
met a mess–both Biodun and la!de had fallen down. I
had to quickly help them up. It was an accident; Biodun
fell while he was walking around in the room. He fell on
la!de who was on wheelchair and both of them fell to
the ground.

I couldn’t show la!de the loveletter again. I was
disappointed. The loveletter was supposed to be read
into Biodun’s ears, but since they were not in a good
mood, I couldn’t do that again.
Biodun and la!de began to speak to themselves,
weeping profusely. I couldn’t hear them but I perceived
they were depressed. It seemed they were very bitter
against someone, perhaps against God for not
preventing them from the evil which befell them when
they were still babies.

I made a signal to la!de that she should tell me what
happened. She understood my hand movement so she
requested a pen. I got it for her. If la!de’s left hand was
also paralysed like the right one, there wouldn’t have
been a way the three of us could communicate. I
thought that was something to thank God about; he
would always leave a space of thanks in everything.
la!de was left-handed so she had no problem writing.

She passed the note to me when she was done. I
began to read:
Rose, this life is too hard on us the disabled people.
Why are we not able to do what able people do?
Imagine, if danger arises how do we run? I have no
legs, he has no eyes and you have no ears. Why? We
are tired of living, Rose. Yet Bode would keep
complicating issues for us by beating us up and kicking
us. I and my brother wish him nothing but death. Bode
would not stop at that; he would also call us names and
make us go mad…
I felt their heartrending pain. I wept with them and
began to write something. la!de would read it in
Biodun’s ears.

My write-up was geared towards making them know
that if they put their minds on something, they would do
it better than the able people. At that juncture, I
remembered my class-teacher and my mother who
kept telling me that I was able, but I kept telling them I
was not back then.

Now, I needed no one to tell me that I am able, having
lived without my parents and guardian for over ten
months. I had even checked Mrs Oyin in her home
some weeks back but I met another family there. I got
a note and asked them where she was. They told me
she sold the house to them.

I left with the understanding that she had travelled to
London to join her family there.

la!de read my write-up and began to frolick on her
wheelchair as she read it in the ears of her elder
brother, Biodun. The boy was also happy, laughing with
all his strength.

My Write-up
Oh how I missed my teacher, Mrs Oyindamola. She is a
honeycomb with sweetness. She is an eagle with
foresight. She is an elephant with intelligence. She is a
Lion with courage. She is a horse with strength. She is
my mentor and my monitor; my hope and the reason
why I could cope. Last year, when I didn’t stop calling
myself a deaf and dumb, she told me to stop saying
that. She even told me that I could hear and speak. She
told me that there are too things, either everybody is
deaf and dumb or everybody can hear and speak. I
disagreed and asked her to show me the practicality of
her argument.

My clasteacher did something funny. She invited a
normal person who could speak and hear to our
classroom and told us to ask him questions in our usual
sign language. We began to bombard him with a lot of
questions but the man appeared dumb to us because he
couldn’t respond a word. He couldn’t understand us.
What is your name? Where do you live? What are you
here to do? Would you like to eat something? Do you
have kids? So and so went our questions but he pulled
up a confused face, then we began to laugh him to
scorn, pushing at ourselves as we used him to catch
fun.

He is dumb! He is dumb! we signed to each other that
day until the man hurried away from our presence. My
classteacher then told us that being deaf and dumb
doesn’t contain in the lack of using the mouth to speak
alone. So far we could use other means to
communicate, then we are not deaf and dumb.
So, la!de you are not lame because you could move
with your wheelchair and Biodun is not blind because he
could use his foresight and his inner eyes.
WE ARE ABLE!