We Are Able

Episode 38

Toyosi was shocked when she discovered that I had sold all the
eggs in the room where she stored them. That day, I didn’t
stop at three crates. I kept on going back home to bring more
crates until fifteen crates of eggs were sold by us.

Toyosi rushed to me and asked in fury, “Where are my eggs?”
I signed a response back to her. She was amazed. I had
‘sounded’ incredible.
“And where is the money?” she asked, to be sure I was saying
the right thing. I put a hand into my waist wallet and gave her
all the money in it.

That evening, Toyosi had to take it upon herself to get some
crates of eggs in replacement, which she expected me to sell
the next day.

John was amazed when he heard about it. If only he had the
time in his control, he would trail me from behind and know
the secret. But he dared not skip job for a day. Even Toyosi too
would have done that, but unfortunately for her, she could not.

The sales continued. The strategy was really working to the
extent that some good Samaritans would tell us not to bother
given them change.

Now I had discovered Toyosi’s lie. Did she not say that she was
omnipresent? Did she not say that she was seeing me
anywhere and anytime? Why didn’t she see what I was doing
to sell that much?

So, Toyosi seeing me with Moses that day was a coincidence, I
thought. Then my thought of fleeing the home once and for all
ravished my brain, but for Biodun’s sake, I would stay. How
would he feel without me? Biodun won’t survive not ‘seeing’
me around for one month let alone forever.
On the first day of putting our idea into use, just when we were
leaving, a young boy came close to us. He was an egg buns
seller. Biodun made the boy’s intention known to me and I
accepted the idea:
He said his name is Chinedu. He wants us to help him sell his
egg buns, since eggs and egg buns are more or less the same
commodity
So, what is our bonus?

I told him to pay us #3 per egg buns we help him sell. He
would be putting two showglasses before us everyday.

How many buns would be in each showglass?
Fifty I guess
Then it means we shall be having around #300 daily if we sell
all
Exactly!

That’s a good business! Let’s do it!
Chinedu began to drop his showglasses before us everyday,
since it would save him the stress of walking about under the
sun for hours to have them all sold.
People around that corner loved us so much. They wouldn’t
want to patronise other people except if we had nothing left to
sell. Biodun even said he overheard somebody saying that she
was challenged by our lifestyle; despite our limitations, we
could still overcome it and work for a living by ourselves unlike
the many people hanging around without any loss of there
organs, yet begging for alms.

We were so much blessed to the extent that some people
would give us alms even when we haven’t requested for them.

At first, I wanted to go against such, but Biodun said we
shouldn’t reject it. We could use such money, added to the
money Chinedu did pay us, to refresh ourselves before
returning home each day.

That is not alm, but freewill offering, Biodun said. The ones they
give in Church, are they alms too? he added.
Despite the fact that Biodun couldn’t see, he appeared very
clever. I used to wonder how precisely he did give descriptions
of objects he hadn’t seen before. I was shocked when he was
describing the pillar of our house in a composition they were
asked to write sometimes back. Biodun said that things he felt
with his hands and those he heard with his ears tend to stick to
his memory rigidly.

Even la!de who could see could not spell words better than
Biodun, although she had her own strong point too. la!de,
though lame, could swim better than me. I discovered that
when we had the opportunity to learn how to swim in the
school I once attended with them.

John began to avoid me, perhaps he knew what I could do. My
audacity had risen to a level of egoism. I would let my father
know that I wasn’t useless as he had portrayed me. I
addressed a note to him:
Daddy, you said I am useless but now I am proving you
wrong. You said I couldn’t sell a crate of egg so I am useless,
but I have sold more than a hundred in four days. What do
you think? Am I still useless? What else do you want me to do
to show you that I AM ABLE? Perhaps after doing that, you
might reconsider bringing back my mother.
John was speechless when he saw the letter. He came to where
I was and gaped at me for a while, his face muddled up in total
confusion.

I didn’t go scotfree for my action. Toyosi came to my corner to
beat me up, having glimpsed the note I addressed to her
husband. I charged at her impulsively. I didn’t know where that
effrontery came from. I had snatched the cane and thrown it
away before it lashed my body. Toyosi herself was scared. She
just left me alone and went away.
I wondered what came on me. It was only two times I had
displayed a kind of wild behaviour before her ever since, and in
those two times she capitulated. Maybe she was even afraid of
me somehow, I thought….