Lineage

Titilayo Fatimilenyi Part 5

It took another four months for her husband's transfer was finalized and during that time they made sure that Titi did not get pregnant. They quietly made their move out of the town. They told no one about their plans. Not needing to go with anything, as most of the things were owned by the company. This made moving out easy. All they need to do was pack all their personal effects in a few suitcases and traveled out very early in the morning before the break of dawn.

It was a fresh start in a new town for Mr. and Mrs. Dada and things were going well. They cleared her husband from all allegations of embezzlement and he got a promotion. Titi had a job to teach shorthand and typewriting in a secondary school. This was five years ago. It took over a year for Titi to get over her paranoia of her mother and sister. She had seen a shrink and was on a couple of medications. Once she had control over her fears, she got pregnant and this time it was a peaceful one. No nightmares. They had a baby girl called Funmilayo and Funmi for short. She was a beautiful, smart, cheerful, hyperactive five-year-old.

Funmi was playing with some other children, holding hands in a circle, moving around singing "ring a Ring o' Roses..." Strange, the children appear to have all have on a mask and they all looked the same. The masked covered their faces, leaving out the lips and chin. The mask was covered with glossy black scales, sunken cheeks, protruding brow bone and cheekbones, and green eyes. Titi was standing, looking out of her kitchen window when she saw this. It seemed so familiar. She ran outside to get her daughter to remove the mask of her face. But when she got there, it was not a mask, it was her daughter's face. All the children had that face. They laughed at her and now she sees their pointed teeth. She broke free  from the circle they made around her. 

It was a bad dream and so vivid, she remembered everything. She's not had a dream like that in a while, and at least not since they moved to this new city.

The nightmare had been an afternoon nap. Titi had come back from work feeling a bit tired and just wanted to rest for a while before her husband returned from work. She had learned from experience not to ignore such dreams. It was about her daughter, and she was not ready to take chances. Titi remembered the woman Aunty Kehinde had told her helped her father. She had completely forgotten about her. She had written the address in the address book she had back then. Studying the address, she realized they had moved to the same town as the woman. And to think that they have been here for five years and it never occurred to her to look at the address again. She prayed that the woman was still alive and not too old to help her.

The next day, Titi went searching for Iya, surprised at how easy it was to locate the place. Her home is one of those colonial designs, a bungalow made of bricks and had a chimney with a beautiful flower garden in front. The house had a low fence of flowers and a small gate with the a path to walk to the house. It did look like a picture of an English country home. Titi saw the elderly lady about her mother's age in her fifties seated in the front pouch. She signaled for her to come in. This is a beautiful woman, light in complexion with light brown eyes and a very pleasant smile. She didn't look like anything Titi had expected. She spoke very fluent English without a doubt well-schooled.

"Good afternoon ma'am sorry to intrude like this. My name is Mrs. Titi Dada."

She welcomed Titi, introduced herself as Iya. Iya means mother and yet she had no children of her own, nor had she ever been married. Sitting on the pouch, Iya offered Titi nice cold orange juice.

"We don't know each other but you met my father a long time ago, maybe nineteen years ago. You had warned him about his wife and daughter. I am the daughter you warned him to take away far away from them."

"Oh, I remember him like it was yesterday. It was a very peculiar incident because I had a dream about him and the events that would occur in his life. Imagine my shock seeing the same man I had dreamt about the night before. I am so happy he listened to me, even though I was a stranger. He asked for my address, which I gave to him. The rest is history. You are here today."

"I remember very little about the sickness, but right now I need your help."

Titi told her the dream she had about her daughter dancing with other children she did not know and how horrible her face was. She also told her all that had happened to her and her husband and how she was afraid that her mother and sister.

"My dear daughter, you do have cause to be concerned about your daughter. Your mother and sister are Aje In English, they would be called witches but they are nothing like what is shown in movies so I would call them Aje, and not witches. Right now they might be interested in your daughter," Iya replied.