Feelings

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 1
My name is Vera Dike, I live with my parents in Abia state, Nigeria. My father is a medical doctor; he travels to war countries to treat the victims of war. Mom and I moved from one state to the other until we finally found comfort in Abia state and finally settled there.
I was 18 years old when we relocated to Abia state; I made friends with  Ferdinand and Esther, our neighbors children.

Esther is my age mate while Ferdinand is 5 years older than us.
I felt at peace, as Esther and Ferdinand treated me like I was family; we gisted and laughed hard.

Their mom calls me last born; according to her, she believes that I look like one. My mom is all about her work, so she never got to play with me, and I had no friends growing up.

During my birthdays dad sends me gifts and money to get  myself present; sometimes he sends me presents.

Mom on the other hand buys me the most extravagant gifts, ranging from jewelries, clothing’s, bags,  and shoes from high rated brands in the country.

We rarely went to church and the only times that I got to see new people I when we are moving, and that is usually through the car windows.

Noises from the car tires crashing on the ground, and hawkers calling for customers to patronize them.

We travelled to almost all 36 state in search of home; at least that is what mom said when I asked her why we can’t just settle in one.

Mom is a artist who loves to explore artistry world; in fact sometimes I thought she loves her work more than I, her daughter.

She was rarely at home and when she was, she was always so tired to speak with me, or any other things.
All she craves for at that time is rest, sleep, and romance her bed, all the way down to the dream world.

Before I forget, mom used to be an alcoholic, though no one knew about that as she drank many at night, and sleeps off in the middle of that.
To make it more worse, she buys cartons of alcohol and hides them under her bed, and drinks them when I won’t notice.

What I don’t understand is why she wore the perfect woman and mother clothing outside and miserable behind closed doors.

All these first started when my dad got a job to travel down to Afghanistan 10 years ago; my mom was against it but dad insisted on taking it.  I was barely 8 years old then, but then I felt like I was more.

My house was on fire as mom retaliated; that was the day that my ever cheerful, sweet, caring, living and peaceful mother and wife changed to the drunkard she currently is.

It is as if mom is using alcohol to distract herself, and then came Art that completely took my mom’s eyes and attention away from me.

Before that, dad used to work for the biggest hospitals in Lagos state, Nigeria called Holy Cross Hospital. They had an affiliation with Sunday Group of companies, a popular Pharmaceutical company founded in Germany.

My dad was the head doctor in the department of Neurosurgery. He was on daily newspapers, NTA, SUN, ORIENT TV, Heartland FM; he was in Forbes list Nigeria most influential and youngest doctors 2009.

His achievements were recorded in country books, and he appeared in magazine under most influential and best Neurosurgeons lists.

Mom was so proud of him, and so was I; my friends all wanted to be like him and our neighbors talked about him like he was some God.

To me, my dad was the greatest dad and hero in the entire world wide. Our house was also filled with neighbors and reporters coming to film and congratulate him for his great achievements and awards.

His achievements brought honor and respect to our family and home, and that made mom more happier. Mom always preached to me that some day I will grow into a great woman like she, marry a great man like dad and have great children like me and all the other good kids in the world; those were my sleeping fairytale Reading from “mom’s heart”.

I was always happy hearing that I would some day have a perfect home like my parent’s.
I always prayed that our home would remain peaceful and happy like it was at that time, I prayed against every enemy that would come around to scatter our home for us.

Yes dad was away for work most of the time, but it was for a good cause, and besides he always came back to mom and I.

Things fell apart one faithful night; dad came back from work just like the usual days; mom served him his favorite Afang soul filled with orishirishi and sweet fishes.

After eating he came to the sitting room where he usually discussed with mom; I didn’t hear the topic of their discussions as I was half asleep, and little too to grab all. It started as a peaceful conversation, as they laughed as they watched Mom’s favorite TV show, “soap Opera”.

The room was filled with beautiful cheers and fantastic humor, until what seemed like silence hit the floor of the sitting room.

“ I am quitting my job” dad told mom.
I figured mom probably didn’t grab the question very well at first as she remained quiet; soon she understood the question and that broke the silence.
“ What do you mean, my husband, I thought work was going well, what is really going on” she asked.
“it was  dear….. but “ he stammered
“but we are happy, and besides you loved your job, so what changed” mom asked him.

Dad was silent, he couldn’t explain and that made mom more furious. Our home felt awkward and strange for the first time, it felt like a grave yard that night.

Days later I went to school but instead of mom picking me up, Aunty onyinyechi, Mom’s friend picked me up along with her son.

We went straight to her home; it felt strange as mom never allowed me to mingle with the neighborhood kids, but then I felt my parents needed some time alone to talk things out.

I didn’t actually like the idea of staying over at someone’s but at the same time I didn’t like the cloud in my home.

“The couple needs to realizing that they have an 8 years old at house with them and stop acting up” I heard Aunty Into say.

At first I thought that my absence would make them figure themselves out, but the reverse was the case; I stead of making up they fought more.

I believe dad could get another work in an even bigger hospital even without lifting a finger, so what actually is wrong.

The problem escalated the more and that made mom to pack some of her clothes and snuck into Aunty Onyi’s home too.

At first Aunty Onyi tried reasoning with Mom to go back home and resolve her differences with Dad, but she refused to listen.

It continued like that until the 25th of June that month, approximately one week after; Mom decided to call dad back after rejecting his number is calls. They spoke for minutes; mom picked up her car key and drove fast out of the compound and to our home.

It was until 5:57pm, aunty Onyi came back happy humming her favorite Celine Dion song. I was very happy for her, although I didn’t know what was tickling her fancy.

She announced to me that my parents would be coming to pick me up that night, but they didn’t eventually. It was by 10:20am the next day, they came in Dad’s BMW and picked me up.

For four months and 4 days we were very happy, but then dad travelled after the 14th day for a one year voluntary work in Afghanistan. He promised to come back after a year and that he did, just not as he promised.

He only came to announce to us that he plan taking us to Pakistan, his new location, but mom refused.
Actually I didn’t know how dad was able to convince mom to let him.