YET TO COME

..THIRTY SEVEN..

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

She vividly remembered that hurtful fateful night, five years ago, on her seventeenth birthday. It had all started with Corinne, her ever crazy triplet. She had practically forced her out of her bed, confiscating the contemporary romance novel that she had been reading alongside her reading glasses. She had then coerced her into the skimpy bikini for their birthday pool party with her sugar coated tongue. She had grudgingly done so after everyone began to persuade her, crowding her room.

They were all dressed in their own bikinis. There was Corinne [the party planner], Lotenne [the excited elder sister], Melody [the hedonist], Chisimbili [an eager dancer], Adaora [an equally excited fun lover], Onyechinuwelu [a let’s just join the fun] and Diann [a grudging well wisher]. The only person who hadn’t been invited to the party was Madeleine and it was because they all knew she would not approve of such in their father’s absence. She might even dissuade or totally stop them from holding it.

The pool party had begun at some minutes past eight o’clock. It was the holidays, so there was no school for anyone especially Adaora who had been fifteen, about to sit for the WAEC examination the following year. Their father wasn’t around and that was what had given them the effrontery to host such a party at his home. Corinne had provided the music, blasting the pool and causing the water to ripple softly in time to the beat. Melody in turn had provided the snacks for the party while Chisimbili and Adaora had dwelt with the decoration. The party was an enjoyable one with lots of fun, good music, rich chitchat and sweet games.

The girls had a good time dancing and even Chinwem who hadn’t wanted to join in and Diann who liked to stay on her own were really happy that they hadn’t missed it for anything and were currently present. That was until their father appeared at the scene of the party, looking like the predating tiger that he was, with a desperate Madeleine running after him. It seemed that she had tried to keep him away from the party. Well, she had failed and the look on her face betrayed the fact that their father wasn’t going to take it easy on them. They had all been shocked, glued to the spot with the fear that they all possessed of him. He had slapped Lotenne first. She had borne the hard slap without flinching.

‘Gini na-eme ebe a?!' What is happening here?! he thundered in a voice that reminded one of an angry and hungry bison.

‘Father I-‘ Lotenne began only to be struck again. Madeleine came to her rescue, coming afore her father. He stared at the both, from one to the other, furiously.

'What is the meaning of this Kairaluolisa?’ he asked Madeleine.

'It is the triplets birthday today,’ she answered in a meek voice she knew always pacified his anger. ‘They are having a party to celebrate it.’

'Who let them do so?’ he demanded.

'It was-‘ Madeleine interrupted her junior sister, Lotenne quickly.

'It was I father who let them do so. I thought I would do no harm to-‘he struck her before she finished speaking. Her head fell to the side. Chisimbili gasped in shock while Adaora began to cry. They were all dead meat. Their father was really angry, mad even for he hardly ever struck Madeleine.

‘I am gone for a while and you all turn to prostitutes?! Look at you all, daughters from nothing, acting like the nothing your mother’s had been and still are!’ he thundered. ‘You,’ he pointed at Chinwem, ‘Come right here!’ he snapped. She trudged to him.

‘Father,’ she answered him. He grabbed her hair, drawing her to him with it.

‘You are the most sensible of your sisters,’ he said. 'Why are you tied to them today?’ he asked her. She trembled afore him in trepidation. Tears slipped down her cheeks. She was so scared that she nearly wet her bikini pants.

‘They asked me to join them,’ she simply stammered out. ‘I had no choice but to do so.’ He shook his head, clicking his tongue at her. She stared at him puzzled for she understood the gesture not.

‘No brunt of the litter,’ he said to her in a gentle voice. ‘You had a choice but choose to go with them. I shall teach you to stand your ground lest you forget,’ he said to her.

‘Father, please,’ she begged. He struck her across the face severally. When she thought she could take no more, crying ceaselessly, he stopped doing so, letting go of her hair. She thought all was clear, crying still until she saw him take out a fountain pen from his pocket. He grabbed her neck tightly. She nearly choked when he did so.

‘I shall make sure that you remember today,’ was all he said before the blunt point tore her face. She screamed as loud as she could even with his right hand coiled around her neck when it did so. Someone else had screamed. It must have been Adaora. He drew lines over and over her face, again and again. Blood gushed out, covering her left eye when the tip of the pen ran across her skin, beneath her eyebrows. He let go of her neck then. She held her face in her hand, thinking it was over until he began marking her madly. Anywhere the pen could touch. She remembered trying to run, tripping and being held down. She heard her sisters plead, scream and beg, wailing for her. It was her step mother’s voice that stopped him. She flew at him, drawing him away from the overall bleeding girl.

‘You insane demented man,’ Xta, her step mother yelled. ‘Nnyoo! Gi nu wu Nnyiri-mannyi anu. Gini mere gi ne mme ya nkwuto?’ Damn you! You are an impossible obstinate bush meat. Why are you attacking her? she yelled at him. ‘Look what you have done to her! Ka chukwu mwepu iberibi gi!’ let God take away your foolishness, she said before rushing to tend to her.

Chinwem clearly remembered Madeleine bending and quickly pouring water over her, water from the pool to wash away all of the blood. She remembered the screams of the next person whom her father attacked. But all that wasn’t her concern anymore as she watched her step mother try to stop her bleeding through blood clouded eyes. She realized then that she could no longer see with her left eye.