That Incident

NINE

❦

𝘛𝘌𝘈𝘙𝘚 𝘈𝘕𝘋 𝘗𝘈𝘐𝘕

Aubrey
They invited us so we can talk about d annual school camping trip.

Alisha
Annual school camping trip? Like the one i went for last year? The one you missed.🙂

Aubrey
Yup, like the one I missed. (๑•̀ㅂ•́)و✧

Alisha
Isn't it too early?

Aubrey
Noo. Ss3s are leaving 🔜. And we also gonna do this kind of community service project at Obudu.

Alisha
Cost of feeding and everything was way expensive last time. My mother almost didn't allow me to go last time. I hope you'll go this time. It means a lot to me if you come along.

I hope...

Aubrey
<(￣︶￣)>

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The annual school camping trip.

I couldn't go the last time because of my mum's business was in a bad shape. In fact our family was in a bad shape. The fights, bankruptcy and ugly incidents.

I could remember sitting in my room reading a book which I could barely understand because of the noisy rather infuriating argument my parents were having. Mama was in the house too. My mother had asked me to shut my door close and stay in the room so I couldn't see how ugly their arguments could get even though I had seen that a lot of times. A lot of times.

They sometimes ended up hurting each other. My mother wailing at the top of her voice at any punch aimed at her.

I wasn't surprised that they had a fight again that day. I wish I could bury my head under my pillow and try to act like this wasn't real. They weren't real. They weren't my parents. I wasn't here. It wasn't real. It was all fiction like the novels I read.

I was only surprised that mama did nothing to separate them. She had a cheeky smile on her face. Arms folded. Seated at the edge of the two seater couch watching my father beat my mother.

My mother helplessly laid on the floor. Her wig lying away from her head. He had pinned her on the granite floor of the sitting room, yelling and bashing her face with clenched fists.

It was such an ugly sight. Despite being told not to leave my room at all cost but I did. At all cost would have meant my mother's death. Blood stained clothes and an enormous bulge on her head. Her bruised eye.

Such an ugly sight. I wept.

What was more uglier was mama stared away with a smile of satisfaction.

"Stop!!!" I screamed. My hands trembling. Burning tears running down my cheeks.

"My child. Listen, some day you will understand that the best way to discipline the woman is by giving her a little beating. Your father is doing nothing wrong." She said flailing her hands at me.

How could she be so comfortable watching her son beat a woman? A helpless woman. It was clear she had no human sympathy. She was not a human. She was a beast. A beast.

"You are a beast!!!!" I screamed at the top of my voice, pointing at her without any fear but hatred surging in me.

"Lotachi, how dare you insult my mother...."My father said raising his hands at me when my mother let out a shriek of pain.

She had lost consciousness and was rushed to the hospital. I was tempted to call the police on my father but I couldn't because of my mum.

I could hear her voice in my head speaking softly:

Aubree, don't! He's your father.

Don't, her voice spoke to me as I watched her lying  motionless on the hospital bed with the nurses cleaning up her bruised face. Her breathing heavy.

"Ahh...what happened to your mother?" One of them had questioned in alarm. She looked really terrified for my mother.

I was about to say something when mama interrupted.

"She got into a fight with one of her female neighbours. Women this days." She lied effortlessly.

"Nawa oo. Her neighbour na better beast. See wetin she do pesin face." She muttered to her co-worker.

I glared at my father who was rooted at the corner of the room staring hard at his bruised up victim. He was a beast too.

"Mum, dinner is ready." I said after I was done cooking dinner. At least I was great at cooking spaghetti.

She was standing in front of the mirror in her room, hands tracing the deep scars on her face.

I knew at once of what she was thinking of. She was scarred for life no matter the amount of foundation or concealer she would use to mask it up.

"Eat without me." She said smiling. Which was very weird. The room reeked of alcohol. I caught sight of two empty wine bottles lying on the rug just close to her bare feet.

The last two bottles of Madeira wine that had been  in the kitchen shelf for two years. They were the only property of my father in the house but now they were gone.

Staggering to her bed, she brought up one of her old journals scattered on the sheets untidily. The cover pages covered in dust.

"We've been through a lot, don't you think so?" She said in a teary voice. Her cheeks glistened with tears.

"When does this pain end?" She said settling on the floor.

"Tomorrow is seventeenth. Seventeenth was when we lost your kid sister. I feels like yesterday. I'm really sad, Aubree. Really sad."

"We finalised the divorce yesterday. I'm free from that man, Aubree. Finally free with scars left behind and he's getting married tomorrow. Life moves on why can't I?"

"Wait, he's getting married to Ada tomorrow?" I asked startled.

She nodded her head, sniffing hard.

Tomorrow was seventeenth. The day Gabriella died and he was getting married to Ada.