Her Father's Wife

Chapter 22

Ona behaves like a man in every way. She argues like a man, sat like a man, works like a man. If there was anything feminine about her, it had long gone. She even buys food stuff like a man. Bearing in mind her mother's love for meat, she will point at a whole dried grasscutter and buy it alone. Women only buy fish and crayfish in the market, Ona buys meat. She will raise a chunk of goat leg the biggest available, the choicest, she will outbid a man and buy it without batting an eye lid. While Obidiya was happy with this though, at times, she also felt short changed. She did not know when the mantle of leadership slipped from her hand and settled on Ona's. She lived in perpetual fear of Ona's hot temper and quarrels. The worst now is that Ona, like her had developed a fondness for meat and as such, if she was not around to share out the meat, everybody will eat without meat or fish in their soup and this includes Obidiya. When eventually Ona comes back, they will bring out the meat or fish for her to share. When she had done and taken her own share, then Obidiya and the children will follow suit. Obidiya had tried so much to stomach every other thing happening but this about fish and meat was impossible for her to swallow. After all it was she who gave birth to Ona not the other way round. Even  though Ona was the one feeding them, still she deserved her respect as a mother. One day, she decided to have it out with Ona. After cooking that afternoon, she took her own meal and put meat for herself. Ona came back and as was normal with her,  peered into the soup in the earthenware bowl her mother was eating, she sighted meat. She immediately blew her top and asked her mother why they could not wait for her before sharing the things in the soup. Obidiya answered nonchalantly that her own share of the meat was in the pot. Ona saw red. She rejected the food and went on to complain bitterly of how she laboured to provide food in the house. How they will always eat up the best part of the food before she comes back and serve her their left over. On hearing this Obidiya adjusted and let her mouth go. She poured out all the grievances she had been nursing for a long time. She reminded Ona of how they had been waiting on her hand and feet. How they eat without so much as a single crayfish in their food out of respect for her. How even her the mother had to wait until she had collected fish before opening her mouth to eat the things in the soup. Something that never happened even when their father Nwokeforo was alive. She lamented the death that snatched her husband away and made her a slave in her own house. She asserted  that from now, she was going  to do whatever she liked eat wherever she felt like eating  because she was in her husband's house. Whosever that is not containted with that should like wise get married and do what ever they like in their own husband's house. That singular statement stung Ona like scorpion. She asked her mother to say it again but Obidiya refused. In fact, she regretted the words immediately after saying them, but they were already out and cannot be withdrawn. Ona withdrew into her room, locked the door and let loose. She cried all night. She said a lot of heart breaking things. Her own immediate younger sister Nkechi was already getting married. Nwanyibunwa, the one that followed Nkechi, was as good as married. Nwaneri's nephew had indicated interest in her. Since she was already living with them, it will just be a matter of time and everything will be concluded. What is she? A living sacrifice that had been dedicated to the house, and the woman on whose behalf she had accepted to undergo all the torture was the first to slight her. She wept until there were no more tears in her eyes to shed. She wept until her voice went hoarse and she could no more let out a word, until her two eyes went beet red like coal fire.  Obidiya was full of fear. She feared that Ona may run away or poisoned herself. She stood all night long behind the locked door shading tears of agony with her daughter. She pleaded and pleaded with Ona to forgive her. The other children joined her on her vigil behind Ona's locked door. In her heart, Ona had already forgiven her mother but she needed an outlet. An outlet for all the emotions she had bottled for so long. An out let for the fear that ruled her life. Yes, she needed to shed these tears, for her youth that was passing by and for the wife she would never be.