Second chances

Chapter Forty Three: Into The Future

The dew that rested on the grasses made my feet wet as I walked through the grass looking for my mother. After Christian and almost everybody left the grew too quiet and even though some villagers stepped in from time to time to check on mother, it didn't feel the same as being surrounded by family.

Father's death was tough on everyone but most especially his wife. I had woken to up to faint sobs that emanated from mother's room in the middle of the night , it had been my parent's room but now father was gone it was mother's. I didn't think mother would have wanted to still stay there . I didn't expect mother to sleep in their old room but maybe she wanted to prove a point. for the first time I realized that she had just started to grieve. Having us around made her act strong but once there was no one around to act for, she let herself grieve.

I had chosen to sleep very close to her room to monitor her and I was very right to so. I sauntered into the room and when she saw me, she tried to hide her tears. I didn't want her to talk about it, so I moved to the bed lay down with her and wrapped my hand around her. At first it felt weird laying on the bed that she used to share with father, even though I did share it with them when I was younger. Mother tensed a bit then relaxed, she would sniff from time to time but she didn't cry out loud. As I held mother with my hand on her hand, I began to notice how different her skin felt under mine, mother was getting really old. At a point I couldn't hear her sniffs and so I drifted off to sleep.

Mother wasn't on the bed when I woke, she didn't seem to be around the house either so after searching, I decided to walk to the one place I suspected her to be.

The wetness of the grasses made my feet slippery in the slippers I wore but I had been right after all. Mother sat at the foot of father's grave saying things that I could not hear.

From the distance I could tell her lips were moving but I couldn't hear her, it didn't seem like she was crying atleast I didn't see her wipe her tears.

After a while, when the sun had begun to rise, she stood up and walked towards me.

When she got to where I stood she spoke"he said if he dies before I do, that i should take the money he hides in this wooden safe"

I looked at the safe and saw that it was open and empty. I suspected mother must have emptied it before coming out.

"so where's the money? Ọ dị n'ụlọ? Is it in the house?."

"it's in my hand" mother said laughing

She opened her palm and I saw two coins. I began to laugh as well

"your father made me believe he always saved enough money in this safe, he would always go into the room and come out smiling with this safe in his hands everytime he received a salary. So I asked him about it and he told me it's where he saved money. That I should only open it when he dies, that's if he does before me. "

So he wasn't saving any money?" I asked still confused but very amused

"he saved the first payment I gave him" mother said.

"we had this misunderstanding when we got married newly and I told him I was going to pay him off for the number of months he had been a good husband to me, so I gave him two coins. Of course he did better than two months but I wanted him to feel bad about it because I was angry. He took the coin from me said nothing, then after some months he said that he was going to pay back for my bad judgment. Mother fetched a piece of paper in her other palm and pushed into my hand.

"I told you, you would regret what you did. There are no savings here I just wanted to show you how bad your judgment was. I hope you open this box on April first and even if you didn't

April fool"

I laughed so hard that my sides began to ache, mother joined in and we almost fell to the floor holding each other. It was the first of April on that day.

Much later in the afternoon, a loud bang brought mother and I to the gate. We had been yelling for the person to come in but the whoever it was stood outside reluctant to come in. After yelling for some minutes, I walked to the gate to be greeted by a very old woman, who had a phone on placed on her ears with a carved chewing stick in her right hand. I recognized the phone immediately and I knew who the old woman was.

I greeted and she walked past me straight to where mother was.
"Lee kwanu m! nwanyị na asị m, so nomma is dialing is swished offu"

Mother took the phone from her and placed it on her ears. It turned out that the number she dialed was switched off. She explained that her granddaughter had left the village to write her jamb and told her to call her. Somehow the young lady's phone was switched off.

Which meant the old lady was the only one at home. Mother quickly took her inside and got her to calm down. When her granddaughter was finally reached over the phone she suggested that her granny stayed over with us till she comes back.

Mother agreed to it immediately before I walked away from the two women.i wonder how long it takes before the old woman punctures the screen of the phone.

After dinner mother and I spoke at length about how she forgave dad over his infidelity.
"my mother chased me back into our house, she wouldn't even hear a word about leaving my husband. I blamed it on the expensive hollandaise and brocade materials your father frequently bought her. She only told me" we are humans, we make mistakes. Learn from it and move on"

At first I let the betrayal drown me, it made me so unhappy and everything around me shrunk. Until I decided that one day I could let things go and move on, or I could just kill myself with thinking and crying. It took a while before I finally got to trust your father again but it paid off."

A loud scream came from the guest room and it turned out that the sound that emanated from the inverter had scared the old woman. I struggled so hard not to laugh while mother calmed the old woman. Mother had a lot on her hands.

I left the two women and went to my room and while I arranged the things in my room I figured I had not unwrapped the other gift I had received from Mr Ajayi . I walked to where I kept the gift and tore the paper used to fold it. It took quite some minutes before I finally unwrapped the gift and when I saw what it was I became confused.

It was a blank white canvas, Mr Ajayi must have made some sort of mistake with his gift because I couldn't just hang a blank canvas anywhere. By the side of the canvas was a note

"Paint your future Patricia"

Then it all made sense. Maybe there was an island beyond the storm after all. Mr Ajayi must have known of my relationship with my sisters even before i went to see them.He had been pushing me to do the right thing all this while, he was the best therapist i could ever have. I smiled to myself then continued with my work.
My phone woke me in the middle of the night and it was not Charles or my daughter. When the voice spoke i was surprised to hear her, after what seemed like a very long conversation. I walked to my mother's room and woke her up.

"I need to go home immediately, it's very urgent" After a brief hug, I went back to the room, took few of my things and drove out of the house.

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