Visible Essence

CHAPTER FIVE

Mama got up from where she was seated and headed straight to the sitting room, Ada and I followed her to the room, her step was light, as if she was floating.

She threw open the door and windows for fresh air to come in. then we swept and washed the bare floor and dust the chairs.

She did not falter or show any sign of fatigue all through the time that it took us to finish. She sang as she worked; as if nothing bothered her, she told us jokes and laughed loudly along with us, that her face looked so young and animated at this time.

The rest of the day was slow but steady, we have nothing going on, and we just sat at home all day with mama doing almost nothing. It passed our sleeping time already but no one noticed, we sat there as mama told us some moonlight stories.

Papa came back home at around 11pm that night, drunk as usual. I taught in my little mind if papa has stolen the money he used in drinking that day.

"Welcome" mama greeted.

"Papa, good evening"

"Papa, good evening" we greeted him.

He ignored us all as we greeted him, as if we were invisible to him, and walked straight to his bed room.

The next morning was Sunday and mama dared not to think about church, papa gave her a little money and she hurried to the market to get some food stuffs.

The least the money could afford was jellof rice and fried fish. She cooked as fast as she could and served us the delicious meal. We were so hungry that before she brought our drinking water, we already deserted the food and asking for more. She made sure we were belle filled before she had some to eat.

After eating, papa wore his khaki jeans and his blue and red striped shirt and left the house as usual.

Mama had her own plans for the day. We would go visit mama-nnukwu in nnewi, to know if she could get few food stuffs in other to avoid the kind of event that happened the previous day.

she knew papa won’t be happy with her going to her parents but she had to take that risk for her children.
She dressed us all up, as we headed for the motor park to board a bus going to nnewi.

She paid for our seat ticket which cost  two hundred and fifty naira per seat. She had borrowed the money from our neighbor with a heart filling promise that she would pay back the money as soon as she returned.

When it was time for the bus to leave, she carried me on her laps while Ada and Obinna sat on the metal space at the back of the driver’s seat.

The journey lasted for 1hour45mins; Obinna was already sleeping on mama’s lapse. We got down from the bus and entered a bike that took us to mama nnukwu’s compound. Mother told us papa nnukwu had died when Obinna was born and people had said that he had reincarnated in him and that they look alike a lot both in appearance and strength.

Getting to the place, mama quietly opened the rusty metal gate, which was red but now brown in colour. The compound was very big and wide, with a farming space by the side of the compound, where mama nnukwu and her last son grows their crops.

I stood by the gate admiring the beauty of how the crops are planted and how they grow uniformly with how fertile they looked.

Goats scattered around nibbling and pecking at drying stems of grass. I admired how the mother hen walked around with her chicks looking for food and how she would fight and protects them from the preying bird.

Then I taught of mama, she was like that mother hen and we were her chicks. For a moment I stood there admiring the beauty and hardship of nature.

“Kasiemuobi” mama called me.
I looked up at her with shock and ran towards her, she could see I wasn’t there when she called; that my mind has travelled far. She held me by my hand as we walk towards the building.

The house that stood at the centre of the compound was small, with old tattered roof, the walls were unpainted with traces of Spirogyra and moody dusts on the walls, with a verandah, which was bounded by rusty metal bars and it looked really old.

* papa nnukwu - grandfather

* mama nnukwu - grandmother

*kasiemuobi - comfort my heart