MAMLEY

MIDNIGHT

"Daddy, I love you" she kept repeating to herself while the tears blurred her vision and she rocked front to back sitting on her bed. Ayiku lay at her feet, evidently, he had cried himself to sleep. Nene was yet to be told and the driver was on his way to pick him up from boarding school. Thoughts of their last night flashed through her mind and those tears fell like a water fall. The more she wiped them with the back of her hands, the more they cascaded. She desperately needed to hold herself together but as hard as she tried, she kept breaking apart. There was a knock on the door but she didn't want any "foreigner" in so she put her pillow over he mouth to muffle the sounds of pain she made. Since the news broke, there have been family and well wishers strolling in and out of the house to offer their condolences which Mamley wasn't in the mood for. The knock came again but this time she saw a familiar face peep into her room. It was Damien and he came in. He didn't utter a word but he just sat by her and put his arms around her. She broke out into fresh crying and he held her even tighter. That was all she needed at that time. A quiet company.

At the one week observation of Daniel's death, saw the sitting of all family and stakeholders of the funeral seated to plan the funeral and set an appropriate date. The family head of Daniel's family  insisted on he being buried in Ada and there asked for ghc100,000 to organize what they called a befitting burial. They also said since his first Male child was too young to head his late father's affairs, so one of their uncles would handle it till he came of age. They claimed the house they had lived in was too big for Rita and her children to live so they would be moved to a smaller house while the family took care of the home they had known for years. It was at that request that Mamley burst out laughing. Most of them were confused as to why she laughed so hard.
Family Head: Is this the disrespectful girl you have raised? Young lady, weren't you raised well enough to know that woman are to be seen but not heard?
Mamley: Then I'm guessing we are still living in the 18th century.
Family head: If that means showing respect, then yes.
Mamley: And if that means being unfair then no thank you for me. I am the first born of my father and I'm legally of age to manage anything. Secondly, if 5 of us could live in this house, then with the demise of one, the 4 can still live here. It's just common sense.
Auntie 1: Young lady, you seem to have a sharp tongue.
Mamley: Yes, I am the daughter of my father.
The battle line had been drawn.

The subsequent days were painful for Rita as her in-laws were forcing her to go through the widowhood rights which were cruel and demeaning. She was always clad in black clothes but what crushed her was how her first seed was being treated like an outcast just because she was a girl. She silently wished Nene could switch places with Mamley. That would have solved most of these problems. She just couldn't comprehend how her in-laws had turned against her and the children and were putting them through all this in their most difficult of moments. She envied her daughter's strength and wished she could borrow a little and fight for her children but her pain and traditions crippled her. Where was she to start from if she lost all that she and her husband had built over the last couple of years? Her in-laws' betrayal stabbed her in the heart so painfully especially the behaviour of Sheila. She had been nothing but nice and supportive to Daniel's family that she couldn't phantom where all this hate and animosity was stemming from. She had always been careful not to show any disrespect towards them especially after Daniel's demise. She knew that Mamley was disappointed in how she was handling the situation but her daughter would not understand her stance from the traditional point of view. Mamley hardly came to her and as the days passed, she avoided having any words with her mother. Rita realized that she rather spent most of her time with her brothers and Damien. She walked to the huge portrait of her late husband that hang on the wall and wept bitterly.  Initially,  she wept out of sorrow but it soon turned to anger. Why did he leave her so early to deal with this wicked world all by herself? Who could she turn to now? It then dawned on her that she hadn't only lost her husband, she had lost the only friend she had known through all these years. After 23 years of marriage, she realized that her whole life had been built around her family that she didn't have any support system apart from her husband. Now that he was gone, who was she to turn to? Ah, life had not dealt her with a good card, she thought. She cursed death in her heart and muttered out "Danny, yaa wor ojogbang" (Danny, rest in peace) as she sunk in despair to the ground while weeping and gripping her wrapper tightly in her hand. Nene, walked to his mum and slowly gathered her in his arms and his own tears flowed into her hair. They held each other tightly while letting their pain flow through their tears in comfort.