Goldfish Bowl

Chapter 14

The show must go on, and so it did. The next morning, everyone seemed to be pretending that nothing had happened, the twins were busy rushing around the house, searching for lost ties and hats, Victory was still in his pyjamas and their mother was trying to force him into his little suit to no progress. He seemed to want to make their lives more miserable that morning.

Alisha was dressed in her usual unconventional clothes, the baggiest gown she could find in her wardrobe topped with a straw hat that covered her vision. She ignored the distasteful glance her mother shot her and held on to her clutch in a death grip. She was perched gingerly on the arm of the sofa, stiff and waiting for someone to attack her.

She hated that she let yesterday taint her, she hated that she could not get over it. Most of all, she hated that she feared the man who had once been her father. It was why a little knife sat in her clutch and she might have been afraid but she was not afraid to use it.

"For God's sake, would it kill you to dress like a normal girl for once?" Her mother finally snapped, pursing her lips as she adjusted the gallant gele on her head. As usual she was dressed to perfection, her gold head tie matched her black lacy iro and buba and her pumps were a gold color too. She was stunning, make up applied tastefully.

"Look at your friend, Pamilerin, do you not see how beautifully she dresses, and look at you, dressing like a beggar. Put some food into that skinny body, or else people will think I am starving you." She continued her rant, ignorant of her daughter's tear stained cheeks.

To Alisha it was always about what people would think, it made her wonder how her mother would be like a in a different world where she didn't care about what people thought.

"Will it kill you to dress differently, ehn?" She finished just as her husband ascended from the stairs, dressed unusually in traditional attire that matched that of his wife. What game were they playing today?

He seemed to avoid looking anywhere but at Alisha.

"Leave the girl alone, and focus on your son that is making a mess of the food he's eating." Festus voice rang clear, calm and collected like he had not just ruined his own daughter the day before.

Their mother swiftly turned to Victory who was indeed making a mess of the cereal, sloshing half of its contents on the glass table. She was quick to smack him in the arm, gnashing her teeth when he only shrugged defiantly.

"Wait for us," she commanded before dragging the little boy by the arm and up the stairs ignoring his whines of pain.

Festus stood for a while, fiddling with his buttons before marching outside, slamming the door in a manner that made her flinch.

It occurred to Alisha that in her head, he had stopped being her father, becoming her mother's husband and now he was just Festus, a stranger.

*****

She sang like it didn't hurt her inside to do so, and when it was over, the more than half of the church was moved to tears, some were pounding their fists on their chest, lost in the song. Her eyes roamed the crowd of five hundred and she felt nothing at all. She just wanted it to be over.

Festus soon took over the pulpit to preach some bullshit message that everyone would lap up and praise him at the end. It was a never ending cycle, one she was tired of being taken on like a merry go round ride.

She found herself being sandwiched between Gideon and Pamilerin during the service and she found that she didn't care anymore, she didn't care that her best friend thought she was a pretentious bitch even though they had known each other for almost eight years, she didn't care that Gideon never stood up for her when they fought weeks ago or whenever they fought in general.