Ìrètí [Completed]

8| FATHER

Yesss. It's a triple update like I said. Not double. Enjoy.

"We're not leaving here till we see Daddy." Itunu says coldly for the umpteenth time now.

I don't say anything. I've not said anything since we came home this evening. I'm trying not to cry right now and I know if I open my mouth, I'll start crying again.

It's painful. It's so painful. Mother is gone. She's dead. Seeing her lifeless body yesterday night confirmed it. I saw it. I saw her lifeless injured body and I knew I will never see her again. I will never hear her shout at me and Itunu or hear her tell us funny things that had happened to her. I will never see Mother again. It's so strange.

I've been crying since yesterday. I didn't want to see Mother's corpse but Itunu had come to meet me in the car and calmly and patiently taken me out of the car to where Mother was.

I had cried so much but I couldn't cry out. I couldn't shout and wail like I usually see people do when they lose their loved ones in movies. Mother was so lifeless with injuries all over her body. Her head...her head had a gash.

She'd always taken Father's beatings strongly and never seemed weak but she died when she was beaten up by thugs. She was so weak she died after being pushed around, beaten up and bled.

She couldn't withstand it and hold on to life. She just died, leaving us alone.

I'm crying again. It's so painful. My heart feels so tight now. How are we going to live now? Can we survive without Mother? Will Father quit drinking and try to be a better man? We've not even seen him since yesterday night. He'd tried to comfort me when I was crying even when he was also crying painfully. Itunu had pushed him away when he wanted to embrace her and after that he'd left the mortuary devasted.

"We're not leaving here till we see Daddy" Itunu says again, shaking her feet.

She has not shed a tear since yesterday. She'd stared at Mother for a long while and refused to look at Father. She didn't look away from Mother's corpse till Mrs. Oyedele told us to follow her home. We left the hospital with me crying and Itunu still calm. Mrs. Oyedele had tried to stop her crying just to look strong for us. She said comforting words to us and tried to make us feel better. We spent the night in her house and I tried not cry in front of Iyanu. We haven't told him yet. We'll eventually have to tell him but we don't know how to now. The boy is so attached to Mother and I'm sure he can't bear losing her. Mrs. Oyedele told him Mother had gone somewhere without telling him where she went.

I couldn't sleep last night and I just cried silently to myself on the bed. Itunu, who slept beside me on the same bed, could not sleep also but I didn't hear her cry at all. We didn't talk. We just kept to ourselves.

Itunu and I left Mrs. Oyedele's house this morning after Itunu told her that she wanted to come to our house to wait for Father. Mrs. Oyedele was worried because Itunu refused to eat since yesterday and I only managed to eat little food out of politeness but she allowed us to leave when she couldn't persuade Itunu to stay. She made us promise, anyway, to return to her house this night and not stay here.

Now we are here and we haven't seen Father since we came in the morning. We don't know where he is and we know he didn't return to the mortuary. We came straight to our apartment when we got to the house and avoided all our neighbours. They don't know about Mother's death and we're not ready for questions. It's late in the evening and it's dark in the house now without any source of light.

Itunu is so determined to see Father today. She looks calm and collected but that makes me so worried. I don't know what to say to her. I haven't said a word to anyone, not even Tolu when he wanted to console me. I don't like this at all. I want to see Mother again. I want to see her full of life even if it's just hearing her shouting when Father beats her. At least that will mean she's still alive.