Ìrètí [Completed]

11| JESUS

"Itunu, Mrs. Oyedele wants to talk with us in her room" I say to Itunu, watching her from the kitchen doorway.

"Okay. I'm coming." Itunu says as she arranges the plates on the dish rack.

"Be fast. She's waiting"

"I'm through." Itunu says as she cleans her hands with a napkin.

"Let's go."

It's been three days since we saw Father's letter making it five days since he went missing but we've not found his body.

The past three days have been really slow. Itunu and I cried in each other's arms for the past nights. We try to look better every morning so as not to worry Mrs. Oyedele. Itunu tries to do all the house chores in the house just to take her mind off the whole issue during the day while I spend time in Mrs. Oyedele's library, going through books.

We didn't go to school. We just stay at home. Mrs. Oyedele takes Iyanu to school in the morning and picks him from school in the afternoon. She stays with us at home, trying to cheer us up. Tolu also stays at home now. He came home two days ago and has been at home since though he leaves the house every morning to go to his school for lectures. They're really being nice to us.

Itunu and I have no idea what to do or how to live now. The future is bleak again. We're just hopeless.

"Come in" Mrs. Oyedele says from inside her room after Itunu knocked on the door.

Itunu opens the door and we enter and close the door behind us. Mrs. Oyedele is seating on her bed and she pats the space beside her, signalling us to seat beside her.

"In an hour's time, I'll go to pick Iyanu from his school but before then I want to talk with you girls" Mrs. Oyedele says with a gentle smile on her face.

"Okay ma" Itunu says quietly.

Mrs. Oyedele looks at Itunu, then looks at me.

"When I was nineteen, I lost my parents. Tolu was just three years old then. He was still so small. I didn't know how I was going to take care of him. I had just finished my secondary school education and I was preparing to enter university but I gave up that thought. Our family was not rich but we were comfortable. My father's brother, my uncle, took Tolu and I into his house. We weren't maltreated. My uncle and his wife were nice to us but they were poor. Very poor. They'd depended on my father when he was alive but they had no support after his death. My uncle and his wife tried to take care of us but with their own children, it was difficult. I did some work in order to contribute to the family's income and I also saved some money for myself. When I was almost twenty-one years old, I had saved some money and then I decided we had to leave my uncle's house. I felt like a burden and I didn't like it. I told my uncle I was leaving with Tolu and though he tried to stop me from leaving, I left. I rented a small room apartment and lived there with Tolu. My uncle checked up on us sometimes and his wife brought us food sometimes too. Things were bad during that period. I struggled a lot to take care of both of us. Tolu didn't attend school for two years and I didn't want that for him so I enrolled him in a small primary school. I worked a lot. I did all kinds of jobs as long as they were legal. My uncle stopped checking up on us and we were really left alone."

Mrs. Oyedele pauses. Itunu and I stare at her, waiting patiently for her to continue though we don't understand why she is telling us all these.

"There were many times I almost broke down during that period. I had a lot of jobs to keep and I also had to take care of Tolu. Even with all the problems and troubles, I made sure I was always there for Tolu. I didn't want him to suffer at all so I tried all I could to make him happy. It was really tough. Like twice or thrice, we were almost chased away from our rented room because I didn't pay the rent on time. We even struggled to eat. It was really bad. Then I got a better job as a sales girl in one good boutique. Tolu was about seven years old then so I was able to leave him alone at home during the day when I had to work in the boutique. At least I had enough money to improved our poor feeding and I had little to save. Then one day, I met my husband."