Vagrants

Chapter 32

Everybody in the house turned their back against me except Aunty Kemi and Abisola who decided to stay by my side. They would have continued giving me cold shoulders but because they knew I needed support, they decided to stay by my side.

Now, I was a shameless woman conceiving outside wedlock in the eyes of my Mother. Everything I did since she found out was just to please her. I wanted my Mother to love me back but the more I tried, the more she hated me. Her mind was already made up about me and she doesn't want to have anything to do with me. It was such a hurtful experience staying under the same roof with someone who doesn't want to have anything to do with you.

Things took a turn for the worse one Saturday morning.

Knock! Knock!!

Unfortunately for me, I was the one that opened the door to see the women of our community and few other people standing outside the house.

"See! She is even the one that came to open the door." One woman yelled.

"Who are you looking for?" I asked.

"Look at that! She doesn't have respect." Another woman yelled.

"Where is your mother? Where is your mother?!"

"Please don't shout, She is still sleeping." I spoke softly.

Then the women started shouting, banging the door until everybody in the house came out.

"Who are those?" Mother asked. I greeted her but she ignored me. She greeted them and they splashed water on her face, calling her names.

"What happened?" Mother asked. "What did I do to you?"

"You're acting like you don't know. You have a prostitute living in your house!"

"Who?"

"Who else? Adeola!"

"If you know what's good for you, don't ever call my daughter a prostitute." Mother said and that made my heart feel lighter.

"Can you hear that? The same woman who will go and fish out unruly girls in their homes and punish them is busy preventing us from doing it to her daughter."

"Who told you my daughter is one of them?" Mother asked.

"You think we don't know? Your daughter isn't married and she is pregnant."

"Who told you that?" Mother asked.

"We have our sources."

"The news you have isn't accurate, my daughter isn't..." Mother tried to defend me.

"Do not lie to us. We have proof!" They waved a paper in front of my mother then I saw. It was a photocopy of the tests results. How did they get it?

Something made me turn my head around and I saw the culprit. Mrs. Bukola.

"Who gave you this?" Mother asked.

"Mrs. Bukola." I blurted out.

We all turned to face her with a stern look. She couldn't say anything to defend herself and she was busy playing with her fingers. Her husband shook his head and sent an apologetic look to Mother who hissed.

"I...I told you not to tell anybody." Mrs. Bukola said to one woman.

"I only told her and I said she shouldn't..." The woman pointed to the leader of the group who happened to be the second in command after my mother and I figured how everyone knew.

"How did they get the photocopy?" Aunty Kemi asked. The tone in her voice showed how much she hated Mrs. Bukola and she definitely wanted to strangle her.

Mrs. Bukola explained to us what happened. She wanted to tell that woman the gist of my pregnancy and she knew she wouldn't be believed so she took it along with her to the woman's house and forgot it there. The woman took it to their leader's house, who made a photocopy of it and the woman couldn't do anything to stop her. She returned the original paper to Mrs. Bukola afterwards, saying she forgot it at her house and that's how nobody knew what happened.

*

After the women and entire neighborhood had told my mother to cut herself off from any alliances with them, they left. They had told her that they would be back and that they would take action against me.

I ran off to my room in tears. Aunty Kemi and Abisola wanted to follow me but Mother stopped them.

"Let her cry. Oun lo yagbe, oun lo ma ko." She's the one that created this problem, she'll have to fix it. Mother said.

They focused on Mrs. Bukola and started insulting her, even Abisola joined them and Mother didn't stop her because they knew that Mrs. Bukola, stooping so low like that deserved insults even if it's from somebody young enough to be her child.

Later on, Mrs. Bukola and her husband were sent out of the house. Her husband had apologized and forced her to kneel before everyone and apologize. He wanted her to apologize to me but I had locked myself up in the room and didn't want to talk to anyone.

Everybody left me alone for sometime and started worrying about me when I didn't come out of my room in the afternoon.

"Adeola! Adeola!!" Everybody banged hard on the door including Mother but I didn't care. I wanted to be alone and didn't want to talk to anybody. I've always been like that. I rarely had conversations with people that I was almost thought to be mute and because I met Damba, everything changed.

I cursed the day I met him and I cursed the day a beast like him was born! He made my family and I suffer and he shall suffer too! I hated that I had to see my Mother go through a lot of humiliation because of what I did with that beast.

Actually, that wasn't me. He probably fooled me, he must have charmed me. The Adeola I know would never fall into a man's trap. In fact, I never did. Except this one is too good at his game. He played it so well that he might actually be an animal in human skin.

I cried hard, thinking about all this. I didn't come out of my room for dinner either. Aunty Kemi told them to let me be and that I'd come out of my own accord. They left me alone and Abisola had to spend the night in Mother's room.