AMARACHI THE BEAUTIFUL POOR CHILD
Amarachi The Beautiful Poor Child - Chapter Twelve (Part 2)
Theme: And Her Journey to Destiny-Discovery
By Erasmus Ugochukwu Okafor
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Copyright ©:
No unauthorized reproduction, reprinting,
plagiarising, commercialization, or rewording of
this fictional work is allowed.
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“I think someone is in love here,” Ugwunwa said and nudged Amarachi to
reality.
Amarachi was a bit startled when she was sent back from the realm of the
imagination but she pretended to be present-minded. “Oh, sorry guys,” she
apologised with a blush, “In love with who, biko?” She defended in pretention
to trick her audience but Ugwunwa wasn’t tricked because a woman
understands a fellow woman.
Amarachi’s reply (in love with who?) got Dave a bit dispirited, but being
a guy who had had the superfluity of women’s attention, he knew that she was
simply bluffing about not having some romantic feelings for him.
“Can we have a toast now,” Chike proposed and brought them back to the
merriment in progress.
“May I use this opportunity,” Ugwunwa said and raised her glass of wine,
gulped it and smiled, “to announce that the wedding day is fixed, and ...”
Lots of cheers from Dave and Amarachi didn’t allow her to complete her
statement because there was prolonged applause; with animal-like noises from
the hosts that accompanied the joyous moment.
“And I also want to thank my best friend, Dave,” Chike said and stood
taller beside Ugwunwa, and then held her close to his side, “Agwanti who had
been using my bride-to-be to trail the buried treasure has finally surrendered
because Dave intervened. I have quenched his taste and greed; financially
though. Let him take it as a bride price I paid to convert his girl’s mission to
wife’s mission,” he added playfully and continued: “I am so happy because I
won the battle at last. His girlfriend...or rather his ex-girlfriend whom he used
against me turned to be the best woman I’d ever met. Fate can be crazy and
does things in its way. I appreciate God for making Agwanti send my girl on
this mission,”
Clapping and deafening cheers continued as they kept being thankful to
God for the reunion of the lovebirds.
“What are friends for?” Amy said gleefully.
“If not for inconveniences,” Dave and Chike replied in unison and burst
into laughter.
Amy and Uguwnwa joined in the laughter because the completion they
gave the statement was funny but true.
“You guys won’t cease to amaze me,” Ugwunwa said and winked at Amy.
The enjoyment lasted till almost the evening but they weren’t bothered
because they had no lectures the next day. It was a weekend. It was obvious
that they’d be taking a night journey to Awka after the fun.
As they continued the enjoyment, Amarachi checked her mom’s window
to see if she was still there; though Ego Oyibo never knew that Amy knew
she’d been hiding behind the curtain and enjoying the party. When Amy
realised that Ego wasn’t there anymore, she was a bit worried.
“Sorry, guys. Excuse me,” she said and left.
Getting to her mom’s room, she saw her weeping by the threshold of her
door and leaning on the wall.
Amy rushed to her mom to know what was going on but Ego Oyibo
couldn’t stop but continued crying and repeating verbally: “I need more time.
Twenty years seemed like twenty days,”
Everything was in a fiasco for Amarachi because she didn’t just
understand what her mom was saying and why the sadness and sorrowful
weeping.
“Mama, can you talk to your daughter, please?” Amy said and took her
into the room to make her sit and talk.
“No need sitting,” Ego said tearfully, “They are here already and my time
with you in Onitsha just ended,”
This statement raised so much concern because it was mind-troubling.
Amy began to grope because the entire statement was more confusing than she
thought.
“Mom, I’d be so angry if you don’t...” she hung her statement there and
began to pulsate with confusion.
“I’m Urhobo woman, not an Igbo (Ibo),” Ego said, releasing the first shock
to Amarachi.
Amy couldn’t wrap her head around that thunderbolt as the statement
kept rumbling in her head and repeating in her mind. She was numb as if
she’d been enchanted by a forbidden strange force.
“Mom, what did you just say?” Amy asked as she remembered when her
mom talked about Urhobo clan coming for her, “Does this have anything to do
with...”
Dave suddenly knocked and showed up, making Amarachi pause because
of the sensitivity of the discussion.
“Dear, aren’t we leaving for school?” he asked and knitted his brow into a
frown when he noticed the mood. He grimaced seeing that Amy and her mom
weren’t looking happy, “Mom,” she called Ego Oyibo in the usual way he calls
her, “I hope you’re not sad about Amy’s departure,”
“I am,” Ego replied abruptly, “but that’s not...”
“Yes, it’s because I’m going back and she’d miss me,” Amy entered sharply
so that her mom wouldn’t divulge what should be left as a family secret; at
least for the time being. “I’m sorry that I may not be going back this weekend
anymore,” Amarachi said and dropped her handbag on the bed to assure Dave
that she was serious about it, “I want to stay with my mom for this weekend,”
Dave got gloomy because he planned on proposing to Amy at ‘Love
Garden’ in the school that very evening. He wanted to make it a surprise that
same weekend but Amarachi’s change in decision got his entire plan crippled
in a wink.
“I wish we’d still go so that I can meet Prof Nwoko for...”
“I don’t need to go, please!” she screamed, and then realised she was
losing it. All she wanted was for Dave to leave but he was a pain in the butt.
“Sorry if I sounded harsh, but see, Dave,” she said in pretention to disguise her
tensed feeling and went to him, and then kissed him in the presence of her mom. “At least I added salt to this one,” she said smilingly, making Dave feel
wowed and better.
“I...I...I don’t know what to say, but thanks,” He said falteringly and felt his
lips with his finger and smiled, “Salty indeed,”
“Naughty boy,” Amy said and jostled him slightly, “Oya, go back to school,
my son,” she jested, “I’ll be coming back to join you,” she promised.
“Sorry to disappoint you, ma’am,” Dave said as he started leaving. Getting
to the door, he held the knob, turned back and said: “I think I’m postponing
mine too till you’re ready for us to go back together,”
“That’s the spirit,” Ego Oyibo murmured smilingly with an ecstatic feeling
that her dreams were coming through.
“Fine, I accept,” Amarachi said with smiles; for him to leave but he still
stood there. “Dave, what again?”
“Chike and his girl just left,” he added, smiled and left the room. His
footsteps away announced his exit until it faded into silence.
Amarachi heaved a deep sigh of relief that he was finally out, went to the
door to shut it, but her mom stopped her. “Keep it open because they’re already
at the gate and had been calling me on the phone,” she said, bringing back the
tension that was just subdued by a brief comic relief.
Amarachi pulled off her high-heeled shoes and rushed towards the
balcony, then saw two tall guys; one fair and the other dark. They looked
handsome and cute but for the fact that her mom dreaded their presence, she
disliked them too.
She hastily rushed back into the house and saw her mom feeling gloomy
and packing her bag.
“Mom, please stop packing. You’re not going anywhere,” she hollered.
“I’m going downstairs straight to meet them. Since you don’t want to tell me
more about these unwelcomed visitors, they must tell me or have Dave to face.
If they try to take you away from here for a reason you don’t want to disclose to me, then I’ll remind them that we’re in a civilized world where the jury still
exists,”
That was bold of Amy. Her mom was proud of her but she knew that she
was simply trying to be obedient to the family tradition and agreement and not
thinking of anything legal or civil at the moment.
Ego Oyibo tapped on the bed and said: “This house isn’t ours; we are just
visitors, so I don’t want Dave to feel embarrassed by their presence,”
Amarachi acted just under the dictates of her instinct. She went to the
gate, asked the gatekeeper to open it and waited for the men to come and take
her mom away. She was ready for anything that comes from it.
Ujunwa saw this and rushed to Dave’s room and informed him that some
men were at the gate to kidnap Amarachi.
The misinformation got Dave so pissed that he rushed for his Revolver,
loaded it and got it engaged for action.
When the two guys entered, they didn’t look as dreadful as Ego Oyibo
made them seem, so Amarachi’s anger suddenly dwindled, though she was
clever enough not to allow the gullibility of an average woman get hold of her
senses.
You can also read: MY MIDNIGHT SEXCAPEDES 18+
Seeing Dave as he rushed towards the men with his gun handy, Amy
blocked him to avoid violence and bloodshed.
“Allow me to send these guys to their early graves,” he yelled like a
marauding beast, showing the real character of a Capone.
The two guys were calm and didn’t even bat an eyelid as if they weren’t
afraid of the gun.
“Calm your nerves, let’s hear them out first,” Amarachi said wisely and
held Dave so that he wouldn’t act impulsively and get himself in trouble. “Still
water runs deep,” she added idiomatically.
“Who are you guys?” Dave growled as his heart pounded heavily with
rage; his finger still firm and well-positioned on the trigger.
“We’ve come to tell our mom that we’ve fought the good fight as grown
men, no more as kids that couldn’t fight for her,” The black guy said and
remained calm and unsmiling, “We’re, therefore, ready to take her back
home,” “I am Ogheneruno Oghene, and this is my elder brother, Erhimeyoma
Oghene. We come in peace,”
Amy was surprised to hear her mom shout and started rushing
downstairs. When she came down, she rushed to the guys and embraced them,
with tears all over their eyes.
Everybody was surprised.
“Mom, what’s happening,” Amarachi asked looking more confused, “a few
minutes ago you were crying that you didn’t want to see the visitors but now
you rushed to them and welcome them. Please, start talking,”
The entire people in the compound suddenly gathered; even the
menservants and maidservants. Ujunwa and Oji Isi ebu mgbo were not left
out.
“Mom,” Dave called and went closer to Ego whom she believed could be
under a spell, “Your daughter asked you a question but you seemed lost in this
long embrace,”
Ego Oyibo turned to Amarachi, beckoned her forward to join them, but
Amy was reluctant to do that.
“Ego Oyibo, Nnem,” she called sonorously, “you’ve left me in the dark for
long, getting my mission to know the truth thwarted and wouldn’t even
explain things. For the last time, what is happening here?”
“Her name is Akpenvwe Oghene. She is our mother,” Erhimeyoma, the
fair elder one said.
“Mom, is this true?” Amy asked and came closer to have a better
understanding, “Is Ego Oyibo not your real name?”
Ego Oyibo smiled and nodded. “I’m not an Ibo but from Urhobo tribe in
Delta state,” she said and kept waving at Amarachi to come closer but she
didn’t.
“Mom, keep talking,” Amy said and hissed, “I can hear you from here,”
“I was accused of killing my husband twenty years ago but I was
innocent,” Ego began in a sorrowful tone while others listened and maintained
absolute silence, “According to our tradition, I’d be exiled for twenty years if
the evidence wasn’t too concrete, but if it was, I would be sacrificed to the gods
of the old religion at the forest of Oblivion, and that would be my fate. No one
who had gone there ever returned,”
“Mom,” Ogheneruno called, interrupting the story, “those things were a
fetish and have been abolished, so we have to go home now,”
“Even the chief priest that connived with Eserovwe, our wicked uncle, to
frame you up in the same crime he committed have confessed and died later
some years back,” Erhim added.
“God, I thank you,” Ego Oyibo said and raised her eyes to the sky, “I was
accused wrongly but now, my sons that were denied their motherly love still
came back for me. Be praised, the almighty Supreme Being,”
“It may interest you to also know that our wicked uncle is bedridden for
some years now,” Erhim announced to Ego Oyibo with joy, “he’s been begging
for death to snuff life out of him but the request is still far from being granted
because death is nowhere around him yet, but he still suffers without anyone
to take care of him,”
“I think I got it now, mom,” Amy said and went closer to her mom, “so you
later came down to Onitsha and remarried, right. But I’m 22, so how come?”
“Mom couldn’t have remarried because it’s against our tradition,”
Ogheneruno said an kept looking at Amarachi as a total stranger, “She’s even
forbidden from having any child out of wedlock during the period of the exile
and after,”
Amarachi looked at her mom and asked: “Mom, I think you should be the
one talking and not these two strangers that could cook up a story,”
Ego Oyibo knew that Amarachi was getting more impatient and angry, so
she pulled her closer and said: “I am not your mom, my sweet daughter but I wish I am and I still assume I am because wherever Mkpulumma is now, she’d
be happy that I saved her daughter,”
This news threw the entire place in confusion and incessant shouts and
snapping of fingers; even Amy couldn’t stomach the blow. She became giddy
and about to faint but Dave rushed at her and held her, and then pulled a seat
closer, and made her sit.
Oji isi started aerating her so that she wouldn’t blackout.
Ego rushed to Amy and held her to give some motherly comfort but Amy
was still in shock and couldn’t utter a word.
After a while, as she tried assimilating the mind-blowing announcement,
she quietly asked: “You’ve always addressed me fondly as Mkpulumma (grain
of beauty) whenever you’re in a good mood. I took the name as a pet name and
I loved it. Now you still mentioned the same name saying she was my mother.
If I’m right, she’s now late; for you to say she was,”
“Yes, Nwam,” Ego replied.
“Jesus!” Amy exclaimed with tears and began to shake her head in dismay.
“Yes,” Ego replied, “Mkpulumma had two daughters but one died, so I
couldn’t allow you die too,” she continued, “Something strange happened that
made the beautiful woman die the way she did. Maybe nobody knew the truth
about that but I did because I was close to her and used to take food to her in
those days whenever she’s in the Datsun truck; the same truck I lied to you
that belonged to your dad,”
A new revelation just crept up on her. Amy was getting more dazed at the
entire discussion that seemed like they were in a drama rehearsal.
“But you told me the truck was left many years ago by my dad before he
died,” Amarachi queried, sounding bolder this time and ready to take more
surprises, “where is my dad then?”
Ego Oyibo took a seat and sat beside Amarachi because arthritis was
getting her legs inflamed for standing too long.
Dave and every other person present were all surprised as they all
listened and got glued to the discussants. To reduce the listening audience,
Dave sent everybody away to their duty posts except Ujunwa and Harry.
“You have no dad and nothing like dad ever existed in your life with me,”
Ego Oyibo said and nodded in affirmation, “Since Mkpulumma who used to
sleep inside the truck with her children died, I decided to use a tow van to
bring the truck home to keep that memory. When you grew into this woman
you are, I saw you as a replica of her. I was surprised you suddenly developed
an interest in that same truck, making you use some money realised from your
Akara business to fix it. Whenever I see you, I see her. I fondly call you
Mkpulumma because you took after her both in tallness, fairness, and
prettiness. You’re just a chip off the old block,”
Amy couldn’t understand why her biological mom would be sleeping in
an old truck. The story wasn’t adding up because it sounded like fiction.
“Please, Ego,” Amy called formally, “why would a mom sleep inside a
truck with her baby. Where was her home, and where was her husband?”
Ego took a deep breath because of how hard it was to tell her the truth
about her mom’s status before her death. She shook her head and said: “Your
mom was Mkpulumma the most beautiful madwoman,”
Amarachi began to cry on hearing that her biological mom died a
madwoman and it was possible that one of the loafers and drunkards in the
streets impregnated the vulnerable woman to give birth to her.
“So I’m a bastard after all,” Amarachi said sorrowfully as she tried to have
a mental picture of being born by an insane helpless woman roaming the
streets and scavenging the garbage for food.
NEXT CHAPTER
reality.
Amarachi was a bit startled when she was sent back from the realm of the
imagination but she pretended to be present-minded. “Oh, sorry guys,” she
apologised with a blush, “In love with who, biko?” She defended in pretention
to trick her audience but Ugwunwa wasn’t tricked because a woman
understands a fellow woman.
Amarachi’s reply (in love with who?) got Dave a bit dispirited, but being
a guy who had had the superfluity of women’s attention, he knew that she was
simply bluffing about not having some romantic feelings for him.
“Can we have a toast now,” Chike proposed and brought them back to the
merriment in progress.
“May I use this opportunity,” Ugwunwa said and raised her glass of wine,
gulped it and smiled, “to announce that the wedding day is fixed, and ...”
Lots of cheers from Dave and Amarachi didn’t allow her to complete her
statement because there was prolonged applause; with animal-like noises from
the hosts that accompanied the joyous moment.
“And I also want to thank my best friend, Dave,” Chike said and stood
taller beside Ugwunwa, and then held her close to his side, “Agwanti who had
been using my bride-to-be to trail the buried treasure has finally surrendered
because Dave intervened. I have quenched his taste and greed; financially
though. Let him take it as a bride price I paid to convert his girl’s mission to
wife’s mission,” he added playfully and continued: “I am so happy because I
won the battle at last. His girlfriend...or rather his ex-girlfriend whom he used
against me turned to be the best woman I’d ever met. Fate can be crazy and
does things in its way. I appreciate God for making Agwanti send my girl on
this mission,”
Clapping and deafening cheers continued as they kept being thankful to
God for the reunion of the lovebirds.
“What are friends for?” Amy said gleefully.
“If not for inconveniences,” Dave and Chike replied in unison and burst
into laughter.
Amy and Uguwnwa joined in the laughter because the completion they
gave the statement was funny but true.
“You guys won’t cease to amaze me,” Ugwunwa said and winked at Amy.
The enjoyment lasted till almost the evening but they weren’t bothered
because they had no lectures the next day. It was a weekend. It was obvious
that they’d be taking a night journey to Awka after the fun.
As they continued the enjoyment, Amarachi checked her mom’s window
to see if she was still there; though Ego Oyibo never knew that Amy knew
she’d been hiding behind the curtain and enjoying the party. When Amy
realised that Ego wasn’t there anymore, she was a bit worried.
“Sorry, guys. Excuse me,” she said and left.
Getting to her mom’s room, she saw her weeping by the threshold of her
door and leaning on the wall.
Amy rushed to her mom to know what was going on but Ego Oyibo
couldn’t stop but continued crying and repeating verbally: “I need more time.
Twenty years seemed like twenty days,”
Everything was in a fiasco for Amarachi because she didn’t just
understand what her mom was saying and why the sadness and sorrowful
weeping.
“Mama, can you talk to your daughter, please?” Amy said and took her
into the room to make her sit and talk.
“No need sitting,” Ego said tearfully, “They are here already and my time
with you in Onitsha just ended,”
This statement raised so much concern because it was mind-troubling.
Amy began to grope because the entire statement was more confusing than she
thought.
“Mom, I’d be so angry if you don’t...” she hung her statement there and
began to pulsate with confusion.
“I’m Urhobo woman, not an Igbo (Ibo),” Ego said, releasing the first shock
to Amarachi.
Amy couldn’t wrap her head around that thunderbolt as the statement
kept rumbling in her head and repeating in her mind. She was numb as if
she’d been enchanted by a forbidden strange force.
“Mom, what did you just say?” Amy asked as she remembered when her
mom talked about Urhobo clan coming for her, “Does this have anything to do
with...”
Dave suddenly knocked and showed up, making Amarachi pause because
of the sensitivity of the discussion.
“Dear, aren’t we leaving for school?” he asked and knitted his brow into a
frown when he noticed the mood. He grimaced seeing that Amy and her mom
weren’t looking happy, “Mom,” she called Ego Oyibo in the usual way he calls
her, “I hope you’re not sad about Amy’s departure,”
“I am,” Ego replied abruptly, “but that’s not...”
“Yes, it’s because I’m going back and she’d miss me,” Amy entered sharply
so that her mom wouldn’t divulge what should be left as a family secret; at
least for the time being. “I’m sorry that I may not be going back this weekend
anymore,” Amarachi said and dropped her handbag on the bed to assure Dave
that she was serious about it, “I want to stay with my mom for this weekend,”
Dave got gloomy because he planned on proposing to Amy at ‘Love
Garden’ in the school that very evening. He wanted to make it a surprise that
same weekend but Amarachi’s change in decision got his entire plan crippled
in a wink.
“I wish we’d still go so that I can meet Prof Nwoko for...”
“I don’t need to go, please!” she screamed, and then realised she was
losing it. All she wanted was for Dave to leave but he was a pain in the butt.
“Sorry if I sounded harsh, but see, Dave,” she said in pretention to disguise her
tensed feeling and went to him, and then kissed him in the presence of her mom. “At least I added salt to this one,” she said smilingly, making Dave feel
wowed and better.
“I...I...I don’t know what to say, but thanks,” He said falteringly and felt his
lips with his finger and smiled, “Salty indeed,”
“Naughty boy,” Amy said and jostled him slightly, “Oya, go back to school,
my son,” she jested, “I’ll be coming back to join you,” she promised.
“Sorry to disappoint you, ma’am,” Dave said as he started leaving. Getting
to the door, he held the knob, turned back and said: “I think I’m postponing
mine too till you’re ready for us to go back together,”
“That’s the spirit,” Ego Oyibo murmured smilingly with an ecstatic feeling
that her dreams were coming through.
“Fine, I accept,” Amarachi said with smiles; for him to leave but he still
stood there. “Dave, what again?”
“Chike and his girl just left,” he added, smiled and left the room. His
footsteps away announced his exit until it faded into silence.
Amarachi heaved a deep sigh of relief that he was finally out, went to the
door to shut it, but her mom stopped her. “Keep it open because they’re already
at the gate and had been calling me on the phone,” she said, bringing back the
tension that was just subdued by a brief comic relief.
Amarachi pulled off her high-heeled shoes and rushed towards the
balcony, then saw two tall guys; one fair and the other dark. They looked
handsome and cute but for the fact that her mom dreaded their presence, she
disliked them too.
She hastily rushed back into the house and saw her mom feeling gloomy
and packing her bag.
“Mom, please stop packing. You’re not going anywhere,” she hollered.
“I’m going downstairs straight to meet them. Since you don’t want to tell me
more about these unwelcomed visitors, they must tell me or have Dave to face.
If they try to take you away from here for a reason you don’t want to disclose to me, then I’ll remind them that we’re in a civilized world where the jury still
exists,”
That was bold of Amy. Her mom was proud of her but she knew that she
was simply trying to be obedient to the family tradition and agreement and not
thinking of anything legal or civil at the moment.
Ego Oyibo tapped on the bed and said: “This house isn’t ours; we are just
visitors, so I don’t want Dave to feel embarrassed by their presence,”
Amarachi acted just under the dictates of her instinct. She went to the
gate, asked the gatekeeper to open it and waited for the men to come and take
her mom away. She was ready for anything that comes from it.
Ujunwa saw this and rushed to Dave’s room and informed him that some
men were at the gate to kidnap Amarachi.
The misinformation got Dave so pissed that he rushed for his Revolver,
loaded it and got it engaged for action.
When the two guys entered, they didn’t look as dreadful as Ego Oyibo
made them seem, so Amarachi’s anger suddenly dwindled, though she was
clever enough not to allow the gullibility of an average woman get hold of her
senses.
You can also read: MY MIDNIGHT SEXCAPEDES 18+
Seeing Dave as he rushed towards the men with his gun handy, Amy
blocked him to avoid violence and bloodshed.
“Allow me to send these guys to their early graves,” he yelled like a
marauding beast, showing the real character of a Capone.
The two guys were calm and didn’t even bat an eyelid as if they weren’t
afraid of the gun.
“Calm your nerves, let’s hear them out first,” Amarachi said wisely and
held Dave so that he wouldn’t act impulsively and get himself in trouble. “Still
water runs deep,” she added idiomatically.
“Who are you guys?” Dave growled as his heart pounded heavily with
rage; his finger still firm and well-positioned on the trigger.
“We’ve come to tell our mom that we’ve fought the good fight as grown
men, no more as kids that couldn’t fight for her,” The black guy said and
remained calm and unsmiling, “We’re, therefore, ready to take her back
home,” “I am Ogheneruno Oghene, and this is my elder brother, Erhimeyoma
Oghene. We come in peace,”
Amy was surprised to hear her mom shout and started rushing
downstairs. When she came down, she rushed to the guys and embraced them,
with tears all over their eyes.
Everybody was surprised.
“Mom, what’s happening,” Amarachi asked looking more confused, “a few
minutes ago you were crying that you didn’t want to see the visitors but now
you rushed to them and welcome them. Please, start talking,”
The entire people in the compound suddenly gathered; even the
menservants and maidservants. Ujunwa and Oji Isi ebu mgbo were not left
out.
“Mom,” Dave called and went closer to Ego whom she believed could be
under a spell, “Your daughter asked you a question but you seemed lost in this
long embrace,”
Ego Oyibo turned to Amarachi, beckoned her forward to join them, but
Amy was reluctant to do that.
“Ego Oyibo, Nnem,” she called sonorously, “you’ve left me in the dark for
long, getting my mission to know the truth thwarted and wouldn’t even
explain things. For the last time, what is happening here?”
“Her name is Akpenvwe Oghene. She is our mother,” Erhimeyoma, the
fair elder one said.
“Mom, is this true?” Amy asked and came closer to have a better
understanding, “Is Ego Oyibo not your real name?”
Ego Oyibo smiled and nodded. “I’m not an Ibo but from Urhobo tribe in
Delta state,” she said and kept waving at Amarachi to come closer but she
didn’t.
“Mom, keep talking,” Amy said and hissed, “I can hear you from here,”
“I was accused of killing my husband twenty years ago but I was
innocent,” Ego began in a sorrowful tone while others listened and maintained
absolute silence, “According to our tradition, I’d be exiled for twenty years if
the evidence wasn’t too concrete, but if it was, I would be sacrificed to the gods
of the old religion at the forest of Oblivion, and that would be my fate. No one
who had gone there ever returned,”
“Mom,” Ogheneruno called, interrupting the story, “those things were a
fetish and have been abolished, so we have to go home now,”
“Even the chief priest that connived with Eserovwe, our wicked uncle, to
frame you up in the same crime he committed have confessed and died later
some years back,” Erhim added.
“God, I thank you,” Ego Oyibo said and raised her eyes to the sky, “I was
accused wrongly but now, my sons that were denied their motherly love still
came back for me. Be praised, the almighty Supreme Being,”
“It may interest you to also know that our wicked uncle is bedridden for
some years now,” Erhim announced to Ego Oyibo with joy, “he’s been begging
for death to snuff life out of him but the request is still far from being granted
because death is nowhere around him yet, but he still suffers without anyone
to take care of him,”
“I think I got it now, mom,” Amy said and went closer to her mom, “so you
later came down to Onitsha and remarried, right. But I’m 22, so how come?”
“Mom couldn’t have remarried because it’s against our tradition,”
Ogheneruno said an kept looking at Amarachi as a total stranger, “She’s even
forbidden from having any child out of wedlock during the period of the exile
and after,”
Amarachi looked at her mom and asked: “Mom, I think you should be the
one talking and not these two strangers that could cook up a story,”
Ego Oyibo knew that Amarachi was getting more impatient and angry, so
she pulled her closer and said: “I am not your mom, my sweet daughter but I wish I am and I still assume I am because wherever Mkpulumma is now, she’d
be happy that I saved her daughter,”
This news threw the entire place in confusion and incessant shouts and
snapping of fingers; even Amy couldn’t stomach the blow. She became giddy
and about to faint but Dave rushed at her and held her, and then pulled a seat
closer, and made her sit.
Oji isi started aerating her so that she wouldn’t blackout.
Ego rushed to Amy and held her to give some motherly comfort but Amy
was still in shock and couldn’t utter a word.
After a while, as she tried assimilating the mind-blowing announcement,
she quietly asked: “You’ve always addressed me fondly as Mkpulumma (grain
of beauty) whenever you’re in a good mood. I took the name as a pet name and
I loved it. Now you still mentioned the same name saying she was my mother.
If I’m right, she’s now late; for you to say she was,”
“Yes, Nwam,” Ego replied.
“Jesus!” Amy exclaimed with tears and began to shake her head in dismay.
“Yes,” Ego replied, “Mkpulumma had two daughters but one died, so I
couldn’t allow you die too,” she continued, “Something strange happened that
made the beautiful woman die the way she did. Maybe nobody knew the truth
about that but I did because I was close to her and used to take food to her in
those days whenever she’s in the Datsun truck; the same truck I lied to you
that belonged to your dad,”
A new revelation just crept up on her. Amy was getting more dazed at the
entire discussion that seemed like they were in a drama rehearsal.
“But you told me the truck was left many years ago by my dad before he
died,” Amarachi queried, sounding bolder this time and ready to take more
surprises, “where is my dad then?”
Ego Oyibo took a seat and sat beside Amarachi because arthritis was
getting her legs inflamed for standing too long.
Dave and every other person present were all surprised as they all
listened and got glued to the discussants. To reduce the listening audience,
Dave sent everybody away to their duty posts except Ujunwa and Harry.
“You have no dad and nothing like dad ever existed in your life with me,”
Ego Oyibo said and nodded in affirmation, “Since Mkpulumma who used to
sleep inside the truck with her children died, I decided to use a tow van to
bring the truck home to keep that memory. When you grew into this woman
you are, I saw you as a replica of her. I was surprised you suddenly developed
an interest in that same truck, making you use some money realised from your
Akara business to fix it. Whenever I see you, I see her. I fondly call you
Mkpulumma because you took after her both in tallness, fairness, and
prettiness. You’re just a chip off the old block,”
Amy couldn’t understand why her biological mom would be sleeping in
an old truck. The story wasn’t adding up because it sounded like fiction.
“Please, Ego,” Amy called formally, “why would a mom sleep inside a
truck with her baby. Where was her home, and where was her husband?”
Ego took a deep breath because of how hard it was to tell her the truth
about her mom’s status before her death. She shook her head and said: “Your
mom was Mkpulumma the most beautiful madwoman,”
Amarachi began to cry on hearing that her biological mom died a
madwoman and it was possible that one of the loafers and drunkards in the
streets impregnated the vulnerable woman to give birth to her.
“So I’m a bastard after all,” Amarachi said sorrowfully as she tried to have
a mental picture of being born by an insane helpless woman roaming the
streets and scavenging the garbage for food.
NEXT CHAPTER
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