IJE AWELE 4

 Father had just landed a job at a Finance firm that Mother's connection had helped him secure. She knew this because Mother didn't fail to point this out to father every time she had a chance to. However, there were hardly fights concerning money in the house anymore and mother hummed around the house more often than she usually did. The ministry which was a source of pride to her was growing by leaps and bounds. She was an international minister and televangelist whose ministry was fast becoming a household name and a hideout for all her failings at home especially with her young daughter.

 Awele was trial to her mother. She had often heard her say so, therefore she felt it must be true. She was always up to one mischief or the other, she questioned rules and fought bitterly over things that she did not even care about. Her attitude was so unruly and different from that of the perfect pastor's daughter that she was expected to be.

 It might have been completely different for her if the events of last night had never happened. If when she had woken up in the morning her parents were there in the next room. She would have been sulking over her disgrace the night before that had been a combat over beans which she despised.

 She would have sulked because she found some pleasure in that activity particularly when someone or anyone put in the effort to win her out of her pouts. She always enjoyed any type of attention she could manage.

 Before supper, mother was humming to herself in the third room that had been converted to a study/library while working on next Sunday's sermon. It was one of those rare evenings that Awele was allowed to play quietly with her dolls in the same room as her mother so she could keep an eye on her. Aunty Lana had gone to the market to shop for foodstuffs. It was a day like any other that started out as ordinary but one she would never forget.

 Mother was supposed to be keeping an eye on her but the attention she paid her could have been as that one pays to ghost. Awele was still sulking from the smack she had received from Aunty Lana earlier for talking back at her. So her mood was foul and made more vicious by her mother's uncharacteristic happiness which she resented to no end. She threw a temper tantrum at her dolls and this in a flash, saw her to her room with another beating. She remained banished in her room and didn't come out until she was summoned for supper.

 She was not hungry and was still angry over the smacks she had received earlier. But her father didn't even seem to notice her or anyone for that matter. He was lost in brown study and only picked on his food. So she decided to take out her frustration on her beans - then she ended up sassing her mother and being sent from the table. She hated being sent from the table. Not that she cared so much about the food, but it was banishment. It made her feel more distant from her parents. She felt like the perennial outsider who on the one hand reveled in her independence of them but on the other, wanted desperately in.

 She went to her room more defiant as if that was where she wanted to be in the first place. She was determined that her parents would think so and not suspect that she was mortified as she was angry. A few spoonfuls of beans by the side of her rice was more important than she was to them.

 She laid on the bed, stared at the ceiling and surrounded herself with resentment. One day, she thought, one day she would be free to do as she liked. No one would stop her, least of all her parents who had so easily dismissed her. She would be rich, famous and beautiful. She would have her own family who would want her. She had no clear idea how she would accomplish these things but they were her goal.






(To be contd.)