OUR OWN STORIES

SCORNED

PART ONE

It was in the early hours of the morning and I was awoken by my mum's shouts. She kept shouting about my dad been an infidel and a disgrace to mankind. I knew it was probably the call my mother had received two days ago and the caller had said she was one of my father's girlfriends as though he had a warehouse of them. I overheard mum that night crying into the phone and cursing loudly with words she warned me never to use on people. She didn't even talk to dad until this morning. I came down from my bed and yawned, opening my mouth as wide as a well. Aunty Agatha, my mum's older sister who stayed with us was already mixing my bath water.
"Aunty good morning." I greeted as I rubbed my hands on my face. She turned to look at me. In her mouth, was a chewing stick. It has been her own way of washing her mouth. She detested the brush and paste saying the white people keep introducing silly things making people betray their custom. The stick made her teeth cleaner. So she believes. I began to urinate on the bathroom floor with my eyes still playing games on me.
There is a loud crash downstairs that jerked me,my mother was still shouting  and this time it was louder.
"Chika, I'm going to hurt you." I heard my father say.
There was another crash and I turned to run out but my aunt pulled me back.
"Stay here." She said and then she went out of my room and went down the stairs. There was another crash. A louder one. A loud bang.
"Kill me. Go ahead and kill me." I heard my mum crying. I heard Aunty Agatha pleading too.
I heard my father's voice raising dust in the living room. Daddy was a big man, and i knew if he had touched mum, something bad would happen to her.
Later, I heard his car zoom out the compound. My aunty arrived back in the room in no time after that. I was crying in the bathroom.

Mum left the house the following day, I watched as she packed her bags and when I asked where she was going, she said it was a business trip. I knew she had a supermarket, but what supermarket would accommodate a business trip?
When she was done, she kissed my head and smiled.
"Mummy, I want to follow you." I cried. I held the hem of her gown and she turned to me.
"Obinna, I'd send someone to pick you up from school next week Monday. Then you can stay with me, okay."
That was the last thing she ever said to me. No good bye, nothing. It was later that evening when Aunty Agatha, broke down in the kitchen with shouts of sorrow that I knew what happened later on. Mum had been involved in an accident and she didn't make it.
I was in the sitting room with dad when she brought the news. I saw the horror on his face. The shock. His lips parted and nothing came out of them. Even though the air conditioning was on, I saw the sweat buds that formed on his face. His pupils dilated and his lips quivered.
"It's your fault Tochukwu. You have killed my sister! You have killed her." She shouted pointing at my father. I wanted to flare up, but I was too tiny. I was still trying to comprehend what they were saying because my father started shouting at her and she raised her voice even higher. 

I ran up the stairs and crawled under my bed, crying loudly. My mum was dead and there was no one else to call mother. My heart pounded as I laid under the bed. I still heard them shouting and my aunt was talking about leaving. She said she was going to expose my father and destroy his evil reputation, whatever that meant.  My father was a good man, but when mum said he cheated on her,  though it was my aunt I heard it from. She had said something about my father been loose and his lust was intense. 

Thoughts clouded my head, I was was stuck, one part of me knew my dad wasn't at fault, but the other part blamed him for everything.