Kikelomo 2

Hi People 🙂

How has your week been? For those of us in Nigeria, hope your week hasn’t been too stressful with the fuel scarcity and all? Anyways, TGIF!!!!!!!!!!

Below is the conclusion of the Kikelomo story which was inspired by a lady I met about a month ago. If you haven’t read the first part, please click here

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KIKELOMO 2

Titi walked into the all too quiet house with two big market bags. She had just come back from her usual Saturday shopping at Agboju market. She dropped the bags on the floor and opened the fridge to take a sachet of pure water, she frowned in disappointment as she touched it, thanks to NEPA or PHCN as they are now called, no power in 3 days. She gulped down the lukewarm water and bent to empty the contents of the bags.

It had been a week since they dropped Kikelomo off with Mama. She remembered the morning they were to leave for Lagos; how she tried to convince Jide about taking Kikelomo back with them. HE had refused despite her pleas and said they would come back to check on her the following week. Mama also reassured her that Kikelomo would be fine. Kike was still asleep when they left Akure for Lagos. Titi blinked back the sting of tears as they said goodbye to Mama. She tried not to think of how much their daughter would cry when she woke up and couldn’t find them.

She heard Jide’s footsteps.

‘I didn’t know you were back oh, you should have called me to come help you carry some of the load from the bus stop.’

‘Ahan, Jide, since when did I start calling you to come and help me carry my load?’

‘Well, I could have helped you since I’m not babysitting Kike’

Titi smiled at her husband as he came towards her and pulled her into a warm embrace. They stayed like that for some minutes till she broke the silence.

‘You promised we were going to pick up Kike today Jide’ she looked at his face accusingly.

‘Tiii-tiiii, Kike is fine, shey we spoke to her this morning and like Mama said, she is fine-

‘Yeah, I know, but –

He pulled her back into his arms

‘You worry too much; we’ll go and pick her up next week. I only wanted you to rest’

Titi nodded in agreement. Although she missed her daughter terribly, she couldn’t deny the fact that she enjoyed the break she had gotten. The bags under her eyes had disappeared and she even had more time for Jide; she smiled at the memory of Last night.

******

Titi woke up with a smile on her face, Saturday had finally come! The day she had been waiting for. Her Kikelomo was coming back home today. She had stocked up the house with Kike’s favourites- Noreos biscuit, wafers, a carton of Carpi Sonne and Ogi Baba*.  She also bought some provisions for Mama; she was in high spirits yesterday when she stopped at the super market on her way home from work and bought Mama Peak milk instead of the usual Dano milk. Mama had not only impressed her by taking care of her daughter but she had wowed her when she told her Kike hadn’t been ill for the two weeks she had been with her. She now nursed the idea of taking Kikelomo to Akure more often.

She also bought a pair of sandals for Joko for assisting Mama. Although, for some reason, Joko had been acting strangely over the past few days. Each time she called her; she never answered her phone and came up with different excuses. After a while, she stopped calling Joko and called Mama’s phone directly, she excused her behaviour on her teenage mood swings.

They got to Akure just after noon and Joko came up to greet them. She didn’t hug Titi in her usual manner but only knelt and collected the bags she was holding. She also didn’t make eye contact with either of them.

Mama greeted them at the door

‘Ema wo le o, Eka bo*’

They exchanged pleasantries and entered into the sitting room. As soon as they got in, Titi saw Kikelomo sitting on the floor playing with a soft toy.

Nothing prepared her for what she saw. Her eyes threatened to pop out of their sockets.

She was too stunned to speak.

The ground beneath her was gradually shifting away, she felt dizzy and nauseous at once.

She managed to pick up her daughter and traced the two vertical lines on both sides of her cheeks.

Her eyes moved from the ugly scars on her daughter’s face to her mother in law. She looked at the face of the woman she knew she would never forgive. The face of the woman who had betrayed her by giving her daughter these ugly tribal marks. What would she tell Kikelomo when she grows older, when she is teased and ridiculed by her mates?

Tears found their way down her cheeks as she mouthed the only question on her mind.

‘Why?’

* Ogi Baba –Pap, similar to custard.

*Ema wo le o, Eka bo- Mind your steps, welcome.

Please leave a comment! Thanks for reading.

Have a great weekend!

xoxo

Tagged: family, love, parenting, sickness