******* CONTINUED FROM I*****(UPDATED!!!)
I made some adjustments to the story... Please feel free to drop your comments, criticisms and upvotes
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Oluwaloni grabbed Ewaoluwa violently by her jaw and raised her head enough to make eye contact with him. He squeezed her jaw bones roughly, making her whimper in pain. Silence enveloped the class as the classmates looked on in anticipation, anticipation like those of an audience about to witness a penalty kick.
Ewaoluwa made no effort to set her jaw free.
"What exactly was going on in your head when you decided to make this? "Oluwaloni held up a book with his free hand and pointed it at Ewaoluwa.
"Oluwaloni and Ewaoluwa at the beach, Oluwaloni and Ewaoluwa kissing, Oluwaloni and Ewaoluwa happily ever after" He had let go of her jaw and was reading out the headings of the drawings in the book, his eyes filled with burning hate, his lips shaped into disgust.
Ewaoluwa could only look on: she had always felt like an audience in the class, an audience watching a movie, only this time, she was a member of the cast.
Ewaoluwa had always thought that everyone was entitled to their feelings, that you could like or hate anyone; that your feelings were your business. At that moment, she thought she was wrong to have thought so and that a village girl who is an house girl in the city was not meant to enjoy such luxury.
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Iya Agba had broken the news to her on a night when they were outside the Hut eating a meal of Eko and Efo ( cornmeal and vegetable soup), the tray of food lying between their widely spread legs.
"You will be travelling to the city to live with Ige and his wife. They need a girl to help around the house". Iya Agba said this while looking away into space as if Ewaoluwa whom she was addressing was not seated right in front of her.
Ewaoluwa choked on her food and coughed loudly; a little exaggeratedly. Iya Agba handed her a cup of water as she rubbed her back lightly.
"Ige has promised to send you to a school in the city; the white men's school". Iya Agba added quickly in the tone of someone who wanted to be forgiven but would not ask for it.
Ewaoluwa could only nod and look away. She looked up at the sky and for the first time, she was conscious of the presence of the stars. She wondered if there was always many of them in the sky or they had only came out that night to witness her break apart.
She packed the plate and mumbled a "good night" to her grandmother who made no effort to call her back.
That night ,she fought a battle with sleep and she had won for a long time, the several thoughts on her mind keeping her eyelids apart.
She had stayed up until very late at night when no soul was stirring, the only noises that enveloped her were the croaking of the frogs and the noise in her head; the noise threatening to burst her brain. She allowed her minds to wonder freely without restrictions and her mind travelled miles---- miles impossible for the legs to..
Although Ewaoluwa had always been one to love the dreams of the future rather than the history of the past, however, that night, she gave her mind the permission to travel to the past only--- she was too afraid of the future.
Her mind travelled first to her grandmother, the one who had defeated sorrow and rubbed happiness units face, one who is truly a king for she had carried the burdensome crown of a "kingdom" yet so gracefully. Time had tested her strength and like that of a warrior, it had stood firmly , the test of time.
Most nights when all other eyes were closed and the ticking of the clock became louder, Ewaoluwa and Iyaagba would lay on their backs, staring at the roof and iyaagba would tell her stories, stories that set her imagination on fire.
" My mother gave my hand in marriage to your grandfather because he was lacking wifely care. His two older wives were sworn enemies and their rivalry caused them to neglect their marriage. His mother who was my mother's friend then sought my hand in marriage for him".
"Did you love grandfather? " Ewaoluwa would ask her grandmother even though she knew the answer ---- she had heard the story more than I have heard the cock crow but each tell feels like new.
"No Babatunde was the one who owned my heart. I met him at oja ale where I sold tobacco".
"What is oja ale?
"night market".
Ewaoluwa would then look on as if expecting her to say more.
"When I was growing up, mothers would send their daughters who were ripe enough for marriage to the market at night. They would give them petty things like salt, tobacco and the likes to sell. But you see, the sale of things is just a camouflage as the aim of the market is to display the girls to potential suitors" Iya agba would then smile a half smile, one which reveals her tobacco stained teeth.
"I met Babatunde on one of those nights. He smiled and pointed at one of the tobacco wrapped in a leaf. He said he few words that night, like every other subsequent nights, but his smile said oceans of words. Oceans of words in which my heart was drown."
One one of those nights, he made his intention known. He made it known on a night when the moon was out and the stars came out in great numbers to witness the birth of a new love"
Ewaoluwa would then turn on her side and gaze into her grandmother's eyes and she would see sparks, sparks that could brighten up the world.
"He was supposed to bring his family members to my home two markets days away when my mother stopped me from going to oja ale. Like a man that he was, he came to my house but my mother chased him and told him I was getting married. That was the last of him I saw".
There was usually a brief pause afterwards; Ewaoluwa forming the characters in her minds eye.
Iya agba would then go on to talk about her children; she had given birth to 'only' two and would claim that her rivals tied up her womb and prevented her from giving birth to more.
"only your father lived to adulthood. My rivals did not let the younger one live. They killed him with their juju(charm).
"your parents died in the city from a fire outbreak. You were in the daycare when it happened. You were just a year old, just starting to take your little steps and since then, you have been with me. You have been a soothing to my eyes, my solace, you are a constant reminder that I haven't llost everything in life"
This was usually followed by a long silence with Ewaoluwa imagining what her parents looked like. Both of them would continue to stay quiet , staring at the roof, until they fell asleep.
And so on the night before her departure, Ewaoluwa could not get her brain to explain to her how she was going to thread the thorn-filled journey of life on her own, without her grandmother. That night, she felt like a snail, a snail that was been seperated from its shell: where would she crawl into when she was touched by the bitter sting of life?.
However, a part of her wanted to leave.
She wanted to leave so she succeed enough to 'say thank you' to Iya Agba. To say thank you to her for all those years Iya Agba starved while she ate ." I am an adult and can withstand hunger" Iya Agba would say with a smile if she suggested they share the meagre plate of food.
She wanted to leave so she could say thank you to IyaAgba for all those years she wore different prints of Buba and Iro( blouse and wrapper) , all because she had sold her clothes to pay for Ewaoluwa's school levy. All those years IyaAgba cleared other people's farmlands when she no longer had clothes to sell.
She laid still and continued to stare at the roof until she could no longer hear the croaking of the frogs and the noise in her head.
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TO BE CONTINUED
So family, I made some adjustments to the story. Please feel free to put in your comments, criticisms and upvotes😁😁😁😁😁. Thanks
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