As I looked into the room, I followed the sound of her voice, as she sobbed.
She was lying face down, barely moving, with her left hand full of yellow tiny tablets and a glass of water in her right. I stepped into the room and sat beside her quietly, and she burst out crying loudly. I knew that she was very sad, but at that moment she dropped everything in her hands and hugged me so tightly.
“I promise you my baby, never again!”, she said.
I knew at that moment, that had I not entered the room, something really bad was going to happen. Those were the words I heard her repeat under her breath, as she hugged me. She then stared at me with a look of determination which I had never seen before.
She began working harder and saving up money. She made delicious bean cakes called ‘akara’, and many people in the neighbourhood queued up very early in the morning, to buy her savoury cakes which were my absolute favourite! She worked so hard under the rain and sun, day and night. I would play with my friends right next to her, as she would give me a good smacking, if I ever strayed or wondered away.
At the end of each sales, I noticed that she would hide money away in the house! More money than I could count. This she did this, because my father would demand money from her, each time he got prepared to leave in the morning to drink at the local ‘beer parlour’ (pub), with his friends, always returning home drunk. Sometimes, he even returned after a few days. On many occasions, he would return home with another woman and kick my mother out of their room. My mother would come to join me in my little bed as she would cry herself to sleep. This happened frequently, to the point that my father would beat my mother up, if she failed rise early to prepare breakfast, for his lady visitors. One of the beatings resulted in her losing one of her front teeth. I could see that my mother endured hurt and pain daily. I wish I could make her happy.
My mother became even more determined, to give us a better life.
A year passed and on this particular morning, she got up early to serve my father’s breakfast, he took money from her to drink as usual, and left for his regular spot. As soon as he was out of sight, she began to packing up my stuff and hers into a medium sized bag. I was excited, we were off to see Grandpa and Grandma again! So, we got unto a taxi and began a journey and this ride took a little longer than usual.
We got to a place where there were many gigantic buses, and we got on one of them and it took us on a very long ride all night. I fell asleep most of the way and so did my mother.
By the time we woke up, it was morning and I had no clue, where we were. We got unto another smaller vehicle and we started on another long journey into a very sandy desert-like place! There was so much dust and the driver kept on driving very fast! My mother told me to keep my eyes shut.
Suddenly, I remembered hearing people say that one of the passengers, a man, had fainted and could not continue the journey.
After a few hours, we heard someone give a loud shout, ’he has died’!
The driver slowed down, and ordered for the man to be thrown out of the moving vehicle, as they could not risk stopping. And the journey continued, like nothing happened.
We had to leave the man behind. I still have nightmares about that day.
Again, I slept off in my mother’s arms, with sleepy eyes and through her veil, I looked up at her dust-covered face and could see how tired she was but couldn’t afford to sleep. She held unto our bag like her life depended on it. We arrived at a place, after walking a long distance and arrived at a boat.
Just then, a huge scary-looking man who towered over us with blood shut eyes stood in front of us…
... To be continued in our next edition.
