Efua{light}

Chapter 6

A monster for a mother

Omoye (POV)

Omoye walked back and forth her room. It's been a month now since that witch of a girl came into my home. She thought to herself. She even had the audacity to report me to the police. For the first time in my entire life I was tamed a law breaker.
For this, she must pay. Ah! She has not seen anything yet. I shall make her stay here a living hell and that is a promise. Just wait and see, Efua. You think is every home you can destroy? I will teach you that mine is an exception but this lesson, you must learn in a hard way. Oh, how I hate the people of lower class. Those poor and wretched souls! They disgust me. Or maybe it's not them I despise but their selfish and wicked way of thinking and acting. Many years ago when Osas and I were poor, we lived among them. They were mean and wicked. Everyone wanted to take the little you had and add to theirs. Such selfishness. The traders mostly were in this category. They would sell something worth #50 for #150 to you just because you have no idea how much that particular item is sold. They would even sell a fake item to you at the price of an original one, as though that was what you asked for. They were desperate people, thieves and heartless. How can I forget how that so called lady Linda treated me just because of #200. I had gone to her shop to buy a rubber of garri. Unknown to me that the money fell from my bag on my way to her shop.
After she gave me the garri I searched my bag for the money. I even emptied the bag, checking back and forth. She didn't even care to know what had happen. Instead, she raised an alarm claiming that I was a thief in disguise. Soon people began to gather and they rained insult on me. One of them even slapped me. I was lucky that day that a young girl who looked a little older than l was passing by. Upon seeing my helplessness, she came to my rescue.
She paid the money and drove me home. That person was no other than Collette. Collette and l became friends afterwards. Since then she has been my only trusted friend. She was a little older than l. She taught me a lot of things as to how to bring up my kids since my mother wouldn't help me. After I gave birth, we had no where to go since our landlord threw us out. It was still Collette who came to our rescue. She taught me how to bath my babies. Collette was a single mother. A divorcée. She had a son who meant the world to her, though I have never met him. She seldom talks about him. Right from the start she has been my saviour. Osas knows this, I don't know what that witch of a girl told him about Collette that made him believe that Collette ordered my arrest. That is impossible. Collette is like the elder sister I never had. Her advice had kept my marriage intact for years now. Even after my fibroid operation when my womb was removed, Osas felt bad that he would not be able to have more children. He tried all he could to convince me about adopting one more child, which at first I accepted, but after discussing it with Collette who was totally against it, I turned down Osas request and gave a deaf ear to it. He pleaded with everything he knew I loved but still I refused. And now Efua surfaced from no where to make Osas go against my wish of us not allowing another man's child into our home. Collette now sees me as a weakling who can't control her husband. I still recall vividly what she told me the last time we spoke. 'Omoye, Omoye, how many times did I call you?' She had asked me. 'Twice.' I replied. 'Sit, my friend let me tell you what I foresee in this whole Efua issue. You see that girl, she's on a mission of tearing your family apart.' She assured me. 'God forbids bad thing' I said. 'Ah! Keep saying that while you fold your hands Omoye and watch it happen. Don't you know that, that little girl can snatch your husband from you? Colette asked me. 'Stop, Collette stop. I thought I have told you before that my husband is not that kind of a man.' I had told her. 'Come on, Omoye, that was what I thought of my husband too, my friend, until I caught him with my maid making out on our matrimonial bed. A girl I took as my own daughter. I know I have never shared this with you before because it's a memory lane I hate to tread. But your stubbornness has made me trod that part today' she said sobbing. I had not seen her this broken before. 'I just don't want you to make the mistake I too made' She said between her sob. This advice from Colette kept ringing in Omoye's head. But she struggled not to let it get the better part of her.

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She could still recall her awful experience of that fateful day vividly, while she was in jail, the officers came to apologize for misinformation as their investigation yielded no fruit. She didn't even answer them. She just matched out of the cell. 'Does my husband know that I am here?' She asked one of the officers. 'O yes ma. we even spoke to him at the hospital few minutes ago when we went to see the victim for questioning.' The officer replied. Omoye could not believe her ears, that her husband abandoned her here and went to see that witch instead. She felt broken that Osas chose Efua over her. After all that they have been through together. He allowed a mere little girl to create this rift between them. She went straight to the house and did not border to stop by, at the hospital. She was too heart broken. She felt alone so, she called her children. They were her only consolation now. She told them how their father abandoned her, and has been treating me ever seen Efua came into their home. She was happy at least they supported her and saw reasons with her.

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Osas still wasn't talking to Omoye. She too refused to apologize this time because she felt she was right this time. She only disciplined Efua for been carelessness and she doesn't regret a bit of it. 'Does Efua know how much a glass cup costs in the market?' She wondered. She knew Osas would surely come around someday for he loves her dearly. She won't even let this riff raff ruin her marriage. Osas and her children are all she has got in this world. The only family she has left. She won't let anyone separate them, not even that witch of a girl Efua who thinks she could penetrate her home by parading herself as a helpless girl. She loves her family. She could even go to the ends of the world just to keep them safe.