The Lives We Lived

27: Jerking Silhouette

Osa trudged towards his mother's house with a heart that was pulled towards to his feet. He had hit a little girl. He didn't have the courage to return to Mayorkun's house and ask for forgiveness. He had thought of returning to his town house but he knew Kemi would be there. The last person he wanted to see was anyone who would make him feel even worse than he felt.

The closer he got to the house, the more the earth seemed to clamour for his heart. He saw his mother standing at the odara tree. She didn't wait for him to get to the house. She rushed towards him with a frown.

"Where have you been?" She barked in Edo but he would rather not stare at her.

He allowed his eyes to travel to the dark loamy soil that surrounded the house. A few chicks trailed after their mother and his moms recasted the exact moment that Mimi cried out. He jerked as though he could still feel the pains of Mayorkun's fist. His body expected it. Maybe even welcome it as temporary relief from his guilt but the hot never came.

All that he felt was his mother's warm. Hand around his palm. Her shriek had him forcing his eyes open. Eyes that he didn't know were closed. It seemed to bring him back the other reality of his pains and injuries.

"What happened? Who did this to you?" There were tears streaming down his mother's cheeks.

"D..don't... Cry. I'm fine." His lips trembled, reacting to the skin peeling off as he spoke.

"I swear, the person that did this to you will never know peace. Not in this life and the next." His mother's jostling of his hands brought back the pain to his body.

He felt pain everywhere, including beneath the sticky liquid- blood, he suspected- was plastered to some parts of his face. Just above his eyes.

"What happened? Tell me."

"Mayorkun. Mayorkun-"

"Heiii," His mother raised her hand into the air, stamped her feet and untied her wrapper. "Why did you go there? I swear I will kill that boy today. He touched my son! My only son!"

Osa staggered forward, unable to stand on his feet. He groaned, raising his hand and reaching out for his mother who was now readjusting her wrapper and walking away. "Mama wait!"

"I will kill that useless boy! That idiot. I will-" His mother's voice faded out and a buzzing sound filled his ears. His eyes blurred as he staggered forward to stop his mother and confess his sins. But the world blurred, along who his mother, into a multi-coloured blur before he staggered forward one last time, swayed and fell to the earth.

***

Osa woke with a start. His eyes flew open as he felt warm thick fingers caress his head. The only sight he could pick out was the orange glow of a candle a few feet's beside his bed.

"It's okay. Stay still." He heard a woman whisper above his head. The voice was deeper than Kemi's. He saw her shilouette move over his head to a light blue bowl beside the candle. The candle made the bowl translucent and he could see that it was filled with water.

She dipped her clutched hand into the bowl. He saw her squeeze something as thoughts behind his head jumbled together to form his last conscious memory. It had something to do with his mother. He just couldn't remember what it was.

The woman brought her hand above his forehead and tried to place a dripping cloth on his head. He held it up and kept her wrist, in a firm grip, away from his head.

She gasped and he released his grip on her. He sat up now, peering into the darkness and making sense of the silhouettes in the room. His eyes roamed from left to right. There was a small window that admitted the silver stream of moonlight, but it didn't make any difference in the room, shut off from the rest of the house by a curtain at the door.

He made out the weird shape of buckets stacked into each other at the right end of the room. His eyes widened. He was at mama's house. In her bedroom.

"Mama," He called.

He turned slightly to face the woman behind him. A pair of bright eyes stared at him. It had to be the woman who stayed with mama.

"She's fine. She's asleep in the parlour."

"What are you doing here?"

"She asked me to take care of you. To clean your wounds, sir."

Osa watched her raise the wet cloth again but he raised his palm to stop her. Something didn't feel right. Mama ought to be at his side, tending to the injuries he couldn't remember how he had sustained them.

"Where is Kemi?"

"Sir?" The girl leaned towards him. Her body came into the halo of the light and he could see the spaghetti straps and plunging neckline of her thin red night wear. He closed his eyes and muttered a short prayer knowing that all hell would be let lose on earth if Kemi ever caught him in such a compromising situation.

"Kemi, my wife."

"She left. She has not come back since afternoon."

"What do you mean by she left?"

Osaw watched the woman drawback at the tone of his voice. Kemi would never leave him alone at mama's house. He was sure of that. Unless something happened. What? Why did he feel pain everywhere?

"I didn't mean to yell." He apologized. "Can I see mama?"

"No. She's asleep and you should sleep too. The doctor said you would feel much better in the morning."

"Doctor?" His eyes were blurring again.

"Sleep. You should sleep."

Her whisper was almost seductive. It was more of an hypnotic spell cast on his mind because he shut his eyes almost immediately and fell back on the bed.

***

Osa woke up to jerking motions on the lower part of his body. Jerking motions that he was sure he wasn't supposed to be feeling. His eyes cleared to see the woman, Ruth- he remembered her name now, grinding against his pelvis. His whole body was also hard in all the wrong places.

He sat up and pushed her off his body. She tumbled off the bed, hitting her head against the wall.

"What the heck.. What do you think you're doing?!" He was hyperventilating. His heart was racing at light speed as he stored at his own naked body then glanced at Ruth. Her night dress was bunched just underneath her breasts, leaving her legs bare.

She seemed dazed, staring at him with those bright eyes of his. The candle had been put out hours ago and in the darkness he saw her rise, holding her head and walking to him. Where she got her audacity from, he didn't know. She walked up to the bed, held his erect private member between his hand and squeezed hard. He groaned as he ejaculated into her hands.

"This was why mama brought me here. To give you a child."