DECEMBER 28 2001: A DAY I WILL NEVER FORGET( SERIES OF TALES OF MY CHILDHOOD)

EPISODE 1

Happy Valentine folks, hope we all had fun and if you are single, hope you showed yourself live because that’s just the idea. However, i am not and will not be a fan of valentine and my stance on Christmas is the samed as that of valentine.

I said before that I will be discussing different things on this blog, I also said it will be for development, growth, helping each other. Therefore, I will be letting out some of the tales of my childhood which may not be too good but I pray we learn from my experience both for the now and the future.

The truth is my childhood had financial challenges but it will nevet be as bad as not eating rice and chicken on christmas day. We never bought christmas cloths but we were fine. In year 2000, things were different my father remarried on August 26, 2000 after a long while(My parents have been seperated since i was 1 year old or thereabout). My stepmother took in and gave birth to my lovely step sister on September 4th,2001.

As we approached the end of the year, my father was in ondo(my state of origin) and was working with the then Ondo State Government but things was pretty ugly financially at home and we didnt know when he was coming back. As Christmas day drew near to be precise on the 22nd of December, we(Myself, My two elder sisters, my stepmother) joked and said we will eat yam and oil on Christmas day which was still fine because we know nothing lasts forever.

However, the next day being 23rd, My father came back from Ondo with a huge sum of money and it was a thing of joy, everyone was very happy and all. Immediately, he called my eldest sister into his room and she came out with a bundle of money that she wants to go and buy cartons of Capel wine, she then said my father is calling my second sister who went inside and came out with another bundle and said she wants to go and buy Just Juice and shortly, my step mother came out with her own bundle and said she was going to the market to buy things for fried rice, jollof rice, salad, chicken etc. So all the women went out and my father called me and said he will pay my outstanding school fees, buy my textbooks, new uniforms because the suffering was much, I cannot even begin to explain. He also said January 5 2002 will be for asun(peppered roasted goat) party that we should invite all our friends for the party. All these happened on the 23rd. From that day everything was fine, we had one of the best Christmas till the morning of 28th of December.

Being that my step mother just gave birth in September, my step mother mum came to help my step mother to take care of my step sister, just like the normal omugwo. Due to this fact, my stepmother sleeps with her mum and the baby in the next room after her matrimonial room so as not to disturb my father. However, my immediate sister takes my father’s bed from his room to the next room which is my step mother room where she and her mum sleeps, and in the morning my sister returns the bed and lays it.

So on this fateful day being the 28th December, 2001 at about 9:05am or so, my father calls me to his room and says he is looking for the five thousand naira he kept in his drawer, actually I was not surprised he was asking me because time and time again, I was regularly accused of stuffs and during my childhood I have had to lie on myself more than lies I told so to say. I always lied on myself that I did it and end the talk and collect the punishment but I told him that I have not even entered his room that day and only Dami(My mother gave birth to three of us, sinmi, dami and myself respectively) has been here to return your bed and lay it. Later, he said I should go and I thought that was it, he later called my two sisters and they said the same thing too that they didn’t take it.

You see, we(Myself and my sisters) have a very strong bond, once things like this happens, we ask ourselves and if one of us is guilty, he or she will confess and the other two knows how to go and beg and all, so we enquired among ourselves and everyone said it was not them, at this point, we knew it was our step mother!!!!!!! Two hours later, my father called the three of us into his room and was shouting that he wants his money and ranting that how can we steal from him and that he knows that it is……….. and then he racks me to the ground hitting me with his leg, I was shouting but tears didn’t come out because I knew I was punished unjustly but I didn’t have a choice, he turned right and reached out to the stool beside his bed, there was a silver hammer where one of its side was curved while the other side was round which was where we used to hit nail and all.

He reached out for the hammer and was constantly hitting my head with it, my head was being hit as if they were driving a nail through a wood. I wasn’t crying but I was screaming. Writing this is not easy because the episode brings a tear out trust me, however, I have decided to do this. Let’s continue though. I was not even up to 13 years old when this episode happened. I screamed, I screamed, my sisters were crying for me, they could feel the pain, at one point they took their face away in tears as they couldn’t watch it no more. Then he asked us to go, I was alone, I was worthless, I was filthy, I can’t describe myself, my sisters wept, it was as if something had died and yes something died as I left the room, I was thinking of death already. My sisters were so angry and sorry for me that they went to meet a fortune teller to know who did this, the man told them that they should go and ask again as the person will run mad for fourteen years, they came back to tell me, and I told them not to go back there again, my reason was my stepmother just gave birth, if she runs mad for fourteen years, I am depriving an innocent child which is my step sister from motherly care, love and attention and everything a child deserves, so I told them to let go.

Few hours later, I had made up my mind for the suicidal mission. I was empty, at that point I disliked my mother with Passion as we were made to believe she abandoned us for the good of London(This was however not true as my mother is the best thing to have happened to me in life nut this is story for another episode), the only man that I knew and looked up to in my life accused me and dealt with me in such manner, the woman I saw as a mother stole and was the reason for this, she and her mother were in the next room and despite the shouting and screaming, sound, crying of my sisters, they didn’t even more an inch. I went to the extension (This is close to the gate where the car is packed), I had omo solution, I had cement solution as I was about to take it, my immediate senior sister saw me from afar and shouted my name, she called my sister, as I heard them calling my names, I broke down In tears. They told me not to do this because of my step mother that my life is too precious. I decided agree with them for awhile, I was tempted to go again but I don’t know why I stopped but I know it was God.

I HOLD NO GRUDGE AGAINST MY FATHER, IT HAS PASSED

I HOLD NO GRUDGE AGAINST MY STEP MOTHER EVEN THOUGH SHE IS AN ASYLUM IN SWEDEN.

LESSON TO BE LEARNT:

FLEE FROM ABUSE

TRUST AND BELIEVE YOUR CHILDREN

LOOK FOR YOUR PARENTS MISTAKE TOWARDS YOU AND CORRECT THEM WHEN YOU HAVE YOUR OWN CHILDREN.

Drops pen.

Regards

The Pilot