“Try staying out of her way,” Kofi say. “When she is in the house, get busy outside. When she is outside, run inside and find work to do there. If she doesn’t call you, don’t show your face. Adunni, you know you talk too much. Must you have an answer for every question? Learn to shut up. And for goodness’ sake, stop singing all the time.”
And so, for the next two nights after my talk with Kofi, I stay in my bed thinking of correct plans, until finally, one sharp, good ideas for hiding from Big Madam is entering my head.
* * *
This morning, I was wiping the window outside the kitchen when I hear Big Madam’s car driving inside. Quick, I pick up my cleaning cloth, pass the side of the house, enter the library, and shut the door on myself.
I draw a long breath, start to wipe the bookcase. I bring each of the books out one by one, open it, and wipe it. As I am wiping it, I am trying to be reading the writings in the book. I cannot be doing loud reading because of Big Madam, but I am talking inside of my breath.
Many of the books is having big English, so I am only reading the first ten words or so before dropping it until I am picking up the Collins. Is a small but fat book like my mama’s Bible with wide letters in yellow and blue color on the page. I open it and see that it is having words and the meaning of the words next to it. I begin to turn the page. The book is putting words letter by letter, like ABC alphabet. Since I am knowing the alphabet, I begin to look for words. First, I am turning to letter I to check the meaning of “innocent” because the way Big Daddy was laughing that day is making me think the word is having another meaning than just a name. The Collins write this about “innocent”:
innocent
adjective: A person not guilty of a crime or offense.
noun: A pure, guileless or naïve person.
Why is Big Daddy asking if I am pure? And how I can be pure after how Morufu was making me so dirty in the spirit and body when he drink his Fire-Cracker? The whole thinking back to that time is making me want to vomit, so I close the Collins and pick up The Book of Nigeria Facts.
Why it have such a long name, this book? Is a tall one too, be like three books gum together, the cover with the picture of a ball, shining and bright, and the map of the Nigeria inside the ball, the green, white, and green color of the Nigerian flag inside the map.
I put it down, check what “fact” is meaning in the Collins:
fact
noun: A thing that is known or proved to be true.
Is this book having the true answer to the every question I am having? I open the first page of it, peep it. It is full of dust, give me a tickle in my throat, make me cough two times. It seem so full of wise, this book. Many pictures, many things making explanations for many things about the Nigeria and the whole wide world of it. It have dates of when things happen in the Nigeria from before in the past till this 2014:
Fact: October 1st, 1960: Nigeria’s Independence Day. Nigeria gained independence from Britain.
What is this the Britain? Is it a fighting enemy? I know “independent” is meaning when you are free. Where they take our free? And how we collect it back from them? I sit down on the floor, keep my eyes on the book:
Fact: Lagos is Nigeria’s most populated city. A major commercial hub for the world, the city is blessed with many beaches, and an active nightlife, and is home to one of the largest concentrations of millionaires in Africa.
So this is why all the rich peoples are living in this Lagos. I swallow spit, pull the book more close to me. I have plenty work to be doing, but this book be like two big hands, full of love, drawing me close, keeping me warm and feeding me food.
Fact: In 2012, four students of the University of Port Harcourt were tortured and beaten to death in Aluu community after they were falsely accused of stealing. The horrific act sparked a global outcry against jungle justice in Nigeria.
Jungle justice.
If I didn’t run from Ikati, from Bamidele’s wife and all the Agan village peoples, maybe they will make me suffer this jungle justice thing, burn me with fire because they think I am a thief.
This fact make me so sad, but I keep reading, keep learning the fact I am understanding and the one I am not understanding until the book is feeling too heavy in my hands so I set it down and pick up my cleaning.
When I finish wiping the everywhere in the library, I pull the notebook from my pocket, sit on the sofa, and as my head is remembering the things that we are needing in the house, I write it. Sometimes I am checking the Collins for the spelling:
Toilet Tissue paper.
Soap.
Nylon bag. For putting inside dustbin.
Bleach. For toilet dirty.
Powder Soap. For Machine-washer.
“Adunni?” Somebody call my name in the afar. Big Madam. “ADUNNI!”
“I am coming, ma,” I shout and, quick, put my notebook inside my pocket and stand to my feets.
When I open the door, Big Madam is outside the library. Her eyes are angry, her whole body looking like she is wanting to just burst.
“Are you deaf?” she ask, hands on her hips. “Why did it take you so long to answer me?”
Before I can talk correct answer, she give me one hot slap.
I daze, stumble back. “Ye!” I say, rubbing my cheek. “I was answering you, ma. I was saying I am coming but—” She use another slap to silent my words.
Before I can be thinking about that slap, another one is landing on my back. I fall to my knees and close my eyes and think of Mama, of Ikati, of Kayus, as she is using her palm to be slapping my back, slap, slap, slap, like she is one angry drummer beating one angry talking-drum.
But I am not crying; I am just collecting the slap and slapping her back in my mind. When she slap me, I slap her back too, only I don’t touch her. I don’t count how many slaps before I hear Big Daddy voice, “What the hell is going on here?”
Big Madam give me a kick. “Useless fool,” she say, spit on my back. “Why are you not crying? Are you possessed? Is a demon living inside you? Because I will beat it out of you today.”
“Florence. Do you want to kill that girl?” Big Daddy say. “You used your mad anger to chase away all the other house girls, and now you want to do the same to this poor girl? Adunni!”
I open my eye, look up. Today is the first day I am seeing him since that time in Big Madam’s parlor because he always travel for his woman business. Today he is not having red eye. His word is not dragging. He is looking like a sensible somebody.