My chest is burning that she is talking bad about Ms. Tia. I am feeling fire in my heart, angry fire, and I am wanting to shout on Big Madam to tell her that Ms. Tia is having honey voice and a kind heart, that Ms. Tia didn’t pregnant because of all sorts of reasons, but I am fearing she will slice my throat with knife if I say anything.
“How many ears do you have?” she ask.
“Two, ma.”
“Now, pull your two ears. Yes. Pull them. Like this.” She pinch my right ear with her nails and pull down to my shoulder. “Listen well. I am traveling next week. I will be going to Switzerland and Dubai. I will also stop over in the UK to see my children. I will be back, by God’s grace, in about two weeks.”
“Yes, ma.”
“When I am away, you must behave yourself. Kofi must not tell me that you did something you shouldn’t have done. You hear me?”
“Yes, ma.”
“Do you have a list of the things we need in the house?”
“I will write it after I am finishing from here,” I say. “I will give to Abu.”
“Big Daddy will not be around either,” she say. “He will be traveling to Ijebu to see his poverty-stricken family members. If he comes back from Ijebu before me, stay away from him. If he comes to the backyard, you go to your room. If he calls for you, don’t answer him. It is only when I am around that you answer Big Daddy. I don’t like leaving my house girls alone in the house when I am traveling, honestly.”
She shake her head. “My sister in Ikeja will be traveling at the same time. I would have taken you there to stay with her for my peace of mind.” She pick the remote-controlling and press it to on a film in the tee-vee. “I have told Kofi to look after you. He will keep an eye on you. Whatever Kofi asks you to do, you do it. I must not hear one word of complaint from him or else I will dump you on the streets. I won’t even ask Mr. Kola to come and get you. I will dispose of you like the trash that you are. Sho ti gbo? You hear me?”
“Yes, ma,” I say. “Can I ask you one question, ma?”
“What is it?”
“It is about Rebecca, I been wondering if—”
“Get out of my sight,” she shout so sudden, my heart nearly collapse. “How dare you ask me questions about Rebecca? Who is she? You must be an idiot for that question.” When she bend down to begin to off her left shoe, I jump to my feets, run from her front, just as she throw the shoe and bang the glass on the door, nearly breaking it.
In the backyard, I find Abu at the outside tap. He is rolling his trouser up to his knees. His blue prayer kettle is on the floor beside him.
“Abu,” I say, breathing fast. “Good afternoon.”
Me and him don’t talk much, but when we see, we greet ourselfs with a smile, and sometimes, I am helping him to wash the car tire when he is needing to go for his afternoon prayer.
“Sannu, Adunni,” Abu say. He turn the tap and pick his kettle to fill it up. “Why are you running? Can I help you?”
Like Kofi, Abu too have a way of talking. He like to be using F instead of P, so when he say “help,” it sound like “helf,” and if he say he want to drink Fanta, it sound like he is saying “Panta.” At first I wasn’t understanding him, but now it is not too much a problem. Everybody in the whole world be speaking different. Big Madam, Ms. Tia, Kofi, Abu, even me, Adunni. We all be speaking different because we all are having different growing-up life, but we can all be understanding each other if we just take the time to listen well.
“I was running from Big Madam,” I say, then I start to laugh. I laugh and laugh until my chest begin to pain me. “I just ask her a simple question now, and she just start to off her shoe to throw it at me. Honest, that woman is having many problems. Anyway, she say I should give you a list. For shopping.”
“Keep it for me inside the car,” he say, offing the tap. “When I finish my prayer, then I will go to Shoprite with Kofi.”
“Okay,” I say, then low my voice. “Abu, I been wanting to ask you something. You remember Rebecca?”
Abu spit to the left of me, wipe his mouth with the back of his hand. “The one that was working for Madam before you? I know her well.”
I nod. “Thank you. Do you know why she is missing? Kofi keep saying he don’t know. He thinks she run away with her man-friend. I just ask Big Madam, and she throw a shoe at me, so I say, let me ask Abu, maybe Abu will tell me.”
“Walahi, Adunni, you are looking for big trouble.” Abu grip his plastic kettle, turn around, and begin to walk fast from me. “If Kofi says she ran away, then hear what Kofi is saying and leave it.”
“Abu! Wait!” I shout, but the man turn a corner by the boys’ quarters and disappear into his prayer room.
CHAPTER 32
Fact: Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, the mother of music legend Fela Kuti, was a renowned feminist who fought for equal access for women in education.
Ms. Tia bring herself back the day after Big Madam travel to the Abroad.
I was washing the downstairs toilet, head deep inside the commode, when Kofi tell me I have a visitor. At first, I was fearing, thinking that Papa have come with the whole village to come find me. But in the reception, I see Ms. Tia bending down to her feets and tying the shoe rope around her white canvas-shoe. She is wearing a tight black trouser and a singlet top, and when she raise up her head, she give me a smile.
“Hi,” she say.
“Hi to you too,” I say. “You are the visitor asking of me?” Maybe she is still vexing because of the foolish thing I say that last time. “Please don’t vex about what I say,” I say. “Sometimes I like to talk too much and—”
She hold up her hand, silent my words. “I actually came by to apologize. I shouldn’t have walked away because you asked me a question I get asked all the time. It was wrong of me. I am sorry.”
“You are giving me apology?” I shake my head, not understanding the woman.
“My conversation with you that day, it kind of . . .” She scratch her head, move the twists out of her face, curl them behind her ears. “. . . moved me in a way I cannot explain. It’s just so strange.”
What is she talking about?
She look around the reception. “Your madam is away, right? She mentioned at the last meeting that she was going away. I hope my being here is not . . . I mean, it is not a problem for you to talk to me now, is it?”
“No problem,” I say.
Both of us don’t talk for a moment. Then she say: “What you said the other day. Questioning my reasons and all that. It dug up something inside of me.”