EPISODE 9
I was quaking in my boots when Ben's wife, Oluchi pointed her index finger at me saying that I was a spellcaster.
She also said that I needed to be thrown out of their humble abode.
"Mezuo! go back to your room" Ben commanded.
"She must leave this house" Oluchi shouted as I exited their room.
Ben and his wife started quibbling, they quibbled till dawn.
I kept whistling in the dark because I didn't want to be the source of their problem.
At 7:30 am, Ben had dressed fully for work.
He came to me glowing. I was cleaning the sofas in the sitting room.
"You're not going anywhere," he said "Don't mind my wife"
Great smiles filled up my face "Thank you, sir" I replied.
"Take good care of yourself" he uttered when he hugged me.
He left afterward.
Immediately Ben drove out, Oluchi ran out and started bashing my visage in.
"Get out of this house" she ranted.
My heart started shaking "where will I go" I said in perplexity.
"Please, let me take my clothes Aunty" I begged her.
"No, just go; I don't want to see you" She returned.
My blood run cold because I had nowhere to go and there wasn't any dime in my pocket.
"Akpan!" She went outside and started yelling the name of the gateman.
Akpan finally came and she ordered him to throw me out.
He obeyed her as his madam and he pushed me out of the house.
Heading towards the gate, he heard some knocks and he opened the gate immediately.
Lo and behold, it was Ben's mother. "Who is she and why are you pushing her away?" Ben's mom asked Akpan curiously.
"Mama na madam say make I push her out" Akpan replied.
"Young girl, who are you?" Mama asked me.
"Good morning ma, I am the girl Uncle Ben saved from the hands of the Grim Reaper - I was raped and I nearly carried a scythe" I replied like a cat on hot bricks.
"Oh! I'm sorry my daughter, what's the reason for my daughter-in-law's resentment towards you?" She queried me.
"I don't know, mama" I verbalized.
"Akpan take my luggage inside" she ordered, "my daughter let's go and see her".
We went inside and Oluchi's face was filled with wrath when she saw me with Mama.
She blurted in her words "Why are you with this illusionist who has bewîtched my husband?".
"Is that how you'll welcome your mother-in-law whom you haven't seen for a long time" Mama roared angrily.
Oluchi now smiled broadly and welcomed mama. She didn't want her mother-in-law to be cheesed off.
Both of them had a long conversation before Ben came back.
Ben narrated everything that happened to Mama but he couldn't tell Mama that his first son was the rapÃst who raped me.
Mama had hypertension and telling her would make her take a dirt nap.
Mama felt pity for me and she insisted that I would be sleeping with her.
At 6:00 pm that day, Mama and I were in the room. She was about to tell me a folk tale when she saw a birthmark on my back.
I was undressing when she saw it.
She screamed, "this is our birthmark, you're Ben or Olewe's, daughter".
She hugged me tightly and called Ben instantly.
Ben came and was stunned.
Then, I told them that I was the child who was sold by Madam Iron.
Mama started asking questions "who is Madam Iron? My son"
Ben couldn't say anything. "I will tell you later mama," he said and left.
Oluchi wanted to eat us alive and her heart was filled with fury.
At 7:00 pm, Oluchi was preparing dinner in the kitchen.
I passed and heard Oluchi soliloquizing " I must poison her tonight".
My heart sank into my belly hearing this and actually, I didn't think she would do such a thing.
To be continued...
