"Hey, you don't just walk into the house after
twenty four hours and expect me to pretend everything is alright. Where
have you been Usman?" Mrs. Danladi was visibly angry.
Usman just
came in around 10am that morning. She had tried his line several times
since about four hours ago that she had checked his room.
"I'm sorry mum. Sanu."
"Do not sanu me this morning. You left this house yesterday morning and
you're just coming in now and all you have to say for yourself is
Sorry?"
"I'm an adult mum, I can live my life as I see fit."
"Yes, you are an adult, but you need to start acting like one. You
could have at least called or sent a message when you knew you weren't
coming home last night. I was worried."
Usman caught a glimpse of
Tonia behind the living room door. He was embarrassed. How many of the
domestic staff heard their altercation? He wondered.
"Mum, let's not do this here please. The walls have ears you know", he gestured towards the door behind which Tonia was hiding.
They both climb the stairs and go into Usman's bedroom.
Usman starts undressing as soon as he closes the door, while his mum
sits at the edge of the big bed. The bed is well laid and covered with
rich, burgundy,satin duvet over lush cream cotton bedspread.
It was a very big room. Like a hotel suite.
The wardrobe spanned from one end of the room to the other.
"Talk to me Usman, what's happening?"
"Mum, you asked about Fatima yesterday morning. I was ashamed to admit
what happened. She doesn't want to see me anymore."
He said, looking out
the window as he could not bring himself to look at his mother's eyes.
He knew they were filled with pain.
"Is it because of the problem? But the Doctor promised you'll be fine once you completed your treatment."
"So he said, but two weeks ago after I completed the medications, I
tried to have sex with Fatima. If only to save myself from the past
embarrassment, but it was a total sham.
I couldn't have an erection for
all of five minutes. She abused me mum. Told he I was not fit to be a
man."
Mrs. Danladi was crying now. She felt his pain, his agony, where had she gone wrong? Where did this humiliation come from?
They had tried everything medically possible but nothing so far. Just when she thought they had surmounted the problem.
"Are you sure we won't go to that Mallam in Kano? Since we've not found
a solution medically, both here and abroad? We can't just told our
arms. We need to try something else." She said as she held him son in
her arms.
"I don't believe in all these African voodoo mum, and you know it. It's all nonsense."
"But what other solution can you proffer?"
"I don't know mum, I don't know."
"You are getting older son, people are talking. All your younger ones
are married with children. You are my first child, my first fruit. We
have to do something."
"I don't know mum, I don't know."
"Wait, why don't you try another girl. Or what do you think. Since
you've completed the treatment, try another girl and if the situation
remains the same, we can go back to Dr. Smith."
"I thought of that too. That's why I didn't come home last night. I slept in a hotel with a lady of the night."
"Kai! Usman has killed me! Now you are patronising harlots?"
"What would you have me do? Go back to Fatima so she can tell her
friends, her mother and everyone in our circle of friends? At least,
with a harlot, I'm just another guy who couldn't perform, provided she's
well paid."
"You have a point there. So, how did it go?"
"Humiliating." He said with a sigh of resignation.
"If you have any important appointment today, cancel it, we fly to Kano, now." She said with an air of finality.
Usman knew that tone, he knew there was no arguing once his mum talks like that. He had no choice but to comply.
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"Sege! These herbs are bitter mum. I hope they work o."
They had made the trip to Kano and got back the following morning as there was no night flight from Kano that very day.
He started taking the prescribed herbs from the herbalist's hut. They
brought lots more with them to Lagos and his mother was always there to
make sure he used them as prescribed.
"It's been five days now. I
can't wait for the seventh day to come and go." Usman said, trying to
get the bitter taste out of his mouth by chewing a menthol sweet.
_____________________________________
_____________________________________
"Today is the seventh and last day. I hope this works and I don't have to use all these stuff again."
Usman and his mother were in his room that evening as was their custom when it was time for him to use the herbal concoctions.
"Have some faith. It will work. Have you been seeing any difference though?"
"Not yet mum."
"OK, no problem, I think what we should do is to find you a girl to test run."
"Hmm. Mum, I'm scared o. I don't want any girl to humiliate me again."
"But we won't know if the herbs worked or not if you do not test
yourself. Though I'm against you patronising those harlots, I don't
think we have a choice here."
"I agree mum. I'm just tired of the whole thing."
"Should I send one of the drivers to bring one for you?"
"No o. I don't think it's a good idea to bring anyone to our home. I'll
go to them. At least, that way my identity stands a chance of being
hidden."
"You are right, get dressed then. I await good news."
But he came back after midnight, with a sullen look. The look of a man
who has fallen and tried to rise again, the look of a man who has been
humiliated far too many times. He was broken beyond words.
He had made up his mind there and then to forget about his predicament and live life as it is for him.
__________________________________________
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"Hmm. Na wa. I don't know what's going on in that house. Usman and his
mother are always talking in hushed tones, whispering to each other,
inside their bedrooms." Tonia said.
"And how is that your business? Can't a mother and child talk in peace again?" Chichi retorted, firing her a bad look.
Tonia had the day off as Mrs. Usman said she wasn't feeling up to going
out. In fact, she didn't leave her room that Tuesday morning. Tonia
decided to go say hi to her friends at Mushin.
"You better mind your business and face your work over there, no space for you here o." Biola added.
"I don't know why you all want to bite her head off. She is only gisting us about her employers now."
Damilola defends her.
"But I really wish to marry the guy o, he is so rich and humble. Such a
nice man. The mother dey one kind sha, but na because we dey work for
them."
"I talk am, them go pursue you for there, ehhh." Chichi snapped.
Chichi for the life of her couldn't understand Tonia's obsession with
quick wealth. She wanted all the good things of life handed to her on a
platter of gold.
"It's good to dream, but remember to wake up
once it's time to work. Or else, na gbege be that o." Biola answered
laughing at Tonia.
"Her dream is valid, it's possible, she only needs to be smart about it." Damilola says, defending her once again.
"Shut upuuuu." Chichi shouts at Damilola.
"You both are not well. Are you trying to say that rich, handsome man
doesn't have a fiance, or he has never been married before? You girls
had better be careful."
#fiction
#girlchild
All rights reserved
Written By Tolulope Fakayode-Faniran
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