Obiageli - Episode 7

 

*I want to apologise for the grammatical errors which someone kindly pointed out, I will try to edit more*

*Obiageli's early years

Obiageli had begun to creep, her mother's hut being the safest place for her, Oluchi  left her there to go have her bath in the local bathroom.

Obi creeped around picking things, mumbling to herself, and playing with anything she found interesting. She saw a lizard creeping on the wall and her eyes fixed on it, as its eyes focused on her, she crawled closer and  began stretching her hand towards it, trying to reach it...

Oluchi came to meet her daughter standing before time, immediately Obiageli stood up, the lizard scuttled away.

Obiageli played on the sand, she was four years old now, she would giggle most times enjoying herself, she laughed at chickens and flies as Oluchi sat breaking melon, her eyes on her daughter as her mind again began thinking about how she was going to face the fact that she would have just one child, people were already looking at her belly, hoping for another miracle..

"Oluchi, you can't even take care of your child, she is near fire" it was Ezinma

Oluchi jumped up and discovered her daughter had wandered away while she was lost in thought, she saw Obiageli close to the fire Ezinma was using to cook, and quickly snatched her up as Obiageli began to cry

"Couldn't you have just helped me..you saw I was busy" she said

"Breaking melons, i should leave what I am doing and attend to your child..hahaha I even expected a male child after all your display of pregnancy"

Oluchi stared at her in a gape before she discovered she was not alone in this stare, Obiageli had stopped crying and was staring at Ezinma with a frown on her face . Oluchi carried her daughter back towards her own hut with no reply.

It was the next day when Oluchi saw her revenge, Ezinma's pot of soup had been knocked to the ground and Obiageli had pretended to be asleep when the compound was shaking with Ezinma's rain of curses for whoever did it

All episodes of this story can be found here >> https://www.ebonystory.com/story/obiageli

. Oluchi heard them but knew nothing could affect her daughter, she caressed her little girls hair, nothing at all.

Okafor had gone to the farm with Eberechi and Adaeze, Nkechi stayed at home making up and hoping for a husband, Oluchi had just weeded her side of the house, bathed herself and Obi then put food for her, Obi made a mess of it as all her body was filled with soup

"Obi look how you have messed yourself up again" then she recalled she wasn't supposed to shout "Obi..ok you have to take a bath again", after bathing her again, she decided to feed her herself when she heard voices in the main house, it was Ekene and Uche, they hadn't visited for long. She was giving Obi water as she choked when Uche came in and greeted

" Daalu Nne"

" Uche how are you.. you have grown so big "he was just eight years old but he looked ten, she guessed he was taking after his father's height

" I'm fine ma"

"And your father?..what about Ekene and Onyeka?" their mother had died while giving birth to Onyeka, it had been a tragic time for the boys

"They all fine ma.." he came closer "how is she?"

"She's fine o..hardly falls sick am so lucky but she refuses to eat" recalling she was talking to an 8 year old, she just smiled looking back at Obi who was tugging at her breast"no no Obi..you dont suck..you eat"she said but Obi kept tugging, ahe carried her up..Uche was stretching his hand, she looked and saw a coin

"My father gave me this today"he said

"Oh..what did you do?"she asked

"I killed a rat" , she laughed, he was so funny she thought, but he was still stretching his hand

"Take..for her" he said, Oluchi was tongue tied then laughed again

"Uche your such a funny little boy" she said and didn't know if to take it from him or not, but he solved her problem, putting it in the hand holding the baby. She smiled at him as Obiageli sucked her thumb eyes on him

"That's one naira..shey I can come see her now?"

"Uche you have to come with your father"she replied

"Okay" he said innocently moving back and forth on the balls of his feet, hands behind him, as his brother called out for him, Uche quickly told her goodbye and ran out. Oluchi took the coin, smiled and looked at Obiageli

"See..on your head already", Obi was more interested in sucking her finger, Oluchi put away the food and held her daughter close, She knew she couldn't bear this agony, but which would she have preferred, no child at all or one with sufferable conditions. She knew she would still have picked the latter.