When The Skies Fall

Chapter 1 .New life

I can't get over the fact that I'm finally done with my upper highschool, yes I'm done but will my parents afford my university fees? I quickly pack all my belongings in my school trunk after the 11:00 am bell goes.All my friends are chanting happily as it was time to start a new life,college life. Rhetorical questions were going through my mind, why was I not happy as the rest were? I dragged my trunk to the school gate and boarded a van. I was so tired and emotionally drained after the national exams. I remained silent the entire journey until the van halted at the bus stop,Adamawa State. I paid the fifty naira from my savings and headed straight home.It was already dusk when I arrived at my humble grass thatched home, my siblings ran to welcome me both looking skinny and malnourished. I couldn't prevail my tears seeing them in that state, walking bear footed with tattered clothes. Deep down I had to be strong for my family, for them. I was so devasted to see them in that state, was this our miserable fate? Tears rolled down my mum's face as she hugged me tightly.“Your grandmother was diagnosed with cancer, and she is at stage four"  I couldn't stop questioning myself, did our ancestors curse our family? Did we do any unappealing thing to the gods of the land?.My mum had prepared afang soup and fufu for dinner, that's what she could afford from the peanuts she got from hawking cassava. Despite all that, we could still smile from the little we got .The bitter truth dawned me, as a first born I had to help my family to raise money  .I slept on a mat next to my grandma turning and tossing all night .My parents could not even afford to pay hospital bills for my grandma's medication, not forgetting my sibling's school fees .I could barely close my eyes to get some sleep. No sooner had I closed my eyes than I heard the cock crow.I rolled over my mat and woke up to prepare millet porridge for my siblings before they went to school.I had to be strong for my family since that was just a passage to go through, I knew better life would come ahead. My dad worked as a cobbler at a local stall,the little Pennies he got could not even sustain our whole family for two days .I helped my mum to feed my grandma before heading to town to hawk cassava.The sun was so scorchy, I had to wear sandals to protect my feet from the sand .How did my mum manage to do all this for over five years and still manage to provide for us? I couldn't come to terms of not making to join the university.After a whole day of walking,running here and there in the busy street, it was time to go back home, we made better sales and my mum was impressed.I tried to hide my pain with a smile, I was torn deep down.It was already dark when we went back home, our dimly lit house was so silent and cold, God knows how hurt I was, I wanted to rush outside and cry but I couldn't. I went straight to my siblings to help them with their homeworks.Their stomachs were growling since we only survived on two meals a day, that was breakfast and dinner, on better days we could take garri for lunch. They had to walk on foot to school, barefooted, for two kilometers,how I wished we were never born.After getting into deep thoughts and meditation, I took out my piggy bank which had all the savings I had made while in school, I had two thousand naira.I decided to buy and sell groundnuts to raise money for my grandmother's medication and help my parents to fix where I could. Our financial status had already taken a big toll on my sibling's performance in school, their grades were dropping term by term and that was not appealing at all.The slate was now mine to toil and work harder in the small business I had ventured in- groundnut hawking , I embraced it with my full chest and now it became a full time job. I'm now in our dimly lit kitchen making dinner for our family, I'm glad we could eat after a whole day of hawking and running down the busy streets of Lagos ,even with the fatigue I knew a better day would come .I quickly prepare dinner and help my mother to set the table as my siblings needed time and space to do their assignments with me as their tutor. This was not any other ordinary day as I could see smiles on their faces, not like the previous days where everyone pulled a long face at the table during dinner, was karma showing me signs of better days ahead? .We said a prayer and left the table she my siblings could work on their homework before heading to bed.My grandmother's health was slowly deteriorating despite the fact that we were consistent in buying her medication,at least to sustain her for more years. She had now reached a point that she could not control her urine, we had to spoonfeed her, she was slowly losing her balance.
We had to takes turn with my mother on who to remain at home during the day, it was becoming difficult since my sales were going down and that I was not saving as much as I did before