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Seven: Mummy

Seven

Consequences...

Price...

Mistakes...

Fate...

Rumors...

Tongues...

Speculations...

Words...

It wasn't up until Daddy furiously barged into my room did I understand the reason for the massive "O" that stood out on Tiwatope's lips several hours ago when daddy made us promise not to let the secret of Tobiloba's health out to the general public.

"I took it down immediately after you told us, I swear!" I watched Tiwa dramatize in daddy's Lagos State mansion's massive— and when I say massive, I'm talking swimming pool size water fountain mounted in the middle of the living room kind of massive, with genuine regret written all over her face.

"Which was what? Enough time for almost everyone on your Twitter to retweet it all over?Come on! how vain and dumb can you actually be, Tiwa? Even I wouldn't have thought of making such a mistake— daddy or not." Titilayo lashed at her elder sister and the only thing I could think of doing at that crucial moment was to salvage the situation.

"What's the situation now?" I breathed out my question to no one in particular.

"The media is tearing our family apart as we speak," mum's soft but distinct words filled the room and we all lifted our heads and watched in silence as she walked gracefully down the massive gold-rimmed curved staircase with a white flowy Bubu. She almost looked like an angel left for her unkempt braids and tired eyes. Her massive weight loss was also very disturbing.

"Mummy!" Tiwatope began to cry out in pain and I half expected a cold reaction or no reaction at all from my pale looking mother, but she surprised everyone when she invited her little girl into her warm embrace as she planted a long kiss on her head.

"It's not your fault...he who bears the weight of the calamity carries it painfully with grief in his heart." She ended her last line with her eyes emotionlessly set on her husband and for a moment I could feel the cold air between them. 

"Not today, Ireti. Not...today!" Dad barked angrily but he didn't look into her eyes, he just raised his hands up in fury and kept his back turned at us like he was going to walk out except he didn't move an inch.

"If not today, Ajibade, then tell me olowoori mi, when?" She said in the most sarcastic and dramatic tone while rubbing her hands on both sides of Tiwatope's shoulders for a couple of seconds before walking to where daddy stood in what looked like a slow motion. I wanted to interrupt her, I wanted to ask why she was distracting us from the main issue on ground. Maybe I was just furious at how cold and unwelcoming she'd been towards us since we returned to the country, but the strange expression she wore on her face informed me that she was inhabiting a whole level of compiled fury that she wouldn't hesitate to rain down on anyone who tried to cross her path.

"Woman! You just said it yourself that they're tearing our family apart— do you seriously think now's the time for your religious nonsense and moral crap?!"

I watched mum pause right in front of him before pushing her head back to him a funny sound with her mouth that sounded both like a peal of laughter and warning.
"Galatians 6 verse 7-9, Ajibade, it says and I quote! Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. 8! For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption, but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting" she dragged the word 'everlasting' with her teeth snarling at him like she was trying to provoke him.

I got provoked on his behalf. "Okay, mum can you stop being ridiculous for like a second, " I said, beginning to feel irritation take over me as I rose to my feet, "Tobilola is being publicly ridiculed—hell! our family is being ridiculed in public and the only thing you can do is stand here and quote the damned Bible?"

She didn't move a muscle. She didn't turn her head. She just gave me the coldest and longest side-eye I'd ever seen in my life before finally scoffing, which later turned to a chuckle, which finally transformed into a burst of full-blown laughter.

"Tolani!" She suddenly called and everyone was startled, including the man standing in front of her. She squinted her eyes and began to move toward me slowly in her flowy dress and the kid in me thought I was going to get a slap on the cheek but she just walked up to me and stopped right in front of me; staring intently into my eyes. I was almost nose to nose with my mother. "Odomode re o mogun, oon pe l efo," the little child doesn't know herbs; he calls them vegetables. She said to me looking directly into my eyes in the coldest manner. Zero emotions. I panicked inside for I'd never seen my mother like this since I was born. She was like a movie character, like a talented actress in a Kunle Afolayan movie. "I pity you," she finally sighed and then did the weirdest thing ever, she landed her head slowly on my chest, shook it slowly, and repeated the words—but this time around, very slowly, "I...pity...you.", with pain and angered laced on her tone as she groaned painfully afterward.

"Mum? Are you alright?" I heard Tolani ask in what sounded like sincere concern and I feared that mum was going to charge at her or worse, do the same thing she did to me to her, but she just took her head off my chest, wiped a tear that had found its way to her face and smiled at Titilayo before responding with a soft, "Yes, my love. I'm okay..." she began to falter as she suddenly went on to squinting her eyes as if there was an insect on Titilayo's face and before I knew it, she turned back to me with a sharp gasp and picked out the chain from my neck, dropped it back and hurriedly ran to Tiwatope and repeated the same thing before finally charging at daddy in fury.

"You've destroyed my life! You've ruined my life, you this wicked man!" She wouldn't stop screaming, and that was when I knew something was wrong and that it wasn't with my mummy.

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