My Wish #project Nigeria

Chapter 42

"can you please call my mother? I need to speak to her , I really do ."

Mide said to the middle aged woman sitting in front of her .

The school counselor was doubling as a guardian and Mide had been lucky enough to have her as her guardian.

She was quite nice, only she was  always busy.

Apparently, a lot of Zenith high students needed counseling.

Toxicity and trouble never gave up chances to exercise their strengths among the Zenith students.

"Honey, why do you need to speak to your mother so suddenly? How are you feeling? "

Mide shut her eyes tight and sucked in some sharp breaths .

" With all due respect ma..."

"What is wrong?" The woman sounded genuinely concerned, but Mide did not need concern . She needed one thing, and it certainly wasn't to sit in front of Mrs Patience .

She wasn't in the mood to be as patient as her guardian. Maybe that was why her name was Patience -Mide had thought later as she walked out of the office.

The woman talked slowly, like she would stop breathing if she talked even a bit faster. She was too... patient.

"With all due respect ma," Mide paused slightly to see if the woman had any intentions of interrupting her again .

"I don't want to be counseled. I really just need to call my mother. "

Her guardian sighed but still kept the smile she had resting on her lips .

"Fine. Still, I want you to tell me why. I need a good reason before I can call your mother."

"I want to go home ma. I am tired of this..." Mide gestured around wildly.

"This place. I can no longer stand being mocked for something I had no control over. "

"And the person who tried to rape me roams around freely. "
She paused and sucked in a sharp breath.
" I need to go home, so that I can breathe, because this place... It's squeezing life out of me , I... " Her voice broke .

" Here, have a tissue ", extending an arm across the table, she got the tissue and wiped her tears.

" Will you call her? ", She asked with hopeful eyes .

" Yes ", Mrs Patience smiled gently.

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It had been a while since Mide had been at Agbande and she never imagined she would go there again. she'd hoped she would be able to persuade Baami  to move to the city but she knew in the deepest parts of her heart that that would never happen .

Like the last time that she visited, the door was left open. Cautiously looking into the kitchen, Aramide said a silent prayer. 

The kitchen was empty , but food was being cooked on the small gas cooker by the side.

The orange gas cooker was something that had been rejoiced over in the past.  Now it looked old and rugged. The edges had browned with rust over the years.

Yet, Mide knew that if she hadn't been exposed to the outside world, her urge to become better would have been killed. She wouldn't have noticed the rust by the edges of the cooker. You only notice bad when you've seen good, right?

She knew she wouldn't have been put off by the worn out and peeled paint on the kitchen walls that had once been considered blue. Now it was a mixture of colours from oil, dust and age.

Mide knew that if she had been left in the village after her supposed father had tried to rape her, she would have crawled zestfully , eagerly ,into a shell that Baami had tried to keep her from as she grew up.

She knew that she would have been safe from Levi too if she had stayed in Agbande.

Yet she knew that staying and having to stay in the same sitting room that her own father had almost violated her would be suicidal. Or walking into the same kitchen where her grandmother had been stabbed.

In fact, she felt like the full weight of everything that had happened in the past year had just fallen on her shoulders.

Wallowing in that feeling of helplessness as she leaned against the wall, she didn't realize when an old man walked into the kitchen in awe.

"Aramide!" His voice was exactly like him . Calm, never in a rush, and just a breath away from being a whisper.

Before she knew it, Mide was  crying in his arms .  "Baami, I've missed you. I've missed you so much. So much Baami... I've...I've felt so lost without you. Everything you taught me... "

She finally looked up at her grandfather's face, causing him to see her red, teary eyes.

" Calm down..." He tried to calm the bawling girl.

" Baami, I love you so much." She said on her knees.

Smiling, he raised her from her knees and gave her a hug.

He could sense she had been waiting to say those things for a while and that she had more to say.

"Omo mi," He said after they had stood for a while.

"Yes ,Baami?" She looked at him, her eyes still red.

"School is still in session, how come you're here? Did anything happen? "

***********************
" After everything I've told you, you want me to go back? " She said , sitting up.

" If you don't go back then what will you do here? I did not raise you to be a coward. "

" But Baami..."

" You don't want to go to school anymore? "

" Baami... "

" You want to spend the rest of your life In this village? Okay, stay. Sit down and be uneducated. You will pick your tray from where you kept it the last time and you will continue to sell oranges in the park.
Attending the village school is useless anyway,and I only hope for your friends that they get out of it on time and find their way to the city. "

"Yet , you've been given the opportunity to attend a wonderful school  in the city yet you're running back her with your tail in between your legs because you faced some challenges.  " Aramide stared at her feet, silently .

" I wish you luck. But I will not have an uneducated granddaughter in my house . "

" But Baami it gets harder everytime. And it's all choking me . " She said, finally regaining her voice.

" If education doesn't choke you, then you aren't truly learning. It has to choke you at some point. But that's how you get better. In fact, not just education. Everything. You have to learn to overcome challenges and own your achievements."

Baami paused, gave her a look that made her feel like he was trying to see her soul, and sank into the couch.

"The choice is yours. Will you give up? "

Teary eyed, Aramide stood from her previous position on the opposite couch and sat on the side table near her grandfather.

"Baami, if I say I still want to give up, will you let me live?"  She smiled, sniffling.

"What do you think?" He replied, giving her a knowing look.

"I won't give up. Not when I have you."