Stronger Than Pain

Chapter Twenty Six

I was sitting quietly on the grey couch with my legs crossed out like a sculpture. My right hand formed into a fist, digging into my cheek as it supports my tilted head, while my left wrapped around the black remote which I've been holding onto for the past hour. Surfing endlessly through the many channels on the wide TV screen, my mind was finding it rather too difficult to settle for one.

Zara has out of boredom and unrequited complaints, laid on the sofa next to mine deep asleep. Aunty Mma was sitting close to the window, her head lowered to the phone which lay on her lap. She's been like that since we stepped into this room and I've been finding it very awkward speaking to her. She seems lost in thought though her index finger keeps swiping across the screen, nonstop.

Then I heard a car zoom into the compound. Aunt Mma and I jerked up instantly, with her peeping through the window. Without words we raced out on seeing my dad walk out of a green Toyota Camry. He was flanked by Mr Daniel, mum, his mum and aunty Tee. I didn't see any member of mum's family, and I sure wants to hope that that's a good thing.

I wouldn't lie, I was so glad seeing my dad. His presence gave me peace again that I realized I'd missed him terribly. I couldn't contain my relief as I ran out to hug him, the first time I'd done that in a very long while. Happily, we walked in together.

Since I never joined them to the station, it was pretty difficult to put together what transpired there. But after the troop returned, and from the incessant discussions and chatters from all angles, it was easier to fit in the puzzle.

Apparently when they got to the station, the sergeant in charge explained to dad the offence he's being accused of which was attempted murder. He was therefore provided a paper in that effect for his statement.

The offence sounded weighty and obviously mum couldn't bear it. Uncle Stan had already lodged a complaint and has written a statement to that, before even bringing the officers home, so what they require now was dad's counter opinion.

Aunty Tobi who as the major witness and who mum confided in, was asked to write a statement too which she was glad to. She detailed her conversation with mum in the statement.

Dad in his own statement denied the accusation and insisted mum was involved in an accident, that he never laid a finger on her.

While all these was going on, grandma (mum's mum) called her daughter aside and advised her to save her home, lest the society mock her as the woman who sent her husband to jail. She preached to mum about forgiveness which even the Holy Bible spoke about.

Mum was finally called in by the police to give her statement, and in the presence of everyone mum denied that dad ever hit her. She reinstated that she was involved in an accident in which her husband has been kind enough to attend to her wounds. The police had there and then asked her to put it in writing which she happily did, and with her signature sealed it off.

Her statement automatically truncated every other statement given and dad was bailed out.

With mum's statement signed, sealed and delivered, her family no longer have a case. Since mum was an adult, she's deemed fit to explain in clear terms what had happened to her; and as far as the officers were concerned, she wasn't coerced in anyway to make her statement. She made it out of her own free will without the use of force and in the presence of many witnesses.

Grandma too was quick to testify that her daughter was involved in an accident, she groaned that her children were trying to seek out evil where there is none.

The police on hearing all these granted dad bail, and they returned home.

Mum's family felt humiliated and without as much as a word to their sister, left in anger. Grandma stood strong beside mum, patting her for a strong decision she'd made. She also prayed for her to endure a little more.