Beginning Again 5 (Aunty Janet's Story)

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“She’s been having a series of nightmares in for about a week plus”

I laughed out loud and relieved “You mean you came all the way to tell me about Toke’s nightmares? I thought something was terribly wrong with her”

“I wouldn’t have bothered you if the nightmares had nothing to do with you”, that got me.

“What does the nightmare have to do with me?”

“She screams you name each time she wakes up, and when I ask her what’s wrong, she just starts shaking and crying, so I decided to check up on you and now meeting you in tears with a bruise on your face…..Sis, what is going on? I am getting worried”

I heaved a sigh of surrender “It’s Phil. He slapped me yesterday because I reported him to his mum”

“Whaaat? How can Uncle Phil do that to you? Don’t you have a right as his wife to talk to his mum?”

“Hmmn, he wasn’t offended I talked to his mum, but reporting him is what I think got him mad”

“Still….he shouldn’t have raised his hands at you. What kind of a man is he?”

“Maggie please, don’t talk like that about Phil. He may not be the best of men, but he is trying”

“Trying? In what way exactly? By raising his hands at you? He should just wait till mummy hears this”

“Maggie, you will do no such thing” but she had picked her bag and was leaving

“If you tell mummy, that will be the last thing about my marriage I will ever tell you again. I am glad you are getting married too, you will come to realize that it is not everything

Our parents should know about”

“But Sis, I don’t…..”

“No buts Maggie, No buts at all”

Beginning Again 4 (Aunty Janet's Story)

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“Madam, you dey house?” He knocked at the door mildly “She suppose dey house, because I never see her comot today, she no even follow Oga go work” He knocked again. Foggy from sleep, I tried to stand up but my head was swimming. As I moved towards the door, I felt a sharp pain in my stomach and stopped to hold it in a bit.

“Maaaaaaadam oooooo” my maiguard’s voice pierced into my reverie. Irritated at the disturbance, I moved with force towards the door for two reasons. One because I wanted to give him a piece of my mind for the disturbance, then I was curious to know who he was talking with. As I opened the door, the sweet face of my younger sister Margaret calmed me down. Seeing her I burst into tears and forgot my annoyance at the gateman, she stepped in quickly as she always does, held me close while she discharged the gateman.

“Sis, are you okay? What’s going on, I’ve been trying to reach you since yesterday evening but your phone was not reachable”, she was searching my face and I knew she would notice the slight bruise in no time. Although the bruise from Phil’s slap had gone down, it still stings anytime the memories came back.

“I am fine”, I tried to muster some courage

“If you are fine, then explain the tears and…the bruise”

I moved further into the sitting room, trying to gather my scattered items back into my bag, while looking for my Kleenex.

“Sis, talk to me. Did something happen yesterday? Why are you not at work by the way, I stopped by at your workplace and I was told, you didn’t come in. Knowing my workaholic sister, that felt very strange. Then I come to your house and……:

“Why were you trying to reach me again?” I cut her off mid-way. I’d turn to see her confused face, I’m sure a lot of things were going through her mind. She sighed and took a seat.

“It’s Toke” hearing her daughter’s name made me forget all I was going through. When it comes to my sister and her baby, my love for them is very fierce.

Margaret had Toke just before she finished her final year papers. It was a tough one for her handling the pregnancy and reading for exams but I made sure I was there for her all through. Well as my only sister, what do you expect? Her boyfriend then, now husband had run away from the responsibility at first but when Omotoke was born, he was broken by the purity and innocence of the little one. Since then, he never left and officially asked for her hand in marriage as well as our parent’s blessings. My folks had not taken the news of Maggie's pregnancy well at first. Being the second girl and third born of a family of six, she was expected to have followed the footsteps of her elder sister (that’s me) and keep herself till her wedding night, typical of old folks back then.