Living In The Ghetto - Episode 35

Adanne hadn't been herself for over some days when she finally learnt Mama died. She cried till her eyes were red and sunken. It's been a week and she hadn't stepped her feet in school. She stayed with Mama Oyinda. Mama Oyinda would offer her a plate of food every morning and evening, and she will take some spoons and abandon others. She will sit on the floor, with her legs entangled to each other while hot tears streamed down her eyes continuously. Adanne had not asked if Chimaobim knew about her mother's death but Mama Oyinda and their neighbors had conversed and arrived at a conclusion that nobody should call to tell Chimaobim until he was done with his examinations and arrived home before he should know.

"E go distract am with hin study. Make we no do anything wey go make e no pass exams. E mama no go happy for her grave. I dey sure dem go dey approach examinations," Tega said.

Tega was a lanky and tall neighbor who moved into the apartment a year back. He was funny and his concentrated warri accent he always used to speak pidgin gave him off as a comic character. His neighbors always laugh whenever they are having discussions; even without intended jokes.

Mama was buried in a shabby burial ground. A big bush that was cleared and mapped out for most of the people that died in the ghetto

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. A place they would be buried. It was for those that couldn't take their relatives body elsewhere and original indigines. Those that had money moulded a grave and inscribed the names of their loved ones.

When Adanne walked to the burial ground with neighbors and well-wishers, Mama Oyinda held her shoulder as they stood still while two able bodied men jumped out from the dug grave. Some were already up, with their hammer by their hands looking tired. They wore torn trousers and their body were covered in dust particles.

"Excuse," a voice said, while the crowd demarcated and two men carried Mama's dead body on a wooden stick.

The body was covered except her face, and white wools were used to cover her nose. Adanne looked up and stared at the faces of some women as they sobbed. Their face wreathed in pains, while some muffled their tears. Some men stood with their hands akimbo, some had their hands on their heads while others stood transfixed.

"Death, na like this you be?" an old woman yelled while her mouth quivered.

Adanne couldn't cry again. She stopped and used her hand to wipe off the tears. Her eyes kept moving around staring at people making different facial expressions. 

The corpse laid on the floor and the priest arrived, and prayed before the corpse would be buried. Two young men moved to where the corpse was kept, lifted it up and made to drop it inside the grave. Adanne pulled off Mama Oyinda's grip on her shoulder and ran quickly to the grave. She jumped in.

Everybody screamed. The men dropped the corpse quickly. People wanted to run towards the grave but the men restricted them. One gestured for them to move back.

"Please, don't bring me out. Throw her corpse in here and cover us with sand," Adanne begged throwing her palm in the air as she rubbed it. "I want to be with my mother. She is all that I have."

"Please, come out," an elderly man begged looking into the grave.

Adanne cried. "No, just leave me to die.

Read " The Thorny Path " by the same author ( Obinna Tony )

. I am begging you."

Mama Oyinda walked to the grave and bent down then stretched her hand and begged her to come out. A young man jumped into the grave immediately. She ran to the edge of the grave. "Please, Mama Oyinda, you know how I value Mama so much? Don't allow them to separate us," she begged, kneeling down and raising her hands up towards Mama Oyinda.

Tears strolled down Mama Oyinda's cheeks like rain water splattering on the zinc and rolling down to the ground slowly. The man brought out Adanne immediately and Mama Oyinda gripped her tightly while Adanne's tears clogged her shirt.

Mama body was dropped down into the grave and the men started pouring sand one after the other, till the grave was filled up. Adanne thought her world had ended.

She never went to school again. Every morning, without taking her bath, she would come out and sit at the front of their corridor door while she fixated her eyes on something everybody couldn't assimilate. Anybody that pass would ask, "What are you staring at, Adanne?" And she won't mutter a word.

She knew it was a matter of time before Mama Oyinda would start getting irritated by her presence. The day she sat on the corridor and gawked, she felt relieved when a car hummed, stopped and a man came down carrying a luggage. It was Mr. John, she sighed but the sorrow in her heart couldn't contain her ecstasy.