THE ADVENTURES OF TOLU (TAOT) Episode 2

THE ADVENTURES OF TOLU (TAOT)

EPISODE 2

My reminiscence was interrupted when I heard a groan from my mum's room. I rushed down with so much fear to see what was going on.  

On getting there, I saw my mum in pains. She was groaning and grabbing her stomach. She was covered in sweats. My dad was totally bewildered, as he was running to and fro. He didn't know what was going on, neither did anyone there. He grabbed his car key, with some people he helped my mum to the car. I wanted to enter the car as well, but they didn't allow me. My dad ordered Aunty Rebecca to take me inside the house. I was crying bitterly as I had never seen my mum in that state before. My dad drove at top speed to the nearest hospital.

Dunni had slept already. I hugged aunty Rebecca and cried, but she assured me that my mum would be fine. I couldn't help it, tears were just flowing out uncontrollably. I had seen movies where people groan in pain the way my mum did, and most times it ends in what they call death. 'That which makes their loved ones cry'. I was scared that my mum's case would end that way. I was so scared.

I couldn't sleep all through the night, because I loved my mum so much, but I didn't know what was happening. I was so devastated. Nights can be very long. It was as if that night lasted a week. 

After the long hours, my dad came back home with the people, that was around 10am. I saw everybody alighting from the car, but didn't see my mum. I ran to my dad and asked him "Daddy, where is mummy?" He looked at me, his eyes were as red as a burning flame. They looked like that of someone who had cried for days. He couldn't say a word. I didn't understand what was going on. I looked at the people around, I saw them all in tears. I had learnt from Yoruba movies that the reaction to someone's death is tears. I looked at my dad and shouted "Daddy, did mummy die?" This time, he couldn't control his tears. The tears just started rushing down. "Mummy didn't die Tolu, mummy went to God". My dad answered. I had been hearing of people going to God in heaven, and those are people I never got to see again. "Does it mean I won't see mummy again? But I want my mummy, I want to see mummy". I cried bitterly, as my father cried too. People around could not hold back their tears. We went inside, and before we knew it, people started knocking on our door. I didn't know exactly what they came to do, because they sat in the sitting room with dull faces, then when leaving, they said words like "epele o" which means "sorry". "Aa ni riru e mo o". Which means that "such won't happen again".

Then, it occurred to me, that my mum is dead. I was so sad. Dunni didn't really understand what had happened. She only cried when she saw me or my dad cry. The last thing I wanted to see was for her to cry, I had to be a man and make my sister happy.

Days later, we buried her in the compound, where my sister and I were asked by a priest to pour sand on her coffin before some guys covered her up. I didn't really understand death, but I knew that my mum was gone and that I can never see her again. I love my mum so much, even more than my dad. "Why does she have to leave me so soon? Why did she do this to me? Why did she not consider me or my sister. Even if she didn't consider her husband?" I kept asking myself questions I had no answers to. It was a tough experience for me. 

I started living my life 'motherlessly'. But after two years of my mother's death, my father made a decision that surprised everyone. . . .

What happened, find out in Episode 3.