Checkmate Episode 14 (By Adeyoola Ojemola)

 

After dropping the twins off at their school the next day, Vera and Simon found themselves at ‘Some Peace and Quiet’. They were met by an elderly man this time. Vera presumed him to be the elderly woman’s husband. This time around Vera booked a booth.

 

The space looked like a balcony, facing the direction of the water fountain. It has a lounge-like sofa, a camp mattress, already laid and a mini-fridge with bottled water. It was not anything fancy but it was quiet and private. ‘Simon, you and I rarely have moments alone unlike I would usually have with your sisters’.

 

Simon shrugged, ‘It doesn’t really matter. I guess I am used to it. We are grown, mum’. ‘I know you are grown but you will always be my baby boy, always’, Vera said this, looking at Simon and gently raised his head to look in her eyes.

 

Simon felt really emotional at that moment and forcefully looked away from his mum. Vera let him. She reclined into the lounge chair while Simon simply sat on the camp mattress, leaning his back on the wall. Still unsure what his mum was about, Simon sat, silent, waiting for her next move.

 

Suddenly, Vera began to speak. ‘I told you the other day that I will share with you how my growing up felt like. I am sure I have told you before that my parents and my little brother died in an auto crash when I was like twelve years old. I was also in the same accident but I survived, miraculously.

 

I had to move in with my mother’s cousin. The other extended family members did not want me. Aunty Vivian alone wanted me. I think she did because though she was married, she had no child of her own. She took me in as her own child and honestly, she was the only other family I have ever known and grown to love.

 

Aunty Vivian sincerely cared for me. She and her husband, Uncle Timmy were civil servants and they gave me the best they could afford. My parents were not particularly wealthy people so there was not any significant inheritance left for me to the best of my knowledge.

 

My mom was a housewife and my dad worked in a steel company. So what his company sent at his death was used to cover burial expenses for all three of them.

 

I was taken to a private school by my new guardians and I was well fed. I got new clothes when due and gradually, I was healing from my grief. Aunty Vivian cared for me as though I were her own.

 

I remember a particular incident in school where some parents told their children not to be friends with me because I bring bad luck and that I killed my family and survived on their blood.

 

Aunty Vivian heard about it somehow and she came over to the school, fought with the principal and some teachers for spreading such a tale. She said that she only shared that circumstance of my living with her with the principal and my class teacher. She said they must have spread such evil talks about me.

 

She went as far as visiting the parents of the students who said that to my face and sternly warned them. I changed schools after that incident. Aunty Vivian made sure of that. She fiercely defended me, like my birth parents would and it shows how intentional she was about me.

 

Uncle Tim… Hmmm… Uncle Tim…

 

Well, he met my needs. He never defaulted in paying my school fees and he paid on time. Whenever Aunty Vivian met him with my needs, he would give me her time and see to it before that time’.

 

Vera stopped talking and excused herself from the booth.

 

Simon did not know that his mom actually had such an experience growing up. He stood from the bed and leaned on the railing of the balcony-like booth. As he stared at the water fountain, he couldn’t help but recall the look of sadness on his mother’s face as she shared her story. He knew that she excused herself to shed some tears. As she spoke, her eyes were already watery.

 

 

Simon also began to feel emotional. He found it hard to imagine losing his mum, his sisters, and even his dad and being all alone in the world, needing to depend on others for survival.

 

He felt shivers at that thought. Just at that moment, he heard the door open and there he saw his mum, her face seemed wet from washing. She gave him a sad smile as they both sat down.

 

Vera did not recline this time as Simon sat with her on her chair. She smiled inwardly and was amused at how captivated her son was with what she was sharing. ‘Simon, I want you to know that what I am going to be sharing next does not in any way define who I am today. I have come to a place where I am healed of all hurts and I have come to forgive all these wrongs.

 

As she said these, she met Simon’s eyes and made sure she got a nod from him before she went on.

 

By the time I was 15, uncle Tim started changing towards me.

 

Sometimes I would notice him staring at me in a funny manner. I did not think much of it at first until one day he came home from work earlier than aunty Vivian. After greeting him and fetching water for his bath as I would normally do, he handed me a black bag and asked me to wear it so he could see me in it.

 

 

It was not unusual for me to get gift clothes from aunty or uncle but he had never requested that she wore it immediately to show him. I went to my room and I was dismayed at what I saw in the bag. It contained a new bra and underpants. I tied it up and refused to wear it.

 

 

Then I sat on my bed anticipating what I should do next. I was confused because I did not know what to do, honestly.

 

 

Then my door suddenly flew open. I scrambled off my bed and I felt a sudden instinct to flee from uncle Tim. But my legs won’t budge. I can’t remember how it all went but all went down south. He defiled me that day.

 

And that was how the cycle continued for over a year. I withdrew from my aunt because I felt so ashamed of the role I was playing in her marriage. She was still without a child. She took me as her child and cared for me the same. At this point, she had began to introduce me to others as her daughter.

 

 

Uncle Tim threatened me that if I told on him to his wife, he would send her away from his house because she was the barren one. I feared for my aunty’s marriage in my naivety and I did not speak out.

 

I got pregnant by my uncle thrice. He took me to a quack who aborted them for me’. Vera said this with tears choking her voice but she spoke on.

 

On the fourth pregnancy, I almost lost my life. My uncle had to rush me to the teaching hospital in the next town from where we lived. That was how my aunt found out.

 

At the hospital! My aunt was broken when she heard that I had aborted a child. I had never seen her weep like that. Not even at my mother’s burial, her closet cousin.

 

Aunty Vivian actually fainted when she heard from me that it was uncle Tim who had gotten me pregnant and that the abortion was the fourth.

 

It was from all these that we eventually found out that Uncle Tim already had another family and he had fathered three children with the other woman.

 

My aunt said nothing to anyone after these revelations there at the hospital. When I was discharged and we returned home, uncle Tim did not come with us. By the time I woke up the next morning, aunty Vivian had left home.

 

She had packed her most valuable things and she left no trace of her whereabouts. She did not even leave me a note but I knew she had gone. To where? No idea.

 

I knew that uncle Tim would be back but I did not want him to meet me there. I had made up my mind that I was done with him. So, I searched the house including their bedroom for money and I did find some little bits here and there.

 

I packed everything, went to my room, picked up a few clothes and whatever I thought was valuable to me. I feld from that home. I went to the car pack and I simply entered the first vehicle that had its passengers almost full and ready to move.

 

Hmmm!’, Vera signed.

 

‘So what happened next, mummy? Where did you go? Who were you planning to meet? Didn’t you look for aunty Vivian?’ Simon asked so many questions in a single breath.

 

Vera smiled at him, pulled him close to herself , and hugged him tight. They were like that for about five minutes. Simon stayed like that because he felt his mother’s tears wet his shirt. He let her cry, silently, and he could not avoid his too.

 

When Vera pulled away from Simon, she held his hands in hers ‘We will continue another day, I promise. But I want you to think about the difference in my life now and the one I had in the story I shared. I will answer your questions when we come here next.

 

We can’t come tomorrow because there is a church service in the evening and I need to run some errands during the day.

But remember what I said earlier: I am not hurting and I have forgiven. My tears, they are thankful tears…

Let’s keep this between us, okay? No sharing with your sisters or someone else, my boy.

We should get going now. Your sisters are closing earlier today’.

 

As they were walking away from their booth towards the main entrance, Simon slipped his hands in his mother’s, voluntarily. Vera looked at him and found him smiling at her.

 

 

They both laughed as they walked towards the car and it felt good…

 

———————-

Wheeeeew! 

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Checkmate Episode 15