Herh! YOM!! What are you doing on top of the garage? She asked with a stern
look on her face!! Her panic hidden by her desire not to alarm me. A 7 year old
me looked down at her in a manner resemblant of an old man's chastising stare
at a child who had asked a dumb question.
I began to speak calmly like a professor to a retarded student, I said,
"ah Mama I want to jump from here and break my leg so that me too I can go
and sleep at the hospital and father christmas will give me Ninja stars and
ninja knives like Apego (my older brother, he had just returned from the
hospital after I knocked him out with a see saw and his coffers were abound
with a plethora of toys courtesy father Christmas)
Mama stood at the base of the garage staring at me in silence shaking her
head in her head! After about a minute of staring she opened her mouth and said
to me "Tawiah from now on you're no longer 7 years you're 5 years
old" and she turned around with a nonchalant march to the kitchen. The
adrenaline that pushed through me can only be matched by a juicy goat during Easter.
And with the agility of ten monkeys I descended from the roof faster than
asbestos on a windy day, accompanied by a terrified look on my face, thoughts
running through my head regarding the manner in which my friends would make fun
of me if I appeared in school with two years missing from my age.
Run to her tugging at her tie and dye cloth that I always had to lock
between my fingers when I sucked my thumb, she acted oblivious as she
continuously stirred a soup that smelt like daddy's socks but I dared not tell
her that in these trying times. I made it rain sobs and apologies till she
decided to add one year and the other if I put up good behavior, it was a good
deal so I took it. Mama used to mess with my dumb head!! There were those times
when she would take us to go visit her friends and when all the women were
fussing over Apefa and Apego, (the cute twins, roll my eyes) She would always
have an eye out for me because if my master, mischief called who was I not to
answer? from trying to lure Nana Afriyie to the backyard to feeding the neighbors
dogs Pepsodent, I was armed to the teeth with bombs of mischief, but I guess
Mama was counter intelligence I was caught in the act most of the time.
The rain bore down on our roof, I was young my asthma was rife and
when the weather became cold my relatively brand new chest became old, chest
was wheezing no inhaler, daddy had travelled with the car. Biney estates no
taxis allowed!! Bernadette! With those condensed drops of water falling to the
earth in such great multitude, you picked me up and put me at your back, the
safest place in the world, you told Apego and Apefa to lock up the house and
let no one in, picked up your umbrella and then you stepped out!! Yes you stepped
out into the rain, made sure a single drop of water did not touch me and you
walked, you walked and walked and walked and as we went along with the rain in your
face, you sang to me. I was too young to remember what you sang but the melody
is forever imbedded in me like a birth mark.
You are a mother. You got me to AGC hospital and though it wasn't Christmas
I sure was glad to be there.
Nobody tells me anything its either that or I was too dumb to realize u were
pregnant with Kojo, for nine months I knew nothing until Monday 29th of October
1993, one of my normally dreadful mornings sister happy yanked me out of bed to
prep me up for school between my sobs and mouthfulls of soap in the bath tub, I
managed to ask "Where is Mama?" :(. Only until then did she tell me,
"You have a new brother, don't tell anyone when you go to school Mama is
in the hospital". Goodness I was so excited, I couldn't wait to come back
home! When I got to school the secret was too big to keep, it’s as if I had
been given the date for judgment day, so I called my best friends Nii Carl and
Pooja over and whispered my unbearable knowledge into their ears. Aza was
jealous so she ran to Miss Maanu and told her I was gossiping about her so I
had to tell the teacher too. Sorry mummy :).
When we got home Apefa and Apego tried to beat me to the door but I was very
nimble and I rushed in leaving them in my wake. My Power Rangers school bag
crashed to the floor as I made my way through the corridor towards the master
bedroom and I opened the door like it was the entrance to heaven(and to some
extent it was)
I stood in your room Mama, frozen at the most beautiful sight I had ever
seen. Fuck a sunrise in Hawaii, there you sat Maa, with my little brother in
your arms over a huge bowl and as you washed him over and over again. Apego and
Apefa were also equally in awe it was basically their first experience. (They
were 4 when I was born).
And though I have heard great music from unimaginable talents over the years
nothing and I mean nothing beats the music of hearing my little brother's cries
for the first time as you turned him over and over just to make sure every
crevice was clean.
You remember that day the three of us never left your side we would not eat,
would not sleep we just sat there and watched you, our mother.
When your father died, your strength was like that of a mountain and you channeled
it through your siblings. I saw you scold Ewurama's mother when she burst into
uncontrollable tears telling her to be strong. Set an example and she listened.
I just sat there looking at you in awe, my strong mother. But I caught you Maa,
I caught you maybe a week or two later sitting alone in the living room reading
the hymn book from grandpa's funeral as tears rolled down your cheeks. Normally
its I cry, you comfort. But this time you cried and maybe I was being
"mpeninsem" but I couldn't stand the sight so I sat on the handle of your
chair and wrapped my tiny arms around your neck and as I lay my head on your
shoulder I said quietly "Mama don't cry".
I know my words touched you to the depth of your soul, you kept singing and
I stayed there. I had to protect mother.
From me ignorantly asking for contraceptives as I played an ill gong gong
beater in Apefas yearly Christmas play accompanied by the embarrassed look on
your face, to teasing daddy as a child along with the uncontrollable fits of
laughter I put you in when I did . From causing you severe pain, to showers of
my successes that came like rain. You Mama have always been there by my side
thick and thin sickness and health. I will love you for four forevers, infinity
of eternities, a million lifes of a lifetime.
You are my mother.
It’s not by coincidence that I was born on your birthday!
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