My mother call nonsense as non
since. Me too do the same thing until my son correct me and tell me that it is
not non since but nonsense. My mother finish primary school and marry my
father. My father was a carpenter before he die. He was the kind of carpenter
that do cushion chair, and people call him Oga furniture.
My father popular with furniture
work. They say he do work very well and people are always coming to look for
him to do their work for him before he die. My father dead when I was in
primary three and my mother is a house wife. We start to find things hard and
my mother say I should stop schooling and start to hawk and help train my
brothers in school. My mother say girl don’t need school very well.
I am the only girl out of five
children. I am the last born. I stop school and all of my brother go to school
till university where they do weekend school. They hawk things after school and
do jobs when holiday come. Me and my mother suffer plenty for them and they
know it and like me very much for it. They get good work after they finish
school.
When I grow up to marry, I marry
carpenter like my mother, my brothers do not like him, they want me to marry
rich men, but rich men don’t like me because they say I cannot express myself
with English very well. My husband do not do furniture like my father. He only
do tables and chairs for school, and bench for people shop. My husband do not
have money reach my father.
My father is a good man and he
never beat my mother. But, my husband beat me every time we talk of something
and do not believe in one thing. If he beat me and any of my brother know, they
come and arrest him. Until my mother beg before they release him. I don’t beg
because I tire of him, but woman do not leave husband house unless husband
pursue them. My husband also drink plenty alcohol drink which I don’t like.
One day he beat me. One of my brother
come to our house in the morning and see my face swell, he call police and
arrest him. He stay one month before they release him. He never stay that long
in prison. My mother beg and beg before they release him. He came back looking
like somebody that is dying. I gave him food, he ate and bath and change his
clothes and go out and drink.
He come back, bear smelling in
his mouth, but he did not drunk. He was angry and he curse me and my mother and
my brother. He say we are wicked. He say my brothers should not pay my children
school fees again in the big school they attend. He say he will put them in
government school where he can pay their school fees. He say as they are back
for mid-term break, that they will not go back to the hostel again, that they
will go to school from home. He say he will look for house where we will stay
so that we pack out from the fine house my brothers pay rent for.
I tell him no. I tell him that it
is not possible. I tell him he can go to hell like they talk in film, but me
and my children will stay in fine house, in fine area with people that go
school and have money. I tell him my children will go in big people school and
not government school. I tell him that my brothers say that I will also start
school soon, so that I can read and write and talk better.
He vex too much for me. He shout
for me. I shout back. We quarrel like we do anytime we do not believe one
thing. He try to beat me and my first son hold his hand. My first son warn him
not to beat me again. He surprise. Me surprise too. My husband vex plenty. He
curse everybody. He curse me too much and say that I have make his children
hate him. He shout and shout and shout, before he enter his room and lock it.
I do not like that my son talk to
his father like that but I do not blame him or shout for him. I call him and
tell him to beg his father for forgiveness in the morning. He agreed.
In the morning we wake up and do
not see my husband. He write note and keep and say I should go and marry my
brothers and my son and my mother. I go his workshop, he is not there. I go
there every day, but I never see him again.
