KIMBERLY PART SEVEN.

(Continued from the previous part)

Kim was unhappy in her new home.

Mrs. Smith stood up from her chair and went to where Kim was sitting; she put her arms around her and buried her face in her hair.

“It’s okay” she said into her hair “We know how much you love this family and I hope you know how fond of you we are. You are like a family member already and it hurts to see you leave, but we have no choice in this case. Your aunt is your only surviving relative and no matter how much we love and want to retain you, we cannot because it is not right to keep you away from her….”

“But I don’t want to leave!” she managed to say amid sobs.

Kim didn’t sleep throughout the night. She tossed and turned on the bed. In the end, she gave up trying to sleep and sat up all night on the bed, thinking of what was going to happen to her. She didn’t relish the thought of living with her aunt. She and her mom had lived with her aunt before her mother died and she remembered vividly the things they passed through though she was still very young then.

Aunt Lola was a strong headed woman who sees life as a hopeless adventure because she had tried many things and failed. She was cold, mean and unforgiving. Kim remembered those nights when Aunt Lola would pick a fight with her mom over unnecessary things like leaving the lights on when she slept whereas she wanted to sleep in darkness. Then, they had been living in the same room that her aunt rented in a slummy part of Lagos.

Her mom had quietly explained to her sister several times that Kim hated darkness but she would never listen. Instead, she would start abusing her mom and calling her names, even mentioning things her mom did wrong when both of them were still children. Kim had witnessed all these fights and didn’t wish to be the victim again.

Separated.

When the day broke, Kim went downstairs for the morning’s prayers and after the prayer; she listened as Mr. Smith told the family what needed to be done about her leaving. He told the family that morning that Kim would be leaving them in a week’s time and that before then, her cloths and bags should be packed and that he would go to her school to get her academic records so that the new school where she would be going can easily admit her and fix her in the proper class.

When breakfast was served, none of them had appetite so the cook had to pack the foods and give them to the gate-man and the gardener in the house. Kim went back to her room and began packing her cloths and books. When she first came into the house, the only cloth she had was the one she was wearing but now, her cloths were so many that her four big bags couldn’t contain them. Most of those cloths had been bought for her new on her birthdays, Christmases, New years’, trips from abroad and so on. Yet she had inherited a lot also from Rose and Angela who were bigger and taller than her. She knew she had the Smiths to thank for that and countless other things that they’d done for her.

            Her books too seemed endless. Most of them she had inherited form every members of the house; story books and school textbooks on all subjects. Being in the lowest class in the family, she had not lacked any book at school. The ones that she couldn’t get from Maxwell, Rose, John or Angela, Mr. and Mrs. Smith had supplied. She knew that all these books would be packed in several bags.

The days began to fly so fast that when Kim woke up on a Saturday morning, she had only one day left before she leave the family and go to her aunt’s to live. That morning, she wandered wordlessly through the big house, thinking about all the memories she had had. Though she’d only spent five years of her life in the house, yet she felt as if she’d lived there forever and that the Smiths were her real family and not Aunt Lola whom she had not seen for seven years. The family knew it too and though they all tried to pretend that it was nothing, they felt sad too.

“You can always visit us any time you want. The door is opened always” Mrs. Smith kept saying whenever they were together. “We will also come visiting once in a while” she assured but they all knew that it would never be the same.  

She left the Smiths the following day after church service. Mr. Smith drove her to the street where her aunt lived and because the road leading to the house was too bad and gully, he had to park very far away from the house. So Kim and her aunt had to lug her heavy bags numbering about eight to the house. When they’d taken the last of the bags from the car, Mr. Smith took her into a warm embrace. “We will miss you, I hope you know that”

“I will miss you too. Please take good care of mummy, Sister Rose, John and Angela for me. I will come visiting during the holidays” she said, fighting back tears.

“I will and I will keep your room open as well, you are always welcome”

They parted after much talking and promises.

                                                                   Strange Fate.             

Aunt Lola was living in a tenement building with ten rooms.  She only occupied a room out of the ten and other tenants occupied the remaining rooms with their friends and families. The house was so crowded that it was hard to have moment’s rest from the noises emanating from some of the rooms. There was a particular room where a family of nine people was living. This family consisted of an old father, an equally old mother, six grownup children and one relative. The children of this family were ruthless and troublesome. The male among them were the thugs on the street and the female ones were not better.

Aunt Lola happened to be fairly better than most of her tenants, yet, her room too was overcrowded. She has a three year old noisy daughter and a drunken husband-Mr. Sayid who comes home drunk and short tempered at nights to beat anyone who pisses him off including Aunt Lola. At first, Kim thought of running away and leaving her aunt’s house but she didn’t know where to go. She didn’t want to run back to the Smiths with the complaint that her aunt was living in a room that would make her look like a gold digger and an ingrate.  So she decided to stay.

Kim quickly settled down in her new home. She was prepared for the taunts and mockery that she knew she would face in the new place, especially from children so it didn’t get much on her. Even her aunt was uncomfortable with her tics.

“I never knew that your tics is this serious” her aunt complained one night when they were about to sleep “Did it get worse or what?”

“It has always been like this” Kim had said, wishing that her aunt would let the matter rest but her aunt was too mean to let go.

“I don’t think I can cope with it” her aunt said, Kim could hear the anger in her voice. “The noise could be heard several miles away and other tenants will start complaining soon. Beside, my husband had already complained, my daughter……”

“Aunt, I can go back to the Smiths, they don’t mind…..”

Her aunt got up from the bed and gave her a resounding slap on her cheek, it was deafening.

“I am your family, the only family that you have left and no matter how poor I may be, I won’t let you run back to strangers, outsiders and let them make jest of my incapacity and inability”

Kim was unable to sleep that night. She had sobbed till the day broke where she slept on the floor, shoving a cloth into her mouth to muffle the sounds of her tics. There was only one narrow bed in the room and it was shared by her aunt, her husband and her daughter, so Kim had to be sleeping on the floor. There was barely enough room to pack all their bags. Already, her aunt was complaining that she had too many cloths. “We will have to sell some of them to get money that we will use to buy a school uniform for you and to pay the school fees.” Her aunt had said repeatedly but Kim didn’t like the idea.

A week later, most of those cloths were sold off by her aunt though Kim didn’t know how much she made from the sales. The best among them were sold while the frayed and old ones were left behind. She had less than half of a bag of the five bags of cloths she brought into the house. All her dolls were automatically confiscated and given to her three year old cousin who was talented in getting them dirty, torn and lost. When Kim refused to give up her Barbie doll to her cousin, her aunt had called her names and even said that she was stingy despite the fact that she had given all except that one to her cousin. When Kim asked her aunt when she would start schooling, her aunt said she had not realized enough money from the sales of her cloths to buy uniform and pay school fees, but she promised to borrow money from somewhere soon.

Aunt Lola was a petty trader who sells satchel water by the roadside on Oshodi-Apapa expressway. Her husband was a security guard at a rich man’s house in Ikeja. When Aunt Lola had gone out to the roads to sell, her husband had gone to his working place and her cousin had gone to school, it would remain only her at home and she would have nothing to do but to read. She had read all her books- as many as they were more than five times each because most times she had nothing to do at home but read.

(To Be Continued).