To Learn the Way

Ilemona had just got back from the market and was about to start preparing supper. The sun was going down and Baba would be back home soon. He didn’t like it when he had to wait for his evening meal. She had to hurry. The little children in their family compound were playing with an old car tyre, taking turns to move it around with a stick while the older children where playing Whots. They had started to argue that Ocheja had cheated in the card game and they would have to start a new game. Ilemona smiled as she watched them squabble. She missed the times when her and her best friend, Unugwa would argue over matters as trivial as this. But Unugwa was now married and living in Lokoja with her husband. The news of Unugwa’s engagement had come as a shock to her. Unugwa had never mentioned that she was getting married even though she had known about it for a long time. Ilemona had not understood it; she still didn’t. They told each other everything. She had told Unugwa when she started having her secret meetings with Oyidi under the cashew tree in her father’s farm. They were coming back from Iye Ele’s kiosk when Unugwa broke the news.

‘I am getting married Ile’, she said looking down at the reddish earth. She examined the sand like someone who was seeing it for the first time. She sounded defeated.

Ilemona laughed. She believed that this was one of Unugwa’s jokes. She had once lied that she was pregnant for Adejo, the pastor’s son. Ilemona was so worried that she didn’t eat for days. She could only think about what Unugwa’s parents would do to her. Her father was a retired soldier and she was an only child. They were about to graduate from secondary school at the time. But what could have inspired this new lie? Perhaps it was the Mex...

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...avily that night. The gods knew that she needed everyone to be fast asleep. She had told them so. She didn’t take much. She only took some clothes and some food in case she got hungry on the way. She also took some of the money Yahaya had given her father. He had hidden it in an empty water pot in their kitchen. She wouldn’t take everything. Her father had to eat. She waited till the rain subsided before she went to her mother’s grave. She didn’t know the next time she would be there. She knelt and prayed for guidance. Their dog watched her. She watched him too. She would miss him but this was not the time to be sentimental. She knew what she wanted. Ilemona had big dreams.

She did not look back as she ran to the motor park. She watched Odu-Ofomu disappear from her life as they drove to Ibadan. The village was dead but she was alive. She was about to learn the way.