We are Able Episode 31
My father rose up suddenly and began to laugh. He was saying something as he dipped his right
hand into the pocket of his boxers and produced a note. He pointed at my horrified face and kept
laughing at me. The only thing I thought I successfully lipread was theexpression USELESS CHILD.
I let my father leave the room before
peeking at the
note he gave me. My heart had begun to
come down
now. That man really gave me a big
scare because I
had thought he wanted To Molest me. I
had heaved
sighs of relief on and on. That man had
only come to
scare me.
I began to read:
Re: My Father, why have you forsaken
me?
My useless daughter Rose, as a reply to
your questions
that day, I have come up with this. It is
the proper
write-up that would suit your question.
Imagine, it took
me more than a week to compose this
wonderful
write-up.
The last time when I said you have never
been of help
to me, you said you have on Democracy
day, just
because you translated sign language to
text for me.
Well, if that is what you call a help, then
you are a great
fool. How dare you open your ‘dumb
mouth’ to say that
in the first place? Do you realise how
much I have
spent on you? If that is what a father
should expect
from a daughter after spending fortune
on her, then it
had been better he didn’t spend on her at
all.
I’m glad you aren’t schooling anymore
because at the
end of the day you will graduate and
remain useless in
the society. Nobody will employ you,
nobody will
benefit from you, nobody will speak with
you because
you will just remain as useless as a rock.
You are not supposed to be living among
the living but
among the animals because as much as I
know, only
animals don’t speak. At the right time I
will take you to
the jungle to live the rest of your life
there.
Imagine, what is the essence of a
daughter who will
never be wooed by a man? What is the
essence of a
lady who will never have anyone to get
married to her?
Rose, If you ever get married, then let the
earth bury
me alive…
At that juncture, I stopped reading as I
wept my
eyeballs out. I had only read the note to
one-third but I
tore it without intending to read more.
The little I had
read had already torn my heary apart.
I began to feel inferior and depressed
once more.
Earlier, I had thought I wouldn’t put
myself in inferiority
complex. Now it was inevitable. I had
begun to
consider some of the things my father
said. It had just
dawned on me that I can’t have a normal
person as a
husband. Maybe I would start making
love with blind
Biodun as from now on so that we could
end up
marrying each other, I thought. It was the
first time in
my life I would think about love and that
feeling was
now towards the birthday celebrant of
yesterday, 31
December, year 2000.
I began my love search at once the next
day as I
started moving close to the children of
Mrs Omotayo
so that I could show them I cared,
especially Biodun
the blind boy. I wished we ended
marrying each other,
at least to prove my father wrong. John
would be
shocked when Biodun and I bring our
wedding invitation
card to him, I thought childishly. A
strong fear stared at
my face when I envisaged the reply John
could give:
A disabled marrying a disabled, ha! ha!
ha! Perfect
combination of disabled I imagined John
saying that,
then I sulked.
Mrs Omotayo said she had never felt so
happy in life.
Seeing me playing with her kids, she was
glad. She
wanted me to always come around them.
Mrs Omotayo had been finding it very
difficult sending
them to school. They were in a boarding
school the
year before, but she had to pull them out
and bring them
back home when they took ill all the time
and almost
died. She prefered them illiterate and
alive instead of
being literate and dead.
At the moment, Mrs Omotayo was on
sabbatical so that
she could have enough time at hand to
care for her
children.
Things hadn’t been smooth for her, being
the only one
to run around to do this and that.
Unfortunately, there
wasn’t any tangible help her two children
could render.
Mrs Omotayo wanted to employ the
service of a
housemaid because she would soon be
resuming work.
When she told me about it, I assured her
that I would
do my best.
All the while, she thought I was a
housemaid according
to what Toyosi told her. I would have
opened up to her
the person I really was, but for the
warning Toyosi
gave me.
However, Mrs Omotayo wondered in
silence how
come I was a housemaid. To clear her
doubt about my
identity, she took a step to know a little
about me. I
read the note she gave me and remained
‘mute’:
Rose, I’m sorry to ask you these few
questions; please
it would do me a great good if you could
answer me
accordingly: first, I would like to know
when actually
you began to be a housemaid, because
with the look of
things you are even too young for that,
considering
your condition too. You look like thirteen
or fourteen
years to me, so how come you are in
this? Did you start
being a house girl at ten or eleven or
when? I also
want to know why and who released you
to be one. Is
your mother still alive? If she is, where
does she
live?…
I couldn’t finish the whole writeup as
tears welled up in
my eyes. They began to drop. Mrs
Omotayo must have
thought that she had hurt my feelings,
going by the way
she tightened herself on me and rubbed
my head with
her hands.
I wasn’t weeping because she asked
those questions
but because I couldn’t supply an answer
since Toyosi
had warned me against doing such. Now
I knew I
wasn’t free yet, opposed to my thought
earlier. I had no
freedom of speech yet.
Mrs Omotayo told me she needed to
enroll her children
back in school, but she didn’t want to
enrol them in a
boarding school because she didn’t want
them to fall
sick. She wished they could be attending
a day school,
but it would be difficult for them
returning from school
everyday, because herself would be in her
workplace
by the time they would be returning from
school.
An idea struck my mind. I wrote it down
and gave it to
her. She took a glance at me when she
read it.
“Will you be able?” she asked me.
“Yes I will be,” I replied her.
Then I have to seek the permission of
your mistress,
she wrote.
Please go ahead, I replied.
I have missed school so much and I had
wished to
return. A whole term had passed without
me being
enrolled in a school. I needed to be out
there again and
that was the idea I gave Mrs Omotayo
my neighbour. I
told her that I would be able to take care
of her
children; take them to school and bring
them back as
long as I would also be schooling
together with them.
Mrs Omotayo approached my stepmother
and told her
about it. She did not agree to it at first,
but after too
much badger from my neighbour, she
consented to it.
We are Able
Episode 32
Mrs Omotayo enrolled me and her children in a school for special people. She arranged a taxi to
be taking us to school and bringing us back everyday.
It was already second term but I had to begin with them like that.
Toyosi had also found something doing,
therefore she
wouldn’t be home every time, unlike
before.
I was enrolled in Jss 1 with Laide, the
lame daughter of
Mrs Omotayo, while Biodun was in JSS 2.
We all had our
different classrooms. Biodun was in the
class of the
blind where they had to use Braille for
reading.
Whenever we were back from school, we
would stay
within the compound and have fun. I
began to fall in
love with Biodun, not minding the fact
thay there was
no way we could communicate since he
had no eyes to
see my sign language and I also had no
ears to hear his
speeches. Love is blind indeed, I thought,
since the
love of my heart, Biodun, is blind. Having
true love is
not when you fall in love with people
with riches or
with people in perfect conditions, but
when you fall in
love with those who are not perfect,
overlooking their
imperfections.
Laide became our middleman. She would
relay anything
I wrote on paper for Biodun by speaking
directly to him
and Biodun would speak back to her,
then she would
write whatever Biodun said in a paper
and give it back
to me.
I also had my functions. I would lead
Biodun around,
holding his hands. Sometimes I would
put my left hand
around his neck to show affection but he
would recoil,
removing it for me. I would feel
embarrased.
Are we not old enough to play love? I
thought. I am
already thirteen and Biodun is fourteen,
so what else
are we waiting for before starting a
relationship? I
thought childishly.
I also helped Laide push her wheelchair
around the
house. She loved being pushed around
because it
always gave her the feeling that she was
walking.
However, we always came across one
confrontation
and that was Bode. Whenever Bode was
back from
school, then for sure trouble was around.
Though the
youngest, he would brag around us,
trying to show
false seniority.
Bode was just eight years, but his wicked
acts seemed
too much for his age. Bode would pinch
Laide on her
back and push Biodun out of his way.
They would shed
tears sometimes and curse him.
I couldn’t do anything to him because of
his mother.
Each time he was oppressing us, I would
clench my fist
as if to punch his face, but my muscles
would relax
again at the thought of what Toyosi
could do. Toyosi
could pull me out of school again,
despite the fact that
it wasn’t her but Mrs Omotayo that was
paying my
school fees.
My childish love for Biodun developed so
much. I had
already derived pleasure in leading him
around.
I had watched the television and had
learnt how to kiss
in it. I was going to practise that on the
love of my
heart, Biodun. But each time I wanted to
do it, my heart
would thump for fear.
I knew what to do; I would tell him that I
loved him and
I wished to be his wife in the nearest
future. I
wondered how Laide would feel.
That particular day, I entered the toilet to
pass excreta.
Laide and Biodun were in their parlour
because they
wanted to avoid Bode who was a thorn in
their flesh.
I had to rush everything I was doing so
that I could go
to them and have fun with them.
Perfunctorily, I
cleaned myself up and began to rush to
their room. I
met a mess–both Biodun and Laide had
fallen down. I
had to quickly help them up. It was an
accident; Biodun
fell while he was walking around in the
room. He fell on
Laide who was on wheelchair and both of
them fell to
the ground.
I couldn’t show Laide the loveletter
again. I was
disappointed. The loveletter was
supposed to be read
into Biodun’s ears, but since they were
not in a good
mood, I couldn’t do that again.
Biodun and Laide began to speak to
themselves,
weeping profusely. I couldn’t hear them
but I perceived
they were depressed. It seemed they were
very bitter
against someone, perhaps against God
for not
preventing them from the evil which
befell them when
they were still babies.
I made a signal to Laide that she should
tell me what
happened. She understood my hand
movement so she
requested a pen. I got it for her. If
Laide’s left hand was
also paralysed like the right one, there
wouldn’t have
been a way the three of us could
communicate. I
thought that was something to thank God
about; he
would always leave a space of thanks in
everything.
Laide was left-handed so she had no
problem writing.
She passed the note to me when she was
done. I
began to read:
Rose, this life is too hard on us the
disabled people.
Why are we not able to do what able
people do?
Imagine, if danger arises how do we run?
I have no
legs, he has no eyes and you have no
ears. Why? We
are tired of living, Rose. Yet Bode would
keep
complicating issues for us by beating us
up and kicking
us. I and my brother wish him nothing
but death. Bode
would not stop at that; he would also
call us names and
make us go mad…
I felt their heartrending pain. I wept with
them and
began to write something. Laide would
read it in
Biodun’s ears.
My write-up was geared towards making
them know
that if they put their minds on
something, they would do
it better than the able people. At that
juncture, I
remembered my class-teacher and my
mother who
kept telling me that I was able, but I kept
telling them I
was not back then.
Now, I needed no one to tell me that I am
able, having
lived without my parents and guardian
for over ten
months. I had even checked Mrs Oyin in
her home
some weeks back but I met another
family there. I got
a note and asked them where she was.
They told me
she sold the house to them.
I left with the understanding that she had
travelled to
London to join her family there.
Laide read my write-up and began to
frolick on her
wheelchair as she read it in the ears of
her elder
brother, Biodun. The boy was also happy,
laughing with
all his strength.
My Write-up
Oh how I missed my teacher, Mrs
Oyindamola. She is a
honeycomb with sweetness. She is an
eagle with
foresight. She is an elephant with
intelligence. She is a
Lion with courage. She is a horse with
strength. She is
my mentor and my monitor; my hope and
the reason
why I could cope. Last year, when I didn’t
stop calling
myself a deaf and dumb, she told me to
stop saying
that. She even told me that I could hear
and speak. She
told me that there are too things, either
everybody is
deaf and dumb or everybody can hear
and speak. I
disagreed and asked her to show me the
practicality of
her argument.
My clasteacher did something funny. She
invited a
normal person who could speak and hear
to our
classroom and told us to ask him
questions in our usual
sign language. We began to bombard
him with a lot of
questions but the man appeared dumb to
us because he
couldn’t respond a word. He couldn’t
understand us.
What is your name? Where do you live?
What are you
here to do? Would you like to eat
something? Do you
have kids? So and so went our questions
but he pulled
up a confused face, then we began to
laugh him to
scorn, pushing at ourselves as we used
him to catch
fun.
He is dumb! He is dumb! we signed to
each other that
day until the man hurried away from our
presence. My
classteacher then told us that being deaf
and dumb
doesn’t contain in the lack of using the
mouth to speak
alone. So far we could use other means
to
communicate, then we are not deaf and
dumb.
So, Laide you are not lame because you
could move
with your wheelchair and Biodun is not
blind because he
could use his foresight and his inner
eyes.
WE ARE ABLE!
We are Able
Episode 33
I punched something at the back of
the special paper Biodun gave me earlier. I had to do that so that
Biodun wouldn’t have to wait till eternity for my reply:
If I don’t love you, Biodun, who else should I love? Infact, I will love you till death…
Since that day I was despised by that teenager, I had made my mind strong again, settling for the thought of rejuvenating my relationship with Biodun. A bird at hand is worth two in the bush, I thought.
Taiba was our middleman. She would take my note to Biodun and bring his reply back to me on daily basis. As a matter of fact, it was only one conversation we were able to do per day through the note because of his school and my own hawking business. I often returned from the streets around 7pm daily and Toyosi would have returned from wherever she had been by then, so there wouldn’t be any opportunity to see Biodun.
Taiba brought a note as a reply to the one I sent to Biodun. I read it:
Now I am happy again, my dear Rose. I thought you want to leave me alone. Perhaps you have seen another boy in the streets. How is your hawking faring?
I replied him:
Nothing shall separate us, Biodun. Till death do us part we shall be together, if not in body, then in soul. The hawking business is not going well at all. I don’t sell well and my mistress and her husband beat me up for this everyday.
How dare she? And why don’t you sell well? My Rose, you are able as you always sing, but why are you not able to sell well?
At this juncture, I halted. His question was beyond the blue. It was such a great challenge. Our conversation had spanned almost one week already. We only get to do one conversation daily.
In my next
reply, I made Biodun know the reason why I was not able to sell well. If
only I had voice, then I would do well. If only everyone in the world
could learn the sign language, then the communication gap between the
deaf and dumb and the normal people would be bridged, I thought. Yes!
Eureka! If I could only become the Minister of Education, I would
incorporate sign language in the school curriculum of the normal people
and the solution would come.
Biodun replied me:
My Rose, I will help you out. We are able! We are able! We shall sell well together. We shall not only sell all the eggs in the tray but we shall also return home to get more. By tomorrow we shall do it together.
Taiba gave me this one around 7pm when I was returning from my hawking
business. I was surprised at the content. The next day would be
Thursday, so I don’t seem to see the reason why Biodun was saying that
we shall do it together because he had to be in school by then.
I began to compose a poem:
BLIND AND DEAF BUSINESS
Wonders shall never end in the land of the living
Where the blind dates the deaf and do all things they believe in
The blind on bicycle without anyone to be leading
The deaf in her earphones tell me what she has for hearing
Can the blind lead the blind?
Can the deaf hear the deaf?
Oh, so impossible! But a solution is here
The blind can be the voice of the dumb
And the deaf can be the sight of the blind
They complement each other
Like a lover and his partner
Or like brothers and sisters
And much like partners in business
I couldn’t sleep in my little confinement. The garden forks and the
rakes in there had taken much of the space in the store room; John just
bought them new the day before. They were so huge that they took up
almost all the space on the floor of the store room where I hibernated.
I could remember asking Toyosi where next to sleep the day before.
“Are you insane?” Toyosi asked me harshly. “Still in the store room of course!”
“But father had just stucked it up with new tools,” I signed back.
“That’s none of my business,” she said. “Go right there and sleep!” she pointed towards the store room.
That night I had to push the standing tools aside: the go to hells, the rakes, cutlasses, hoes, watering cans and so on. Some of them were leaning against the wall. They fell suddenly on the floor. I was tired already, having trekked the whole streets, hawking. I just had to lay my back on them that way, feeling much pain on my back. That was the only day I had nightmare despite the fact that I did my normal little prayer before sleeping.
My eyes flashed open. It was morning already. I yawned. It was time for me to do my hasty bath in preparation for hawking.
My former room was where Toyosi put the crates of eggs. She had them so many there, but I go with two crates everyday. Toyosi had even threatened to add one more crate to my daily sales and I was scared. Even the two crates I couldn’t sell up to half let alone adding another to it.
I sighed when I remembered Biodun’s promise to me. I waited outside the house and Taiba rushed to me. She made a sign to me that I should wait a little bit, then she returned to their apartment. My legs shook as I waited. Toyosi mustn’t step outside the house to discover that I was still standing there.
It was five minutes and I was still within the compound. Toyosi would be mad at me; I had to leave right now. Just then, I saw Biodun being led out of their apartment by Taiba their housemaid.
So, Biodun kept to his word,
I thought. Okay, what is his intention? Is he going to hawk with me?
That would be somehow ridiculous.
Taiba led him to me. Biodun smelled me and was happy. He was ready to go out with me; hurriedly, we took our leave.
Now I knew communication between us would be impossible while on the streets, so we stopped at a walkway on the busy road and punched all necessary communication into the papers Biodun brought with him:
Biodun, how did you do it? You skipped school for Christ sake!”
Not for Christ sake, Rose. I skipped it for the sake of the love I have for you and I will do this for you for the next one week.
Ha! Biodun, why? What about your mother? Won’t she be upset that you are hanging out with me playing truancy?
That is if you tell her yourself, Rose. I mean how would she know that I am hanging out with you? I have told the taxi driver and Laide that they should not tell mummy that I would be skipping school for a week. Taiba will be enjoying my pocket monies, so who will tell her? You?”
“Biodun, you are a small devil. Ha! Ha! Ha!”
We burst into laughter together. Biodun pulled me to himself and gave me a tight hug. We were close to kissing each other when his walking stick leaning on the wall suddenly tilted and knocked our heads, calling us to caution.
When I looked round, people had made us a tourist attraction. All eyes were on us, leaving us in the middle of a large crowd.
I wrote something to Biodun:
Biodun, do you see what I see?
Maybe not, but I can smell people around us. Are we in the middle of a crowd?
Yes!”
Biodun laughed. Then to my amazement, he began to say something I
didn’t hear. Going by the muscular movement I saw on his neck, I could
easily conjecture that he was shouting. As he told me later, he was
shouting, “I am blind, she is deaf and dumb, but we have to sell all our
eggs! Come and buy your eggs, one for #15, three for #40! Buy your
fresh eggs! Buy your fresh eggs! I am blind! She is deaf and dumb, we
need to sell our eggs! Buy your fresh eggs!”
In a flash, all our eggs had been bought.
*******TO BE CONTINUED*******
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