Rejected At Birth
Episode Five
She walked really fast to a certain road.
I started crying because I felt like the end was near.
My sister joined in and she used her hands to wipe away our tears.
She was crying too. She said, “I know you both are very young and won’t understand, but I wish I could adopt you.
My salary isn’t enough for me to feed myself, let alone both of you.
Like you, I lost my parents and have been surviving on my own.
I don’t even know where to take you now.”
She led us to a house through the backyard. It looked abandoned, as nobody was around.
The house seemed really old and falling apart.
She said, “An old woman lives here with no children. I’ll leave you in her farm.
She always goes to the farm, so hopefully she’ll find you and take care of you.”
She checked to make sure nobody was watching before leaving us in the old woman’s farm.
I accepted our fate, knowing that if nobody came to pick us up, dōgs would be there to harm us.
We both lay quietly, behaving our best.
Over an hour passed, and nobody used the bush path for their daily walk.
The old woman didn’t come to the farm like the nurse said.
I remember everything from that day like it was yesterday, but it’s strange that my sister didn’t remember a thing about her childhood .
Finally, someone found us. It was an elderly woman with an intimidāting face
She seemed like someone who would cause trouble and blame others.
She was the first person I saw on the path. I didn’t want her to adopt us at first.
She walked past us at first. Then, when she noticed us and came back, I tried to cry so she wouldn’t leave us again.
I didn’t know what I wanted, I just wished we could be taken away from the ground because ants started crawling towards us and one of them stung me.
It was so painful that I cried.
She saw us and wiped her eyes to make sure she was seeing correctly.
“Are these children?” she asked herself. “What kind of mother would abandon children like this in the bush?”
Her question touched me and reminded me of my own mother.
She wasn’t ready to let us go, but dēath had other plans for her.
There was an ant coming towards me, so I asked God to make it carry us away so it wouldn’t bite me again.
But she was busy thinking about what to do with us and didn’t pick us up.
She finally picked up my sister first, who was already soaked in tears.
She wiped her tears and tightened her wrapper.
I thought she was the woman we were expecting to take us home.
She took a different path and arrived at a mud house supported by sticks, as if it could fall at any moment.
She was welcomed by children and a young woman who called her mom.
When the children saw her carrying something, they probably thought she brought something home for them.
So they ran and pushed each other to get to her.
When they arrived, they saw her holding babies.
The older one took my sister from her and exclaimed, “Baby, Grandma, where did you buy these babies from?”
The other children rushed over and touched my sister all over, as if she was a new toy.
They played with her, pūlling her legs and making her yawn.
Grandma told them to be gentle and reminded them that she’s just a baby.
All I could think about was eating, I was so hungry.
Grandma carried me inside the house, while the children carried my sister.
When she entered, her daughter greeted her. There were eight children in total.
The daughter didn’t say anything until we were brought inside and laid down on the bed.
Then grandma said, “Kate, you won’t believe where I found these children.
I can’t understand how mothers these days can abandon their children in the bush without thinking about what will happen to them.”
The daughter looked at us and suggested, “Mama, maybe it’s not her fault.
Maybe the father got her prėgnant and left without any money to take care of the children.”
Grandma disagreed with her and they argued for a few minutes before Grandma asked if there was milk to feed us.
The daughter said she would check and went inside. She came back with milk and her awake daughter.
She poured the milk into a cup and gave her daughter to the oldest child.
Then she started feeding us one by one.
I choked, but no one noticed.They noticed that I was closing my eyes slowly.
Then Grandma said, “Pat him gently on the back.”
The daughter followed her command, and I felt better. My sister fell asleep before finishing her meal.
Then her daughter suddenly noticed something and asked, “Mama, where did you pick these children from?
I’ve noticed that since you brought them here, they haven’t cried.”
They both screamed in unison, “The children are dūmb”.
Their scream scāred me so much that I wet my clothes.
Thessycute Ekene
