The Girl with the Louding Voice(47)

“Yours is one of the worst I have seen,” Kofi say. “She beats you every time she sets eyes on you. Did you annoy her in any way?”

I think back. “No. I didn’t do anything.”

“In that case, I will suggest you find a way to go back to your village,” he say with a sigh. “Adunni, let me tell you something about me. Five years ago, I seriously considered returning to Ghana after I lost my job as the personal chef to the Ghanaian ambassador to Nigeria. It was a highly distinguished job, Adunni, very important. I lived in the Federal Capital Territory; in a wonderful two-bed house in Abuja, unlike the nonsense we have here. I served world leaders. I lived well. But I lost that job when a new ambassador was appointed, a godforsaken idiot who said my cooking was not to his taste.” He shake his head as if the remembering of it is causing him pain in the head. “I decided to stay back and find another job. I mean, I had studied accounting in university and upset my whole family when I decided to follow my passion and become a chef. How could I go back to Ghana in shame? Especially when I still hadn’t completed my building project? After everyone back home thought I had an important job with the ambassador? Me, I am only working here because I need to finish my house back home. But you have nothing keeping you here. Nothing. Go back to your village. Go home.”

“But how will I go back?” I ask. “Mr. Kola is missing, and I don’t know my way back to Ikati. Even if I am knowing the way, to go back is didn’t possible because . . .” I clamp my mouth. “Going back is didn’t possible.”

Kofi look me, face down. “In that case, stop complaining,” he say. “Do your work. That’s what I did, what I do every day.”

“The beating is too much.” My eyes are feeling hot with tears. “My mama didn’t ever beat me like this, not even my papa.” Or Labake. Or anybody.

“Try staying out of her way,” Kofi say. “When she is in the house, get busy outside. When she is outside, run inside and find work to do there. If she doesn’t call you, don’t show your face. Adunni, you know you talk too much. Must you have an answer for every question? Learn to shut up. And for goodness’ sake, stop singing all the time.”

And so, for the next two nights after my talk with Kofi, I stay in my bed thinking of correct plans, until finally, one sharp, good ideas for hiding from Big Madam is entering my head.



* * *





This morning, I was wiping the window outside the kitchen when I hear Big Madam’s car driving inside. Quick, I pick up my cleaning cloth, pass the side of the house, enter the library, and shut the door on myself.

I draw a long breath, start to wipe the bookcase. I bring each of the books out one by one, open it, and wipe it. As I am wiping it, I am trying to be reading the writings in the book. I cannot be doing loud reading because of Big Madam, but I am talking inside of my breath.

Many of the books is having big English, so I am only reading the first ten words or so before dropping it until I am picking up the Collins. Is a small but fat book like my mama’s Bible with wide letters in yellow and blue color on the page. I open it and see that it is having words and the meaning of the words next to it. I begin to turn the page. The book is putting words letter by letter, like ABC alphabet. Since I am knowing the alphabet, I begin to look for words. First, I am turning to letter I to check the meaning of “innocent” because the way Big Daddy was laughing that day is making me think the word is having another meaning than just a name. The Collins write this about “innocent”:

innocent

adjective: A person not guilty of a crime or offense.

noun: A pure, guileless or na?ve person.

Why is Big Daddy asking if I am pure? And how I can be pure after how Morufu was making me so dirty in the spirit and body when he drink his Fire-Cracker? The whole thinking back to that time is making me want to vomit, so I close the Collins and pick up The Book of Nigeria Facts.

Why it have such a long name, this book? Is a tall one too, be like three books gum together, the cover with the picture of a ball, shining and bright, and the map of the Nigeria inside the ball, the green, white, and green color of the Nigerian flag inside the map.

I put it down, check what “fact” is meaning in the Collins:

fact

noun: A thing that is known or proved to be true.

Is this book having the true answer to the every question I am having? I open the first page of it, peep it. It is full of dust, give me a tickle in my throat, make me cough two times. It seem so full of wise, this book. Many pictures, many things making explanations for many things about the Nigeria and the whole wide world of it. It have dates of when things happen in the Nigeria from before in the past till this 2014:

Fact: October 1st, 1960: Nigeria’s Independence Day. Nigeria gained independence from Britain.

What is this the Britain? Is it a fighting enemy? I know “independent” is meaning when you are free. Where they take our free? And how we collect it back from them? I sit down on the floor, keep my eyes on the book:

Fact: Lagos is Nigeria’s most populated city. A major commercial hub for the world, the city is blessed with many beaches, and an active nightlife, and is home to one of the largest concentrations of millionaires in Africa.

So this is why all the rich peoples are living in this Lagos. I swallow spit, pull the book more close to me. I have plenty work to be doing, but this book be like two big hands, full of love, drawing me close, keeping me warm and feeding me food.