The Dreams Of My Mother – Episode 18

Episode 18

Bella: “Oko mi, I just got off the phone with Tania, she is asking for Dayo to come and stay with them a few days or a week. I pity her, she is such a lonely woman” Gberan: “I wanted to spend time with Dayo oh” he grimaced.

Bella: “Gberan, you make me laugh oh. You want to spend time with Dayo, what about your son, Ken, who is going to spend time with him” she thundered. Gberan: “It is not my fault that Ken refuses to do the things that boys his age love. Perhaps he could spend time with you learning makeup and scheming” he flung at his wife.

Dayo watched the ensuing quarrel and knew that he had to do something about it, also, perhaps his mummy Bella was right, his daddy Gberan needed to spend time with his real son, Ken.

Dayo: “Father, I will like to go to aunt Tania’s house, I would like to keep her company for a week, while you teach Ken the piano, he has always wanted to

learn, I see the way he looks at it in church” he said. If only he had known that this one decision would change his life forever, he would not have decided to be the bigger person, he would have stayed where Gberan could protect him.

Gberan: “You such a gem, I love you for this. Alright I will call Damilola to come pick you up, if you get tired at any point, just tell Damilola you want to speak to your father” he said, with a smile beaming on his face. He was so proud to be known as Dayo’s father. He wondered why his real father didn’t accept the pregnancy, if only he knew that the pregnancy resulted into an amazing child, like Dayo.

Bella: “You are not his father, he is actually going to his father” she muttered under her breath, her husband only heard the first part and didn’t hear the second part.

Gberan: “Son, go to your room and pack a bag” he said and dismissed Dayo, when he had gone, he faced his wife, “I really don’t know what your problem is, it is high time I called your mother”

Bella: “I am not the problem Gberan, you are. Our Ken is feeling like his father doesn’t love him, whereas you shower all your love on a boy whose father rejected him” she sneered through clenched teeth.

Gberan didn’t say anything, he only became thoughtful. He realized that he had become too besotted with Dayo, and had neglected his son in the process. He also realized that Dayo knew this too, that was the reason he agreed to go to Damilola’s place, and had even suggested what he should do with Ken. Dayo was so easy to love, while Ken was a hard nut to crack.

Gberan: “I am sorry” he said and that threw Bella off balance, she had expected a rebuttal, that was what they did these days, but Gberan had said ‘sorry’ Bella: “For what?” she asked

Gberan: “For neglecting our son, I will do something about it” he said.

The doorbell rang and Bella went to usher in Tania and her husband, Damilola. Bella looked at her friend with a puzzled expression. She wondered what went on in the woman’s head, and how she reached the decision to bring her husband’s child into her house.

Tania: “Dayo darling, are you excited in living with us?” she asked with the brightest smile that flaunted her small, pearly teeth.

Dayo: “Yes I am, you are good people” he replied with a smile of his own. Damilola: “Let’s go Dayo” he said and held his hand, it never occurred to him that he was holding the hand of the boy he had rejected many years ago.

Ken: “Mother, Dayo didn’t pack all his things, is he going to come back?” he whispered to his mother.

Bella: “Not if I am right” she replied watching Tania. She was a good judge of persons, and she had watched Tania closely and seen that beneath all that smiles and laughter, there was seething anger and pain as she looked at Dayo.

Bella had caught Tania giving Dayo the stink eye, and there she had known that she need not do anything, Tania was going to take care of the ‘Dayo’ problem for them. She wondered what she would do, would she poison him, or take him to an orphanage far away, where he would never cross Damilola’s path.

“Vicious woman, you are worse than me Tania” she thought as she smiled and waved to the couple as they led Dayo to their car.

“So you are smart Dayo, how come you don’t know, that you are being led to the slaughter?” Bella thought as the car drove out of their house.

The Dreams Of My Mother