The Dreams Of My Mother – Episode 20

Episode 20

Dayo: “Sure, but I miss my home, I miss daddy Gberan and mummy Bella and even Ken” he replied in his normal chirpy tone.

Damilola: ‘But why do you call your parents that way, especially your dad?” he asked curiously, he wondered if perhaps the boy was not told that Gberan was his father.

Dayo: “Actually, I already called them mummy and daddy but soon found out they were not my biological parents, so I added their names. Actually, my mother is…” he could not finish as he was interrupted by the buzzing of Damilola’s phone. He received the call and spoke hurriedly into the phone.

Damilola: “Dayo, there is an emergency in the hospital, when I come back, we will talk huh” he removed the pot from the fire and hurried into his bedroom which he shared with his wife.

Damilola: “Honey, I am so sorry I cannot make you breakfast as I used to, I have an emergency in the hospital. Make sure you have fun with the kid, there is 30k in my suit pocket, take that as pocket money” he said as he hurried into his clothes. Tania joyfully went to the kitchen and continued the cooking that Damilola left off. It was the delicious ekpang nkwukwo, he learnt how to cook it from his roommate in the University, who was from Akwaibom. After they were done eating, Tania dressed up and they went out. Dayo however noticed that she was jittery and he wondered why. He also felt a sense of foreboding but his little mind could not put a finger on it.

Tania took him to the Ikoyi amusement park, also to water park and other fun sites around Lagos, by evening they ended up at one high end restaurant where she got Dayo food and ice cream. While he ate, she kept asking him if he needed something else.

Dayo: “Aunt Tania, you have done so much for me that I don’t need to ask for anything again” he said in his usual smartass way.

Tania: “No my darling, you can ask for anything you want, like that chocolate sundae, don’t you want that?” she pointed towards a glass display of cakes and sundaes.

“Eat anything you want, this is like last supper” She eyed him.

On their way back home, while they were on Falomo Bridge, Tania turned to eye Dayo, but the latter turned and caught the angry look in her eyes. He wondered what he had done to warrant the sudden change, but immediately Tania smiled again. The eleven years old was confused, but he didn’t have time to ponder the issue, as Tania suddenly swerved and hit the side of the car where Dayo was seated, on the railing of the bridge. The impact of the collision was so great that the side of the car squeezed into itself, and it threw the occupants of the car against the windscreen. Tania hit her head on the steering wheel and fainted. Dayo was thrown against the windscreen, and it broke, piercing into his head and body.

Bella had gone to the house of Tania and Damilola, she didn’t know what she was going to do but she had every intent to take control of the situation. However the gate man told her that there was no one in the house.

Bella: “Stupid b—h, you cannot do something as simple as get rid of a little boy, I should have done it myself. Tomorrow, Dayo will be back to the house to terrorize my son and me” she muttered to herself. The gate man asked her if she was alright, she just flipped him off and entered into her car.

Damilola having called his wife earlier and known they were not coming home anytime soon, decided to stop over at Gberan’s house. He had been thinking a lot about what Dayo said and he wanted to be sure that it was true. If it was true, he had decided to adopt Dayo.

Gberan: “Wow Damilola, you are a sight for sore eyes, always looking dapper. I cannot count the number of girls you destroyed in your youth” he said jokingly, but it was spot on. A cloud came over Damilola’s face, but he quickly recovered with a smile.

Damilola: “Ore mi atata, you always have sweet tongue. Anyways I came because of Dayo, he told me he is not your child” he said. Gberan heaved a heavy sigh and began to tell him the story of Dayo, but before he could say the name of Dayo’s mother, Damilola’s phone rang, stopping him from finding out yet again, that Dayo was the son Khadijat was pregnant with. He received the call and was told to come to the hospital that his wife had been in an accident.

Damilola: “Accident ke, where, how? I am coming right away” he said it into the phone and bade goodbye to Gberan hurriedly. The Dreams Of My Mother