The Dreams Of My Mother – Episode 29

Episode 29

Tania stayed more than the time on the credit card because Skyby took care of her remaining expenses. Even her husband called and asked why she was extending her stay, she gave him one flimsy excuse or the other., until he stopped asking. However, Skyby told her that he wanted to go back to the city as a job was waiting for him. It was then that Tania decided it was time to return to her husband. It was also then she realized that Skyby was not the kind of guy a woman married, Damilola was. No matter how much she felt he had betrayed her, he was still stable. Skyby was only good for the sheets, or so she thought.

Tania: “I will visit Calabar from time to time” she said as she packed her things into her two suitcases.

Skyby: “Sure, I am going to miss you, Ima mi” he said and smacked her butt.

When she got back to Lagos, Bella called on her. Her heart skipped a beat when she saw Bella. Bella was a thorn in her flesh and she was beginning to think that perhaps she should take care of Bella. She decided she would talk to Skyby about it, didn’t he say he was there for her?

Bella: “Why do you look like you have seen a ghost?” she asked walking majestically into the house, she could smell fear all over her. What was Tania hiding, she wondered.

Tania: “What do you want?” she asked.

Bella: “I didn’t know I needed a reason to come and see my friend. I heard you and Damilola are trying for a child again? Well, I don’t know if he would be interested now that he knows Dayo is his son” she said flicking off invisible dirt from her fingernails.

Tania: “What did you say?” she asked suddenly alert.

Bella: “While you were holidaying outside Lagos, your husband was intensifying efforts to find Dayo because he just found out that he is his son” she replied, still acting nonchalant.

Tania: “Bella, what do you mean he just found out, didn’t you tell me he knew?” she asked, as her heart began to beat faster.

Bella: “A little over sight, I thought he knew” she quipped, still not concerned. Tania: “Bella, you lied to me that my husband made a deal with your husband to keep Dayo with you guys, and now you are telling me you thought he knew. Did you use me to get rid of Dayo?” she asked inching closer to Bella menacingly, but the latter was the least bit afraid.

Bella: “And did you try to get rid of him, is that the reason he ran?” she fired back into Tania’s face. Tania backed down and asked Bella to leave her house and never return. When Bella was gone, she broke down and began to cry.

Tania: “I allowed her manipulate me, I allowed her use me. Damilola never betrayed me. He was the loyal husband he has always been. Oh my God, I have done so many evils because I thought he betrayed me” she cried.

Dayo, walked through the village all night, when he was tired, he would slump on the floor, but when he remembered his mother’s voice in the dream, he would get up. When the first light of dawn broke through the trees, Dayo spied a river, he hurried there and bathed in it. After the river, he continued his journey and saw a mud house, outside was a line on which clothes hung. He took a trouser and shirt and wore it. He felt clean and fresh, but he also felt the first pangs of hunger since he absconded from the hospital. He saw a rickety signpost that read ‘Epetumodo’. He didn’t know where that was, but he followed the road until he saw a church, it

was a catholic church. In front of the church was a long bus, and people were boarding the bus, Dayo did not ask questions, he lined up too and got into the bus. Inside the bus, he smiled at everyone, and nodded his head at every question. But after listening to the conversation of some of the people who conversed in English, he found out that they were going on a church retreat in Oshogbo. His joy knew no bounds as he thought of going to look for his Madam Lagos. He planned a way he was going to look for Madam Lagos, and it was asking from person to person. The bus journeyed for hours and finally got to Oshogbo. It was night by the time the bus reached Oshogbo, and Dayo decided to sleep in the church building where the others would sleep. In the morning, he would go look for his grandma, madam Lagos.