The Middle Daughter by Chika Unigwe

Author:Chika Unigwe [Unigwe, Chika]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781838857912
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Udodi, the Chorus

The man plants yam and knows yam will sprout. The man who plants the future, does he know what it will grow?

Nani

On Holy’s third birthday I said to Ephraim, ‘I’d like Holy to start kindergarten.’

At Holy’s age I was already learning to read. Even now I still remember my own kindergarten days. If I close my eyes and concentrate really hard, I can sort through the layers of memories and taste the sweetened milk Mrs Ezeokoli served her pupils at Joy of Faith nursery school. I wanted to go to school especially for the milk. And for the sandwiches smeared with a mixture of butter and brown sugar that it was paired with. I can still recite some of the rhymes I learned at school, even the silly one about Old Roger who got up from the grave to give an old woman a knock which made her go hippety-hop. I can even still do the hop of the old woman, one hand on my waist like I had been taught over twenty years ago. I wanted Holy to have such memories too. She would not be able to go a fancy school like Joy of Faith, she would probably not be served sweetened milk and sandwiches with the crusts cut off at the public kindergarten on Onyuike Street, but at least she would be out of the house. She would make friends, be a child. I imagined her walking out of the house every morning clutching my hand, a backpack on her back, and returning at the end of the day with excited tales of new friends and with songs and poems that she had learned at school. I imagined her bringing home arts and craft she had made at school, roses made of construction paper with straw stems, pencil holders from empty toilet paper rolls, nonsensical gifts with huge sentimental value. Holy would love school, I was sure she would.

I waited anxiously for Ephraim to speak and watched him eat, my own spoon held above the plate, the yam pottage scooped in it cooling down. Ephraim chewed on a piece of fish almost contemplatively. There was no way he would say no to this. Whatever else he was, Ephraim loved his children. I relaxed, threw myself fully into the daydream of Holy’s life somewhat replicating mine at her age.

Ephraim spat out a bone, dug out a handkerchief from his shirt pocket and in a slow, deliberate movement began to wipe his mouth. It was only after he replaced the handkerchief that he turned to me and asked, ‘This school, who will be taking her to it?’

‘You. Or myself when you can’t.’

‘Really?’ He drank some water and cleared his throat. ‘So you spend your days plotting for ways to meet with other men, eh?’

Before I could decide whether or not to respond, he said, ‘Let this be the last time I hear of this nonsense in this house. Holy will go to school when I say so.’ He picked out another piece of fish and plopped it into his mouth.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.