The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives by Lola Shoneyin

Author:Lola Shoneyin [Shoneyin, Lola]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Nigeria
Published: 2008-12-31T23:00:00+00:00

14

Homeward

I knew it was Kole’s birthday when I woke up this morning but rather than congratulate mother and son, I slipped out of the house and headed to the diagnostic clinic to collect the results of my blood tests. On the way there, I bought Kole a remote-control car. Boxed and gift-wrapped, the toy was heavier than I thought it would be so I changed hands every time my wrist ached. I didn’t want to return to Baba Segi’s house yet. I was perturbed by the rathead episode and I felt an unmistakable homeward draw. I decided to go to my parents’ house.

If I wasn’t so embarrassed, I would have visited my friends, if only to apologize. I’d hidden in my bedroom when Baba Segi told them that their foolishness was not welcome in our home.

“Is it not obvious to you that Bolanle has decided to choose the more virtuous path in life? You should both take her example,” Baba Segi said. “What woman wants to be known as a harlot?” Yemisi gasped in disbelief. As she left, she stopped by the corridor mouth and shouted, “Let Bolanle know that people are like water. And the same waters that the streams divide meet again in the great ocean. Bolanle! You hear me?” I wept with shame.

I also wanted to go home because rumors had a way of growing feet. I reasoned that it was probably best that I tell my mother about the mysterious goings-on in my home with my own mouth. The last thing I wanted was for her to blame the decline in my morals on my father’s genes. I could practically hear her: “She has become a medicine man’s whore like your sister,” or, “She has developed a hunger for blood like your mother did, before God clutched her to His bosom to give me rest.”

I’d bumped into Segun’s guard in Dugbe market a few days before and he’d mentioned that my mother complained of an unbearable throbbing in her temples. I hadn’t been too bothered by this; Mama emptied sachets of Alabukun into her mouth so often when I was a child that Lara and I thought that was what all mothers did.

Anyway, today was a weekday so unless Mama was taking the day off work, I was certain I’d have to leave a get-well-soon note. That way, I could avoid the update on the progress my university friends were making in their high-flying jobs as bankers, businesswomen and lecturers, the life I should have had if I hadn’t married Baba Segi. Well, none of my friends had been horribly defiled so it didn’t bother me. Today, I didn’t think I could stomach any lectures. I wasn’t in the mood to have my failures dangled before my eyes; I was already ashamed of them, more so in the last few weeks.

I reasoned that Mama would be glad we wouldn’t have to speak to each other too. She never visited me at Baba Segi’s house, but every

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