Tomorrow I Become a Woman by Aiwanose Odafen

Author:Aiwanose Odafen
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scribner UK
Published: 2022-04-28T00:00:00+00:00

21. Even the police look for convicts that escaped from prison

I caught a glimpse of my reflection as I passed by the full-length mirror in my bedroom in April of ’89, three days after that one night. Gozie was not back yet; he hadn’t returned home since, and I was doing everything to distract myself from thinking about his return.

That night, I’d opened my eyes to find myself surrounded by the walls of my bedroom, and by Nwakaego holding my hands and weeping silently. I had no idea how long I was out for. My head felt light and my tongue heavy, as if weighed down by pyramids of sand. ‘W-w-what happened?’ I asked. My voice sounded croaky and adenoidal to my ears, like it belonged to someone else.

‘Daddy, he beat you. All over ya body. Blo-blood ev-everywhere,’ she said, tears flowing down her face, her spoken English, refined by years of lessons, falling apart.

Nwakaego began shaking violently and I gently rubbed her arm to calm her down. ‘Everything will be fine. I promise,’ I said over and over. I would later learn that had she’d run out in the middle of the night to find a doctor after Gozie had left me in a pool of my own blood.

Gozie had come home later than usual that night and I’d stayed up to wait for him. At 3 a.m., I heard a bedroom door squeak open and turned to see Ego stagger out with sleep-bleared eyes.

‘Nwakaego. Is everything alright? Why aren’t you sleeping?’ I asked as I made space for her beside me on the sofa.

‘I don’t know. I just woke up and can’t sleep back,’ she mumbled, rubbing her fists over her eyes.

‘Did you have a bad dream?’ I asked wearily, putting my arm over her shoulders as she relaxed beside me.

She nodded as her eyes settled on the clock, and realising how late it was, she asked, ‘Daddy has not come back yet?’

‘No, not yet,’ I replied, taking care to keep my tone flippant, as though it were not something to be bothered about. ‘He’ll be ba—’

Gozie knocked on the door. ‘See, he’s here already. Please go in and try to sleep. We’ll talk more tomorrow,’ I said to her as I stood up to open the door.

He sauntered in with the slow gait of one who wasn’t drunk but wasn’t far from it.

‘Nnoo,’ I said as way of greeting. He grunted in response as he moved past me.

I thought about it for a second, then I opened my mouth to speak. ‘Gozie. Please, I need to talk to you,’ I started, and he stopped with his back to me. ‘I know it’s late, but I don’t want to do it in front of the children, and we need to talk.’

It had probably been foolish to try to have a conversation with him in that state. But I was at my wits’ end. He turned around slowly to face me. ‘What is it?’ he asked, his voice gruff and impatient.

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