IT IS PART OF THE GIFT
CHAPTER 5
and do a final battie over his going to school.
Peter: [Cross]. Not when i am around. I will ensure that I am there when you get him ready for school. I have told you that he has to be trained over certain things so that he does not get calcified in them as he grows up and it becomes very difficult to change them, but you believe that he will change on his own with time. Things don’t work that way. If you do not remove some things and inject the right things into them, they would grow into what you may not like in the end, when their minds would have become encrusted with the wrong habits.
Angela: [Objects] No, not my son. He will not grow into bad habits of any kind.
Peter: Amen. But it is still good to train a child. Guide it unto some good lane of life and it will grow up following it even when you are not around either temporarily or anymore.
Angela: I will always be around for him. I am not in a hurry to go anywhere either temporarily or permanently.
Peter: Neither am I. But I know that it is good to arm a child with the ability to face the future; to face this world and that empowerment can only come through some kind of training, although at the moment they may not like it. They may even think that you hate them but when they grow up they will remain ever
grateful.
Angela: I know but Koly is still too young .
Peter: [Maintains]. Too young for what? Do you know at what age my father started training us? When we were three months old! If my mother was breast feeding you and you bit her breast with your gum and the woman let out a shout, my father would flog you with his forefinger and tell you to stop hurting his .wife and advise you to wait until you married your own wife, if you were a boy or wait until you grow your own breasts if you were a girl.
Angela: [Laughs loud and long] Oh, he must have been a very pleasant man to meet. You have told me so many interesting things about him. I regret not meeting him. Why didn’t you meet me when he was alive?
Peter: Even if I met you then you must still be a very small girl; the type that would be running about in panties in the rain; the type they call dross. We used to wear a type of pants sawn by hand by our mothers in those days. They used any khaki material to saw them. They never balance properly at the hind parts and would always expose one part of the buttocks. But you were even proud because not all children had the privilege of having one. Well you wouldn’t know dross. Things had changed in your own time. You younger ones were luckier. Technologies had
improved so there were better things for children to wear.
Angela: What do you call me? You think I am one little girl; probably Sabena’s age. How much older are you than I?
Peter: How old were you fourteen years ago? Tell me had you started putting on clothes by then? Angela: [Scoops some water from the basin and runs after her husband] Go away from here!
Peter: [Laughs and skips away].
Sabena: [Bursts into laughter]. Mother and father are running. [Demonstrates] See how they are running.
Angela: [Laughing]. Why are you running? Come here and tell me that I am a small girl.
Sabena: [Laughs] Mother, you are small Mama. Big Mama is at Kelma. [Queries] Mother, when shall we go to Kelma to see Big Mama?
Angela: On Saturday. She sent a message that I should bring you. She said that someone told her that you were ill so she wants me to bring you. May be she wants a doctor to look at you at the hospital. She was very cross that we did not take you to her so that she could take you to a hospital.
Sabena: {Uneasy}. Are they going to give me an
injection there?
Angela: I don’t know, she said that she wanted a doctor to look at you.
Sabena: [Thoughtfully] Mother.
Angela Yes?
Sabena: We will go to Kelma another day; when we are on holidays.
Angela: Why? Because I told you that Big Mama wants a docto to look at you?
Sabena: [Worried] I will not go to Kelma anymore. Tell Big Mama that i am already well. Tell her that l have started going to school.
Angela: When will I tell her?
Sabena: When you go to Kelma. You will go alone. No, take Koly. i will go to Aunty Carol’s house. When you return come and take me.
Angela: so you will not go to Kelma anymore because I mentioned hospital. You know Big Mama, she will come here herself and carry you straight to the hospital if you refuse to go.
Sabena: [Begins to cry].
Angela: Don’t worry. I will not let her take you to the hospital. We will only go and see her. Is that okay? Sabena: [Wipes her tears and nods] Yes.
Angela: Let us go and dress you up. Your uniform is clean. It is almost time. You shouldn’t be late to
school today. This is your first day of resumption ‘after your illness.
Sabena: [Cheerfully] I will see Aunty Carol and my classmates.
Koly emerges from the house, a grimace on his face. He let’s out a dull cry to draw AngeIa’s attention. Angela: Koly. Daddy, are you awake? [Pointing to a corner] Sabena come and stand here, I am coming to dress you up.
Koly: [Ignores her question and care, crying and scratching his stomach and back with either hand]. Angela: [Carries him to the bathing spot] Come on daddy. What are you scratching? Is all this from the sweetness of sleep? [Reprimands Koly as he cries louded Come and have your bath! I knew we were always going to fight this morning before you have your bath, dirty boy!
Sabena: [Chuckles]. There is something itching him all over and only food can drive it away.
Angela: Who told you that?
Sabena: [Laughing] Father.
Angela: When did he tell you that?
Sabena: [Laughs] Ah, Mother! You are my lawyer! Angela: What is my lawyer?
Sabena: Yesterday when I asked you the names of my classmates that came to our house father called
To be continued
