sticks which the previous year’s rain had destroyed. She was at the top, in the area of the inner room, which was the right place to start the work, while I supplied her from outside with fresh thatch, rope and bamboo wood. She worked slowly and almost perfectly. However, it was not as perfect as a man’s work would have been. It was not well arranged as it should be and the reason was obvious- it was no woman’s work. But, at least, she succeeded in avoiding the young men whose motives were impure.
While the work lasted, she had series of distractions. The children cried and quarreled and Mma wanted her to come down and breastfeed her. The young girl was the only child to have had the high privilege of sucking Mothers’ breast for nearly two years. If only our father were alive, Mothers’ belly would have gone up again and someone else would have taken Mma’s position.
Mother climbed down and carried Mma who fumbled her right breast innocently, throwing her legs high in the air and laughing at us for not having the privilege which she was enjoying. Mma! She was our flower, our beautiful sister and the family’s only daughter who someday would make us proud by presenting to us, her husband, a man we would look and approve to be our in-law, a man who would accept to marry Mma on our full consent. Mother complained that she bites her, so I tried to stop her from sucking the breast. It irritated me so much that my Mother often beats me for it. I was, indeed, very angry.
Soon, the thatching came to an end before the sun went down that day and we were happy. We were so tired that we were unable to do other household chores. In spite of our state we needed to bath. Our body tasted salty as a result of sweat. The sun had beaten us all day. We were down with stress. My Mother bathed my younger ones, after which she robbed and dabbed them dry with black palm kernel oil, pleading with me to gather the old thatch for burning, so as to prevent the rain from falling on it. I happily did so.
Night gradually came and blackened the earth. We ate the little remains from our breakfast, which Mother gladly shared among us. She was so tired that she could not eat and soon fell asleep, carrying Mma on her laps. We cuddled around her and slept too.
I woke up to see the next morning beautiful.
CHAPTER EIGHT
The Pains of Motherhood
In time, Mother decided to reduce the number of lands we did our own planting since father was no more. It would make her concentrate on few ones and enable her meet the task of weeding and staking our yams. Before now she had been contented with merely planting okra, vegetable and cocoyam. These were the main crops on which women concentrated.
That morning, she quickly fed us, tied Mma to her back and said; “Get the machete and the basket fast, let’s move from here.”
I led the way with Uzor and Obi who were too young to walk fast. Mother followed behind and walked slowly as we set out to the farm path. The first people that passed through the path had cleared the leaves. Somehow, we were in a better position and happy.
The path to the farm was clear and could be followed with little difficulty. Soon we got to the farm devoid of distractions. The crops were blooming; the leaves of our maize and yams had changed to deep green. The harvesting of the maize was a few days ahead, for the leaves were gradually changing to dying yellow; an indication that the maize was ripe.
I hated that season, but I did not show the sign visibly. The early morning dew that fell on the plant leaves and the ears of the maize scratched my whole body. I bore it all. I never wanted Mother to notice anything or see me as an ingrate who did not appreciate her efforts in providing for us. I had reasons to complain, for at that time of the day, the sun was not yet set in the sky.
“Mama the leaves will be wet and…”
“Then what?” Mother replied without hearing my last word. “Let’s work first and when its starts scratching, you can go outside and scratch yourself’.
I kept quiet and set to work. As we worked, the sun gradually coiled out, the ears of the maize caressed me and scratched me and I was naked to avoid them. Mother did the work with frenzied enthusiasm without minding our many distractions.
Soon it was midday, Mother brought out sliced cassava and palm kernel which were good combinations for all seasons of the year and gave us all to eat. We munched it happily and took water. We were satisfied and Mother was happy that we were.