CHAPTER TWENTY
Away from Home
I soon settled down in my master’s house. For brief periods in those times, I suffered bouts of homesickness. My master grew a liking for me and I did all I was required to do. He called me his son and, sometimes, his brother. I felt so secure in his hands that I gave my trust to him. He was a very rich and generous man and he promised that if I behave well, he would make me laugh last. But no day passed without me remembering my poor Mother and home. They were dear to me. I worried that she could be battling with hard times. When I was at home I grew my own yams and built an average-sized barn, which though Mother now had to take care of, yet was not enough to take care of her needs and that of my growing siblings.
After few years, I was settled enough to start on my own. Even though my master and his wife liked me and did everything to make me happy, sometimes I played naughty and was left to go free. It is good to have an understanding person as master. Yet my mind had not been at rest for some days now as I thought of the possibility of starting my own business. For all the years, I could not see Mother and my younger ones. I could not visit home because I was not allowed to. I felt selfish but there was nothing I could do, as I had to wait for instructions from my master to do anything. He had full authority over me now than anyone else. However, I hoped one day to make up for these lost years I had lived outside home. I had grown hair on my broad chest and face. My shape had changed tremendously and I had become a handsome young man. It was now that I could say that I had really grown. Those years I was with Mother were years I was still growing. How one possessed these overnight sometimes marveled me that it got to the time it could no longer be hidden.
Sometimes, I feared greatly that with the suffering and patience she had invested in father and us, Mother would not live much longer to reap the reward of the work,. One night, I had a bad dream about Mother. It was a very bad dream. The dream lasted all night and left me weak the next day. It was the day Mother died. As yet, I could not give any interpretation to it. It was only a dream.
I saw her being laid in her grave but she refused to be covered with the red earth. She talked and pleaded that they should not cover her till she sees me. For days, the pleading continued and people got fed up and did not give her a full funeral rite. My younger ones cycled round her grave all day and night keeping watch over her in tears and tattered dress. Mother could not be buried properly, until maggots started eating her from the feet down to her shoulder, yet she would not die properly.
I made real efforts to see her alive when I was told she was sick but my master and the road served as an obstacle. When I finally arrived home, my brothers who had become weak from pain and hunger ran to me and told me that Mother desperately needed to see me before she would allow herself to be buried. It was difficult for me to reconcile how a person who had long died could refuse to be buried until she sees me. I looked into the grave and saw Mother in a pool of maggot. I despised and hated life that day. I wanted the earth to open its mouth and swallow me. ‘What did I work so hard for if Mother would not live to partake of my rewards?’ I asked. As soon as Mother saw me she smiled and called me, ‘Ikem’. She asked me to come closer and when I did, she closed her eyes and died with the wry smile still on her face.
I woke up sweating profusely. I feared greatly that the following day my master told me that I was needed at home. Such a sorrowful dream must have been the result of dwelling so much on the previous day’s event. Mother was still alive but very sick.
What condition was she exactly? How was home after many years I left them? What must have happened and changed? Would I be able to make up for the gaps I created?
So many questions in my mind.