My name is Jenewari...I am 17years old. I watched my father beat my mother till she lost her life. Put rightly, I saw my mother die in the arms of the man she bore 4 sons for. I am the eldest so I understand what was going on. My siblings were brainwashed into believing Momma fell ill and died. Of course, that is because that's what Papa told everyone including Momma's brothers. Thus, in a country where human life is meaningless, no one tried to find the truth or question Papa.
We live in a bungalow somewhere in Ewet Housing Estate in Uyo, Akwa-Ibom state. So no one heard Momma's cries. I even had to tell Jason that Mama was praying to calm his incessant questions.
"Momma prays too loudly Jenewari?" "And must she cry?" Jason said one of those days.
"It is important we pray loud Jace,that way God would answer faster...and he knows we are serious" I replied.
Daddy started drinking too hard and came home after midnight. He molested Chisom the cleaner and she ran away. He did the same to Modupe the laundry girl and Mercy the cook. It was Monica who made the neighbours blink when she demanded sixteen thousand naira from daddy in front of the gate when Musa threw her out.
Daddy ran out of means to vent his frustration and guilt and seeing as how being intoxicated is his gateway to come home he started with Jason one night. He beat Jason for screaming about a roach: Jacob for being girlie: Jesse for refusing to eat: and me for being his son and looking like Momma.
That night when he cane back...before our routine beating I thought of grabbing a knife...
"grab a knife and scare him away..." I thought
So...I grabbed a knife and walked into my room. Just then, Daddy came in...
"all of you...w...w...aaaaaake up!" He staggered in and kicked Jacob and Jesse-we now sleep on the floor so we can be close to each other.
"aaaaaarrrrrrggggghhhhh..." Jason screamed.
My heart grew big and I felt it would explode. I was upset. Tired. Angry and I wanted no more of this. So I used the knife to scare him away...
.
.
.
He laid there in a pool of his own blood.
I felt nothing
No remorse
Nothing!
I picked up his phone...and called Momma's brother to come get us. He came. He got us. We sat there quietly. And I held my siblings as a mother hen would protect her chicks from a kite. Protectively. Even when the police came. I didn't let go.
"Jenewari, why is their so much blood coming from daddy's stomach? Isn't he going to put his piss-piss in our bumbum this night?"
I didn't answer...
He pulled my arm and asked again... "Jenewari, let's go and get ready before daddy beats us."
Everyone was thunderstrucked and flabbergasted. Maybe because Jason is 6 and he just said the unimaginable.
I was later released.
They said I was a minor
And they called it self defense
The neighbours gossipped about it for days...
I was indifferent
I would have done it all over again
Nobody blamed me...they simply said, "he followed his heart."
#Do_not_follow_your_heart
#for_the_love_of_my_pen
#series