The Solution Day

Aduke at 15 years old had gone through much more than an average child her age needed to face. This was because her parents were still bound by the chains of tradition, they were still living back in the day. Their beliefs in things of the old were still extraordinarily strong.

Her parents have made her into someone who never wants to look into the mirror, because of their beliefs, everyone in her class from as far back as she could remember always enjoyed picking fights with her. In all her years at school while in the village she always found comfort in her books, knowing that through that she would be able to set herself free one day in the future.

Aduke got up and looked out of the bedroom window she used to share with her maternal aunt before she married a year ago.

The skies did nothing to help her mood, it was dark and heavy with rain even the cock that crowed didn’t do it from its usual position on top of the fence.

“All things seem to share this gloomy feeling with me,” she thought, and turning back to look around the room, Aduke realized she was missing her Aunty Mope more than she was letting herself think.

Her aunty is also an example of someone who used education to free herself of the plans of the extended family, if she hadn't gained admission to go to the college of education in the city, aunty Mope would have been married off to Jungunu the chairman of the association of mechanics in the village as a second wife. The family felt that was an excellent choice for her especially because he was also the younger brother to the village head and because her aunty even if she was beautiful, such beauty had been reduced because of their family tradition.

However, as they were making their plans the clever aunty was making hers, and because it's her life, not theirs her own prevailed. Her admission came through and common sense prevailed, as well as a highly respected teacher in the next village came to ask for her hand in marriage. So now her aunty Mope is going to school from her husband's house.

Aduke was so happy at the turn of events for her aunty. This also gave her hope that despite the stand her family had taken her, she was able to get a good life and move away from the shameful and unfair stand that her family has refused to stop practicing.

Aduke knew that it was still quite early, but she quickly picked up a bucket so that she would have finished fetching water from the public tap before the place was filled to the brim. Aduke knew if she didn’t do that as soon as possible, there would be the possibility of ending up in a fight and she wasn’t ready for that.

As she made her way to the public tap, she smiled as she took a deep breath of the fresh and slightly chilly morning breeze. This always made her feel a lot better and it did until she remembered what was going to happen later in the day and her plans to make sure it didn’t. Aduke knew it was going to start raining soon but she wasn’t ready to take any chances, there had been so many situations where very heavy clouds just cleared after a while. She wasn’t ready to end up having to queue to fetch water and then risk having Ojo and his gang meet her when she is just halfway through filling the kitchen drum to the brim.

Ojo was two years younger than Aduke and he had always made her life a nightmare as far back as when they both started elementary school at the age of five while she was seven, Aduke hadn't started early because she was too scared and self-conscious. It was her aunty Mope who helped build her self-confidence. Anytime she watched how her aunty carried herself with pride it gave her confidence as well. However, aunty Mope has gone and not having anybody to tell her that it wasn’t that bad or that there is indeed nothing wrong with the way she looks has made that confidence start waning.

Aduke quickened her pace along the dusty path that leads to the public tap, she was carrying two buckets the common black 1-liter bucket and the bigger 5-gallon plastic open-head bucket. Just like her aunty taught her Aduke placed the bigger white bucket under the faucet and worked the tap handle up and down to create the pressure needed for the water to flow. Soon enough, the bucket was full she dragged it to the side, well out of the way, and covered it. Aduke then went through the same process to fill up the smaller bucket which she carried home. Aunty Mope taught her the technique so that if she should get back and there are some people already fetching water instead of waiting for them to finish, all she needed to do was to take from the bigger bucket. This always saved her time and had become her technique for fetching water. Aduke noticed that some other people also started doing the same.

It was a quiet morning, and just like Aduke had expected no rain fell. Just as she finished fetching water and was going home on the final trip was when Ojo and his younger brother were on their way to fetch water. As Aduke saw them coming, she steeled herself, knowing Ojo she knew he was going to pull an act. Ojo did as she expected, thank goodness all he did was make a cat sound and bend his fingers into a claw-like position as he passed her side.

Aduke ignored him and walked briskly home, she blinked away the near tears, sniffed, and cleared the kitchen before going to her room. She sat down on her bed, unsettled, and she went to check the time from the clock Aunty Mope had brought for them six months ago which was the last time she had visited.

As Aduke was leaving the front room she could hear her baby brother cooing, he was probably sucking or had just finished doing so. The contentment in his voice was obvious.

Once again Aduke moved briskly back to her room. It was just too difficult for her to understand especially when she remembered the conversation her mother had with a father a few days earlier. That conversation was what made Aduke realize that Iyaagbole (the female traditionalist who handles the family rites) was coming to their house to practice the family tradition on her beautiful brother. Her young blood boiled she didn’t believe that it was fair for such to be done to anybody without asking for permission. She laughed to herself; the sarcasm was on her.

It had been a little over a year that her aunty Mope had married however all she taught Aduke has remained with her especially about her reading any book she came across. Over the years the training had become a die-hard habit. As a junior secondary student, she was already reading science books meant for senior secondary schools. She didn’t have friends, well there was a time she tried, but they were always inquisitive, asking questions like why her family still practiced a tradition that so many others have stopped a long time ago. She didn’t have the answer to that question or too many others that reminded her of what had healed on the outside but was still very fresh and raw on the inside.

Aduke went into her school bag and brought out the dictionary her aunty had used and had handed down to her, she started removing the newspaper to show an almost new looking back cover. She discarded the former slightly dirty newspaper and used another newspaper that she had taken from the pile in their store to wrap not only the dictionary but each of her other books. Rewrapping her books is a monthly ritual of hers, another habit she had picked up from her Aunty Mope. She returned all the other books to her school bag but not the dictionary.

Aduke knew it was about 7 am when she heard her mother come out of the room with Timi, Aduke’s baby brother.

Her mother was in the kitchen when Aduke entered there, her mother had Timi strapped to her back, but both his hands were free and Timi felt since his two hands could reach his mother’s hair he might as well pull and play around with it. Aduke watched in amazement as Timi continued to strain to get as much hair as possible to pull while his mother continued to move her head forward so that the task, he had bestowed upon himself wasn’t yielding.

Her mother was peeling yam for breakfast, Aduke watched her, not requesting help, knowing her mother, if she wanted her to do it, she would have instructed her to. However, as she turned to leave her mother instructed her to go inside the room to greet her father.

Ayinde Oke was seated on his favourite and only chair in the bedroom he shared with his wife and son, his injured leg was popped up with neatly folded clothes. His face brightened up when Aduke entered to greet him he gestured for her to come seat beside him by patting the side of the bed closest to him.

Aduke asked her father how he was feeling and whether his leg was healing nicely, and he nodded in the affirmative to both questions. He then asked Aduke whether she had done all her morning chores because he didn’t like it when anyone or anything made life any more uncomfortable for his wife.

Aduke smiled also nodding in the affirmative. They both know how much they love Aduke’s mum, she has been the stabilizing factor, she had come into that family loving them despite all the problems of the family, and not once has she complained.

Her father had been a teacher at the only primary school in the village until the village head's daughter, who was also very close to the head teacher, felt like using his family beliefs to insult him. Aduke’s father retaliated by ridiculing her in front of the whole class. The case was still under investigation when he had gone into his farm and got his leg into a trap that was left for a grasscutter. The trap was so sharp that it left a very deep cut in his left foot making it near impossible to use the left leg. This afforded the school authorities to conveniently ask him to go and take care of himself.

In recent times the only good thing that has happened to their family is the arrival of Timilehin a son that God decided to give their family when they had almost given up on having another child.

The painful part is that in a few hours, the baby will be going through the pain of the family tradition.

Aduke wanted to open her mouth to plead with her father, but he shook his head even before she opened her mouth, she knew there was no point in doing so.

She stayed a few more minutes in silence with her father. When he went through the traditional rights it was still quite acceptable. However over two decades later when Aduke went through the process there were no financial means to stop it.

In Timi’s case, if only her father was still working maybe, it would have been different, her mother has been the breadwinner of the family since her father became injured. She is the seamstress for the uniforms of both the primary and secondary schools in the village. Her money was seasonal. Most of the women in the village only came to sew new clothes during the festive seasons. In between seasons, all Aduke’s mother did was patch and join clothes, the money paid for such services could barely buy 1kg of salt.

Aduke excused herself and went to check on her mother in the kitchen. She wasn’t doing anything; she was seated on the small stool playing with Timi while she waited for the food on the stove to cook.

Even though Aduke had never witnessed the family tradition take place she had an idea of what the setting should be like, and she noticed that the area where the family tradition was going to take place had already been set aside.

Blinking back the tears she went back into her room and straight for her dictionary she opened it to the page where the leaf was. She wasn’t sure whether it was all right for her to fold it into her hands before using it. She decided that there was no other way to smuggle the leaf into the cup that had already been set aside for Iyaagbole.

Aduke heard the arrival of a car, which was quite a surprise because she knew that the Iyaagbo that they were expecting lived not too far away and she didn’t own a car nor did she have anybody that would come and drop her at their house. Aduke returned the leaf to her dictionary and quickly went to wash her hands with soap and water before going out to find out who had arrived.

It was a pleasant surprise indeed to see her auntie Mope and her husband. The car they came with was driven by the husband. The pride and joy that she felt on seeing this was indescribable.

Aduka at 15 years of age, couldn’t stop herself from skipping around the car, she was so excited. Their compound didn’t have any fence same as almost all the houses in the village. The only houses that were fenced in the village were houses close to the government expressway and were named the new extension. For the first time in her life, Aduke was happy for this no privacy as all their neighbours came out and could see that for the first as far as she could remember something good was happening to her family.

Auntie Mope hugged first her mother and Timi whom she collected from her. Timi wasn’t happy with that action, he hadn't seen his aunty before and so he started crying until he was handed back to his mother. Soon after they all went inside to greet Aduke’s father except Aduke asked to be allowed to sit in the car. In the car especially in the back seat were so many edibles that Auntie Mope and her husband had bought for their family.

Aduke had just ten minutes of joy when she raised her head to see Iyaagbo entering their compound, and this doused her joy. She watched as the woman walked closer to their entrance, Aduke felt her body going cold as she imagined what was about to happen to Timi. She waited for Iyaagbo to enter the front house before she ran to her room to get her dictionary. Aduke was surprised to see her aunty in there. Aduke wanted to turn back but her aunty called out to her asking her what the matter was. Instead of saying a word Aduke started crying her aunty held her close, it was as if she understood what was going on. She didn’t say a word until her sobbing subsided. Pleading with her aunty to do something she kept on repeating to herself that she didn’t realize she wasn’t hearing her aunt telling her that it was all over until aunty Mope had said it numerous times.

Perplexed she asked what her aunty was saying, her aunty led her to sit down on the bed and told her that the reason her aunty and the husband came was to stop the ridiculous family tradition.

Aduke looked at her aunty and for the very first time since they arrived, Aduke noticed that there was a difference in her auntie's looks. Aduke opened her mouth wide she was astonished at what miracle had occurred. She asked what had happened. Aunty Mope smiled and told Aduke that she was wearing makeup. Aduke repeated the word in a sacred way. To her, anything that could bloat out the facial scarification of seventeen lines on Aunty Mope’s face must be sacred.

Aduke asked whether her aunty was around to help Timi cover his scars after Iyaagbo finished and Aunty Mope shook her head telling Aduke that neither Timi nor any other child that will be born to that family will ever have to go through such a painful procedure ever again. Aduke nodded a few times allowing the implication of what her aunty had just told her to sink in, while she allowed the tears of joy to flow. Her aunt held her close until her tears subsided. Aduke went to her school bag and brought out her dictionary she quietly opened the pages until it got to the page where the leaf was. Sighting the leaf her aunty was taken aback, she knew the leaf and what it could do. She collected it from Aduke and asked her what she was doing with a castor bean leaf. Every farmer that plants castor oil knows that the plant is poisonous because it contains ricin that is toxic to humans capable of causing serious illness and death.

Aduke with downcast eyes told her aunty that she was ready to squeeze the leaf into Iyaagbo’s water so that she would ingest the poison and be unable to do the facial marks on Timi’s face. After reprimanding her seriously for even thinking of carrying out such an act, she told Aduke that her husband was already on the way to the market to buy the goats as well as all the other demands to finally eradicate facial scarification in their family. As aunty Mope said this, she rubbed her stomach and that was when Aduke realized her aunty was pregnant. That day, when scarification was stopped in her family remains the best day of Aduke’s life.

Several years later when she became a plastic surgeon couldn’t compare....... to the solution day.