Chapter Fourteen - A Family.

The night was awash with the cries of cicadas and the silver rays of the moonlight. The night sky overhead, crammed with stars, shone too bright for the hour of the night. Laughter and the sound of excited voices occasionally interrupted the singing cicadas. The breeze cooled the skin, the sun had set on fire during the day, and though it was running into the later hours of the night. Families gathered outside to avoid the heat, which comes with this time of the year. A lonely lamp sat in the corner of the kitchen, lit and abandoned there for those who would need it to light a path for reasons like relieving themselves. The smell of the late evening meal sat heavily on the compound, even though it had been a couple of hours since the last eater had washed their hands and said their thanks to the elders and the cook for the meal. 

On Oge’s lap, her daughter lay their head, enjoying the feel of their mother’s hands circling their naked back. It would be a crime to cover up on a night like this. The breeze was much welcomed, and the people of the compound would expose as much as was decent and allowed to the breeze and its cooling touch. Amara’s developing breast was shielded by a piece of wrapper slung over her shoulder, shielding her lower parts up to her knees. She was almost a woman now and had to cover accordingly, but her younger sister was not only on the smaller side, but she was a little young to care about the need for decency. For once, their mother did not hound her; Oma was mentally maturing these days, and that was all that mattered. In the centre of the compound, Ozioma’s animated voice rose, enthralling her listeners and captivated audience. 

“Fine girl, fine girl, what are you looking for? I am looking for my mother, old mama. My mother was looking for her husband, old mama. Her husband was looking for his son, oh, old mama. His son was looking for his brother, old mama. The brother was looking for me, the sister, old mama. And I was looking for my goat, oh, old mama.”  

Ozioma paused, enjoying the silence her chilling singing had brought on the audience. In the corner, Oge’s mother-in-law's laughter rang into the night, tickled by something her sister-in-law, Ozioma’s husband’s mother, had said. The laughter broke the spell cast by Ozioma, but Ozioma recovered quickly. She was nothing if not dramatic. 

“The old woman, appearing weary and small, smiled at the girl and started to sing.” 

A gasp escaped the little mouths of her audience. Oge smiled to herself. This was the good part. The children had sat through the rendition of the helpless old woman swallowing the goat, and consequently, every member of the family apart from the heroine, but here the heroine was about to listen to the exact enchanted singing from the old woman, before she too would be swallowed. 

“But the moment she opened her mouth, the goat she had swallowed started to bleat. It had heard its owner and could not let her meet the same fate as the rest of them.” 

Oge watched as Ozioma’s children sat up very attentively. Ozioma had been blessed with two other boys over the years, but she yearned for a girl, which she showed by her doting on Oma and Amara. Oma, a few years older than her second son, could do no wrong in her sight, but her second son, if you asked her, was a rascal. Oge smiled now at the mischief those boys could get into. You couldn't tell now, as they looked the perfect angels, holding on to their mother’s every word, their eyes shining and huge. 

“Young girl, young girl, I have seen your mother, she was looking for her husband, her husband was looking for his son, his son was looking for his brother, his brother was looking for you, the sister, and...” 

Ozioma paused again in her singing. You could slice up the tension from the children with a knife, as they held their breath. 

“I am in here, I am in here, the goat bleated. She swallowed us. The old woman started to open her mouth to swallow the girl, but the girl was faster, she unbuckled her knife sheathed on her waist and tore the stomach of the woman open, freeing her family and her goat.” 

Congratulations rang from the clapping and excited young listeners. 

“I knew she could do it. Girls are much braver than boys.” 

Oma said, sitting up from excitement, not her Amara Oge, noted her Amara stuck to her. Oge thought she might be smiling, but she was not one to show her excitement. On the other end of the woven mat, Nkemu was murmuring about how it was not only girls who could be brave. He, too, could have been brave if he were in the story. His mother nodded at this.  

“Yes, bravery is important, but that is not the moral of the story. We must be cautious in life because sometimes, a lot of evil can hide inside something charming, sweet, and innocent. Not everything ugly shows on the outside; sometimes it disguises itself as beautiful, but if we pay close attention, we will hear the warning like the girl heard the goat.” 

Another bout of laughter rang out again from the other end of the compound. Oge turned towards it. Her husband and his family, including his first cousin Ozioma’s husband, his aunt, and his mother, had been polishing off the full keg of palm wine as they gossiped and talked about everything that came to mind. Oge missed her brothers whenever she watched her husband with a family she was not a part of, because she was separated from them by blood. Ozioma was related to Obuzor’s mother, on her father’s side. If you were born in this village and married into it, you had some blood tie to it. Everyone in this compound was tied by blood, but only one blood was hers. She loved them with her life, but she sometimes missed belonging to something on a level that was so deep, it defied everything. 

Obuzor caught her eye, and his eyes lit up. She smiled at him, and he smiled back at her. On his face, she saw what she always knew: she was his life, and the thought quelled the turmoil inside of her a little. She was being silly, of course, she belonged with this family, with him.  

She has been happy these last couple of years. Her daughters and husband were healthy, and so was her mother-in-law. There has been no cause for alarm, because their lives had been peaceful, so why was she looking for trouble where there was none? Why couldn’t she shake the unsettled feeling that tormented her these days?