©️Opeyemi Akintunde
AS INSPIRED BY THE LIVING WORD
Life at Mr. Teju’s house was life at its best. I was enrolled in a good school. I had a lesson teacher who helped me catch up with my English Language.
By the time I was Fifteen years old, you could never believe I was a girl from the village. Mrs. Teju didn’t have kids yet, so she poured all her love and spent her money on me. They didn’t treat me as a maid; I was treated like their own child.
However, devil came knocking when my biological mother came visiting. She had not seen me in three years, so she insisted she wanted to see me.
My mother came with a bucket of greed. She saw the lavish lifestyle of my boss and his wife. She saw the possibility of the good life she could have if I became more than a house maid.
“Yemi, what do you think you are doing?
“Maami, I don’t understand you, what are you talking about?”
“Do you think this life you are living will last?” My mother had said
“Which life? Maami you are speaking in parables.”
“Adeyemi, don’t deceive yourself that this good life will continue. Don’t listen to their lies, that you are their daughter. The moment they have a child, they will turn you back to the housemaid you are.”
“Maami, I am a house help, there is nothing that will change that”.
“You are stupid, God brought you to where your life can experience a change and you prefer to remain in poverty. How I wish it was your younger sister I gave this opportunity to, she would have used it well”
My mother knew the silent rivalry between my younger sister and I and how I longed to beat her at anything she does to continually affirm my first born position. I thought three years away from home would have killed that sibling rivalry in me, No! it was still lurking there waiting for the right time to be triggered.
“Maami, what is it that Adekemi would have done better than I’m doing here? Maami, I have been a good child, you didn’t come here to meet me pregnant….” I was saying when my mother cut in
“Eh…..eh…. exactly what you have done wrong, Adeyemi, you should have used your number Six, I mean your brain to know that getting pregnant will keep your leg grounded in this place.”
“Eh …eh… Maami, pregnant? for who?” I asked bewildered. I was hoping my mother was not insinuating that I get pregnant for my boss, but unfortunately, that was what she wanted…
“The man of the house. Give him one child and you are settled for life.”
“Ha! maami”
“Yes, my child”
“Ha!” I kept exclaiming
“Yes… and it’s better you do it fast before the woman gives birth.”
I remember how my mother made my life a living hell for the two weeks she stayed with us.
You could say I became like Eve, I decided to listen to what the serpent in my mother said to me.
Suddenly, I started finding Mr. Teju attractive, I began to have a crush on him, and based on the parent-daughter relationship I had with the couple, they didn’t see anything wrong with unnecessary hugs I gave Mr. Teju.
I started flirting in the house calling him “My handsome Daddy”. Mrs. Teju was too gullible a person, she didn’t see anything wrong in it….
To be continued.
