How Headward Lost His Terror

My mother kept only a few friends, so it's not every day that a friend came visiting. She never had an alone time either. Raising five boys and a girl could drive anyone bonkers. But somehow, we did not push her hard enough to get her there.

But whenever Mama Ejima or any of her other friends come visiting, we are sure that the gossip for that day would be entertaining. My mother tries the best she could by ensuring we do not eavesdrop on these gossip sessions. She has a way of remembering the dirty pot that was used last week that needed washing. Or the floor that needs a good mopping.

Whenever she ran out of errands to be done, which hardly happened, she would send us to our grandmother's house. We loved going there as we were sure of eating food cooked in a "natural" way. Like I mentioned in an earlier post, she hated any form of civilization. For instance, she believed that cooking with gas was the reason "young people die like flies."

Today, Mama Ejima which translates literally into Mama Twin, a popular name given mostly to mothers who birthed twins, came to visit. Somehow, either by omission or design, none of us were sent any place/given a chore on that day.

"I'll be a monkey's cousin!" Mama Ejima shouted in surprise on seeing me. Her face was all smiles with eyes that could see through my naughty little soul. "Mama Green, what have you been feeding this boy?" She asked her friend. Without waiting for a reply, she continued. "Children of nowadays just grow like poultry fowl. Look at Green all grown up and tall as my well-fertilized okra plant." I smiled as I remembered she said the same exact thing last month she saw me. It never gets old with Mama Ejima.

I pretended to be working on my homework but within earshot. Mama Ejima started off by asking mother, "Why are your kids always studying, haven't you heard that all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy?" To which she laughingly replied, "Thank goodness none of my children is named Jack!" Then quickly added, "Eh heh! Mama Ejima, being a while I have seen your cousin. The one that was staying with you."

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"Are you referring to Edward?" Mama Ejima asked. My mother nodded. Edward is a senior in the same school with us. He has a thing for punishment, which he dished out with reckless abandon to the junior students. He was a big boy with an even bigger head. We called him Headward, of course, behind his back. Woe betides anyone who got on his wrong side by calling him that to his face! So when my mother mentioned his name, my ears pricked up.

She gave a mirthless laugh and launched into a long diatribe.

" That boy is a big problem. The other day four of my chickens died. Edward caused their death as it was his job to open the chicken house to allow them out in the morning. Remember that my husband built one with iron roofing sheets."

My mother nodded.

Mama Ejima continued," You know the Harmattan sun gets there and the chicken house can be incredibly hot. Edward refused to open it some days back and the heat of the afternoon sun killed four of them."

My mother made some consolatory mumblings.

She acknowledged it by saying, "My great friend thank you."

Continuing she said, "The problem is I now have six chicken instead of ten and Ejima's birthday is next week. The chickens are for the birthday party's food. But Papa Ejima was able to save the day by personally preparing the chicken by roasting it."

My mother said, "Mama Ejima, I don't see a problem here. Roasting of the chicken would help preserve it till next week which is the party time."

"Mama Green, you have to wait for me to finish. I am just starting."

My mother said nothing.

"So as I was saying, Papa Ejima did a good job. We kept the chicken over a hot charcoal in the kitchen in an iron basket to preserve it."

My mother nodded encouragingly. Mama Ejima continued, "I started to notice something strange, every day the chicken appeared to be shrinking."

My mother injected, " Mama Ejima, of course, it should, it's getting drier!"

The Mama Ejima looked at the friend, with exasperation, and said, "Not that, the chicken was shrinking because someone was stealing it in secret and it wasn't the rat in the kitchen!"


Mama Ejima was talking again, "I told Papa Ejima what happened and we decided to leave the chicken without making use of it."

She paused dramatically here to let that piece of information sink in. Mama Ejima knew how to tell a story.

She continued, "After six days of this, the roasted chicken remained one wing. It was the moment of truth, we called Edward and asked him to go to the kitchen and bring the chicken for us. That was the last we heard from Edward. His mother later called me and asked what I did that made Edward run away from my house and I told her to ask the son."

Wow! Suddenly, it all made sense. That explained Edward's absence from school and I couldn't wait to tell my friends, whom he bullied what happened to him.

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At least, for now, my friends and I could have a little rest as Headward won't be punishing any other person next week.

What do you think? Please, I value feedback, do leave me one on the comment section below. I love resteem the way a fat kid loves cake <3

Thank you for visiting my blog.

Regards,
@greenrun ... still running :)