She remembered when Femi had first come to them, seemingly broken, she had looked out her window at the thin girl who was too small for her age and with eyes that seemed like they had seen too much and she had rushed out to grab her. Since that day, she had never regretted opening her arms to Femi. In more ways than one, Femi was more like her than the daughter she had borne. Femi was quiet, demure, loving and loyal.
Where she loved, she loved and she had a very
large heart.
Unlike Tiwa, who walked tall and dared anyone to try to demean her. Tiwa, her brilliant daughter, the one who never gave second chances, the one who could look anyone in the eye and made a very strong enemy.
She sighed as she remembered that her fondest wish and prayers about her daughters had gone unanswered. She had wanted desperately for both girls to be best friends and encouraged it by taking them out together and buying similar clothes for them. It hadn’t worked. More often than not, Tiwa would refuse to go and when she bought similar clothes for them, depending on how Tiwa felt about the cloth, one would disappear.
If Tiwa liked the cloth, Femi’s would get lost and if Tiwa didn’t like them, hers would go missing.
At first, she wondered at the losses until she
finally realized the pattern and stopped buying
similar clothes for them.
*************
For Femi, she knew living with them hadn’t
always been easy or welcome. The evening she got to their house, then a small 3 bedroom flat around Adeniyi Jones, Ikeja, she had been scared, lonely and hopeful. In her kind and authoritative way, Adelaide had led her inside and introduced her to their children. Their first son Damola who was 15 at the time, their 12 year old daughter, Tiwalola and the baby, 9 year old Kunle.
When Tiwa was told she would be sharing a room with her newly acquired cousin, she had
grumbled. As the only daughter, she had gotten
used to having a room to herself which she only had to share with the occasional visitors, now she was to share her room with a cousin she declared was ugly.
******************
Adelaide had been angry and warned her to never address her cousin that way again. Only then had Tiwa led Femi to her bedroom and even that hadn’t been without drama for she had heard Tiwa telling Femi not to touch her things. In a bid to avoid any trouble, she had gotten a matrass for Femi with every intention of making a bed for her later.
At first, it had been really hard for Femi to cope
with Tiwa’s disdain and displeasure and her
mother had thought it was temporary phase since Tiwa had always being the only girl amongst the boys. But things didn’t get better as even Kunle joined in taunting Femi. Punishing them for Femi only made things worse as they would choose to punish her back. Damola on the other hand hadn’t even been interested in Femi.
For a short while, Adelaide had felt like a failure
for raising children who because of the comfort they had showed no empathy or sympathy for someone who had lost everything she ever had.
She then promised herself that she was going to make sure Femi lacked nothing to help her grow healthy, strong and confident.
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