Later, while inviting Femi to join her in the
kitchen, she realized the child was incredibly
adept in the kitchen for someone her age and
soon she and Femi turned the kitchen into their
corner. She loved to cook and although she had
tried to teach Tiwa the same, the child was
always grumbling and ended up taking pleasure away from the activity. It wasn’t so with Femi, who was always eager to know what went in, how and why. Soon they were both coming up with new ideas and recipes.
In retrospect, Adelaide realized this had only
infuriated Tiwa, who felt that Femi was trying to
steal her mother’s affections from her. She had
hated it that out of the blue, her mother had
opened her arms to another girl. Then though,
she had seen Tiwa’s attitude as incredibly selfish and self-centered.
Her inability to understand her daughter’s feelings had led to a distance in their relationship that she had never envisioned. In truth, before Femi came, she and Tiwa had never been really close. Tiwa had always been her father’s daughter and when Femi came, Adelaide had just seen an opportunity to mould someone who could be like her and she had.
**************
Her feelings and sympathy for Femi emerged
when she remembered how terrible her own life had been after the death of her mother. Her
father had remarried and produced four children rapidly with his new wife to the detriment of herself and her younger brother. When her brother fell ill from all the punishments and maltreatment their stepmother metted out to them, there had
been no one to take care of them and it wasn’t
long after her brother had died, at the tender age of six.
She didn’t know what would have become of her if her mother’s sister hadn’t come to take her.
She had only been 8 at the time but she
remembered the disinterest her father had shown when her aunt swore to take her after accusing him of killing her nephew. She remembered leaving without her father saying goodbye. And she promised herself she would go back and ask him why he hadn’t cared for her or her brother.
She never had a chance too as her father died
four years later after a massive heart attack. Her stepmother had refused to give her anything of her father’s belongings and her father, not expecting to die at the age of 46 had never written a will.
She had moved on, she hadn’t had a choice
anyway. Her aunt was not always kind to her,
she often had to do without the things she
needed and she had learnt what it meant to be
truly alone while she stayed with her aunt. The
woman had refused to let her go to school and
sent her to learn fashion designing at her tailor’s shop.
She had barely finished her training when she had met Dele, a Youth Corper in her town of Ile Oluji in Ondo state. He had wooed her all throughout his service year and although she liked him, she had refused to give into what she felt was his sweet tongue. At that time, girls in her town were constantly being warned away from smooth talking Youth Corpers.
He left after his service year and that was when she felt genuine regret for letting him go. She realized he had never dated anyone in their town and if his friends were to be believed, he had no girlfriend at home in Lagos. A month later when he returned for her, she had jumped into his arms and made him a very happy man.
Her aunt had been very upset when she told her she wanted to get married. As far as her aunt was concerned, at 22, Adelaide was too young to be married even though her own daughter, Ade’s cousin, Aduke had gotten married at 20.
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