Adulteress; Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Amara sat on the floor in the backyard of her adoptive mother's house. She had just been beaten with a cane because her adoptive sister had accused her falsely before Mrs Okonji, the mother.

Amara was very bitter and expressed her emotion in the language of tears. She hid her face in her knees so no one would hear her. Then she raised her head and looked at the place she called home. It bore no happy memories for her. Mrs Okonji had not adopted her to give her a happy life but to turn her into a slave. Everyday, Mrs Okonji punished Amara. The slightest offences weren't overlooked. Sometimes, there were no offenses at all. A day was just abnormal in the household if the little girl didn't get punished once.

What hurt Amara more was that her siblings had imitated their mother. They hated her, for no reason at all. Mrs Okonji encouraged this and Amara became a helpless victim of hate and punishments.

Amara didn't blame them much. She blamed her situation. She knew she was an orphan. She had heard Mrs Okonji cook up evil lies about how her mother had tried to abort her by killing herself but she believed none of it.

"My mother loved me. I know she did," she said to herself between choked sobs.

The words stung the spectre painfully. She looked at the child and guilt whipped her mercilessly.

"Where's that bastard? Bastard! Bastard!"

Amara jumped to her feet and wiped her eyes. Immediately, Mrs Okonji arrived and stared at her sternly. 

"Yes, mum?"

"What are you doing here?"

"N...no..."

"Will you shut up and go wear the clothes on the bed? You want them to gossip about me, that I'm not taking care of you. Hurry, you wicked orphan!"

Amara ran into the house just in time to dodge a blow.

"How dare you call my child a bastard?" The spectre screamed at Mrs Okonji who reminded her very much of Madam Okon, her own adoptive mother. She raised her hand to strike the woman but a memory stopped her. It was from when she was three months pregnant. In her frustration at her failure to get rid of the child, she had attacked her tummy with cries of, "Bastard! Wicked child!" before Chidimma had restrained her.

The spectre, for that was what Amara was, clutched at her heart and whimpered as agony seared her with bitter pains of regret.

"No more! I'm sorry," she cried, but it was far from over. She suddenly appeared in the house and was forced to watch her child serve a group of visitors and sit with the other children. Little Amara did well to pretend that she was not maltreated; she feared another whipping. Her four siblings however, showed their displeasure at having her sit with them.

"Amara, sit on the floor. Mummy, tell her to sit on the floor. She's a bas..." cried the eldest, a girl of Amara's age. She was particularly angry that Amara was wearing her dress. Her siblings supported her.

"Don't mind them. Children can be very mischievous some times," Mrs Okonji said loudly to her guests and with a furtive glance, she ordered her children to be silent.

After the visitors left, Amara went to finish her chores with the hope that she would have dinner for the first time in three days. Mrs Okonji had other plans. After serving her children, she called Amara to the kitchen and locked the door. She called the child to where an aluminum pot stood on the table. Then she slapped the child harshly as she said, "So you have never seen food in your life? Do you know you embarrassed me, looking at my friends' food as if you have never eaten before. Shameless goat!"

Amara rubbed her cheek sadly. She wondered why she was being punished. It was Mrs Okonji's only son who had taken a piece of meat from the visitors' plate of food. Why was she being punished?

"Is it my fault your mother didn't want to feed you?" Mrs Okonji barked suddenly and pushed the girl towards the pot so that her back met the hot surface. She shrieked.

"Stop it!" Amara, the spectre, screamed in anguish.

"Mummy, I'm sorry. Mummy, I'm sorry!" Amara screamed in tears but the wicked woman was not appeased. She pulled up the little girl's shirt and pressed her back against the pot. The child yelled in agony.

"Stop! Stop, I beg you. Stop it!" The spectre yelled loudly and tried to save the child, but she was nothing more than a ghost, a soul with no matter.

"Mummy! My mother!" Amara cried. Her mother felt the call strike her heart most mercilessly and she wept.

Mrs Okonji pulled the child away from the hot surface and said to her, "Will you do it again?"

"No, mummy," said Amara, nearly senseless from the pain.

"Shut up! Who are you calling mummy? Do I look like the mother of a bastard? Let me tell you, your mother killed herself because she didn't want you. You're such an evil thing. Even your father didn't want you. That's why you are a bastard. Say it!"

"I'm a bastard, ma," wept the child.

"Good. Why is that?" Mrs Okonji said sounding pleased.

"Because my daddy didn't want me."

"And?"

Amara hesitated. Mrs Okonji grabbed her hand and pulled her forward.

"Wait, please! Wait, please! Ma, please! I'll say it. I'm a bastard," Amara screamed in fear.

"Why is that!" Mrs Okonji shouted as she gave the girl a heavy blow on the skull.

"Because my mummy killed herself," Amara said in a choked voice.

"Good! Why did she do it?"

"She didn't want me," Amara wept.

The other Amara gave a grievous wail and clawed at her chest which hurt unbearably. She wished she could scream, "It's not true! I did want you!" but that would be a lie.

She had hated the child, but now her motherly affection had returned to her and she saw not the fruit of her adultery, but her own flesh and blood, her very self living the torturous life Desmond had pulled her from, eight years ago.

To be continued.