Thorns In My Boot - S01 E23

Story 2 years ago

Thorns In My Boot - S01 E23

Read Story: SEASON 1 EPISODE 23

After spending three weeks with mama and

her husband, yes! Husband I said; in my

home town, if a man and a woman are

cohabitating, they are as good as husband

as wife! And if there is a Child in the union

then they are confirmed husband and wife,

they can talk of paying pride price anytime

they are ready, and in my mother’s case who

would collect her bride price? It is me nah!

So by virtue of being her only relative who

did not abandon her, I pronounced then

Man and Wife! I have given Babe Miko my

mother free of charge. Though Babe Miko

kept saying they will go home in due time to

ratify everything with my Mother’s family, he

said there is a traditional way to go about it.

And the truth is that my Mother’s family had

known and liked Baba Miko when he was

wooing her before she blindly fell for my

Dad.

I travelled to Ezamgbo to visit Oga Luke (Oga

Inside). I stopped at Ezamgbo junction along

Abakaliki-Enugu express road and took a

bike to “Luke Umahi farms” as his farm of

twenty hectare was called. There was a sign

post bearing “Luke Umahi Rice Farm” at the

junction of Ezamgbo community.

I was intimidated by what I saw. The

expanse of land green with young rice

plants was so wide I could not see the end

from the beginning; it was like a green sea.

The field was swampy and the plants

flourished in it.

He was in a conference-like room at the

farm house discussing with some Students

from the Federal University of Agriculture

Umudike who had come on excursion to his

farm. My presence disrupted the session for

a moment as Oga Luke rushed out of the

hall to welcome me; he introduced me to the

Students and the accompanying Lecturer as

his friend in the Army. I joined the Student

and listened to Oga Luke’s Lecture on rice

farming, I enjoyed the Lecture so much that

I contemplated setting up a rice farm some

day. We went on a field trip with the

Students and they left at 3.30pm for their

School. There were some Students working

already on the Farm as part of their

Industrial attachment programme, while

others were paid labourers.

Oga Luke then took me to another arm of

the Farm that was for leafy vegetables alone,

three plots of land was used exclusively for

vegetables farming and it belonged to his

wife of twenty four years. The three plot

was divided into portions for various

vegetable such as utazi, water leaf, ugu

(fluted pumpkin) anghara leaf (Garden egg)

pepper, onugbu, (Bitter leaf) Okra, Uziza,

scent leaf, green vegetable and Okazi leaf.

The plants were very plump and healthy.

Oga Luke’s Wife was there with two girls

plucking pepper into Baskets in readiness

for the next day’s market, the next day was

“eke owo” owo community market day, and

she had gathered three baskets full already.

She sells her vegetable on any of the Market

days of neighboring towns such as Nkalagu,

ezilo, eha-amufu, Ntezi, and owo. The

market days could be Eke, Orie, Nkwo and

Afor. In those days in Igbo land, a Child born

on Eke Market day is named Nwa-eke

pronounce Nweke (Eke’s Child) a child born

on Nkwo Market day day is called Nwa-

Nkwo pronounced Nwankwo and Nwafor

and Nworie as the case may be.

She was happy to see me but the joy was

short lived as a quarrel started immediately

between she and her husband. Oga Luke

had introduced me to her as Ojo onye Army

(Ojo the Army man) and she replied; ehen! I

know him nah! Is he not that Soldier man

that was in Prison? The two girls assisting

her in the farm had taken sharp glances at

me then they started laughing.

Oga Luke had chased them from our

presence as he reprimanded his wife. They

spoke in their Omalante language (Ohaozara

dialect) I knew I was the subject matter so I

told Oga Luke not to worry, I told him she

was not lying after all but he had insisted

that it was insulting for his Wife to have

related me with the Prison and to worsen

everything she did it in the presence of her

maids! He did not like the kind of image she

was portraying me in the presence of the

maids, he said before I know it now,

everybody in the farm will know that I was

in Prison. I understood his point. Even

though I did not like what the woman did, I

did not want to be the cause of their

misunderstanding. She later abandoned the

basket and knife in her hands and walked

out on us grumbling.

By 5.00PM, we ate fufu with onugbu soup

(Bitter leaf) with roasted Anu Nchi (Grass

cutter meat) and some other meaty proteins

that I could not decode in the soup. Oga

Luke’s wife later brought us a keg of fresh

palm wine with two Calabashes to drink

with, she poured her husband a calabash

full and handed it to him with both arms

stretched out, he collected it and took a long

swing at the sweet liquid while I salivated as

I watched the second calabash being filled

by the Wife. She filled the second calabash

and was about to hand over to me when

her husband started with her again in their

dialect, she withdrew her hands and while

grumbling, she drank from the Calabash

before passing it to me with her right hand.

Oga Luke screamed at her again in their

dialect pointing his fore finger at her in a

warning gesture. She recoiled from me and

filled up the Calabash to the brim before

handing it over to me with both hands after

which she stormed away grumbling only to

return minutes later with a bowl full of

assorted roasted bush meats spiced with

Utazi leaf, palm oil and pepper. I was in

heaven on earth at Oga Luke’s farm house.

Together with Madam Luke we ate up all the

meat in the Bowl and drank up the keg of

palm wine, even though she sat away from

us as she gnawed angrily at her meat while

stealing scornful glances at her husband

who acted as if she was not even there. He

was busy telling me stories about the

Ezamgbo people and their culture and about

his experience in farming.

After the meal some of the maids came and

cleared the plates and bowls of water we

used in washing our hands. Oga Luke called

the girl that carried the bowl of water I used

in washing my hands back and instructed

that she poured the content on the floor

away from us where I could see it. The wife

got up at this point and started another

quarrel in their dialect as she left our

presence.

I followed them to their house in Oga Luke’s

Peugeot 504 Pickup Van and the couple

quarreled half of the way home. We got

home and I was showed the room to sleep

in. Their Children are grown up and were all

at Enugu schooling at E.S.U.T, they have three

Sons. They have two teenagers living with

them at home, they are Madam Luke’s

Nephews schooling at Ezamgbo boys high

School.

I had already slept off at 8.00PM when the

noise from the sitting room woke me up; it

was between Oga and madam. I wondered

what the problem was again and wished I

was not connected to it. I tried to go back to

sleep but I couldn’t. Madam Luke later came

to knock at my door, I struggled out of the

bed and opened the door, she told me that

there was water in the bath room for me to

take my bath, and then she turned back and

slammed the door at my face. Oga Luke

started to bark at her almost immediately,

she came back and opened my door, and

then she closed it gently and left grumbling.

The two have lived with each other like that

for twenty four years yet they are still

together so I did not interfere in their bouts.

The problem was that she could not bring

herself to serve or respect an ex convict like

me. I understood.

I spent a whole week with Oga Luke. We

slept two nights at the farm house. On one

of those nights, we woke up very early and

went round the farm and retrieved six giant

Grass Cutters caught by traps set in the farm.

Oga Luke said some Villagers do come early

to his farm to steal the catch from his traps.

He recounted a scenario where he came to

the farm in the morning and saw someone

shoe and pool of blood on one of his traps,

the trap had been pulled out of the soil and

disengaged.

After a week at Ezamgbo, I had learnt a lot

about rice farming. I went back to Abakaliki

with enough food stuff and vegetables and

eight smoked Grass cutters.

I was with mama till May 1998 I had spent

over a month with them, I was enjoying

myself and did not want to leave until

Amaka came to visit us and she reminded

me of my unfinished business with the Army

in Enugu.

Amaka stayed with us for two days during

which we went to Mama’s shop and she

was surprised at what she saw, she was

impressed to see that Mama had changed

from the ragged Village Woman to a Modern

and trendy City Lady, she was also happy to

see that mama was making good money.

She was also impressed at my dexterity at

hair dressing; she never knew how good I

was. I did not remember learning to fix or

dress female hair; I simply grew up doing it

because it was mama’s only source of

income that guaranteed my meal ticket. I

introduced Amaka to all our Customers that

came to the Shop that day as my fiancée that

I told them about. She promised to be

coming more often to visit mama and to

learn the hair dressing trade also.

Together we drove in her car to Enugu

leaving a weeping mama and a sad babe

Miko behind on a Sunday morning in may

1998. Mama EDD was in July.