A COMMODITY SO RARE

The Secret

Julie’s face looked a mess as she had been crying for quite a while, she took out a handkerchief and quickly wiped her face as she heard her daughter call out. Talia, her daughter looked at her and came to touch her face with a worried look. “Mum, what is wrong? Did dad beat you again?” Julie shook her head and stood up from the seat and grabbed the utensils from the table and walked to the kitchen. “Mum, why do you allow him to beat you, mum please talk to me”. Julie looked at her daughter, started to say something but her voice was hoarse from so much crying. She coughed to clear her throat and looked at Talia. “Dear, am trying to be strong, kindly understand your father, he is just frustrated at work”. Talia looked at her mother in shock, she could not understand why she was making excuses for him. “He has no right to beat you mum, just because he is frustrated at work, you need to stand up for yourself next time. Am running late I came to pick my clutch bag I left it the last time I was here.” She met her small sister Nadia, aged seven in the bedroom playing with her dolls.” Sasa” she greeted her in Kiswahili. She hugged her. “Where is your brother?” she asked. “He is outside playing football”. “Ok, so where is my clutch bag, have you seen it?” .Nadia stood up went to the cupboard, took it out and handed it to her. “Thanks now let’s go to the kitchen and see what I brought you.” They headed out.

Patrick, Talia’s father was a bitter man at work, he was frustrated by his boss for every effort he tried to make to be better. He ended up at the bar every evening to lick his wounds and have a reprieve of life. He thought of his two children whose schooling depended on him and their bigger sister Talia who had brought him so much shame by being impregnated while in high school. Now married and successful but what a troublesome child she had been, always hanging with the wrong crowd. Her mother was another one, always defending the children even when they were irresponsible and mischievous. This is not what he wanted for them, he wanted them to be upright morally and people with standards. There was his son Tony now dead, he was always angry every time he thought of him, he had been showered with so much motherly love that he had refused to grow up. He thought the mother was to blame for his death and held it against her ,reminding her how she had robbed him of a son .All  these thoughts and his money woes always left him  in a sore state when he got home ,he thus found fault in everything. He could not understand why his wife was out making herself pretty by making her hair and accused her of cheating. He ended up having bitter arguments with her altogether, if it was not that, it was her cooking, he did not appreciate that she wasted money on hair instead of spicing up his meals. Julie on the other hand had tried to be strong in her marriage by hiding most of the injuries she received from her husband, being there for her children who were afraid of their father since he was always shouting. Talia and Tony were the ones who knew that he beat her up, Tony God rest his soul was the one who stood up to his father every time he raised his hand at her, Talia now a lawyer had on many occasions told him that he should stop it or  she would be prompted to sue him.

Talia was married to Ben who had impregnated her in high school, she confesses she had made a mistake then but blames it on her father who had limited her from doing anything social in the name of schooling. She was practically a prisoner in her own home and Ben had been the one who had shown her any love. Her pregnancy had been difficult, marred with a lot of abuses from her father for having sex out of marriage, so it was with a lot of pain that she bore the terrible news that her son had died at birth. She focused whole heartedly afterwards in school performing exceedingly well to earn her marks to the university where she pursued law. Life had gone by pretty quickly, teaching her many lessons, she had learnt to forget the past and embrace her new life as a mother to her most treasured twins June and July. She was thinking of her past as she drove to the airport to pick her husband who had been away on a business trip. They hugged passionately when they met and each shared how their two weeks had been as they drove home. When she opened the door to their house, she was met by the twins at the door who were anxious to meet their father.” Daddy”, they cried out the minute they saw him and quickly rushed to hug him, their tiny shoulders fighting for space in his chest. “How are my princesses doing? I missed you so much.” He remarked as he hung to them a little longer. “We also missed you dad”, June the older of the twins replied.Ben let them loose as they started to ask what he had brought for them .”Let’s go to the bedroom, the gifts are in here” he pointed to the briefcase. Talia looked at them as they headed out and smiled at how lucky she was to have such a loving family.

She had a tough childhood growing up, her mother always in and out of hospitals she had no idea what she was ailing from until the day she saw the bruises under her arms. She had then connected the dots from all the screaming and shouting that usually came from the bedroom each night. Her mother confessed after a lot of pushing and pressing her that her father did indeed beat her, this infuriated her so much. She had heard stories of women who were battered by their husbands and never knew it could actually happen to her own. She missed her brother then who had died as a teenager from an overdose of drugs. He was her mother’s biggest champion and would always defend her against any abuse from him. Her father found fault in him always stating how he was useless and could not find work to lift up the family from its money woes. Talia sometimes thought he was to blame for his death but could not tell it to him. She felt so torn apart, by her mother’s anguish and unhappiness and wondered how she could change this. She deserved only the very best as she was so hardworking, intelligent and amicable, the best mother in the whole world.

Several days later, Talia decided to visit her mother, she had not heard from her and wanted to ensure all was well. She did not find her in the sitting room, was about to call her when she heard a cry of an anguished person coming from the kitchen, she  rushed there only to find her mother holding a knife in her hand and her father sprawled on the floor blood oozing from his stomach. “Mum what did you do? She asked worry written all over her face.” I did not mean to do it, I did not, it just happened”. In shock, she grabbed the door for support, all manner of questions running through her. Her mother was mumbling something but all she could see is the pool of blood. She gained courage to feel his pulse and confirmed he was still alive. She took out her phone and called an ambulance “It was an accident; I did not intend to kill him”. Her mother muttered over and over and Talia decided she was going to cover this; she was going to have to lie to save her mother. “Mum, he is not dead, stop saying that, he was attacked by thieves, right”. Talia told her holding her tightly in an embrace. “He was attacked by thieves, “she replied and wiped her tears.” Talia sighed with relief, her mother was gaining composure and she needed her in a sane state of mind when the ambulance arrived. There were so many questions to be answered and she needed to have the right answers. The ambulance arrived and took him away, they rode in it to the hospital each of them in their own thoughts. Talia was worried that her father might die but her mother was worried that he would live. The wait for the results from the surgery room was long and was getting into their nerves. Talia decided then to call her husband and inform him of what had happened. She equally called Sophia, her mother’s friend to come to the hospital to be with her. Julie was getting nervous and was muttering to herself and Talia worried that she might reveal what had happened. The surgeon walked to them just as Ben arrived.  “We tried everything we could but we lost him, the injuries were so severe, we could not save him”. Talia sank to the floor in utter anguish, tears quickly formed in her eyes and they started flowing down, soaking her cheeks.Ben grabbed her from the floor and held her in an embrace as she cried freely. Julie looked at them in a trance, the news slowly sinking in. She had really wanted this but could not imagine it had actually happened; she tried to grab a seat but fell to the floor in shock. Talia was torn because she thought she was to blame, she had asked her mother to defend herself the last time she had visited her. Her mother had committed murder, this reality hit her hard and she held onto Ben tightly. This was a secret that would torment them forever.