Blind-view

CHAPTER TWO

"Mum, are you home? Mum, where are you"?

Uyi came home screaming at the top of his voice with lots of excitement. ‘Mum. are you back from work?’. Uyi’s mum works at the National Hospital. She has been an auxiliary nurse for more than 18 years now. He checked her bedroom. She wasn’t there, then went to the kitchen.

"All she said was ‘please get me my inhaler."

He dashed out of the kitchen, ran to the cupboard in his mum’s bedroom, grabbed the inhaler, and ran back to the kitchen. He shook the inhaler hard, took the cap on the inhaler out, placed the mouthpiece into his mum’s mouth, and pressed it. He did it several times as they were both sitting on the floor. As her breathing started to settle, he helped her up and took her to the seat to sit down. Uyi and the mum were both sweating profusely, then she said to Uyi.

‘My protector, don’t be scared, I won’t die until I see your baby’ Uyi couldn’t smile as there was still fear written all over his face.

‘Mum, I have told you several times to leave the cooking to me. I’m a man now, I can cook for you". She smiled back at him while still breathing, partly heavily, ‘I know you can, but I just wanted to make your favorite meal for you. You know how much you love fried yam and tomato sauce."

Uyi looked back at his mum's eyes, ‘I know mum, but your health comes first. You know how dangerous it gets when you inhale smoke. You are all I have in this world."

Uyi places his mum’s head on his thighs and uses his hand to caress her long thick hair, ‘I Love you mum’. The Mum requested to rest a little and Uyi went into the room to grab a pillow to place her head on top. As he was resting, Uyi sat on the white tiled floor to watch her. They live in a fairly nice neighborhood in mainland Lagos in a three-bedroom apartment, a minimalist sitting room with a white leather chair, a wooden center table, and a dining set that Uyi’s mum bought last Christmas. They weren’t rich, nor were they poor; a middle-class family. Uyi and mum spent time together whenever she wasn’t working to watch soap operas, which was one of the most special moments he shared with his mum.

After an hour of proper rest, she stood up from sitting and didn’t see Uyi in the sitting room. She walked slowly to the kitchen and found Uyi had already done cooking the meal. She smiled and said

‘ You remind me so much of him’ Uyi turned immediately and saw his mother standing at the entrance of the kitchen, then he asked with a radiant face.

"Who do I look like?" The mom smiled and said ‘of course, your dad’. Uyi gave a stern look and turned to continue cleaning the dishes. The mom noticed he didn’t want to talk about his dad. She went to the dining to wait for Uyi to serve the dish so that they can eat together.

Uyi came back and dished the meal and they both sat. Then Uyi's mum said again, “He wasn’t always a bad man”. Uyi replied with a mild look. “Mom, I don’t care about him, what troubles me is your health. Is there a cure for asthma?’. Mum replied abruptly ‘ He will always be your dad and no, There is no permanent cure. I was just careless today’

As they continued to eat, Uyi took out his phone from his pocket, turned it on, and passed it to his mother, ‘ Mum go ahead, look’. She opened it and immediately jumped up from the dining chair screaming with joy around the sitting room, ‘Oh son, you made it, I’m so proud of you,’ she hugged uyi immediately and gave him a passionate kiss on his forehead. Uyi immediately stood up and gave her a big hug. At that moment, she started crying.

‘You didn’t fail me, so my son is going to become a lawyer, then you will become a senior advocate of Nigeria’ they both burst into laughter. Uyi gently used his hands to wipe tears off her eyes. ‘Why are you crying mum?’ she looked into his eyes ‘These are tears of joy and pain, they counted us out but here we are now. Thank you son for not going astray’. After much hugging and smiles, they both sat down to continue their meal.

Uyi’s mum lifted up her head and said ‘when I met him, he was the sweetest person I have ever met,’ Uyi tried to shut down the conversation. Still, she insisted that he listen, ‘He was kind, sweet and he liked everything I liked and would buy me candy almost every day after work."

She smiled even more ‘I named him the candyman. I can still remember him looking so handsome in his white lab coat, he took care of the patient as if they were his family,’ She continued eating while Uyi was staring at her, ‘within a few months, I was head over heel for your dad, who wouldn’t want him, he is handsome, caring, protective and he was a good doctor."

She shook her head and continued the conversation ‘The day he proposed marriage to me at the beach, I can still remember my heart pounding abnormally, a beautiful day, my son."

Then Uyi finally replied, ‘do you still miss him even after all he did?’

Uyi’s mum gazed into his eyes ‘It’s hard to completely hate what you once truly loved. Believe me, son, I forgive your dad for all his failings and I’m happy I met him because that’s how I found you, my precious jewel, my world’ Uyi smiled, ‘Your father was a very sweet man. But after we got married he just changed, it was as if I had got married to a stranger.’ Uyi looked at her and noticed her face had become sad, which usually happens whenever she talks about him.

‘Your father became a monster, whatever I did to please him, disgusted him, all I ever did while we were together was to make him happy,’ Uyi stood up and hugged his mum as tears were dripping down from her face. After getting herself together, she looked up at her son. ‘ Promise me you will be kind to the woman who truly loves you, promise me son’ Uyi looked into his mum’s eyes.

‘ I promise mum, I will be a better man than he ever was.’

She stood up and they both held each other in a warm embrace with tears dripping down from both their eyes. Then there was a knock on the door and in came, Uyi's childhood friend Uwa. Uwa has been friends with Uyi since they were 10 years old. It’s been about 8 long years of friendship. Uwa is intelligent, a talkative but very observant individual.

As he walked into the sitting room, Uwa smiled and said "Mummy’s boy". Uyi replied immediately ‘what do you want?’. Uwa ignored him and immediately greeted Uyi’s mum and she invited him to come to join them for dinner. He asked ‘Who made the meal.’ Uyi said he was the one and he declined and said that the food would be terrible and they all burst into laughter. After eating, he showed Uyi’s mum that he had also been accepted into the same university. He got a hug immediately from Uyi’s mum.

She said ‘I’m so proud of you boys, this means I will have a lawyer and a psychologist." She went into the house and the boys continued their friendly chatter, then Uyi's mum appeared back from the room with some money.

‘ You boys have earned yourself some nice treats. Come take this money and get whatever you want.’ Uyi rushed to his mum with a big smile on his face, ‘Thank you so much, mum’

Uyi's mum reminded him, ‘ remember you have to call your uncle and share this news with him, I’m on night duty, I have to start getting ready for work."

Uyi replied to his mum, ‘Mum, are you healthy enough to work tonight?’, Then his mum smiled at him ‘Don’t worry about me, I will get some rest before leaving, but now clear the dishes and I want you boys to go have fun because you both deserve it."

Uyi and Uwa have just gained admission to study at the University of Benin, which is one of the federal universities in Nigeria. They have both always wanted to go to the same university, and their dream to study together was finally here.