‘After all, Christmas is for children,’ Oko’s mother had ended the discussion grandly, as if she had just discovered that other festivals were not for children.
#Ata chapter 29 full
In the end, Esi had had to agree to do without her daughter’s company on the old well-beaten premise that there was no sense in taking a child from a house and neighbourhood full of children to the ‘cemetery’ that was where she lived. Of course Ogyaanowa was always happy to see her however, Esi thought she had dragged her feet a bit any time she had taken her to go spend the odd weekend at the bungalow. Already, she had noticed that the child never showed any desire to go away with her. She would only make things worse for herself if she cut even her occasional visits to that house. Besides, she had a secret fear that Oko and his family were working the child against her anyway. They had already scolded her for agreeing to let the child go to Oko’s people. But apart from the fact that her own mothering instincts revolted at the mere thought, she also knew her mother and grandmother would not let her do that. She was aware of a strong temptation to stop going to the house and forget about Ogyaanowa. They hadn’t when she was married to Oko and they were not about to, especially now that she had divorced him. But then, as she had been asking herself over and over again, what was the point? No one in that household ever listened to anything she had to say. Did she remember the last Christmas? Or was it New Year? Why did she want to expose the child to her chaotic and useless life again?Įsi thought she might tell the older woman that the chaos she was alluding to had not been her creation, but her son’s. Was Ogyaanowa her daughter or not? If she was, why should she need to explain to anybody why she wanted them to be together? Oko’s mother had put on her ‘dear-God-why-do-I-have-to-suffer-this-witch’s-visits?’ look, and then proceeded to talk to Esi: very slowly, like the half-wit she took the latter for. ‘What ever for?’ Oko’s mother had asked her.Įsi couldn’t believe her ears. She had gone over to Oko’s mother at the beginning of the school holidays to tell her that she would like Ogyaanowa to come to the bungalow for the Christmas and New Year period. Even her attempt to have own daughter with her for the festive season had not only run into snags but eventually ended in a fiasco. She had received a number of invitations though but she was almost sure that she was not going to go anywhere. She had not had the courage even to plan vaguely for any get-togethers at hers to which she would invite friends, or extended family members who lived in the city. She had only half-heartedly done some Christmas shopping.
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But he never came.īy the twenty-third of December, Esi was a nervous wreck. He readily admitted that they had a few things to sort out. He would promise that when he returned from wherever he was going the following week he would come to hers, and be properly there. But in all the six weeks between the end of October and the middle of December, she saw him only twice, and on each occasion he was just breezing through. This was mainly because she kept hoping that Ali would come to stay for a reasonable length of time: during which they could decide on what they would do together.
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She could not plan anything for the coming holidays. She not only felt tired like everyone else at that time of year, but she was also restless and lonely. Includes an explanation of the system of zoning and measurement used.That year’s end turned out to be perhaps the most desolate time Esi had spent in all her life.