Chapter 21: Birthday
Itoya only agreed to follow her mother so that she will be able to explain things to her mother, if she did not agree to follow her mother she was afraid that the woman would die of anger but unknown to her, she had pushed her husband away because she did not include him in her plan as it was a last minutes plan. Her plan was that she will return home after a week so that her mom can still take care of her to recover fast. She totally forgot that she and Ifada had planned to bury their daughter together but they had not talked about the day. Her elder sister that is doing a civil service job that stays in Uromi rented an apartment for her mother close to her house at her mother order, Itoya and her mother were living there. All through the period that she was away from her husband she was in her mother place in Uromi a city that is about one hour drive from Ubiaja. She did not bother to contact Ifada; she was enjoying all that life is giving herself the fullest freedom she could get, her mom would prepare food for her early in the morning before she wakes up she had nothing to do order than to sleep. But she needs to return to her husband house. It had pass one week since Itoya was discharged from the hospital, Itoya and her mother were eating together, the room was so quiet that only the sounds of spoon and plate could be heard in the room."Mama I will like to return to Ewosa tomorrow" she broke the silence"We will be returning your bride price soon so you don't need to go there anymore" she said angrily, although this was the first time Itoya is bringing up the matter of returning back to her husband house but she still needed to make her stand known."But mama you know that our child is still in the mortuary, we need to bury her so that her soul can rest in peace" she said sadly"Only on this condition will I allow you to go and you must not stay with Ifada when you get there" she said making her stand about the relationship between her daughter and Ifada clear"Thank you mama, but I will like to stay there for some time, because I just lost my daughter after her burial it's not good that I will just return immediately" not wanting to argue with her mother.She knows that her mother will never allow her to go back to her husband house, no matter how hard she explained to her mother that Ifada is innocent of all the allegations she was laying of him mama Itoya will turn it to quarrel' explaining to older people is tiring, her plan was to go there and stay with Ifada, try as much as possible to get pregnant, when her mother comes to look for her and discover that she was pregnant she will have no choice than to leave her alone.
On the last day of Eseiwi examination Itohan prepared fried rice, chicken and salad for the house to celebrate the end of her examination.0n her way home she prayed that, that which is celebration thing will be celebrated in her life and that of her guardians. Getting close to her house what entered her nose was the sweet smell coming out from the kitchen; she was salivating seriously and ran into the kitchen to see what is inviting her. When she saw that it was fried rice, chicken with salad, Eseiwi was so happy because the last time she ate salad with fried rice was when she was still with her parents in Edo. Her primary school examination that was supposed to be celebrated by her family was turned to mourning but this one was different. Close family relatives were there to celebrate with them; most of them were there because they heard that Itohan culinary skill is great so they want to taste it. They were all eating and charting when Itohan brought out a tray covered with cloth, the thing in the tray was so well covered that they could not figure out what was on the tray. She placed the tray on the centre table in the living room and called Eseiwi to come and stand close to her, she asked Eseiwi to close her eyes which she did, so Itohan opened the tray to reveal a two step cake. The people present were mesmerized by what met their eyes. Itohan had invited then to celebrate Eseiwi birthday and writing of final paper, they did not know that she had baked a very beautiful cake for the celebration they quickly snapped back into reality and they chorused.
"Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday happy birthday
Happy birthday to you"
"Hip, hip, hip hurray".
"Happy belated birthday my sweet baby" Itohan embraced her. Within the short period of her marriage she had grown fond of Eseiwi and her prayer every day was to have a well behaved child as Eseiwi.
"Happy belated birthday Eseiwi" Ifada gently rub her head
"and congratulation on your examination, we are celebrating because we know that you are already in senior secondary even if the results are not out, am proud of you, you have not disappointed me one day and am so happy I took you in, you will excel in you education and every aspect of your life, for making me proud you will ever have people to stand for you whenever you have difficulty, once again congratulations" the people present were so pleased with what they saw and heard, Eseiwi had truly proven herself to be hard working and obedient child. She had bagged the entire graduating student award for the year not leaving anyone for her class mates.After speaking Ifada was sad but tried to hide his emotion, when he remembered that he had to stop in secondary school for love.