Echoes of My Life

Charles’ acceptance and willingness to pay my secondary school tuition did not go down well with Egoyibo who saw my existence and presence in the house repulsive. Walking to school and back became a routine. In a day I walked on average of twenty miles in other to be educated. I never wanted and never allowed anything to prevent me from getting education, as I did not desire to be “executed” intellectually. March 27, 1975, precisely on a Holy Thursday, I walked back home from school, a distance of about ten miles. I went to a Kiosk and bought a loaf of bread. I was very hungry and needed to eat something before going for Holy Thursday Mass. I used the already opened margarine to eat the bread. Egoyibo was not happy that I used the margarine. She told me that I was a burden to her. She spewed and heaped all kinds of abusive words on me. Most agonizing of all was, “Why are you disturbing my peace, after all I was not responsible for your mother’s death, she added.” My mood as a helpless and poor orphan is an experience that I would not wish for anybody. After such demeaning and debasing encounter with Egoyibo, I stayed for two weeks without food as I depended only on water. I still did all my house chores, not taking into heart, her defaming utterances. I cleaned the entire house including Charles and Egoyibo’s room, as was the routine. Indeed, I was a house help trying to gain education, so I stooped to conquer. In Aba, I never had a bed to sleep on let alone a room to myself, and adolescence age was beckoning. I slept on the floor with a raffia mat as a bed. Waking up in the morning, I rolled up my sleeping mat and stuck it behind the door. I went on to do my morning house chores before going to school. I never liked untidy environments, hence I did all those cleanings.