Behind the scar

My story is not different from the one million and one you already know and I was not born an abnormal child neither was I born a problem child but when one is betrayed by the society and especially by those meant to protect him, he becomes destructive and that is who she turned me to.

I lost my mother when I was six years old and two years later, my father married her because he wanted more children, he doesn't want just one son, my father told me the importance of brothers and sisters and I was happy that soon I will have brothers and sisters like my friends since my mother had gone back to Heaven.

The first thing she did after she was married was to poison my father's mind. My father stopped petting me, he stopped being a father and by the time she gave birth to her son, I had turned into a slave who eats occasionally in my own father's house. My father focused on her and her son then her other son and another son and her daughter. "Four children are better than one child" they always sing...

'One child is useless
Nobody wants one child
Mother of one child is childless
Father of one child is helpless
Four children are better than one child
They are stronger and wiser
One child is hopeless and is a disease.
One child dies like an ant
Four children lives like kings'

When I was thirteen years old, she sent me to market to buy food stuffs which I did but i forgot to buy a pack of salt then my punishment was severe lashing with wire and in the process she began slashing my face with blade, she said that it was irreparable marks and when my father returned from work and saw me, he added pepper to my injury to remind me never to forget buying salt next time.

I wake up and scream all the time because of nightmare as the lashing and slashing and thruma kept disturbing me despite the fact that the injury was healing so one day, my grandmother came and took me to live with her. I knew that it was a relief for them and also for me. Life was different with my grandmother because she did all in her power to make me happy, she never raised her hand on me and even when I was wrong, she will sit me down and put me through.

But grandmother died when I was seventeen.

My grandmother was every good thing in my life, she meant so much to me so a part of me died with her. A part which accomodated and tolerated everything humanly wrong in the society and in the family. You see, she was sick for a very long time before she died and throughout the period she was sick, no one showed up, no one cared, it was just me and her and i combined brick laying with schooling and all my earning went into her medication.

She owned three properties and they were all bought by her own sweat and not inherited or passed over by a husband and she bequested the plot of land near the Apostolic church to me while alive so after her funeral, her children came to share her properties. Grandmother had seven children and my father was her first son. She made it known before her death that the plot of land was for me alone. And she even composed a song for me.

'Anthony is my special grandson
Anthony is the good thing in my life
He is always there for me
My love for him will never die
That is the reason why I gave him this land
Because true love is returned with true love
And a plot of land is worth a true love
So I gave you this plot as a token of love'

All her children agreed to sell her other properties and share the money among themselves. I didn't want to sell the plot of land because she had a dream to set up a poultry there but time wasn't at her favor so the day she transferred ownership to me, she also transfered a vision and I had the picture of a poultry growing with me but my father out of creed decided to crash my vision simply because to him I wasn't a direct hire.

When someone slap you on the left cheek, turn the right and let him slap too perhaps that was why my step mother marked me on both cheeks but you see, I learned one thing during the short period I lived with my grandmother and it was never to allow anyone to intimidate you and grandmother assured me that when it's time, I would go back to my father's house and claim what is my right. " Gone are the days of Essua and Jacob"

I knew that my father was operating under the influence of a spell and all I wanted to do was to help him because the last time I saw her, she told me that I will die like my mother, she told me that I will meet an unexpected death and mine will be worst than my mother's because I will slightly die in pain. You see, there was a belief that my late mother met her end diabolically because she was already on the other side of the road when the truck crushed her and how it reached her remained a mystery until I decided to crack it.

I warned them but they wouldn't listen instead my father ganged up some relatives against me and they plotted to take the plot of land given to me by my grandmother. They manipulated the family head and he turned against me and debunked what grandmother said about sharing her property and all this was to shut me down because I accused my father's wife of bewitching him and also accused her of killing my late mother so my punishment was to stripe me off all my right.

To kill a dog a bad name is given to it but real dogs grows thick skin that enables them to take all the jabs without feeling any pain and I turned a real dog long time ago so the more they oppressed me the stronger I became and also the meaner I turned. I complained to the community head and he summoned my father and his gang. You see, one can only be falsely accused and find guilty if he has no father but what happens when your father is the one accusing you? I ran to the diety for justice and I cried...

' My world, my world; is my world different
Does ones world crumble at the demise of his mother
Does one become helpless at the demise of his grandmother
Will justice be denied a child crying to redress an injustice
If it was strangers I wouldn't mind
But she killed my mother and took my father away
My father is now my enemy and I am his nightmare
Grant me justice, fight for me and redress this wrong'

A child is tagged evil when he go miles to seek for justice and to defend himself but I warned them, I challenged her to prove her innocence but instead of defending herself, she remoted my father. I don't blame my father, I had no issues with him because I knew from the day he married her that he was no longer the friendly father that wanted the best for his son, I knew that he wasn't with his right mind so as much as I was about justice, I was also out to help him, to free him from the spell she casted on him.

Those that knew the truth supported me and even one of my step brothers came to me and begged me to withdraw the case from the shrine because he doesn't want to loose his mother and our father. Why will he be afraid of losing his mother? I knew that she was the one that sent him to indirectly confuse me but I was out for justice and one thing about people like me is that it's difficult for us to change our mind when we make it up so that morning when the stream turned red, the entire community came to a halt.

There are so many ways to kill a rat and I chose the only way I found available and viable for me, the way that no one can manipulate so after the first signal by the diety, those that understood the mesaage called my father and advised him to make peace with me and also take his wife to the shrine to defend the charges against her. My father once worked with the vicar of St Paul and he is one of those who doesn't believe in traditional law.

Nobody wanted to be held responsible for anything he or she knew nothing about so one by one, my uncles came begging me to withdraw their names in the charges, they all agreed and surrendered my plot of land to me, the family head even went as far as finning my father a goat and ten tubers of yam for obstructing grandmother's wish so with this development I knew that things were turning to my favor so I went to the chief priest and withdrew all the charges against my Uncles but on the condition that they would persuade my father's wife to take the oat.

'The evil you do lives with you
No evildoer goes unpunished
Every evil done by man to man
Surely has a day of redress
For the victory of evil over good
Is just temporal'

That is a proverbical song in my community and it is not an everyday song. It is only sang by the person that mask ijele so that morning when he came to my father's house and sang the song became the day I was handed Victory. I recalled sitting with grandmother in her tiny kitchen as she roast fishes and yam one day and the look in her eyes was not ordinary then she held my hand and told me that a day shall come, when the Prince shall be sort for by those who ridiculed him.

When she said Prince, she meant me and that day finally came because when Aziza left, even Mbe who once asked if there are still dieties personally called my father and advised him to heed the call because a frog doesn't run during the day in vain. Finally my father succumbed to family pressure but it was too late for his wife because she disregarded the seven days autumatum and like every stubborn fly that ended up inside the grave with the corpse, the plague hit her. That same kind of plague that hit the Egyptians.

I had a fried who worked with a media firm so I asked him to come to our house to get a news that will make him famous so he came that day with a bunch of journalists and at exactly 3pm which was the exact time that truck crashed and killed my mother, ekwenche hit the metal gong and the chief priest released the gun powder with a thundering instruction; 'Anyone whose hand is in the death of Adaugo...confess! wherever you are start talking and may Igodo strike you with madness.!!! My father's wife opened up her mouth and I reclaimed my birth right.

Note: We all have different forms of scars and there is a story of survival in all our scars.