EPISODES FROM MY CHILDHOOD 3 : GRANDMA'S REMARRIAGE.

The ten years grandma refused to remarry were the years I learnt that greed could make men dedicate a long time into getting wealthy with tricks rather than investing a very short time into doing something meaningful.

They kept pestering and trying to bully her but there was very little they could do to her. She was smater than every trick they tried to play. Stronger than any blow they gave her.

One of the most dedicated men in the whole remarriage story was Edem, the very man that moved the motion. The slim tall fair cousin of my father that although older than my grandma was still older than his own age. The same Edem that had a reputation of warming the beds of numerous widows and older women in the community. The same Edem that had to be thrown into jail before he stopped.

Edem kept doing everything in his power to get what he wanted. Sent men to rob my grandma, plant diabolic things in the farmlands. Join Udoka who was also interested in marrying my grandma in pressing the false charges.

Handling Udoka was simple all grandma needed to do was to report him to the civil service authority with the help of her lawyer and when he found out his retirement benefits were at risk, he backed out and Edem went on.

The last thing Edem did was harassing my grandma over one of the plots of land. It was planting season and my grandma was going about doing the needful; putting cassava stems, and pumpkin seeds into the ground.

One of the afternoons, while I and my grandma were planting, Edem came in with men in his truck. The carried young Palm trees in transplanting bags. He highlighted from the truck with a face that looked like he hadn't had a single reason to smile since he was born. "Oya! Oya!! Oya!!! We don't have time, he kept ordering the men and behaving as if we ( I, my grandma and my cousins weren't there" 

The men started doing the transplanting. " Hey, what is it you people are doing" 

"Putting some manly trees on my land woman" Edem finally spoke. 

"Whose land? You have decided not to stop this madness eh? Leave here!". Edem didn't say a word, he was feeling very powerful that day. My grandma noticed one of the men uproot her yam seedlings while trying to dig a whole for one of the Palm trees. Like a triggered lioness, grandma flung her hoe, it hit his back the very moment my grandma said "foolish thing! You're yet to plant for yourself but you're busy destroying what another person is planting and planting for an idiot".

Grandma grabbed her machete and charged, they all ran away thinking she was coming for them but my grandma was going to the young palm trees. She gave those young things heavy strokes with the sharp edge of the machete and within seconds, most of them were laid to waste. She did all this saying "this is my land" under her breath.

Edem was ready for trouble. He reached for his own machete and charged towards her. The men he came with were not ready to watch a person kill another so they stopped them. They begged my grandma to drop her machete and forcefully seized the machete Edem was holding. 

When the men managed to grab him and seize his machete, Edem grabbed a stick from the ground and started whipping my grandma mercilessly with it, he didn't stop until my grandma freed herself from his grip and ran away cursing. The men held him again, some slapped him and said "is that woman not an aunt to you, this is too much"

My grandma didn't stop running until she was far away from the farm. I followed her to the house and I could tell from her breath that she was boiling with anger. No man had ever raised a hand on her; not her father who was the late clan head, not her husband. Who was Edem to do a thing like that!

Once home, she grabbed some money from her cupboard and left without saying a word. She would visit her lawyer who would lead her to the police station and later a photographer who would make pictures of the bruises on her skin. The next morning, policeman grabbed Edem from his bed and the judge would give him a jail term two weeks later. 

After the other men heard what happened to Edem, no one told them to leave my grandma and her late husbands properties alone. Grandma like she always wanted, never remarried.

FICTION

Next "AUNT PRECY" episode drops next week.

- Ifiokobong Etuk ( KING of the QUILL )