Thread by @Tales4rmdHearth

This moment!
This beautiful fulfilling moment!
As if in slow motion, I slowly rub my chest with my right hand as I watch the men dig. I'm about to start the foundation for my house here in my village. My own house!

The feeling in my chest intensifies as I look back to take in the layout of my plot for the hundredth time.The swelling feeling in my chest is nothing but unbridled pride.We couldn't find water on my own land, so the men are digging on the other side of papa's farm to find water

I need this borehole up and running before I start work properly on my house. It's wiser for me to install it now than spend thousands buying water.
I won't make my father's mistake.

Remembering papa, I slip out my phone from my jean shorts and begin to take pictures of the men at work for him.
His health has deteriorated over the past few years so my wife and I saw it necessary to bring him to our house in town so as to take better care of him.

I recall the twinkle in his eye when I asked permission to take this land and build my house. He blessed me and wished me well.I wonder if he would make a fuss about the borehole I'm installing on his farm considering that he hasn't tilled the small patch of land in over 4 years

So many memories about this village. As a child, this place was nothing but papa's village. I never considered it as mine after all I wasn't born here and we only visited once a year. I had no idea how much of my roots crawled and crept beneath this soil...

till that Christmas break when everything changed. At first we thought our stay in the village was extended because of the clan meetings daddy had to attend after the new year celebration.
We had come home to the village on the second week of December - immediately after our...

schools closed for the year. So imagine the way we sulked when we had to stay back and watch everyone else go back to the city. It took us a while to realize that the reason we had packed more than we usually needed for Christmas vacation, was because the ...

village was going to be our new address. Mom tried to explain to us but Daddy ignored us and avoided any conversation that would exceed Good morning Sir. Dad's containers were lost at the sea and that meant the loan he took from the bank had to be repaid ...

with our big house and some of our cars in the city. It was hard for us to understand. We had to switch to public schools in the village because Daddy couldn't afford our international primary and secondary school fees. Mom who had always been a housewife,...

had to dust her TTC certificate to search for a teaching job in the village.
It was hard for us but I imagine it was harder for daddy who loved and enjoyed his big man status. He couldn't bear to give up some of his old habits so he sold more and more of our remaining...

property in order to keep up a measure of appearance. Daddy had built the house in the city in a year but it took him 7 years to build one in the village. One which he never completed till he went broke and decided to complete it no matter what.

Mom wasn't in support but she sold some of her jewelries and contributed to the building project. Dad assured her that it was a temporary situation which will be sorted out once his bosom friend who promised to get him back on his feet, does so.

He told her that everything we lost will be replaced thrice therefore she shouldn't worry.
I don't know if mom believed him, but she carried on her new responsibility as the new bread winner with dignity. Daddy couldn't find any white collar job because all he had ...

was a standard six certificate. He had left the village when he was 13 and never looked back till he became a successful businessman. He gave us everything we ever wanted. I remember his wardrobe which was always filled with bags of cash.

I used to take some cash to school and spend recklessly. My secondary school was for the children of big men so it was normal for us to try to outspend one another. Dad never asked or looked for his money. Life was beautiful for us.

2 months...6 months...11 months. Another Christmas was fast approaching and dad's demeanor darkened as each day passed. He drunk a lot and would travel for weeks without letting mom know his itinerary. Our grandparents were dead and since dad was an only child, we had nobody.

Dad had alienated his cousins so it was with open glee that they looked upon us every time our paths crossed. Mom turned to her children for solace. She shared a lot about her marriage to dad. One night, we woke up to mom's screams as dad beat her up.

We were helpless and could only huddle together and cry for our mom.
One morning, after a night of punches and screams, our daddy was nowhere to be seen. But mom, despite her black eye and wounds tended to us as we prepared for school.

She told us dad beat her because she refused to sell her precious gold ring. . It was the only valuable thing she had at the time and she was saving it for a rainy day.
Unfortunately, what daddy deemed to be a rainy day, was not a rainy day in her dictionary.

She told us she had hidden it somewhere for safekeeping. Later, as she walked down to the bus stop with us, she had whispered to me, " I'm wearing it on my toe now just in case he searches my bags when I'm not around."

She had chuckled at her when I glanced down at her feet. She wore a court shoe so I couldn't see it. I imagined it was uncomfortable
That night, daddy come back and attacked mom. He beat her up again. My siblings and I huddled together and cried for her.

This time around, he came into our room with a belt and threatened to deal with us if we didn't shut up. In the morning, we couldn't find either daddy or mom. It was a Saturday so we faced our chores and waited.

Daddy came back in the afternoon wearing a strained face and told us that mom had left us. While he was asleep, she had packed her bag and ran away early in the morning. We stared at him in disbelief. But as the night approached,...

we realised that he was right. I had even gone to check for her clothes and none were in the wardrobe. That night we wailed and wailed for our mother. We wanted to go with her. It didn't matter where, we just wanted our mother. But she never came back.

We lived and survived as children without a mother. It seemed like her disappearance became a wake-up call for dad. He never got back on his feet as he had expected. His bosom friend didn't bail him out as promised but...

dad went on to become a driver with one of the popular transportation companies.. He never became rich again but he did his best to see us through polytechnic. It was a struggle for us all but he did his best. He never remarried but we knew his numerous girlfriends ...

who came to the house to audition for the role of wife. They served his purpose, which was to have someone take care of the domestics while we were in school. They always gave up once they realized their labour of love wouldn't be rewarded with the title of a Mrs.

It's been years but life has been okay for my siblings and I. We even launched a search for mom at one point in our lives but we never found her and she never reached out to us.
''Oga, e be like say una dey use this place do dustbin.''

Startled out of my reverie, I ask ''Wait! What?"
The sweating man points at his feet. He had dug a 2 inches hole and was standing in it. Around his feet were pieces of what I imagine are rags. The other men resumed their digging after staring for some minutes.

"I don't know. Perhaps,'' I respond with a shrug. Almost immediately, my phone rings and my younger sister's name pops up on my screen. I waved at the men to excuse me.
"Smallie, how una dey?" I asked affectionately.

"We dey o. I will be due in 3 weeks. Can't wait to drop this my ibu Alhaji."
I could hear the smile in her voice so I knew she was rubbing her swollen belly. This was her fourth and hopefully her last.
"How is it going sef?'' she continued.
"My dear, it's...."

A shriek erupts behind me, followed by a thud and "Chineke meee!
Alarmed, I turn back to the men and see them out of the hole staring and pointing into it.
Phone call forgotten, I rush towards the hole . There was a skeleton there.

The torso was partly buried but the skull, thigh bones and feet were visible.
Almost immediately, a feeling of dread comes over me as i stare hard at it.
I know it. I knew it. Slowly, I ease myself into the what was once a grave

and bent down to stare at the visible feet which protruded from the earth.
I can hear the men shout at me as I pinch away caked earth from the feet. Those pieces weren't rags. They had been clothes buried to hide away a murder.

Tears stream down my face as I dust off the last earth and behold the ring saved for a rainy day.
The world was silent as I sank into the earth. In that silence , I can faintly hear my sister's voice coming through the phone in panic.

I had forgotten that we were on a call.
"Ikenna, what's happening? Talk to me! What's happening?..."
I cut the call.

#FictionAt2am

Pls unroll thread @threadreaderapp