HER BROKEN ANGEL

Kpakpangolo Kpaangolo

Kpakpangolo. Kpangolo

Udume. Ogene

Onye ọ mara sụrụ yayaya sụrụ ya

Onye ọmara sụrụ yayaya sụrụ yaa

Obi listened as she heard the voices of the children out in the compound, rising with excitement and satisfaction from the game they were playing. They would sing the song, holding their hands together, move around in a circle that they had created and would squat occasionally as the song demanded.

The children beamed with excitement in the breezy evening. The sun had gone down, except for the orange coloring of clouds where it stood before, nothing spoke of its prior position. The children had grown tired of squatting and jumping so they dove into their school rhymes.

I wrote a letter to my friend

I don't where I kept it

Some of you might pick it up and put inside your pocket

It isn't you, it isn't you, it isn't you, it isn't you

Some of you might pick it up and put inside your pocket

It's you!

The song usually involved a singer wearing a sad face and pretending to look for a letter, whoever the singer points at the end jumps into the middle and continues the game. Obi felt nostalgic remembering the days when she sang the same song and played with the girls in her church. All those things stopped once they started to tease her and she learnt to keep to herself. Her siblings came and it became easier to give them the attention they needed, her attention had not been divided.

As a young child she learned to tender to Tobe's needs, take him to their mother when he cried and she even learnt to change him out of his napkins. When the girls came, it became easier for her to take care of them, Tobe had been the trial at babysitting and she did very well with the girls. So well that her mother began to leave the children with her to go long distances.

Her siblings were also her children because she had watched them grow, they could have childlike moments because she was determined to keep her siblings from being teased.

Obi looked at the novel she had been reading before the children's voice caught her. She had not even finished a page out of the chapter. She closed the book and focused her gaze on the singing children.

Ororo oro

Onye m jidere

Ọkpọ n'isi

She knew her sisters would come running to their house, they always did when they played the game of hide and seek. Somehow Tobe was the one whose eyes were shut and he gave the girls and their mates time to run to their different hiding positions.

Ifenna and Oluebube ran past Obi into the room and shut the door. The other children ran to their hiding positions. Tobe having sensed that they all must have dispersed with the sudden stillness asked one last time if they were all hidden.

"Unu si m biawa? Should I come?"

When he didn't get any response he began his search. He looked behind the trees, even went to the backyard. Obi noticed that the children had actually learnt good spots to hide themselves if Tobe hadn't found them in just minutes. All the children but for her younger sisters. What Obi didn't understand was why Tobe hadn't barged into the room to look for his sisters, it was obvious that they'd be there. She even heard occasional giggling from the room like they were watching Tobe.

Obi got very interested in the game and observed Tobe because she tried to understand why he hadn't found his sisters. Tobe wandered to Dee Ogbos part of the compound and finally caught a girl.

The girl refused to alarm others for them to know she had been caught. She seemed to be arguing with Tobe and he started pulling her to the original spot.

Obi got up and went to the children to settle their dispute which she effectively did because she knew why the girl was upset. Who wouldn't be when they could all hear Ifenna and Oluebube but somehow Tobe didn't.

After settling their dispute Obi decided to create a game for them, a game that didn't require them hiding. She instructed that they each bring stones that had distinctive feature and were sizable and they did. She then drew lines with the initials of the children on the table she had created.

Then Obi instructed them on the rules of the game, they were supposed to find the stones where she hid them still maintaining decorum so that the others wouldn't find out easily where she kept them. Whoever founds the stone first got the highest score, followed by the second and so on. Obi instructed the children to shut their eyes and when they did, she hid the stones.

ter than the original hide and seek and s

iri emechi? Are y

iefune heading towards her. Obi took the stones and walked to meet him halfway th

they got the farm, then she a

moved to his side noticing the hesitation in opening up to her. She reac

ainst her. Apparently they have been sending mails to all their students to garner enough evidence agains

had been caught for the evil she had wrought

od thing that they finally caught h

to say something about it but I just can't help but wonder if it wouldn't affect me in a way, going back the

e airing their dirty laundry but the truth was that he needed clos

k for, something you could not control and you came out better." He had always been h

d with an expression that surp

Monica abused me but at a point, it didn't feel like

with raging hormones it's normal that your body reacted t

ing his eyes from Obi. Obi slightly te

ll me, I'd

f them were younger than I was, about 14 years old, I was 16 years old then. One of my friends used to slip in pills for the girls and I used to regret it but I just couldn't

ared her throat searching for w

ed to this village? " Obi enquired

weren't younger than I was, if that's what you are worr

or's daughter!! " Obi co

stopped. There was something about you

uce

anted to protect you, not hurt you. Which meant I had to become better just for you. I didn't know I could actually control myse

ays thought Obiefune had so much control over his urges but it turned out to be

e urged her terrified that his

The day you told me you hated me, I felt my whole world crumble and I will never do something to make you hat

haled "You're quit

rienc

rust you Obiefune, I trust that you'll always do the right thing by me. Which is why I think you should go to yo

" Thank you Obi" He said a

e's your

l holding her to him, he had expected

lled away from him alar

there any

u" Obi replied with h

me to do anyth

d "Just tell m

hat she actually wanted to pay him a visit. She knew her mother would never consent to it so she co

n and how to leave her siblings alone. Maybe this

for a while now. The only problem is just how I'd leave

while then spoke. "Are you sur

lding her reasons

I'll take you to see your father then while you are there I'd go to my schoo

in excitement and Obi chuckled. "

d still been laughing when Obi remembered that she had told her siblings and the other

rm. Obiefune saw the shock written all over her fa

closed. Some occasionally opened their eyes to call out for

rying to cheat by peeping. After a while their feet

My legs are aching" still t

eir eyes shut and others still stood grumblin

ir eyes. Obi felt a pang of pain, she had forgotten about the children while she was c

ing and out of breath, she told them that the

ve them some of the roasted meat her mother a

ces of meat that Obi handed to th

whole thing and teased he

name, you are just as du

oked in the joy it brought him to even notice. The day went by just like any other

Chapter 27 - AGAINST ALL ODDS