BROWN 2

She can remember how excited she had been when she was told she was going on ‘holidays’. She had run round the entire compound, announcing to everyone who would listen that she was leaving for Lagos. She had promised to buy cars for all her friends and she and Godwin had become friends again.
She can also remember how intimidated and shy she had felt when she sat on a white couch in Madam’s living room, and Madam had smiled at her with her ‘rich’ smile. The only relation she has had with that couch for the eight years she has been with them is scrubbing it till it gleams.

She is feeding Baby now. Madam never carries Baby unless visitors are around. But Madam loves Baby. Lade knows because Madam has said that Baby is the reason why Oga hasn’t gone to marry another wife like his mother had been pushing him to. Oga’s mother was the witch that tied up her womb for more than thirteen years but when Pastor Ibinabo prayed for her, she received God’s healing miracle and now has Baby. Now Oga’s mother cannot call her barren anymore and Oga no longer has an excuse to leave her. This is what Madam says and Lade has to believe.

It has been a long time since Lade thought of rich as happy. Now ‘rich’ is simply everything wrong around her. Rich is the existence of Baby, Madam’s child with her young lover who is still in university. Lade knows this because when Lade mentioned to Madam, in front of Oga while they were dining, that the boy had come earlier in the day to ask for his school fees, Madam had smiled almost desperately and shook her head indulgently at her ‘silly cousin’ and his disturbance every time. And Madam had called Edet to stuff Lade’s mouth with a cloth and beat her properly that night to teach her to keep her mouth shut.

Rich is Madam’s content in the idea that Oga loves her because she gave him Baby. Lade knows that this isn’t true because Oga has gone past ‘accidentally’ brushing her newly abundant breasts and now comes to her even at night when Madam is asleep in their bed. She knows that Oga doesn’t love Madam because Oga loves her. He tells her at every opportunity he gets; mouthing it behind Madam’s back, panting it after he has climaxed, dropping it in the little notes that accompany his anonymous gifts, gifts that Madam collects and beats her for because she thinks Lade has a lover outside.

Rich is her crooked leg, her scarred upper lip, her ill-fitting clothes, her dizzy hunger spells, her poor accented English, and so on. Rich is now many things, and none of them is happy.