BROWN 5

Madam is wondering aloud what she has done to deserve such treatment from Lade, why this stupid girl whom she fed, clothed and sent to school, decided to go outside and bring shame to her name. She shakes her head and beats her breast as Mummy Omolara tries to contain her, and swears that if not for the fact that Lade was in the hospital, she would have sent her packing and killed whichever useless vagabond was responsible for the abomination. “Don’t cry now, Mama Baby,” Mummy Omolara says to Madam, “Think about what Pastor Ibinabo would say – always be positive! Lade is even lucky sef! Edet beat her and that’s a terrible thing I know, but now she is no longer pregnant. So no one has to know! Plus you don’t even need to spend money on abortion, did you think of that?” And on she goes, showing Madam that lovely polished silver lining in her terrible, terrible cloud.

Oga sits there, nodding almost automatically and agreeing to everything they say. He has a dazed look on his face that would have been funny if Lade feels inclined to laugh.

She keeps watching them until she falls asleep. When they discharge her from the hospital, she returns to her 3am to 11pm routine: cooking, cleaning, schooling and taking care of Baby as if nothing ever happened.
So the night when she steals Madam’s precious jewellery, Oga’s dollars and wrist watches, and she suffocates Baby with his pillow, no one is expecting it, not even she. She never makes a conscious decision, doesn’t consider right or wrong, doesn’t think at all. She simply snaps.

They will have nothing. Nothing.