Page 105 of Cursed Daughters
And then her eyes were welling up with tears. He took her into his arms and just held her. She allowed them those few minutes, and then she stepped away from him.
“Z, I think I need some space. I have a lot going on right now. I have to think.”
—
Home was strange without Grandma West in it, as if the house was missing a vital piece of its foundation.
She went in search of the remaining inhabitants. Grandma East was sitting on her chair. She looked tired, washed out. It was the first time in memory that Eniiyi had seen her grandmother without her trademark red nail polish. She went over to her and knelt on the floor, resting her head on her lap.
“?m? mi,” her grandma said, placing a hand on her head and stroking her hair. They stayed like that till somewhere in the house she heard raised voices, her mother arguing with a man. Sango started to bark, but she could still hear the man’s voice clearly. It was Osagie.
“When were you going to tell me?” His voice was loud. She could barely hear her mother’s response. Eniiyi stood up and left her grandmother in the living room. The argument was coming from her mother’s bedroom. She prepped herself to go and defend her, but then she heard Osagie shout: “She is my daughter!”
She froze.
“Oba, please. Calm down.”
Eniiyi opened the door to her mother’s bedroom. Osagie was pacing. Ebun saw her and blinked.
“Is it true?” Eniiyi asked.
Ebun sighed. “Osagie and I knew each other when we were kids. Then we reconnected after uni. We dated for a few months. It ended. That was that.”
“That was that?” Osagie repeated in disbelief. He turned as if in appeal to Eniiyi. “She broke up with me. She didn’t tell me she was pregnant. I had no idea that she had borne me a child. If I knew, I would have come to her; to you. I…I travelled a lot over the next decade, joined the air force, and when I later heard Ebun was a mum, I just assumed she had finally met a man she could love.” He had been standing the whole time he spoke, gesturing with his hands and allowing the tears in his eyes to fall. Eniiyi found she could not look at him, so she stared at the floor. “I bumped into your mum last year at church, we reconnected and I realised I wanted…no, needed to be a part of her life; but she had said nothing of you being…”
Eniiyi stared at her mother, who did not break eye contact but who was also crying.
“You let me think he was dead, or uninterested, or married…”
“I wanted to protect you.”
“From what?!”
“Haven’t you heard? The men in our lives always leave in the end.”
“What are you talking about?” asked Osagie.
“She is talking about the curse.”
“Look at me, Eniiyi. I wanted to save you from the abandonment.”
“I don’t believe that, Mum. I think you wanted to save yourself.”
“I wouldn’t have abandoned you, Ebun,” said Osagie, “if you had given me a chance.”
“You may not have had a choice.”
VIII
“G&T please,” she requested. She had already had three G&Ts so far, and she could feel the world softening a little around her.
The last few weeks had been overwhelming, and once again she felt that her life was spiralling beyond her control. Her grand-aunt had just died, she’d discovered after all these years that she had a father, and she believed that her love for Zubby was just a reflection of her dead aunt’s obsession with Golden Boy.
“Another one?”
She looked up at the inquisitive bartender. She was certain he wouldn’t have questioned her if she was a man.
“You heard her.”
