Page 38 of Cursed Daughters
Mo shrugged, and continued her work. The soil was getting into her fingernails. She watched as an insect scaled her hand. She flicked it off with a finger.
“This is the sort of thing your mum would do.”
“This isn’t juju.”
“Then what is it?”
Mo didn’t have an answer for her cousin, and failing to get a response, Ebun left her side. How could she explain the compulsion to hold something that belonged to Golden Boy, and then thesubsequent need to bury the item, to keep it safe? To her, it was simply a manifestation of her love. Maybe one day Ebun would understand.
She wasn’t even certain her cousin had dated before; the girl kept secrets as though her life depended onit.
She folded the pale-blue handkerchief gently, and placed it in the newly dug hole, then she covered it up and patted it till she was satisfied the soil looked undisturbed.
Falodun Family Curse
Yemisi, daughter of Wemimo, daughter of Feranmi Falodun (the one who was cursed), had been engaged to her lover for three months when he reported back to her that his spiritual adviser had warned him that if he married her he would surely die. So the wedding was called off.
She should have seen the signs. He had stopped consuming the meals she made for him, blaming a lack of appetite and a busy schedule; and she had never known him to reject food. She would wake up from sleep and find him staring at her with a curious expression on his face. And on top of that, he had failed to show up and meet an uncle of hers when the uncle was in town. As Feranmi’s granddaughter, she was familiar with the curse and should have been on high alert; but she was caught up with wedding planning and distracted by her morning sickness; she hadn’t had room for doubt.
At first she suspected it was another woman. But she found no trace of one—so she had to conclude that he was not running from her arms to the arms of another, he was simply running. And that was so much worse. A cheating man she could understand, but in this case, where could she lay blame except at the threshold of the curse?
She tried to appeal to his family’s conscience. After all, there had been an introduction between the families; they could not disentangle themselves so easily. They had sattogether and broken bread, laughed and made promises to each other; he could not cast her aside as if she was nothing. And then there was the not so small matter of the child growing in her belly. A child she hoped more than ever would turn out to be a boy.
But the faces of his family were stone. The matriarch simply told her, “We look after our own. The child will be provided for. You don’t need to worry about that.”
And that was the end of the matter.
II
Mo cradled the phone. Golden Boy was no longer on the line, but she didn’t want the softness she felt to dissipate so quickly. He bought phone card after phone card so that they could speak once a day. And then when they ran out of credit, they would resort to sending emails to one another. She missed his presence, but she loved going to her MSN inbox and seeing his name in her otherwise junk-cluttered account.
Her brother walked into the room, and she quickly replaced the phone handset.
Tolu stuck out his tongue, pointed a finger into his mouth and made a retching noise, startling Sango. Mo hissed, “What exactly do these girls find attractive about you?”
“I’m a debonair guy.”
“You’re a shameless playboy.”
He shrugged. “At least they are realists.”
“Meaning?”
“The dude has been in the UK for two months; you think he doesn’t have a babe there?”
“This might be hard for your brain to comprehend, but there are guys who are satisfied with the one chick. One, uno, un, èyàkan.”
“I wouldn’t have thought you were this naïve.”
She smiled at him. Golden Boy said what he meant, and he did what he said. He was one of the most transparent people she had ever met. If her brother was waiting for her comeback, he would continue to wait.
Tolu sat on the floor, leant back against the couch and began to roll himself a spliff. She watched him light it and bring it to his mouth. She grabbed the spliff from him, took a hit and handed it back. Just then Ebun walked into the east living room. She was in her uniform, blazer and tie included. She began to unravel her tie.
“How were your exams?”
She shrugged. “They were all right.”
Mo watched her cousin as she went to sit beside Tolu. Was there an abruptness in her response? An edge of something? Ebun collected the joint from Tolu’s hand and sucked in the substance. Mo walked over and snatched it from her.
