Page 5 of Cursed Daughters
VI
The morning after Ebun dreamt of Monife, her mother returned to the hospital with her sister in tow. Had she come alone, perhaps Ebun would have shared the dream, and the sense of foreboding she had. But the sisters came together and so she said nothing of her fear.
“?kú ewu ?m?,” said Aunty Bunmi, congratulating Ebun on her survival, because childbirth was serious business, like going to sea and being unsure if you would ever see land again. She received the congratulations gracefully. She wondered how Aunty Bunmi was processing everything that was unfolding. She had lost a daughter, and her niece had gained one. She couldn’t imagine what would be going through her aunt’s head.
“Are you sure you don’t want to contact the baby’s father?” Kemi began.
“Mum…”
“If he is refusing to take responsibility, we can talk to his family.”
“Why would you assume he is refusing to…”
She lost the thread of what she had been saying as she watched her aunt making her way over to the cot. She heard the gasp. A part of her realised she was anticipating it.
“Kemi. Ah ah. Mo m?` ohun tí mo n rí. She is the spitting image of—”
“Yes,” Ebun cut in. “Yes. I guess…I guess she looks a bit like Mo.” There was no point denying it. The baby’s eyes, her long, narrow nose, the wide forehead. It was as though she had given birth to her cousin’s child.
She had begun to notice the resemblance as she held her baby, watching her snuffle around her breast, then latch. She noted the similarities as she changed the first nappy, careful not to touch the tender leftover from the umbilical cord. And when the nurses came in, marvelling at her baby’s thick, generous hair, she was quick to stress that the attribute could be traced to their progenitor, Feranmi.
“A bit? A bit ké?” Aunty Bunmi leant into the crib and eagerly lifted the newborn out of it. “Monife has come back to me. She has come again.” Ebun felt as though someone was pouring freezing-cold water down her spine.
“What?” she said as she struggled to sit up. Her mother saw her distress and stood quickly from the plastic seat beside the bed, approaching her sister and holding out her arms for the baby. Aunty Bunmi’s grip only tightened.
“Maybe you should give her to me, Bunmi,” Kemi said gently.
“Look at her eyes. These are Monife’s eyes na.”
“Bunmi.” Her mother’s voice had taken on a deeper undertone, but her aunt would not be distracted; she rocked the baby, still searching for signs proving her daughter had returned.
“And her forehead. See how long her forehead is.”
“We all have the forehead, Aunty,” added Ebun from the bed. “It is not Monife’s forehead alone.”
Aunt Bunmi sighed. “My daughter has come back to me.”
“She has not,” Ebun said, her voice becoming high-pitched and shaky. “See, she has a birthmark Mo did not have. On the back of her neck.”
Her mother crept closer as Aunty Bunmi turned the newborn over; she would see what Ebun had noticed whilst dressing her in a onesie—a trail of pale skin, like droplets on a glass. They were small and easy to miss on the fresh-from-the-womb skin, but she could tell they were there to stay and she was reassured by the knowledge that Monife had had no such mark.
But if she had thought Bunmi would be discouraged by this, she was swiftly disappointed.
“It is like someone has pressed three fingers into her skin. This mark, she was set aside. Don’t you see? She was wrenched back from the jaws of death. She was—”
“She is not Monife. Monife is gone.” Ebun felt an ache at the back of her skull. She would have given anything to see Mo. She had loved Mo. She still couldn’t believe she would have to go on through life without her. But her child would not be the vessel her cousin could use to come back into this life. You were given one life and Mo had decided what to do with hers.
“Ebun,” hissed her mother.
“What?!”
“Mind yourself,” she whispered, jerking her head at Aunty Bunmi, whose eyes were rapidly filling with tears.
“This is my daughter, Mummy.”
“Nobody is saying she is not.”
“She isourdaughter,” said Aunty Bunmi firmly. “And we will love her even better this time.”
