THE JOURNEY HOME 2

On the day Esther also known as Mama Kekere passed on, it rained heavily. The whole village was flooded and no one dared to come out. No one except 9 year old Joseph who had managed to drag his heavily pregnant mother to the house of Mama Nonso a short and brutish midwife who had delivered all Mama Kekere's children including Joseph. Joseph’s mother gave up the ghost six hours  after trying to have her baby who also didn’t make it. He was a boy.

 Joseph loved his mother dearly, she was his rock.  she fended for the family when all seemed to be failing with no one to help and  even though Joseph had often tried to prove that he was old enough to take care of the family, she would still step in to treat him like the child that he was and make sure everyone was okay. Often times she referred to Joseph as her husband and said she had the best husband in the world. This seldom made Joseph happy, he was nothing compared to the deadbeat father he had who spent his lifetime drinking, sleeping and chasing after other people's wives.

 Despite all her hardwork and efforts, Joseph’s father never appreciated his wife, he would still beat her on most nights when he came home drunk. Joseph had once told his mother to run away otherwise he would kill himself but his mother’s words even when her eyes were swollen with blood dripping from her gums were “ omo mi, ma worry ko si nkan ti olorun o le se” which translated to “Joseph don’t worry, there’s nothing God cannot do"

He believed that so well and on several nights after she still got the beating of her life, he still believed even after she got pregnant and his father kept on beating her, even after she was in labour and rushed to a midwives house to have her baby who was premature. But Joseph stopped to believe when Mama Nonso came out of her shed under the heavy rain to deliver the news to him that his mother was no more. Although Joseph was very young he however decided  that a God who couldn’t save his mother’s life wasn’t to be trusted. On that same  day that he lost his mother, Joseph renounced God.

It had been 6years and 7months since Joseph thought of God but in that moment, on a lonely road with a damaged car about to burst in flames and his helper nowhere to be found. Joseph knew deep within him that he had no one else to turn to. He began to weep like a baby and cried out  “God help me, God help me" he started running around with his hands on his head shouting “Uncle Korede Uncle Korede” he moved around the car searching frantically and then further to a nearby bush when he suddenly he felt a glimpse of hope as he found a pair of Uncle Korede’s shoe, he moved further into the thick bush and saw Uncle Korede lying flat on his belly with his legs wide apart and one of his arms sprawled behind his back.

With a heavy sigh of relief Joseph rushed to flip and drag him out to the main road so he could call for help. Joseph knew deep down as he dragged the seemingly lifeless body of Uncle Korede out of the bush that  again ,God had disappointed him. But for the first time in his very short life, Joseph was wrong .