Episode 4
One granny who was gyrating to the beats of the local juju music performance by the local talking drummers walked to Lamide and whacked him across the face. How could he make such an expensive joke when people were in celebration mode? These young children of nowadays, she lamented and took a long sip from her bottle of local beer. Voices could be heard in the compound as women shouted at each other, and everyone became confused. Lamide broke down, wept, and begged the women to stop their bickering. Women are always women, he thought. Here they were bickering over food and drink when his brother and wife, the very objects of this celebration, were lying dead in some local hospital mortuary. Lamide stood up and started running. He had to inform the Reverend Father Ronaldo their parish priest immediately.
The little baby Ola who had been sleeping soundly in her wooden cot lined with hand-woven blankets gave a shriek. It was time for food. She wanted her food. She wanted her mother’s breast milk. Yet, one thing was clear. That little, innocent angel crying out for her mother’s milk would never, ever have that milk. And that was just the beginning of her troubles. The voice of the crying little girl reminded everyone in the compound of the stark reality and a deafening silence descended on the noisy women.
At this time the local priest, an old Italian Father Ronaldo whom the natives simply referred to as Father, (he founded the Ologbo Parish of the Roman Catholic Church), pulled into the compound in his old Volkswagen Beetle with Lamide and stepped out, smiling at everyone. What was wrong with these white people? Was Father not aware that the little baby he was so eagerly waiting to baptize had just lost both parents? How could he be smiling instead of joining everyone to weep? Or, had he come to remind them of the baptism of the orphaned little girl and look forward to all the local chicken, goats, and eggs that would come as offering to the Lord for blessings? Lamide gave one look at Father Ronaldo and felt like kicking him in the groin. But, he controlled his emotions. Father himself had taught them in Sunday School to control their emotions and stop fighting on their way home after school.
And so, as Ola narrated, one thing led to another, and after everyone had gone their way, she was left with her great granny in this same house displayed on the giant TV screen.
Ola told the silent audience that she often wondered, growing up, why other kids at school talked about their mothers and fathers but she never saw her own mother or father. She asked granny on a good number of occasions where her mom and dad were. Granny could only tell her that her parents had gone to be with Jesus. But why did Jesus not let her parents come and even visit her and maybe bring her some clothes and a new pair of shoes? Ola wondered all the time. She had heard some kids at school talk about ice cream and how nice it tasted. She would love her parents to bring her ice cream too.
Someday she asked granny why Jesus never came to visit them, seeing that he had chosen to keep her parents from visiting. When granny asked why she wanted Jesus to visit, Ola said she wanted to ask Him if daddy and mommy would visit soon. Granny told her to speak to Jesus anytime she wanted. Ola argued about speaking to Jesus without being able to see Him. Why did Jesus like playing hide and seek all the time and not let himself be found sometimes? Ola and other kids in the neighborhood used to play hide and seek all the time and anyone hiding would always be found. Jesus must be ver good at hiding, she thought in her young mind.
And so, taking granny’s advice, Ola started to speak to Jesus all the time. She could not see Him but somehow she became convinced that Jesus would stop hiding and come tell her about her parents and when they’d be visiting her. She also wanted to write a letter to her parents and Jesus would take it to them. So, without knowing what she was doing, a spirit of prayer and faith was building up in her. She did not know that her silent conversations with Jesus in the middle of the night on her little bamboo bed with a grass mattress were actually prayers. She believed firmly that Jesus was listening and could hear her because one evening, she told Him that she needed a new school uniform and new shoes. The following morning Father Ronaldo brought her a new school uniform and shoes. Ola asked Father if Jesus had sent him. She explained to Father that she had asked Jesus the previous night for a new school uniform and a new pair of shoes. Father said yes, that Jesus sent him. Ola ran into the house and came out with the letter she had written to her parents and gave Father Ronaldo to give Jesus to deliver to her parents. With a smile, Father took the letter and a drop of sweat trickled down his spine.
Father Ronaldo offered to give Ola a lift to school. She smiled and accepted as granny Bimpe urged her on. Father was just about to sweat some more as Ola had a ton of questions about Jesus, and she wouldn’t stop asking questions. She needed Father to answer all her questions. But Father Ronaldo had no answers to all the questions this little intelligent orphan was asking.
(to be continued)
Ola was and is an avid reader. What about you? What have you been reading lately? Editors all over the world suggest books that matter to those who wish to improve their lives. Here is one of such books. Click here.
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