Fatherless
Episode Two
I followed her, jumping from left to right and kicking everything I saw on the road.
“Nathan, stop it!” she shouted. I slowed down my play.
I knew that was one of the reasons dad carried me everywhere in his car because he wasn’t ready for my unending plays, even on the road.
I looked at my uniform and realized I had a little stain on my shirt, just close to my pocket.
“Nathan, what have you done?” I scolded myself.
“Dad won’t like this at all,” I said, trying to use saliva to clean off the stain, which made it look even dirtier.
I had to hide the stain. I didn’t want him to notice that I had been playing on the road again.
He would be so disappointed. Mom held onto my hands.
I knew it was to distract me from touching anything on the road again.
She would always say, “Nathan, don’t touch this, don’t touch that. Why are you not listening?”
My hands were already dirty, and she wasn’t having it.
She held my two hands as we crossed the road, following the path that led to Westpark Cemetery.
It was a very beautiful place. The gate had me looking for minutes before she dragged my hands inside.
“But I was just trying to read what was written on it,” I said.
It was the name of the cemetery. Inside was even more beautiful.
It was neatly kept and decorated with flowers.
But what aroused my curiosity was the people that were living under some stones with their names on them.
“Mom, why are there so many people living on those stones?”
I asked enthusiastically, waiting for a response to satisfy my curiosity.
‘Are they living here now? Why did they leave their houses?
She couldn’t hold back her tears.
She just held me by the hands and continued walking. I saw a lot of people on our way.
Some were coming and going through the gate, while others were placing flowers on the stones and looking at the moulded people on the stones.
A particular woman was crying and rolling on the floor, and other people held her as they carried her into the car and drove away.
“Her husband might have left their house too, just like Dad did.
Poor woman, she must have made him angry,’ I thought to myself.
I didn’t want to speak anymore because every time I talked, Mom kept crying, and I didn’t like it.
We finally reached a stone, and Dad’s sculpture was also on it.
I read the inscription: “In loving memory of our beloved father, husband, and uncle, Mr. Nathan Themba.”
“Your father is there now, Mom said, pointing at the stone.
I was still trying to wrap my head around the fact that my father had left us to stay in such a quiet place.
The place was just too quiet for him and dad didn’t like quiet places.
“You still don’t get it?”she asked. And I nodded in affirmation.”
“Your father is gone forever, he decided to leave us so early” she said, tears flowing from her eyes.
“Gone to where?” I asked innocently, still not understanding.
“Your father is dead. He died on his way to work,” she finally said.
It dawned on me that I had lost a father.
I paused for a moment, trying to figure out what that meant.
“When a person is dead, it means the person is never coming back home,”
I thought. “And that means I will not see Dad again.” It was a hard truth to accept.
I screamed, tears rolling down my face, “Please don’t leave me.
I promise to change. I won’t play again. I came to show you my uniform, I ironed it, Dad.
How about my food? Who will prepare it the way I like it?”
I sat on the stone, rereading the inscription as tears kept rushing from my eyes.
I looked at Mom, who needed my support.
I was supposed to act like a man, but I just couldn’t control myself.
I didn’t imagine lōsing my dad so soon. I was just fourteen.
I didn’t know where the question came from, but I asked, “What happened to him?”
I knew it wasn’t the right time to ask such a question.
Mom was stammering, unable to speak without stammering.
It made it difficult for me to hear her.
She took a deep breath and started, “It was three months ago.
After we last called you to check up on you, the morning was unusual.
I didn’t feel like going anywhere. I asked your dad to stay home with me because I had a bad dream about him.
He said his boss was coming to the office, and he needed to be there to make sure everything was in place.
He dressed up, had breakfast, and left the house. I kept praying for him.
Then in the afternoon, he didn’t call me. I tried calling, but his line was not going through.
I got so scared that I kept calling, but no one answered.”
Later in the evening, I was fast asleep when I heard a knock on the door.
It was the boys that live in the other street, they asked me to come and pick my husband on the road side close to the cemetery.
A truck collidēd with his car and they manage to take him out of the car but he was already gone.
At that moment. I felt it inside of me that I had lost everything.
Thessycute Ekene
