PEMISIRE (Part 7&8) – OPEYEMI OJERINDE AKINTUNDE

PART 7 PÈMÍSÍRE”
©️Opeyemi O. Akintunde

The bike man left with no pity on his face. We stood for another 15 minutes with no bike man stopping for Pemisire and I. Ordinarily, I would have been discouraged by the looks I was getting and would have retreated to the house, but I had this unusual strength from within…

“Pemisire, we will get to school today! You will be educated whether the devil likes it or not”. I took my scarf and wrapped it around Pemisire’s large head to avoid people seeing his weird head.

A tricycle stopped beside us and I mentioned the name of the school we were headed. Obviously, the driver and the two other passengers did not see Pemisire’s features properly, so they were not bothered.

As we journeyed in the Tricycle, Pemisire started acting strangely. He started hitting the driver’s head in anger…

“Eleda Mii (my creator) “I screamed.

The driver also screamed and became unstable. Pemisire’s act was sudden. The driver started swerving as Pemisire kept hitting the man’s head continuously…

The driver managed to pull up and he jumped out of the vehicle, Likewise other passengers…

I broke into tears…By this time the scarf had gone off Pemisire’s Head. The driver and the other passengers stood outside the tricycle calling out other passersby…

“Omo Abirun Lon gbami Lori“(An abominable child was hitting my head in the vehicle) said the driver

“Omo Esu ni, O FE pa wa je” (He is the child of the devil, he wants to kill us and make a meal out of us) said the first passenger…

The second passenger kept rolling on the floor and screaming…

“No wonder, my priest said I should not go out throughout this week, but because I wanted to get drugs for my daughter I disobeyed today… My God, is this how this mysterious being would have killed me today.” Said the second passenger.

I stayed in the tricycle not wanting to come out, it was going to be a walk of shame. Pemisire was not helping matters either… he was throwing tantrums because he couldn’t reach the driver… He wanted desperately to reach the driver…

“Stop it Pemisire!” I cried “Please!” I begged

“Get out of my tricycle, “the driver said in Yoruba language…

“Madam get out…!” Everyone kept saying…

With pains and tears to God, I covered Pemisire’s Head with the scarf and got down. I pulled him forcefully as he didn’t want to get down from the vehicle…

“Noo…ooo” He slurred angrily splashing his saliva all over the place…

“Please! Please Pemisire!” I pleaded with my tears pouring ceaselessly…

PART 8 PÈMÍSÍRE”
©️Opeyemi O. Akintunde

With pains and tears to God, I covered Pemisire’s Head with the scarf and got down. I pulled him forcefully as he didn’t want to get down from the vehicle…

“Noo…ooo” He slurred angrily splashing his saliva all over the place…

“Please! Please Pemisire!” I pleaded with my tears pouring ceaselessly…

At that point, he looked me in the eye and saw my tears. Some unspoken words were said between us through our eyes. I could read him saying…

“I am sorry mummy, I never meant to disgrace you, but there is something about that man…” I could read those words in his eyes as he looked towards where the driver was.

I believe Pemisire must have chosen my happiness over whatever was going on between him and the driver as he willingly alighted from the tricycle and followed me…

I saw people spitting in disgust, some covering their faces like my child was something horrific.

I took the walk of shame as I earlier imagined.  I wrapped his head properly with the scarf with the intention of returning home but it seemed Pemisire was in my head and he didn’t like what I was thinking. He tapped me and shook his head in the negative… “No… oooo…S.c.h…ooo…llll” He slurred

I thought he meant “No school” so I said…

“Yes! No school… I understand… things will be worse in a school setting. I will teach you from home!”  I said

“No… I….g..o tooooo S..c…hoool” Pemisire insisted and he would not let me pull him towards home.

We had become the center of focus. I was confused and I felt like I was going to pass out with the different echoes of terrible words

“The mother is probably a witch and has eaten the brain of the child!”

“When She was pregnant, She must have walked under the scorching hot sun and the evil spirits chased out the real baby and replaced the baby.”

“Or she must have offended some witches when she was pregnant!”

“No! These kind of Children come from God to punish a woman who has offended Him…”

The words kept pouring out of people’s mouth in different dimensions. The different school of thoughts of why I had a deformed-looking child was tearing at my heart and the last I remembered was looking straight into Pemisire’s eyes and blanking out.

However, even in my unconscious state, my hand found a way of holding onto him…God had given me this child and I wasn’t going to let go of him…