Chapter 16: The Spark

“Comrade Aisha, you dey vex because you dey shy!”

I called out after her, my voice playful. I sat across from my mother, still laughing at her blushing face.

She tried to look stern, but her cheeks were pink. Seeing she was about to scold me, I quickly put on a straight face.

I tried to sit up tall, hands folded like a proper student. “Mama, opening a school no be small thing. Wetin you really plan?”

My mother reached over and took the double hairpin from my hair.

She turned it over in her hand, the metal gleaming in the sunlight. “Jumoke, you know how much garri this hairpin fit buy?”

“One hundred and fifty measures of rice. Even more if it’s local grain.”

I pressed my lips together, saying nothing.

My mind flicked to the market, to the faces of women counting cowries and coins. “When I first landed here, I was actually very happy.”

She stared out the window, voice far away. “I never lived so well before—eating rice and yam every meal, wearing soft clothes. Everything taken care of.”

Her words hung in the air, heavy with memory. “You could say I was seduced by these sugar-coated bullets.”

She shook her head, a sad smile touching her lips. My mother took a sip of zobo, her eyes far away.

The drink stained her lips, the colour as deep as her thoughts. “Before I got married, I went with my mother to see my dowry estate.”

She traced the edge of the table, lost in the past. “You know, your grandfather was just a small official, but the shops and farms he gave me still brought in hundreds of naira a year.”

She paused, eyes distant. “I looked at those thin, dark, dried-up faces of the farmers.”

The memory seemed to pain her. “It was like seeing my old parents again.”

She blinked quickly, as if fighting off tears. “I realized I was still a farmer’s child. I once swore under the flag to give my life for my belief. How can I now step on these people, sucking their bones and blood for enjoyment?”

Her voice hardened. I understood then: if you have seen the light, you can’t pretend to be blind in the dark.

Once truth enters your heart, it cannot be pushed aside, no matter how soft the bed or sweet the meal.