Under the Mango Tree Series: Episode 3 Rainbows and Jason: Part 3

Rainbows and Jason: Part 3

This coincided with when their daughter got pregnant and engaged to her boyfriend in her fourth year of university. On the day she came home to make the announcement to her parents, she found her mother in a foul mood. She was seated on a cushion by the front door, and she claimed she was waiting for her sleazy cheating husband. Iru left her mother and went to satisfy her cravings. At that time, she had a craving for oranges, which she went to get from the table in the kitchen.

She had finished peeling the oranges and was about to eat the first one when she heard voices coming from the living room. She rushed out of the kitchen upstairs with an orange and a kitchen knife. It was a heated argument, unmistakably coming from her parents. She saw her parents arguing and coming up the stairs.

“Not again” she thought to herself, and watched as they both came up.

They climbed the stairs and reached the first floor where she stood.

“Must you guys argue? After all this time, can’t you two just sit down and talk to each other like two adults?” she said.

“Stay out of this.” said her father.

“You want her to stay out of this because you don’t want her to know about the secret family you are keeping, right? You don’t want her to hear about your cheating and lying.”

Sola yelled with her voice rising higher with each new word. Before their daughter, Kris slapped his wife across her left cheek. He started to hit, kick and pound on her, like her body was the mortar while his hand was the pestle, while their daughter tried to stop him.

“Stop this Daddy.” But he wouldn’t listen. Soon, she noticed that her mother was crying on the floor, and she was bleeding from her head. That was when she moved to push him off her mother.

It all happened so fast, and the next thing she knew her father was lying on the floor of the house with a knife stuck in his chest. He was bleeding profusely, and his pupils were dilating. Both women stood over him, the mother bleeding from her head, and the daughter with blood on her hands and clothes.

Iru had had her baby two months later, a baby boy. She hadn’t been in touch with the father of her son for the time she spent in hiding. She wished she could call him and inform him that their baby had been born, but she couldn’t. She was a wanted murderer in Nigeria and a tag had being placed on her arrest. Her pictures were displayed in public places, and everyone was on the lookout for her. Whatever she was doing, she needed to stay off the radar, to prevent publicity and exposure.

On this day, right after the birth of the baby, Naana held her great-grandson in her arms, and smiled at him.

“Welcome to the world.” said Naana, smiling.

She handed him over to his mother and sat back watching the new mother bond with her child. Iru held the baby to her bosom and closed her eyes. Tears flowed down her eyes, and Naana moved closer and placed an arm around Iru’s shoulders.

She was discharged the next day from hospital and she went home with Naana and her son who she named Jason. Over the next couple of weeks, she cared for and loved her son as if her life depended on it. She played and laughed and enjoyed life with her newborn as if all was well.

One night, six months after the birth of her son, she found her grandmother sitting by herself in the dark. She had just put Jason to bed, and went to sit with Naana. At first they both sat in silence, before Naana broke the silence.

“You told me, while you were pregnant that you would make up your mind about the situation. Have you decided?”

She was quiet for some minutes before she spoke up.

“I have not decided yet. I will still think about it. You know I can’t just make up my mind, because I have to think about my son as well.”

She didn’t speak about this anymore, until her son turned ten. He had being asking questions about his paternity since he was five. She always told him his father was in Nigeria. This time, he asked her why they weren’t going to Nigeria to visit his father, and grandmother. He said he wanted to go to Nigeria, and she told him they couldn’t. He started to cry then, and that broke her heart.

He had being called a bastard, by a bully in school, because he told his peers he had never seen his father.

That night, she sat with her grandmother and spoke to her.

“I am going to Nigeria.” She said, without looking at Naana.

“Why? Iru, do you want to go to jail?”

“Yes Naana, I want to. I am tired of running, and hiding.”

Over the past decade, they had relocated from Kumasi to Tema, and then to Canada. They moved whenever they got news that people suspected Iru’s location.

“But, we won’t have to move anymore. We are safe here; no one can find you here.”

Iru was now crying.

“Jason wants to go to Nigeria. He is asking questions about his father, and his grandparents. He is wondering why he doesn’t have a normal family, like his friends….”

She paused to wipe the tears that threatened to choke her.

“…What about me? Don’t I deserve to be happy? Because of a mistake I made? Don’t I deserve to have a good life?”

“But this is a good life. Living with Jason and I…..” Naana said.

“And keeping my life on hold because of all the running? I’m going back, Naana. Am done running.”

“What will you tell Jason?”

That question jolted Iru, and she left her grandmother to seek solace in the arms of her pillow. Two more weeks of thinking and planning before Iru set off for Nigeria. She sat Jason down and told him that she was going to Nigeria for a visit.

“You will understand it all, when you get older.” She told him.

“Naana will take you to Nigeria to visit your Granma and your father.”

The thought of that made Jason happy, and he wasn’t too sad as he waved goodbye to his mother at the Thunder Bay international airport. However, the tears in his Great-grandmother’s eyes made him wonder. Just before Iru boarded the aircraft, she ran back and gave her son and Naana a big bear hug and a kiss, with big giant tears falling down her cheeks.

“Just in case I never see you again, just know that I love you.”

Months later, she was grateful she had given the two most important people in her life that last kiss. She was sentenced death by the firing squad. In her last days on earth, she spent her time writing letters to the people she loved, telling them the whole truth. She wrote to Humphrey Adeyinka, the father of her child, asking for his forgiveness and telling him about his son. She wrote to her son, telling him the truth and hoping he would understand.

She made her peace with herself. She made peace with herself for the accidental death of her abusive father. She made peace with herself, for her impending absence from Jason’s life, and for her aborted dreams and future. She made peace with herself, and her inevitable end.

She was at peace with herself, and by the time she stood tied to the tree, facing the team of men who would gun her down, she faced them with a contented smile. With a smile on her face, she thought of the two things that spoke of beauty, hope and the future. With those thoughts on her mind, and a smile on her face, she closed her eyes and waited as the bullets came tearing through her clothes and then her skin like fire. Even when the pain from the bullets moving through her body brought tears to her eyes, she still thought of those two things.

Rainbows and Jason, until she breathed her last.