EPISODE 8
After Kamsy left the hospital that day, she went in search of her only surviving sister, Nonye. She asked everybody she knew that could tell of her sister’s whereabouts but all her efforts were futile, not even Uju could tell her sister’s whereabouts. As she walked home that night so helpless and miserable, she tried to imagine the scenario that led to her stepmother’s death. She found it hard to believe that her father could do such. She hated him for that. At night, it was difficult for her to sleep as the images of her stepmother’s and sister’s corpses continued to haunt her. Early the next morning, she locked up the house and took few items she’ll need and left. She went to her best friend’s house and told her parent’s everything that had transpired. They had pity on her and allowed her to stay with them.
Meanwhile, immediately Nonye left the hospital that day she headed straight for Uju’s house. Uju couldn’t keep her in her house for fear of her parents so she took her to stay with her hoodlum friends who were into drugs and also homeless. Nonye so much needed something doing to help her forget the fact that she had a hand in the death of her stepmother and sister so she committed every fibre in her to drugs and soon became a Drug Baron and a gang leader. She joined bands with the village thugs to rob people and businesses.
EPISODE 9
Three years had gone by and still peace eluded Nonye. She had also searched the breadth and length of the whole village without finding her sister, Kamsy. She needed to confess to her sister, at least, so she can know the truth. She had gone to the prison exactly two years after the tragedy that befell her family to tell her father the truth but she was told that he passed away the previous month. Umeka died an unhappy man with lot of unanswered questions in his heart. She was given envelop by the prison warden after disclosing to him that he was her father. She opened the envelop immediately she got home. In it, she found a poem. And it read;
“Must I live on as one without hope?
And If I must die like a leper, then it’s certain I can’t cope.
This day, I die like a chicken as though I were barren.
Nevertheless, my cross I must carry And this one thing I will forever regret, even in death
That my very hands, and not another has murdered my unborn.”
Nonye had cried her eyes out after reading this. She just realized that she did not only cause the death of a kind woman but she had literally killed her, her father and unborn sibling. She spent a whole week indoors. She ate but a little and spent a better part of her time mourning her dead. To worsen the situation, She couldn’t even see his corpse because he had been buried already and people were saying that her sister had gone to the city and others assumed she was dead. She was deteriorating health-wise and this made her feel even more guilty. Nobody wanted to come close to her except her gangsters. She was feared by the people of the village as they believed that she was responsible for the deaths in her family or she was a witch.
One day, she decided to do what she should have done a long time ago to set herself free and prevented any more calamity. That morning, she decided to go round the whole village and confess. She had made up her mind to accept the consequence of her decision no matter how grievous it was.
EPISODE 10
Meanwhile, a year after the tragedy that befell the Umekas, Kamsy relocated with her friends family to the city. She was about to complete the registration process that would enable her to continue her education in the city when she was asked to submit her previous report card which she had left in her father’s house in the village in her haste to flee from misery and helplessness. She had no option than to return to her village which she had said goodbye to a year ago.
She left the city very early that morning and arrived the village late in the morning. To her, the village hadn’t changed much and it was as it was when she left. If not for the roof of her father’s house which she could see from a distance, Kamsy would swear that her father’s house had gone extinct as tall grasses and weeds had covered up the short wooden gate and even the compound. She bent the grasses and broke some till she made her way to the place she buried the key beside her parents room. She dug it out and opened the door. As she opened the door, she could perceive the smell of dust mixed with the old familiar scent of her father’s dirty work clothes. She went straight to his room and decided to feed her eyes.
She’d long forgotten that she had a father because her friend’s father had filled some part of the void her own father left but not any more. She was still angry at her father but a part of her wanted to know if he was alive or not. A part of her still wanted to know why he did what he did. Next, she saw her stepmother’s clothes flunged carelessly on the bed. She remembered vividly that these were the clothes she had worn that day she asked her to go and fetch firewood for dinner.
The teenage girl couldn’t hold her tears anymore, she held her stepmother’s clothes to her heart and wept. Her whole body shook in grief as she poured out her heart in tears. She had cried herself to sleep while holding on to her mother’s clothes when a rat ran over her stomach. She woke up quickly with a start wondering what it was that ran past her stomach. She was about to use the hem of her skirt to clean the tears that was almost dry in her eyes when she heard a voice in a distance making an announcement.
She was eager to hear what the voice in the distance was saying so she went to the door but then the tall grasses at the entrance to the house prevented her from having a clear view and hearing audibly. Quickly, she maneuvered her way a little way past their short wooden gate and stood to watch the approaching crowd.
Since they were a little distance away, she decided to take a look at their neighbourhood. It was only then that she discovered that their closest neighbour, Uju and her family had packed out of their house. The house had been renovated and another family lived in it. She was still looking at it when an elderly woman and a young girl came out of the wooden gate. She was staring so deeply at Kamsy with surprise written on her face. She must have wondered where Kamsy came from.
She then approached her and began to tell her about the family that lived in the deserted house—Umeka’s family. Kamsy pretended to be surprised at her story and was already getting bored and annoyed at the woman’s tale when the crowd got to where they stood. The young woman talking was looking dirty and haggardly. She was weeping as she spoke and that was when Kamsy realized that she was making a confession. She quickly turned away from the elderly woman to listen to the young woman talking who was shouting on top of her voice but the elderly woman would not let her listen so she walked away in annoyance from her and drew closer to the crowd.
She was still approaching the crowd when the young woman talking suddenly stopped and started looking at her. Kamsy was oblivious that the young woman was staring at her as she was desperately trying to avoid the elderly woman who wouldn’t let her be.
The young woman quickly ran to where Kamsy stood amongst the crowd and embraced her before she had time to think. Kamsy was taken aback and started to shout at the woman to leave her alone but she wouldn’t. The crowd had formed a circle with Kamsy and the young woman in the middle when the haggard young woman finally left her alone.
The young woman was Nonye!
She was confessing how she had killed her sister and caused the untimely death of her stepmother when she beheld her long lost sister, Kamsy. When Kamsy recognized her finally, she embraced her this time and the duo broke into tears. The two sisters had assumed the other was dead but fate brought them together again.
