Trin rolled around for some while in her sheets, she's been provided with a good bed and water refrigerator with canned water, the management apologized for not making those available before she moved into the room and gave reasons that it was because they we're not having enough funds because of the ups and downs brought by the pandemic, they said it kind of rendered them almost bankrupt but they just have to keep on accepting people to get them off the rest of society! trin showed perfect understanding, she's a very intelligent young lady. she have adjusted to the life in the center in the little time she stayed there, she went to the hospital's field and broke up a sweat exercising her muscles through jumping jacks and other minor exercises, she was all flexed up now, went to the bathroom, had a proper bath since two days and went over to her room. she took out her clothes and wore casuals then she lay down, said a short silent prayer and got her diary as she wrote down the date and addressed her book as usual; "dear diary", then she went ahead and stated she was trying to put together some major terminologies she's came across in her little life as she started: Xenotransplantations, antidisestablishmentarianism, hypergommaglobulinaemia, hyperparacholesterolaemia, hyperchemosalpingograms, abetalipoproteinaemia, schizosaccaromycetaceae, stresscardiomyopathy, rhynotillexomania, cumulonimbus, phantasmagoria, hypoparathyroidism, she then fumed and said mumbled "these are good medical terms in there, I could have made a great doctor" she thought to herself that she could even sketch and name the different parts of the skeletal system and most systems from memory and she knows a good deal of drugs also as she had earlier gone to the international drug market to learn medicine practice and trade before this health blunder hit her, she wiped the tears from her eyes with her palms and rested her head on her pillow emptying her mind and in what seemed like ten minutes duration, she melted into nostalgia.
she could vividly remember coming out from their new home one day, taking a walk and seeing a woman of about twenty eight years of age with dread locks, very fair in complexion and with eyes weirdly wide open, sitting on an inverted mortar under the sun. trin made it a priority to know what's actually wrong with this woman, then she started listening to little rumours from the villagers though she was barely six. she heard that this young lady had a spiritual husband but she doesn't understand what that even means, the said lady was said to have gone to the great Niger river when she was the same age as trin to was glass plates and never retuned so rumour had it that she was pulled into the river by the mermaids and was thus forgotten, but she resurfaced after seven years and told her parents that her marine mother took care of her and she had went to school in the marine kingdom for the past seven years, and judging from her level of intellectual prowess, she seemed to be telling the truth and they believed her and joyfully took her back. After years had passed, she got married to an ibo man but the queen mother never approved the marriage so she started taking her kids after birth, some weeks old and some months she then went to the river one day out of frustration and begged the queen mother to take her instead and leave her husband and last surviving baby girl alone and the river goddess agreed to her terms and she vanished without a trace. times passed and her daughter became five years of age and will always go to the stream with her mates and they'll often loose her once they get to the river and she later comes back late at night and gives off aura and reeks of scents specifically attributed to the marine kingdom. Her grandmother who was a renowned witch doctor who goes by the name "area mother" took notice of the scent and confronted her and she later revealed that she get looked after, bathed and sprayed with perfumes by her mother. The grandmother was shocked out of her wits but she was familiar with such and thus regained her composure. Then she gathered some spiritually strong set of Sherman like herself who took the onus and embarked on the mission to go and get her daughter back, they laid a bait with the daughter named Vivian, as usual she came out and started looking after her own, the people who came were too shocked for their eyes but still they were strong willed enough to wait for her to come out towards the shores enough before they bundled her, but her body was so slippery, and her nails have grown, her canine and eye color and also her hair, which was long and red just like her nails, she tried to fight them off with her fangs and they had a fare share of bruises and scratches but they didn't relent until they gave her a cut in the face and applied some herbs to it and her body stopped being slippery and she collapsed and they took her out of the water, meanwhile Vivian was crying and trying to ward them off from hurting the one that showed her love but she couldn't do much, they later appeased the spirit of the river goddess for the moment by sprinkling alcohol and kolanuts into the river and dragged the young lady home with Vivian crying and following from behind. they got home and the area mother thanked her helpers and gave them food and drinks, then they left, then area mother cut off her daughter's hair, nails and gave her a bath, changed her clothes and burned the ones they rescued her with. When she woke up, she felt so weak and began to cry, then she carried that mortar and sat on it outside while area mother was figuring out ways to cure her 'ogbanje' oath while consulting her oracle. Vivian and other kids will come from the neighborhood to look at her, while she sits all day, cries, pees on herself and all sorts of filths without talking to anyone or eating, it was the third day before trin came and saw her. when area mother was done with her consultations, she called together her eighteen sons and her husband, got together some items which included a white cock, fanta soft drinks, biscuit and sweets, kolanuts and etc and with a tray which held them together, then after muttering some incantations, she carried the tray and placed it upon her daughters head, and it gummed to it, her sons helped her get the young lady up and bundled her to the direction of the river in the afternoon and to the audience of the whole villagers, the lady by the name loveth, will try to run away at intervals but the able bodied young men will catch up with her, she will refuse to move and they will push her, and she will bend her head to dispose the tray and spill its contents but it magically stayed intact, thanks to her mother, they later got her to the river and they deposited the gifts inside and just then there was a raging thunderstorm and all had to take to their heels except area mother and her daughter, she later calmed the chaos with recitations of languages unheard of and she took her daughter by the hand and went up the hills making for home, then they met the others, who hailed the great woman "area mother!" their voice echoed and she replied "its me like no other", then loveth broke out in tears apologized to her mother especially, her daughter who was clinging to the Granny's leg in fear and the rest of the people around for her misdemeanor! and they all accepted, they now went home happily.
Trin could also remember how the brazen hearted area mother will hold her kids by the neck and use their mouths to grind on the rough cemented floor whenever any of them stole meat from the pot, the punishment was so severe that, the victims looses his or her lips to the rough surface and the teeth faces exposure till the injury starts to heal gradually and eating was torturous, once she used a broom on her last male child who ignored her warnings to go with her to the farm and went to school and the broom sticks got stucked into every part of his body, including his urinary track. she had caught him unawares in the toilet when he thought he had escaped her wrath and later he had to go for a severe operation in the community's general hospital. the area mother was also allegedly remembered for the evil she did when her second daughter refused to marry the one she wanted for her, she took the poor lady's clothes to the cemetery, made some evil rituals on it and burned it, the lady, her child later labored for seven days to put to bed till she begged for her forgiveness and she revoked the evil she did and she gave birth immediately. she said out publicly and the natives also know this as a fact that she turns to bees to taunt the militia from Nigeria who came to Niger delta in 1999 to war against them till every one of them died, she was also said to had battled with the greatest spirit masquerades and came out victorious including the grate "izaga masquerade". she was known by virtually everyone in the suburbs! " what a new place to relocate to of all places, trin thought to herself ".
she remembered and smiled when Mr Simeon instructed her to go beat up a particular stubborn goat which comes to their compound occasionally to eat their African salad spread in the sun on large waterproofs bags, she could remember how she got to the goat and administered a few blows to the goats head, the goat in turn charged at her with its horns, got her down on her back and did a few drills to her rib cage before Mr Simeon intervened, kicked the goat in the belly and it ran away and got her up, dusted her body and told her "now that's how to beat up a goat baby, you kick the belly hard!" . she laughed out loud in her bed and resumed her thoughts.
she could remember on a particular occasion when Mr Simeon caught a fish and she and Gloria were dragging the right of ownership to the fish as usual, as to who will go steam the fish and this particular fish looked so yummy like a catfish. without further ado, Gloria rushed to grab the fish in the bucket but it gave her sharp slezzes and she immediately dropped it, then trin rushed towards it and caught it with her both hands, it gave her the shock of her life and then the father was laughing uncontrollably in the chair he was seated and grace joined in the laughter as she was peeping from behind the house where she was cooking. Mr Simeon later revealed to the kids that it was an electric fish, then he impaled it in the head and it died, then he picked it up and try giving it to them but they were too scared to collect it even with all his persuasions, he later gave it to his wife and she made a beautiful soup out of it. later that night he warned them against dragging anything in life, that what's theirs to earn will always find its way to them.
Now trin was still laughing in her hospital room but with tears running down her cheeks. she loved her dad so much by the way he teaches them beautiful and practical life lessons everyday though he might be extreme sometimes!
As she was gathering her thoughts together, she heard a knock on the door which she answered to and noticed that it was the hospital's one of many staff nurses, she told her that her family came to see her and that they were waiting for her in the visitor's room. she was overjoyed as she quickly zoomed inside, wore her shoes and put on a nose mask as she rushed to the guest room. When she reached there she rushed over to them and they welcomed her with smiles, Brian quickly reported to her how Mrs Simeon spanked her that morning for peeing on his pants the previous night and trin expressed anger in her face and admonished her mom against flogging her beloved last born again though with a tinge of sarcasm in her voice as she smiled at her Mom at intervals who perfectly understood trin's act as a tactic of salvaging Brian's angry mood. they talked for long or muffled because of their nose masks and later went to get sandwiches which they ate delightedly. they later got back to the hospital. Mr and Mrs Simeon had to send the kids to a corner to play because of their noise before asking trin how she's been faring and she replied "I've learnt to cope with this place, and I realized that its not so bad after all, it gave me the time I never had to reflect deeply on my life and I've really started to reconsider the things that really matter which to me now are the wonderful moments we shared together, I miss everything, the quarrels we had at intervals, the little fights, the acrimony, the happiness, sadness, everything! provided that involved you guys, I really miss you mom" but as she was saying those words, tears were free falling from her eyes and the same went for Mr Simeon "the rock" as they fondly called him will never express emotional weakness so as not to appear weak before his family but not this time, these words cut really deeply and he realized that she had really been thinking a whole lot but what happened next, he wasn't so prepared for it, both mother and child started laughing at him because he tried to wipe out the tears in his eyes in a cunningly fast way so that no one would notice when trin saw him and whispered "the flash" to her mother's ear, who in turn looked in that direction and they bursted in laughter. He was embarrassed but maintained his cool by joining them and laughing even harder, Brian on the other side of the room without knowing the cause of the laughter joined them and so did the other two female kids since they don't want to be left out! they laughed till their lungs pained them and they had to be reminded by a nurse to keep their voices down and they obliged but continued to laugh silently. later they stayed for some while and went home though unwillingly, trin was so happy, she had her favourite food, rice with egg sauce handed to her by her mom, she said she specially made it for her and when she took it inside and opened it, her brain went on cloud nine, even the other patients in the wards couldn't keep themselves from confessing because the aperture made in the class bounds made certain that the aroma circulated!
Later she looked at the ceiling reminiscing and smiling at the beautiful days as she shrieked in laughter at intervals till the gigantic palms of sleep whisked her senses away to lovers dream!