And Tod arrived home at almost half past seven in the evening.
After Tod had tried severally to have Vicky to no avail, he resorted to becoming a devil in human form. He decided that from that day hence forth he will give Vicky and her family nothing but torment and pain. He would soon turn their sweet small home into one giant hell. We left off when he had just returned home from a pub – Ngatis Pub, at around half past seven one evening. He had gone there to settle his thoughts and come up with the best way of dealing with Vicky. He felt so bad that Vicky had refused his advances two times. He wanted to have her sexually and all the time he saw her he burned with lust. He had in fact sacrificed all his money to support this family just because of her. He had devoted to buying the children expensive things every evening when he came back home. They all thought it was because he was a caring man, a father and a husband.
Vicky too had fallen into the trap of thinking that Tod really liked them. Her mother had gotten remarried to him and she thought the two loved one another so mutually. But she soon found out that all these were but a camouflage to his real intentions which were well-hidden from the casual eyes. Tod had started by buying Vicky a nice pink knee-high dress and bringing it to her room, then hiding there until she came and tried it on in his presence. Of course she wasn't aware that he was in her room. He had made his first advances to her sexually but she was saved by the timely interruption of her young brothers who suddenly showed up and were running to her room. She had thought he would give up only for him to try again for a second time, even more menacingly. He had particularly purposed to have her in force come what may. He came into her room when no one was home. Vicky would have been chewed had she not gained enough courage to hit her predator squarely in his balls and running away.
That is what led the limping Tod to Ngatias pub, a place he had ghosted for some months but decided to return into. He liked to take alcohol in order to be more ruthless. His angry heart was pondering over and hatching a plan on revenge against Vicky for humiliation. But then he had picked up a fight in the pub where he was badly beaten, ashamed and thrown out. In an angrier state he had reached home that evening to find the children watching the television. His mind had slowly cleared of all the wine he had imbibed at the bar. He therefore, noticed the program that they were watching. There was a drunken character who was staggering and falling into a ditch and this made the children burst out laughing. Tod translated it to himself and made a picture in her mind that they were laughing at him. He thought, "I will surely squeeze life out of your little lungs you little mongrels!" but he did not say out anything loudly. As he passed them to go to the bedroom the children noticed him and Mike ran to him.
"Daddy you are back! What have you brought us today daddy?" he was excited. But Tod suddenly pushed him away and he went flying and crashing into the nearby coach. Everybody was stunned! Vicky looked at him with menacing eyes. Tod stared back at her even more glaringly. His message was clear to her and she could almost hear his angry voice in her ears, "you caused this Vicky because you rejected me! You caused this to your little brother!" Vicky was almost bursting with anger. Her chest heaving she shouted at him, "What have you done!?" and she ran to help Mike up who had been so shocked that he had remained silent in disbelief where he had fallen. It is only at his sister's touch that he came back to reality and let out one horrific scream at the excruciating pain he felt. She picked up carefully and started nursing him, attending to his wounds and trying to console him. Tod gave them one last murderous look and walked into the bedroom.
Vicky finally calmed down her young brother and went ahead to prepare supper for the whole family. About thirty minutes later, her mother arrived from the market where she had been selling groceries. As soon as she entered Mike started crying again. Steve, the other child went up to his mother to report. "Mum, daddy pushed Mike and he fell over there on the coach and got hurt. He cried so much mum, see he is even still crying!" The mother quickly went over to her child and carefully examined him. She took him into her hands and cuddled him. "Sorry baby, you will be alright, okay." But he cried the more and in the midst of that sobbing he managed to say, "Daddy is bad!" "No! Dad is not bad, am sure it was an accident! You will get better. Here I have brought you some bananas!" Just then Vicky entered from the kitchen. "That was no accident!" she blurted. "He just pushed him deliberately!" The mother looked at her astonishingly. "What do you mean?" she asked Vicky.
"Mum I am telling you it was no accident. He came home drunk and pushed Mike into that chair. He almost killed him."
"Drunk, you say!" she was shocked! Tod had promised her that he would never drink again when they met and had fallen in love. "I don't want you to be a bad example to my kids, you know what I mean." She had said to him. And Tod had tried his best ever since he had moved in with them, never had he come home drunk. Although, away from the family eyes, Tod continued enjoying his favorite drinking but not to the point of drunkenness. "Are you sure he is drunk?" she couldn't believe her ears. "You can ascertain it yourself mum. He is in your room." And with that Vicky left, headed back into the kitchen.
Seething anger against Tod was tearing into her. She felt like telling her mother everything that Tod had tried to do to her. She wanted to let her mother know that he was not even half as good as he pretended to be. Her mother did not know that her husband had tried to molest her daughter two times. She did not even know that the man she claimed to love dearly had, unashamedly, told her seventeen years old daughter that she was the one he loved and not the mother! But Vicky said nothing. She felt pity for her mother. Their mother had been through a lot and she did not want yo cause her more miseries. So she decided to keep all her struggles with Tod to herself. "I will just handle him myself," she had vowed. And so she went back into the kitchen without revealing to her mother what had happened earlier that day.
When the meals were ready, Vicky brought the food to the dining area and they ate together in silence. Tod was not at the table. Vicky's mother had gone to the bedroom to speak to him and found him fast asleep so he had left him alone. Sitting with her children, Gloria, wondered if what Vicky had said was true. And if it was then her worst fears would have started unfolding gradually. She had feared that bringing a man into the lives of her children might not augur well for them. She feared he might mistreat them, or the children might not love him as she did. These and many more thoughts had troubled her ever since she had been planning to remarry Tod. The two had talked about them and Tod had simply said; "My love, I know your children will love me. I promise to be a great father to them all. You never worry!" As she sat there eating, she started wondering if Tod had gone back on his promise. She did not eat well that night.
"Victoria, see to it that your brothers have a good night. Tuck them well in, okay!"
"Yes mum!" Vicky replied, noticing her mother's worried look in her eyes. This is what she did not want to happen. This is exactly what she wanted to avoid! Anything that would cause her mother any worries she would do all in her powers to avoid. But here she was, already troubled by the statements she had made earlier, that Tod hurt her younger brother intentionally. Vicky had realized long ago that her mother was already worried about her refusal to address Tod as father. She had adamantly told Gloria that no other man in the world would replace her deceased father, Raphael. Gloria had tried to push it but realized it would only end up estranging her daughter from herself, yet she wanted Vicky too, to accept Tod as part of the family. So Gloria had settled with Vicky only referring to Tod in pronouns. Whenever she wanted to refer anything to Tod Vicky would always say, "He has or he did or his and him…" At first it was queer but seeing she was committed to her father's memory Gloria accepted Vicky's way of communicating.
Gloria stood up and slowly walked towards her bedroom. Vicky looked at her and noticed how frail she suddenly was. "She looks ill!" she thought. "Mam are you okay?" she called after her. The mother slowly turned and tried to smile weakly then said, "Yes Vicky, thank you dear!" but she was weakened all over a sudden. Vicky pressed, "Are you sure you are well mam? Or should I look for some pills for you?"
"Don't worry my daughter, I am only a little too tired." She said and headed into her room. "And worried!" Vicky added to herself. The two boys were too little to understand the magnitude of the situation at hand. Vicky finished up and cleared the table. She went to do the dishes and was soon through with that as well. When she came back the boys were dozing on the coach. She took them to their rooms, taking one then coming for the other. She tucked them both in bed and she too retired on hers. She was too tired to look into books that night so she slept. In her sleep, she started dreaming.
In her dream, she was with other girls playing in the field at the school. It was still break-time when the bell rang for them to be back in class. She complained that the time-keeper was not fair. But she had to head back into the class immediately not unless she wished to be punished. As others ran into the class, Vicky followed slowly. As soon as she had entered the class, a huge crushing sound was heard, it shook the ground. It was followed by another and another. It was like the school building was collapsing, she looked outside her window and in shock realized that in deed the classroom block was coming down! The building was collapsing upon students and there were screams all over. Then she saw her mother running towards her. She wanted to rescue Vicky and was thus shouting her name. She screamed so loudly and in pain that Vicky was alarmed. But as she ran another block started falling and was going to hit her mother. Vicky cried out loudly, "Look out! mamaa! Mamaa!" she screamed and woke up still screaming!
She was breathing heavily from the nightmare and realized that she had been dreaming. But then she heard her younger brothers screaming. Then there was another thud just like in her dreams and her mother's voice pierced the night, crying out her name just like in the dream. Vicky quickly got off her bed in her night dress and rushed to her mother's room. On reaching the door, it was locked from the inside and no matter how she tried to push in with all her strength, the door would not give way. Frantically, Vicky shouted even more for her mother.
"I am here Mam, mam!" Then she clearly heard what sounded like a slap, a very strong one, followed by her mother's painful cry. She was convinced that her mother was being beaten by Tod.
She was so infuriated that she started banging the door with both her hands and shouting, cursing and insulting Tod. She tried to use a table chair to smash in the door but it was all in vain. Then suddenly the door opened and out walked Tod. He was not surprised to find Vicky standing with a spade at the door. She looked at him contemptuously wishing she could smack his face with the sped but his size overwhelmed her. Tod once again gave her that accusing look as if to say, "You brought this one too upon your mother! You did this!" Vicky could do nothing but just to blurt out a river of big words against Tod's conduct.
"How could you?" she asked. Tod just snorted at her and passed her as he left the room. Vicky caught some words he uttered as he went away. She heard something like, "stubborn as your mother!" Those words pierced into her heart like a sword. She felt like turning after him but remembered her mother. She dropped the spade and ran into the room. She found her mother kneeling on the furthest corner of the room, weeping. When Vicky entered she did not try to hide her tears as she did previously. She decided to let them flow down freely as Vicky came and hugged her in a tight embrace. The mother and her daughter cuddled there on the floor crying for sometimes, seeking to be comforted. Each had her own thoughts as she embraced the other and tears alone rolled downwards.
Vicky kept mumbling "Am sorry mam! Am sorry mam!" and in her mind she was blaming herself for all that had befallen her mother. By this time she was convinced that Tod was doing all these because she had turned him down in his insane quest. This was because of how he always looked at her after causing either of the family members a great deal of unbearable pain. But she had not brought herself to the point of revealing this to her mother.
Gloria on the other hand was crying bitterly because she was blaming herself that she had brought all these upon her family. She felt the pain that her eldest child, Vicky was going through seeing her in that state. She understood how traumatizing the whole situation must be on her. She had also heard her little boys screaming as a results of the ensuing commotion. She remembered that earlier that evening she had not believed their story when they said that Tod had deliberately hurt her younger child.
After a moment of weeping, Gloria controlled herself and rose from the floor helping Vicky up. Then she heard her other children crying and she sent Vicky to go and calm them down. "The poor children are scared to death. Please check on them." Vicky hesitantly left the room. She looked all around the house and ascertained that Tod had left the house and was not around by that time. She carefully locked the open doors then went to look for her brothers. As she went she made up her mind on her next move. "This must stop!" she told herself.