Hence, it hasn't been hard to notice the same boys who usually eye my daughter, do same to me anytime I walk past them! I had seen them a lot and even caught them doing so a number of times! Only wish they were my students or members of my school; I would have flogged the moonlight out of their decaying life! I may have a butt or breasts to die for, but they aren't for every eye that walketh the planet, let alone that of secondary school kids!
I was just too schooled for that sort of nonsense. Of course, most of my detractors would call my opinion highhandedness, and suggest that I am being too hard! But I never said I was going to need any of their blessings to adopt a method or opinion towards discipline. In fact, this sharp difference in approach was the actual root of my protracted disagreements with Charley and our subsequent dissolution as couples. It even also brought a rather cold wall between myself and Amara a few years later, causing her to prefer staying in the dormitory as against living with me!
Of course, she was a student in the secondary school to which I was a Principal. I had worked with the school all my life, and when it became obvious I was the best possible candidate to take up the position of Principal after it became vacant, it was only inevitable that I'd be recommended for it. Amara was admitted into the school under my influence – a year after I had been made principal – and she is now in her SS2. Despite all my effort, she found it hard accepting to live with me in the official lodge I was provided and after her JSS2, she effectively moved into the dormitory. She seemed to find me difficult and hard to please. That wasn't supposed to be me, as I was always making moves to please and satisfy her as a daughter. I may have restricted her in a numbers of ways given she was a female child, but I still believe it was all for the better. After all, which mother would encourage her daughter to have males for friends? None, I suppose. And for me, the best approach would always be making sure not even one is found around her! The stories coming from all over town never encourages. So mothers shouldn't be blamed at all.
Anyways, her moving made things a bit sad for me. Knowing she only did so because she found me to be a quarrelsome mother, made it even sadder! I always found myself feeling lonely and wishful. she was indeed the most important thing in my life now and the only thing I can cling on to! It was so amazing how our temperament so differed and yet we were very connected by our genes! She is the perpetually happy and giggly type! Something, I certainly know she didn't get from me but Charley! I ain't exactly always angry, but I am more likely to be found with a straight face than a grinning one. Guess certain habits are hard to break. As I hadn't been able to come out of my 'stone-cold' type shell of a manner for 49 years, there is little hope I would do so any soon. I always literally thanked God that she hasn't picked up after me in character, maybe it would have made her a very unhappy girl. Charley was more like the donor. He was lively, free-minded and in so many ways liberal! And that contrast brought our marriage to an end! Amara was the constant reminder of the difficulty I have had to face since he left and a perpetual pointer to what I have brought to myself for being such a hard nut to crack! As Amara left too – for her dormitory – I began fearing more that I was about forcing the last of my pride away from me! For several days, my nights looked like the longest ever know.