PRELUDE TO HER DREAMS...
THE ORDINARY WORLD
It was March and the heat was intense. Although the climate was getting worse every year, the city remained busy. A silver Toyota Highlander made its way through the city's bustling road and stopped in front of a duplex in a residential area.
The horn was tooted repeatedly until the gate opened and the car drove into the compound. The door to the car opened and three children alighted from the car; a teenager, a pre-teen, and a small child in that order fanged open the door and went inside the house.
The middle-aged man in the driver's seat came down and looked at the still-sleeping teenager in the backseat.
He frowned. "Lamani, is it every time you will be sleeping?"
The said teenager shifted a bit opened her eyes almost as if she was never asleep and stepped out of the car. A young girl came into view and silently entered the house and closed the door behind her.
Lamani swept her eyes across the living room and saw her younger siblings lounging on the sofa with their bags and jackets strewn on the floor. She withdrew her sight, trudged upstairs to her room, and closed the door without further ado.
Her room was neat but lacked warmth.
Lamani dropped her bag on the chair and flopped on her bed in a daze, her eyes doused with such indifference and gait that did not match her age. A gentle wind swept in through the open window and caressed her face.
-I am tired.-
She felt drowsy so she welcomed the darkness that enveloped her.
...
At dinner time. Lamani washed up and came downstairs to the dining room. The rest of the family were already seated so she took her place at the table. The housekeeper served the food and they began to eat. The clinking of tableware against their plates sounded as her siblings chatted.
After a while, the middle-aged man at the head of the table- Lamani's father spoke,
"Quiet."
Her siblings stopped talking and they all looked at their father prompting him to continue,
"I have something to tell you all I am getting married", her father announced.
-For the third time.-
Lamani thought as she carried on eating.
"Dad, are you serious?", her older brother, Tumane asked.
"Yes, I am."
A suffocating silence assuaged the room. Her father drank water from his glass cup, set it on the table, and looked at his children.
"Do you have anything to say?"
A simple question that they all did not dare reply with their true thoughts.
"Congratulations, Dad!", her siblings chorused.
The corner of Lamani's lips lifted in a mocking grin. Was she mocking her siblings for their cowardice, her father for his shamelessness, or perhaps both? Her father nodded and turned to Lamani.
"Lamani, do you not have anything to say?"
She swallowed the food in her mouth, "No, I do not."
The unsettling silence graced the air again. Lamani placed her spoon beside her empty plate and pushed her chair inside.
"Thank you for the food", Lamani said and stepped out of the dining room amidst the silence.
The children tensed up as they tried to gauge their father's mood. Their father's brows furrowed in a frown for a moment then smoothened out as he carried on with his meal. The children sighed inwardly and continued with their meal peacefully.
A perfect family.
Back in her room, Lamani sat down and looked out the window. She knew that while her father was astounded at her supposed rudeness, he would not do anything because of the guilt he felt towards her. Her father was getting married for the third time but she did not feel much towards it.
Her father's first wife was Lamani and Tumane's mother. However, Lamani did not know if she had died or walked away from the marriage. The second wife was her younger siblings- Tiwa and Tobi's mother. She was also the source of the guilt her father felt towards her.
If the absence of Lamani's mother was not enough of a tragedy then perhaps, the real tragedy began when the second wife entered the house. While the abuse the second wife inflicted on Lamani was traumatic, it did not hurt as much as her father's neglect and her older brother, Tumane's indifference. If Lamani held hate in her heart, it would not be towards the second wife who abused her but her father and brother who did nothing while she was abused.
Third-degree burns, two broken ribs, and a mild concussion were what it took for her father to put his foot down and divorce his second wife. While those were things of the past, Lamani could not help but wonder what the third wife would be like.
"Would she be kind enough to leave me alone?", she mused.
A few days later, Lamani trailed after her siblings into their house from school and met a pretty woman cooking with a faint smile on her face in the kitchen. The woman came into the living room, the smile spreading through her visage.
"Welcome home! I am Dara, your father's wife. I hope we can get along". Dara said with her hands put together to hide her nervous feelings.
Dara was the type of person one could not feel ill will towards. Perhaps, she truly wanted to get along with her husband's children.
"Are you our new mother?", Tiwa asked with her childish voice.
Dara squatted to match Tiwa's height. "If you want me to. Would you mind that?". Dara said as she smoothened Tiwa's curls.
Enticed by Dara's gentle gait, Tiwa replied, "Not particularly."
Tiwa's words drew a smile from Dara and the rest of her siblings, even Tumane. The third wife was well received and she seemed like a good person. Lamani watched for a while as they bonded then indifferently turned her gaze away as she started walking to her room.
"Lamani."
Lamani turned to see her father who had walked into the room at some point.
"I hope you can give your mother the appropriate respect she deserves, I do not want to hear about you doing or not doing something otherwise, Am I clear?", Her father said sternly.
With a nod, Lamani replied, "I understand."
As Lamani walked to her room, she yawned continuously. No matter how much guilt her father felt towards her, guilt only went so far. Her father's worry was needless. The third wife's presence was of no concern to her and she saw no reason to stir up the trouble she was eager to stay away from. All she wanted was peace.
That night, Lamani climbed into her bed. She felt drowsier as the days passed. She could not sleep anywhere so she spent most of her time fighting the urge to sleep. She felt she would drown if she gave in to the urge. However, Lamani was tired of fighting it- so she gave in.
The walls of her room grew fainter as she succumbed to drowsiness that promised peace. The air felt cooler as her breathing grew lighter.
Lamani was gone.