The unfavoured one

Ada is an angry child and I wonder why. Yes mummy left her father when she found him to be a womanizer even though mummy met and tied the knot with him as his sixth wife. The situation is ironic but as the popular saying goes, ‘It is what it is’. He later died after eating some Indian woman’s apple but that’s a story for another day.

Mummy then met my father, married him and gave birth to me. Yes daddy was there financially but he was not there emotionally. For awhile that bothered me. All the kids in school boasted saying, ‘My daddy is my hero’. I wandered what that meant. Did their daddies come from a different planet than mine or were they just making up stories because there were no daddies that loved, only daddies that were financially reliable.

In all my troubles and scarcity of love, Ada was still jealous and I wondered why. Yes she did not have a daddy but her situation was even better than mine. While mummy focused on being both her mother and father, I was left without a parent. Daddy took care of her finances and so did mummy. Any small amount that came into her hands automatically went to Ada. Ada was visited in school regularly and even more food was brought on visiting days for her to share with her friends. As for me, my portion could satisfy only me. I wanted to complain but I chose to remain silent telling myself that although I am younger, mummy understands that I am stronger and I would be fine. She thought she was sharing her love when in actuality she starved me of the love I deserved as a child.

I was not mad. No I wasn’t until it dawned on me that Ada was not only an angry child but she was ungrateful, selfish, a thief, and bitter, filled with hate amongst other unflattering qualities. I saw mummy spend all her love on her and in return all she got was dark evil. I tried to intervene. I told Ada that she should stop taking mummy’s love and attention for granted but she continued. Then her dark heart began to pour out its wickedness. She said I was to blame for the tension in her relationship with mummy. She said that I had always been favoured and I was loved more because my daddy was still around.

It was like bucket of cold water had been poured on me. It was a lie. Mummy did not love me more, she loved her more. I had been starved of love and affection for years and years. I bared it believing that there was not enough love to go round and if anyone needed it more, she did. I was about to take action until someone caught my eye. It was mummy.

All that Ada had said, she heard and from the look on her face I could tell that it had just dawned on her the kind of evil daughter that she had sacrificed her all for at the expense of the other only to be washed down and tagged as a useless mother.

Mummy’s eyes grew dark as she looked at Ada and for the first time I saw pure disdain for what her eyes beheld. There was a drop in the atmosphere. Not for me for I had lived and grown as a lone ranger in the house but for Ada and mummy. At that moment, I wanted to take it all back. Absorb Ada and mummy of all their wrongs so they could go back to being as they were. I didn’t care if I had to be left out once again; all I wanted was for things to go back to the way they were.

Then I realised, I had fallen into a trap, Ada’s trap for I had replaced my mother by allowing myself be caught in her wickedness. Now I was angry to think had become the person my mother was. By human standards, both Ada and mummy deserved my hate but I couldn’t give them that. Instead I decided to drown them with my love for you can only overcome evil with good and not evil.

When parents have their favourites evil creeps in so in all things, be wise.

Have a relaxed Sunday.

Oluwaseyi Lawal