THE TEARS | CHINONSO MISHACK CHINONSO

She was totally uncontrollable. It was hard to believe a woman could wield so great a power. She defiled the attempt of even heavy-chested men trying without success to calm her. Her grief was great. She threw herself with mighty thud as she broke free from the grip of people trying to help. Her sorrow was heart wrenching.

It wasn’t long before most of the onlookers began to cry as well. It would only take a heart of stone not to cry watching this woman crying and writhing on the dirty road. The dirty mud were she lay made her look most pitiable. I couldn’t understand, it made no sense to me.

“What could be her problem?” I asked, expecting an answer but got none. It occurred to me that no one knew exactly what prompted her wailing. 

“Maybe her husband died”, a man in a blue checkered shirt said.

“It could be her only son”, another opined.

There seemed to be as many reasons as there were people around.

“Blood of Jesus! Blood of Jesus!" one shouted.  

“Bring water, she’s fainted”, another joined in.

I inched forward to have a better view. 

A man grabbed water from a vendor and proceeded to sprinkle on the woman who lay motionless. When I looked intently I discovered that there were many naira notes beside the spot.

Not long after, she regained consciousness. She opened her mouth and narrated what appeared like a fairy tale.

We learnt that the woman was a widow and a mother of eight, four boys and four girls. Three of her girls had children outside wedlock and the fourth was due for labour in few weeks. Her condition was remarkably pitiable.

In preparation for the anti natal and post natal care of her fourth girl, she had harvested every cassava in her farm. This morning she carried the garri, measuring over 50kg to the market for sale. A man in a Range Rover Sport car pulled by. He hastily paid her #50,000 and sped off with the bag of garri in his trunk.

Minutes later, she discovered the money she was paid were fake.

She collapsed…

CHINONSO MISHACK CHINONSO

Author's Bio:

Igboke Mishack Chinonso hails from Aguobodo II Ezzagu in Ishielu Local Government Area, Ebonyi State.

300 level student of English and Literary Studies Education, Alex Ekwueme Federal University. He holds Nigerian Certificate in Education from the prestigious Ebonyi State College of Education Ikwo, where he studied English Language and Social Studies. He is an ardent reader and researcher with lots of unpublished work for his credit.

He has upon completion of his NCE program in 2016 worked at Mater Dei Secondary Ngbo, where he distinguished himself as an acclaimed Literature – in – English teacher.