Tee's Musings

Hey Family, Thank you for standing by me and going with me on this journey. I've now moved to my very own custom made blog, and I asking that you join me on this brand new journey. I can't do this without you. XOXO Please visit  https://teesmusing.com/  for more...

Yesterday, I saw a glimpse of the beauty that still exists in our world... So today, I woke up with a smile… knowing that outside of Aunty Ìrètí’s screams of pain…Augusta’s tears… and my ‘broken’ heart, love still exists... and it lives right in our compound… in the Oyéwọ̀s’ flat.

Days following the event at dawn, Mama Augusta told me what she had heard about the incident. She heard Aunty Ìrètí had gone out with friends the night before...danced and partied all night long...and only returned at dawn.  She heard Mr. Atiládé had waited all night for her... and it was her entrance that woke him from the chair he had sat all night. She heard he became so angry... he lost control... so he beat her... but he regretted it...so he went out and bought her new clothes and bags to show how sorry he is... Aunty Ìrètí forgave and all was well again.

*Image by  Ben Rosett  via https://unsplash.com* Yesterday evening, Aunty  Ìrètí's  scream filled the air. We knew what it meant...Mr. Atiládé is beating his wife again. Mr. Atiládé is a man’s man... many would say he's a leader amongst men...it shows in every step he takes... Strong, Confident, and impressive. And Aunty  Ìrètí  is his ‘beauty queen’ wife.

Our walk to the house was slow… and quiet. I glanced at Augusta… she was looking straight ahead... the relief she felt after Aunty nurse gave us the report was long gone… and now replaced with foreboding... a feeling of doom she could not escape. I wished I could find the words to assure her but even I was not sure how her mother would react.

Earlier this morning, I asked Mama Augusta if Augusta could accompany me today when I go into town... I promised I would bring her back on time. “You know Augusta is your sister, just call her whenever you are ready” she had said. I smiled... yet worried that the information I would later bring will change this mother forever.

copied from unsplash.com Augusta came knocking yesterday.  Although there was nothing strange about her visit for she is a regular guest in my room but yesterday was different... Her signature smile was in place as I opened my door to her... but deep in her big beautiful black eyes was a sadness I had never seen in the always bubbling Augusta. Augusta is one of the gifts the township gave me... I noticed her eyes immediately... even before she spoke a word. They were a beautiful contrast with the sad ones that accompanied me from the village. She had the kind of eyes that always seem to smile in a way that says ‘I know a secret no one else knows’. It draws everyone to her... just like it drew me.  She and her kind mother had helped me arrange the little room I was to live in when I had first moved to the township many moons ago. That evening, after we were done arranging, Mama Augusta left to make the night’s meal but Augusta stayed, insisting she would play wi...

*Image by Yukari via https://unsplash.com* ................................ Mama Augusta returned last Saturday, but I have still not visited. Although my curiosity over the last few weeks since I first heard had not died, a part of me wondered if her choice for Agatha was any of my business. So, since she returned, I have struggled with two traits… my innate curious trait and my self-taught trait to mind my own business.

My daddy is a great story teller, and I’m the child who inherited that gift.

*Image by Yukari  via https://unsplash.com* Today has not been a good day… but it could have been if I had stayed home. I had gone to visit Mama Augusta earlier... It's been weeks I have visited since the birth of her daughter, Agatha…But she was not home. Papa Augusta said she has taken Agatha to the village yesterday. I wondered if it was not a little too early to travel with a newborn and I asked him same. He said it was a necessary journey…that they needed to circumcise her early enough.

*Image by Luka Vovk via https://unsplash.com* ……………………… In the weeks following Màmá’s visit, Adéòtí didn’t change his mind about getting his own place in town. He still speaks of a future that is vague and full of castles...the kind that can only be built in the air.

*Image by Luka Vovk via https://unsplash.com* There had been a raging storm earlier … on the night I met Adéòtí. Perhaps that should have been the telling sign of doom. But what’s a young maiden to do? He was a familiar face in the midst of the storm. That familiarity created a pseudo sense of safety... but it also blinded me to the 'gaps' in his tales.

* Image by 26everything Films & Photos via https://unsplash.com * .................... We had just welcomed the night sky when Abisoye ran to my house... she brought news... Akinyele had returned.... after 5 months. She wanted me to be prepared, for she was certain he would call on me in the morrow.

** Image by 26everything Films & Photos via https://unsplash.com * It was a few days to the annual Lovers’ Dance.... Akinyele had promised we would go to the Village Square that evening, but he did not show up.... and he was not home. Alabi said he saw him at dawn, that he left with a small sac... he didn’t say where he was headed, and Alabi had not asked, for he could not break his 7 days ritual of silence.

*Image by Anviksha Singh via unsplash.com* While I've been away, I thought of writing but the words never made it All I got were disjointed words but I found no way to bring them together... I was stuck...