Episode 3

Gift was a woman who never accepted things the way they really were.

She always believed in searching for deeper justifications for every situation that unnerved her and usually, her solution-seeking adventures always led her to the irrational side of explanations and thereby giving room for exploitation by numerous con artists.

She was usually kind and ever so trusting, she never for once thought ill of her stepchildren, and even when her friends tried to make her see the danger her stepchildren supposedly posed against her happiness, she still never saw them as anything but hers.

But, Gift had a problem—her very powerful belief in everything supernatural. According to Gift, a Prophet could do no wrong, a fortune-teller could tell no lie and the fear of witches, wizards, and demons were the beginning of wisdom. Hence, from her desperate craving for children of her own, it wasn't a surprise when on her innumerable children-seeking adventures, she fell prey to fake prophecies and false fortune-telling all pointing accusing fingers at the two innocent children she so adored and cared for as her own, labelling them as ‘demons’ capable of very dark sorcery.

In a typical African society, it is not an uncommon occurrence to label an orphan, a house-help, or even in Gift's case–stepchildren– the perpetrators of every misfortune that befalls the family they find themselves in.

It’s always easier to blame someone else for our misfortunes, instead of facing them head-on; and that was exactly what Gift did. Thus completely ignoring her medical test results which stated her infertility, she went in search of a face to vent her frustrations on. So, the false prophets and fortune-tellers, taking advantage of her desperation and naivety gave her what she wanted the most, a place to expel her vexations. And of course, they were handsomely rewarded by her for their erroneous help.

Gift made a pact with herself that as long as she lived and as long as they resided under her roof, they would never be seen as anything but despised vermin unworthy of being called human beings.

*****

“Nellie, Nellie! Wake up!” A nudge to her ribs made her jerk up, awaken, her eyes taking in every corner of their new room which was the size of your average broom cupboard and also a part of the small kitchen. Without a doubt, Nellie knew she had slept too long. She turned to Peter, noticing his shaking form and fear-filled eyes staring intensely at the door, and once again, fear found her. It spoke to her in its cracked voice, it asked her legs to go weak, her stomach to waver, her heart to ail and instantly, tears spilled from her eyes as she knew what was coming next.

A loud applaud came through the door. “Wow! Nellie, it’s so nice to know you now have the impunity to sleep beyond 3 a.m.” Nellie quickly got up from the hard ground —that was now their bed— to her feet, and immediately commenced apologizing to her stepmother.

“Oh, shut that hole on your face, I didn’t ask you to speak!” Gift screamed, anger boiling deep within her system, it swirled, hungry for destruction. Flames of fury and hatred were simmering in the small narrowing of her eyes thinking of the most brutally cutting ways to hurt them.

Hidden behind her back all along, what Nellie did not notice was a long whip that soon enough became apparent dangling from their stepmother’s hand like a tree branch swinging in the cold breeze but it was already pointless to run.

Their stepmother pounced on them, whipping every part of their little bodies until she satisfactorily drew blood from their tender abused skin. Pleased with her achievements, Gift stepped away from the crying children just enough to take in the sights of them. She bent low so she could stare them in the eyes.

“Clean this place up and get ready for today’s batch of hawking” with that, she left them staring after her with bruised bodies, battered faces, bloody tears, wondering how and why they suddenly turned from most loved to most hated by their once beloved parents.

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