Chapter 36

He was an only child and ever since his mother had given birth to him, she had had difficulties in conceiving again, and Vincent suspected that that must be the reason his father was always so easily upset with her. The man had a short temper and had become a dictator instead of a loving husband.

Vincent wanted to leave so as not to see his mother's pain anymore, but his ruthless father, Nduka, had ordered him not to move from the spot where he was standing, or else, he would receive some beatings just like his meek mother. Despite being only nine years old, his father told him to watch and learn how a defiant woman should be treated. 

He had told him this was the only way to coerce a woman into submission, especially women who disliked or disrespected priests. He had also told him that anyone who detested a holy servant of God was the devil's incarnate and women were easily influenced and possessed by the devil, and that was why Eve had been chosen by the serpent to bring about Adam's downfall because she was gullible and could easily be tempted too.

Vincent grew under the oppressive nature of his father and under the tender love of his mother. His mother was twenty-nine while his father was ten years older. The family was Catholic simply because Nduka, his father, was a devout Christian who had deep love and reverence for Catholic priests. 

He had wanted to become one himself when he was much younger, but he had broken a rule and had been sent away from the seminary. His father had married his mother when she was barely twenty years old and he was thirty-one. It was never a love marriage; it was more like an arranged marriage that his mother, Oluchi never had a say in but had to agree in order to please her uncle since she was an orphan.

Now, after nine difficult years of marriage and there was no sign of any child forthcoming, Nduka had grown cold towards his wife. Vincent suspected that his mother's inability to conceive again had contributed to his father's frustration.

 Although his father wouldn't take in a side chick or remarry because he claimed that it was against his faith, but he became a very difficult man to please and would beat up his wife at the slightest provocation. 

Nduka flogged Oluchi as if she were a child and she never for once fought back nor verbally challenged him. She was docile and had been brainwashed that accepting everything a husband does was the true sign of submission, even though it was at her own detriment.

Sometimes, the little boy felt like standing up to his father for always physically abusing his mother, but the fear of what he'd do to him restrained him from such foolish confrontation. He believed that if his mother who was an adult could not do anything about the oppression and abuse which she was going through at the hands of her husband, then how was a nine-year-old supposed to stop him?

Nduka bought and kept three long canes in the house; of course, they were not meant for Vincent, they were meant for his wife, Oluchi; and her beautiful fair skin carried enough marks and scars to help her remember why she had been punished on several occasions. Nduka had never used his hands on her, he preferred to use a cane in correcting her and there was nobody that could come to her rescue, not even her family who had married her off. 

His mother, Oluchi, had no friends because his father was strongly against her having any, and even relatives were not allowed to come put up with them temporarily or for a long time in the house because Nduka always claimed that they might negatively influence his wife and turn her against him. 

Oluchi who had no source of income because she was a full housewife, relied on his father hundred percent. Nduka had prevented her from working or running a personal business, and since she had no money of her own, this made her highly dependent on Nduka who even lorded over her the more because of the fact that he was the sole provider of the family and could easily punish her by starving her or by refusing to meet her needs.

Vincent didn't want to grow up and have to hurt his wife this way, and he felt partial relief when his father had told him when he had turned four years that he was going to be a priest when he grew up whether he liked it or not. Although, Vincent didn't want to be a priest but he would rather settle for that if it meant not having to get married and treat his wife the way his father treated his mother. 

His father had told him that not only would being a priest bring God's overflowing blessings to the family, it would also earn them honor and the love and respect of the entire town, but Vincent was not the slightest bit thrilled by the prospect of becoming a Reverend father. If anything, he wanted to be a gynecologist so that he could help women who were helpless in this patriarchal world.

Now, what was his mother's offense to deserve being beaten this evening? It was simply because his mother had forgotten to serve the priest who had come visiting, some water with the meal she had served him. In fact, his father had assumed that his mother had been trying to kill the priest by adding too much pepper to the soup and her act of not adding a bottle of water was nothing but a deliberate act to see the priest suffer. 

All attempts to convince her husband that she had simply forgotten to bring water from the fridge had fallen on deaf ears, and immediately the priest had left the house, Nduka had gone to fetch his cane. He had ordered his wife to take off her blouse, kneel down before the chair and present her bare back to him. 

Each time the cane made a whooshing sound and collided with her soft flesh, Vincent flinched in terror and tears pooled in his eyes especially when the cane left a long red mark. He wished he could stop this assault, but there was nothing he could do at his age. He kept clenching and unclenching his fists at his sides as his father landed the tenth stroke of cane on his mother's bareback. He saw her trembling as the pain spread through her body and he restrained himself from counting all the new red marks on her back.

"Get up and go and start preparing dinner!" Mr. Nduka ordered and Vincent watched his mother manage to rise to her feet, wipe the tears from her eyes with her arm, pick up her blouse from the floor and gently slip it on. Turning, she bowed her head to her husband then left the room for the kitchen without uttering a word. Vincent knew that she was in pain but was only trying so hard not to betray it.

"Dike." Vincent heard his father call him in his native language and he approached his father who was already stretching the cane which he had just used on his mother towards him. "Go and keep this behind the kitchen door." He instructed and Vincent reluctantly collected the cane from his father and left the room, although, within him, he wished he could place the cane across his knee and snap it into two.

When he got to the kitchen and pulled the door, he noticed two other new canes there and he felt like taking them and throwing them all out into the bush, but the fear he had for his father made him have a rethink; besides, the man might only use that as an excuse to pour out his anger on his innocent mother again by accusing her of spoiling his son. Leaning the cane against the wall to join the others, he turned to look at his mother and found her trying to light the stove. He knew that his mother was quite young but her predicament in the marriage had made her look like she had added seven more years to her age

She began to sing a soft Igbo song under her breath and Vincent felt like approaching and hugging her from behind, but he knew that his father would scold him seriously if he were caught. According to him, strong men were not to be emotional in any way, especially in front of women. 

He stated that being emotional would be regarded as a sign of weakness and taken for granted by women, and because of this, his father never let him play with girls. When Vincent was only seven years old and his father had caught him playing with his female cousin, he had received a beating of his life that made his body ache for days. 

His father had strictly told him to avoid the opposite sex if he wanted to make a good priest someday, so ever since then Vincent had kept to himself and his mother had become his only friend.