When Black Crack

what it meant to grow breasts, let alone bleed from between my legs. But when I looked up, Kemi was sta

me," I w

he just stared at the shee

a dragged her to Iya Bose's chemist and came back shouting w

was s

ame week she was suppo

d men, and the gutters smelled like forgotten dreams. Our one-room apartment, wedged be

and blistered fingers. She never smiled for free. Life had hardened her into a woman whose love was roug

ack. Mama said he had followed another woman to Abuja. I overheard our neighbour, Aunty Yemi, whisper once that he prob

cret for long. The neighbours stared. The boys snickered. Even my classmates at sc

g anyhow," t

This one go follow soon," anot

asn't l

hat refused to stay buried. Mama stop

the pl

baby thing

baby no resemble

o wait for Kemi at the corner of our street, pretending to press his phone. Once, I caught them kissing behind the mos

ily the roof started to leak in three places. Mama

est. I held her hand, slippery with sweat and fear, as she groaned and pushed on our old m

panic, the baby slid out

idn'

ody on the bed, blood pooling

st kept whispering, "Wak

ed it.

. Still

door bu

She rushed in, scooped the baby, turned it upside down and sla

him

co

ripped through the

by was

ter disappeared. Her eyes dimmed. And her body, onc

- "give praise to God." But

ep forward. Mama got sicker, her coughs turning deeper, wetter. She refused to go

und well when the tap stopped running for days. Kemi barely left the house. She o

ed, I found a crumpled paper - an o

hs:

lis

log

it li

hispered, s

for a long time, then

it

aid, looking at Fifi who was

leave everything behind, but the kind where you climb out, one painful inch at a time.

nt office to ask about scholarships. The man at the front desk lo

NGO. Maybe d

ust and desperation, b

cough got worse. She

ral hours of waiting and prayers, the doctor look

ission, medica

none of

I knew we were standing on the edge of something. Not quite death. Not q

feeding bottle in the compound, our

dey look for house girl. Sh

eart

started? One sac

he sky. It was b

e it could crac