Two years ago, after the untimely death of Mona Lisa’s parents, which was
as a result of the injury they sustained in a car crash that occurred along
Enugu Onitsha express way, the future of little Mona Lisa was left for the gods
to decide. Like every young Nigerian girl, Mona Lisa had big dreams; I mean her
dreams to be great in this most populous black nation in the world were as
gigantic as the Iroko trees that littered on the farmland of my grandfather
Aganamba.
Mr and Mrs Ngene wouldn’t have died if we had a functional rapid response
mobile hospital in Enugu State. Of a truth, the health system of this state is
in a sorry condition, just like its counterparts in the other parts of the
country.
The victims of the car crash were left in the pool of their blood for
hours, after the accident occurred and each passerby that drove closer to the
scene only peeped through the window of their car, shouted aloud ‘Jesus’ and
off they went in their various ways without assisting these helpless victims
that lay half dead on the ground. A pastor, an Imam and a traditional leader
were guilty of this inhuman act.
After the pick and drop taxi that Mr and Mrs Ngene boarded collided with a
big lorry, as they were on their way to visit their only daughter during her
school’s visiting day, Mona Lisa who was 15years old became an orphan
automatically and many things began to change in her young life. This sad news
hadn’t left the minds of the teachers and students of Annunciation Secondary
School and its memory stuck in their minds like a tattoo.
The taxi driver had broken limbs, while the other four passengers that were
packed like sardine at the back seat of the Peugeot 504 sustained serious
bruises. Mr and Mrs Ngene were seriously wounded because, both of them sat in
the front seat of the vehicle. The spot where they were seated was the exact
place where the lorry smacked. The driver swerved leftwards immediately he saw
the lorry exiting from its lane with a full velocity as fast as he could, but
he wasn’t lucky enough to escape from the lorry and gbosa! They pecked one
another.
After five hours, a big medical ambulance that had about four medical
personnel onboard arrived at the scene of the accident and the victims were
hurriedly rushed to the hospital. Mona Lisa’s parents gave up the ghost as they
were on their way to the hospital; due to the excessive blood they had loss.
Mr and Mrs Ngene were farmers. Mr Ngene was not educated, not that he never
wanted to go to school when he was younger but his father wasn’t financially capable
to pay his fees from the little money they made from the sales of their farm
produce. His only sister Ifunanya who was as beautiful as a mermaid found her
way into the heart of a big motor part importer Mazi Onuoha, aka Eze
Gburugburu, who was based in Lagos. Mr Gburugburu was a highly respected
business tycoon; even the Oba of Lagos State knows that such a man does exist
in his territory. Despite the amount of wealth Gburugburu and his wife clinched
to, Mr Ngene the only brother of Ifunanya was never remembered – not even by
her only sister. He ended up as a farmer in the village, but Ngene still had
passion for education and he wished to give her only daughter the best
education he could afford.
Mona Lisa had ever wanted to become a doctor. She had passion for taking
care of people and animals. The chicken in her father’s compound would always
tell whenever she had returned from school because; she would share her food
with them, while sitting under an orange tree that was in their compound. She
would also clean their coop regularly and in one occasion, her mother had
caught her bathing one.
Few weeks after the car crash, Mona Lisa’s parents’ dead bodies that were
deposited in the mortuary were brought home in a convoy of an ambulance and
some other cars that tagged along and cries ensued in the compound of late Mr
and Mrs Ngene. Their compound housed a small thatched hut, which sat in the
middle. Rafters and short shrubs were used to fence it.
Ifunanya, the sister of Mr Ngene gave her brother and the wife a befitting
burial ceremony, which later became a topic in the whole village. Everywhere
was filled with friends and family members that came from Ogbe ato village and
beyond. Foods, drinks and dancers littered everywhere. Their coffins were
beautiful and very expensive. Ifunanya read an outstanding tribute to the
audience and many people applauded her for an excellent delivery of her
write-up. In fact, Mr and Mrs Ngene got the best burial ever when they died. It
was so sad that they fed from hand to mouth, when they were alive, but they got
one of the best burial ceremonies – what an irony of life.
Mona Lisa relocated to Lagos with the wife of the business tycoon after the
burial of her parents because; she had nobody to cater for her in the village.
A lot of promises were made to her by her aunty. She was promised that she
would be sent to the United State to further her education, where the sons and
daughters of her aunty were before they left Ogbe ato village, but everything
suddenly became story for the gods, immediately they arrived Lasgidi.
Gburugburu was a nice man, no doubt about that but he was a busy man
chasing after money. Issues that have to do with the house and other domestic
things were left for Ify to handle. Today he is Japan, tomorrow Turkey and next
tomorrow United State. He was a principled man, so he dares not interfere in
the affairs of his wife. He made sure that Ifunanya who was a house wife never
lacked anything.
Sooner than Mona Lisa expected, everything changed. Her education was
stopped by her aunty. Automatically, she was converted to a house girl who mobs
and cleans a duplex that had ten rooms on daily basis. Every house help that
ever came to that house never stayed up to one week, due to the type of
wickedness and ill treatment they got from the madam of the house. Now, the
little Mona Lisa was stuck in a house where she feels nothing than pains and
the agony of been an orphan at a very tender age. She was starved many times
without reasons and her back and face now had stripes of lines, which she
sustained from the constant flogging she got from her madam. Her dreams of
becoming a doctor quickly disappeared into the thin air.
One fateful afternoon, Mona Lisa had the best dream ever in her life while
she was sleeping and she wished not to wake up from that the sleep. Here comes
her dream;
Mona Lisa cuddled her pillow tightly in her arm and her
consciousness to the world around her died. Her spirit joggled down
in an unfamiliar alleyway, as sparkles of light and darkness hovered in her
vision and her head spin round and round. Astonishingly, she realised
that she had just arrived in a world that was different from
where she had rested.
‘Where am I?’ she shrieked audibly, with mixed feelings of ecstasy and fury
and a deep scary voice ricocheted; ‘you just experienced a soul travel.’
‘No!’ She yelled back at the strange voice, ‘I guess I’m dreaming,
yeah!’ She paused.
Perambulating in this new wonderland where she found herself,
everything seemed possible there. Life was sweeter, longer and love wasn’t
faked. She could glimpse at her future through a broad mirror that hung up
there and she could synchronise her plans to fit in. Success was
easier to come by in this new world where she found herself. Mona Lisa wanted
to be great and eventually, she found greatness on this
path. Her little effort yielded huge results there. She had a
white mansion, a white Porsche car and a white Limo parked at her garage
and there was neither war nor betrayal in this her new eccentric
world. She never had any close friend there, but the entire passer-by
cheered her up and wished her well, as they tagged along their dreams
to achieve it. Peace, love and hard work was their slogan, in fact, everything
was perfect in her new world.
Still in her sweet dream exploring her adventure and wishing that it
would never come to an end. Suddenly, she heard a koi-koi sound that came
from a creeping foot and the foot walked slowly towards her bed.
Out of the blue, the light that was in her vision disappeared and darkness
resurfaced from an alien tiny hole that was in her heart and her joy
began to evaporate gradually. Things began to change. Feelings of hatred,
malice, selfishness and wickedness began to dominate her mind. Echoes of
war, cries of starved children and youths, filled her thought and she
reached out for help and consolation, but her fist couldn’t get hold of
any.
Immediately, a huge spank bounced on her thighs twice pam-pam and a
harsh voice that she was familiar with bawled; wake up Mona Lisa! Her
eyelid flicked open and there was aunty Ifunanya standing in front of her.
Bitterly, she realised that she was dreaming and she sobbed and wished she
could go back to her dreams because; she finally made it big over
there, but she couldn’t.
From that moment, Mona Lisa kept nurturing the fear of not been able to
make her dreams a reality, in this depraved world where she belongs
and this thought kept chasing her and she couldn’t stop fighting with it.
(Emeka is a young
Nigerian writer who is endowed in a special way with storytelling knack, just like his ancestors. His short fiction stories
and poems have emerged as Guest Post on ‘A Loco Viva Voce,’ and host of other literary
blogs. {Email: emekaubesie@yahoo.com, Twitter: @emeka_ubesie})
