THE LIFE CHANGER
Khadijat Abubakar Jalli
CHAPTER ONE A
They were waiting for Daddy.
We were
I paused outside their door.
The laughter was cheerful. It was also infectious. It began as a silent chuckle, then slowly it turned into a mirthful but stilted giggle. Now, it had finally transformed into a full fledged chortle. I stopped awhile to listen. My plan was not to eavesdrop. God forbid that I should be that kind of mother who surreptitiously listened on her children's private conversation. But there was something about the laughter that was compelling and arresting.
Bint, my five year old daughter, appeared to be the narrative voice. She was telling her two sisters the story of her classroom encounter with their meddlesome Social Studies teacher the previous week. The narration was so vivid you could actually visualize what transpired. The teacher believed he knew a little bit about every subject under the sun, especially French which most of the students found strange. Bint hersell' was new in the school. French was an optional subject even at this level of primary school education. We however encouraged her to take the option since we believed that language acquisition at an early age came relatively easy and with minimal effort. And, in any case, French was second to English in the ranking of intemational languages, we reckoned.
So it was that the first question the teacher asked was. "Who can tell me how to say Good Morning in French?"
Everybody was silent in the classroom
"You mean none of you knows how to say Good Morning in French?
Hesitatingly, not without trepidation, Bintraised her hand,
"Yes? " he pointed at her.
Slowly, she stood up.
"What is your name?"
The teacher asked
"My name is Bint."
"So, tell us, Bint, how do you say Good Morning in French
"Bonjour, ” Bint said.
"That's very good, "the teacher said, speaking English.
"And how do you say that's very good in French, teacher?" Bint asked innocently.
“What ?" The teacher jerked his head off as if stung by a bee. Then, within a flash, he bolted out of the classroom only to come back a few minutes later with the French Mistress of the senior classes .
"Ask her," he told Bint simply.
"How do you say that's very good in French , Aunty ? " Bint asked reverentially.
"C'est tres bien," the French Mistress replied.
"C'est tres bien," Bint repeated confidently.
The class began clapping and laughing at the same time.
The class teacher followed the French Mistress out and didn't come back till after the break.
Meanwhile the whole class as one surrounded Bint and started clapping and singing going round her in cheer and joy. They seemed to have known instinctively that Bint was destined for bigger things. Who else but a genius would ask a question the teacher could not answer?
"I got them. I really got them," Bint was saying excitedly to her siblings.
I found myself laughing silently. Before I got carried away , I let myself unobtrusively into the room.
They were used to my impromptu barging. One reason I used to go in unannounced was to keep them on their toes where issues of personal hygiene were concerned. The second reason was that we were used to keeping each other company. These formed the rationale for my periodic checking of their room - to ensure that they learned the basic norms of maintaining the cleanliness of their room at an early age and to get used to my presence. My own grandmother used to tell us when we were young that what you teach a child is like writing on a rock and when dried, it would be difficult to erase. I seldom miss an opportunity to make them see the lesson in an experience. They learned to respect my opinion over most of their matters and I tried not to be unnecessarily didactic when it came to correction or giving instructions. This cemented our mutual trust.
"I am so proud of you. Bint," I said as I wedged myself between Bint and Jamila, her immediate elder sister . They were all seated by the edge of the bed and looked up at me as if my intrusion had all along been anticipated.
"Thank you, mummy." Bint said as she nestled even closer to me. She was my last child and consequently the darling of the entire family. My first child was Omar. He was the first child and only male. Between Omar and Bint there is such great affinity that no one dared frown at her intransigence, no matter how great, if he was around.
And all of them called me mummy. They didn't call me Mama, a title every child in my community used for their mother. They couldn't call me Ummi, which was my name at home, which incidentally also meant mummy. It actually translated to My Mother in Arabic, because I was named after my paternal grandmother. So I was Ummi to everybody else, and Mummy to my children and their friends. Except Omar who insisted on calling me Mum. I was never particular about how I was addressed. What I always insisted was respect for each other, and for one another.
"Listen, young girls, all Mallam Salihu was trying to do was to practice his small French thereby trying to perfect it. You should give him a reak. Moreover, he is humble enough to accept that he does not know. Another teacher would frown his face and tell you au revoir means welcome whether you like it or not. Your knowledge to the contrary would nean nothing to him.
"But au revoir means 'goodbye until we meet again', mummy."
Bint was quick to point out.
"I know my dear, but if the teacher is angry he can tell you any word means whatever he wants it to mean."
"That would not be fair."
"It is also not fair to push your teachers beyond what they know."
"They are the ones who act as if they know everything, mummy."
When our conversation got that animated, my children seemed to forget that I was also a teacher. I never bothered reminding them. The it interesting. And if you attempted to interrupt, you would destroy the flow of the discussion.
Teemah, my second child, opened her mouth to say something and paused.
Just then, there was this loud knock on the door.
Before he was asked to come in, Omar pushed open the door and jumped on me.
"I made it, mum. I made it!"
His sisters all stood up as one and began asking, "What did you make?"
"I made it to the university, dears. Bint, your big brother is a university student." They screamed and shouted and ululated.
The news came as a pleasant surprise to them. And especially to me. Nobody knew where Omar was going when he left home earlier that morning . To say the truth, he was looking rather anxious when he came to greet me in the morning. He was dressed in blue jeans and white shirt. His skin cut hair style contrasted beautifully with his side burns which he kept clean and trim. He had always been a precocious child. To look at him, you would think he was well into his twenties. But Omar was just eighteen. My singular thrill with Omar was that he was always decently dressed and clean. This pleased me beyond measure. Now, I was even more pleased when he thrust the admission letter from Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board to me. The Board was popularly known by its acronym, JAMB. Indeed, even at my time it was not inconceivable that there were some undergraduate students who never knew what the acronym stood for.
Let alone now.
Anyhow, I took the letter and read it. My son was given admission to study Law at the Kongo Campus of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.
To be continued
