OBLIVION - by Eyitoluwase Soyinka

Recently, I watched this manThis man that I had an uncanny resemblance to.I watched him every day.Balanced on the balcony of our tall red brick house, I would watch.Watch him walk in those ballooney black trousers with his tight blue suspender ropes that had seen better days.Watch him run, hurrying to catch the last car at the "I beg carry me junction", his leather bag with big tears in it thrown over his back. I would watch. He became so much of a fixture in my life that I began collecting tidbits about his life.Little by little.I wanted to understand him.I wanted to watch with a story playing in my mind. On Monday...my mother, the headmistress of the secondary school in our backwater community, told her family, "That man that lives next to us, he hasn't paid his child's school fees oo. I had to send her home oo, on the assembly ground. I can't be partial... I wonder why some parents are like this."I nodded.But I saw it in his walk that dayThe way he carried his bag was differentHis fingers were loose.His shoulders hunched. On Tuesday,The news had gone round town. It was a rather comical one.On the way to work, the man's shoe had torn. I understand the shoe... it had tried, so the man had gotten nylon bags and wrapped his legs in them and gone to work.The market women were gossiping amongst themselves. "I saw that girl of his wearing the latest koi-koi shoe last Sunday... but he can't buy even common slippers for himself.""I wonder why some parents are trying to form some class they don't have."I nodded.Because I had seen how he had walked, limping from the pain and exhaustion.His jaw tight and eye bags sitting pretty. On Wednesday,He had come home earlier than usual.Why?This wasn't his routine?I had waited till evening time.Waited till after night devotion and sharing of the grace, and then I started plying my aunty.She was the one to talk to for bad gist.She knew everything, who was sleeping with who, who didn't have a job and more."Oh, you mean that useless man?" She side-eyed me. "I mean no offence, but truly, he's useless. Apparently, they've let him go at his job." On Thursday,I watched him.He sat down in his front yard from morning till night.Thinking,Was this really the time to think?Didn't he know that thinking could kill a person?Because as he thought, tears rolled down his cheek and his broad shoulders shook. On Friday,He started working again.This time, dressed in farm clothes.I droned my sister's endless chattering out. It was something about the useless boy who liked hiking her skirt up, doing only what God knows...God and her, actually. "You're not listening to me.""His shirt is torn...""What?""Why is his shirt torn?"I felt her sigh. "Sometimes, you become so obsessed with something I don't even understand you." She hissed and walked out. She couldn't understand me.I had to watch him. On Saturday,I had made up my mind.I was going to do it.His walk seemed to be okay, you know.He wasn't limping.His shoulders weren't that tense.I would have to do it. I stepped down from the chair and picked up the landline, dialling the number I had memorised.He picked."Hello."He called my name gently."I need some new church wear.""They're writing exams next week. I need to pay my school fees." "Okay... I'll send it.""Thank you, sir... I love you—"He dropped without saying it back. On Sunday,I thought on this while the man of God droned on about forgiveness in his booming voice.You see, if you haven't figured out who that man is to me... you're slow. But really, why are some parents like this?Why couldn't they just take care of themselves first!!!!!!

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