started the behavior that brings you in conflict and gets you in trouble with the village people. Keep your mouth shut.”
“I have kept it shut. God gave me a mouth to talk with, but all of you in our kindred say Uridiya will not talk. I agree. Jamike, do you see what I tell you all the time? Thank God these things keep happening before you.”
A kinsman came into the compound to see Akudike but he was asked to wait outside for him. This man heard that the headmaster was in the compound and had come to verify. He asked to tell Akudike he would return, but did not.
“I don’t have a long statement to make. I come to talk about Jamike, your son. He is a bright young man who does outstandingly well in schoolwork. I found out that he has continuous difficulty in paying fees or school levies. He informed me that his father died when he was a child, leaving his mother the burden of raising him and now struggling with his school needs. I fully understand his plight. My own father died when I was a schoolboy, but my situation was different. Not many children attended school in those days, so the Catholic mission helped to support me. I am here to tell you that starting from this term I will take over the payment of your son’s fees until he finishes Primary Standard Six in three years. I will give him what is called scholarship. It is from me and not from the mission or the government.”
“What did he say he is giving Jamike?” Uridiya asked Akudike.
“It is scholarship. It simply means I will pay his fees and buy his books while he attends school. So, let’s leave it at that so you can go on to the market. I need to leave too to take care of school matters.” He did not say that, Uridiya thought. She moved closer to Akudike and held his lap. Her body shivered.
“Akudike, what did he say? I doubt if I heard him right. Please tell me what he said, so I won’t misunderstand him.” Akudike could not believe what he heard, either.
“I am not deaf yet, but hold on while I ask the headmaster to repeat what he said so it would not be that we did not hear him properly.
“Headmaster, what did you say? Please say it again so we may hear it well.”
Jamike himself thought he heard the headmaster very well. He was now thinking about the flogging and being sent away for school fees. These would be no more, and he would not have to cry on his way to school because Uridiya did not have the fees to give him. His school report card would not be withheld anymore, and he could now jubilate like other students when school results were announced at the end of the school term instead of leaving the assembly hall downcast. He believed he heard the headmaster clearly. The headmaster answered Akudike and repeated what he just said.
“I said I will take over the payment of Jamike’s fees from now on. This means from his present class, Primary Standard Four, up to Standard Six. I will be his father in this respect. You only have to provide him food, clothing, and other things a boy needs. Do not worry about his school fees and books.” Uridiya fell to the ground on her knees. Her hands up and palms open, she said:
“Headmaster, I thank you. Who said that man is not God to man? Yes, man is the God we see everyday. He works His miracles like this one through man. Headmaster, you are God this day for my child and me. Nnorom, are you seeing the good that is coming into your household? Death be shamed! Akudike, can you see? You said I should shut my mouth. This time I don’t have the mouth to talk. You can do all the talking now. How do we thank him? How will I be able to thank this savior? I leave that in your hands.” She moved closer to the headmaster and held his knees, tears welling in her eyes. Imagine not paying school fees any more!
An arrow of envy shot through Akudike because Uridiya’s hardship was about to lessen. He had mocked that Uridiya had a grand plan to educate her son when she had no means to do so and failed to heed his advice that the boy should learn bicycle repairing or blacksmithing, for which he seemed gifted. He used to comment that Uridiya thought education would be cheap or something one could obtain by hoping and praying God to provide. The boy, Jamike, he told people, would have been a blacksmith by now instead of all these years he was wasting in school he would never complete.
“Headmaster, I thank you,” Akudike said. “Our Lord bless you. You saw a widow’s son, and you want to do the work of a father for him. May God reward you and bless your family. I am speechless. I will pass on this good news to our people. They will be overjoyed. It has been a long time this woman has been suffering. She tries to borrow money from here and there but villagers have their own problems. How can you give to someone when you have none to eat?” He turned to Jamike.
“Jamike, you have heard it. Your headmaster said you would complete your schooling. You have nothing else to worry about but only to read your books. The heavy load has been taken off your mother. So wherever the book goes you follow it. The headmaster has said you have brains. I am not surprised. I, myself, have known you have brains since you were born.”
Jamike, still standing, his eyes roving over everything on Akudike’s veranda, nodded his head. A goat suddenly jumped out from the goat shed and made toward the gate to enter a neighbor’s farm. The woman who owned the farm had complained that Akudike’s goats are never reined in but instead left to eat her vegetables.
“Jamike, go after that foolish goat and chase him right back.” Jamike grabbed a long stick and went in pursuit as he always did. The gate was closed. The goat gave him a couple of run-arounds, racing and galloping all over the compound and kicking down a clay pot of water in his path before jumping back into the shed with speed. There was water everywhere. Jamike followed the errant goat into the shed and gave a good hit of his stick.
As the headmaster got up to leave, he said to Jamike,
“I will talk with your teacher on Monday. I will introduce you to my family. Obi is in the same class with you, though you are much older.”
“Sir, I know him. Is there nobody who doesn’t know the headmaster’s son?” Jamike said.
“Yes, everyone ought to know the son of the headmaster. If the headmaster’s son is not known, whose son will be known?” Uridiya joined.
“Come to me if you have any problem in school. I don’t expect any but do not be afraid to come to my office or my home. I will introduce you to my family.”
“Jamike, did you hear him? Everything is now in your hands. The headmaster said you are now his son and a member of his family.” Uridiya was pleased.
They all saw the headmaster off to the road. He mounted his white bicycle and they kept looking at him until he rode out of their sight. Akudike asked Uridiya if the headmaster said that the fees should be repaid. He wished that would be the case.
“ I watched his mouth to see if he would say so, but I did not hear him say that.”
“It must be free then. This is your own gift from God for the year. My son, Jamike, rejoice because your brain gave this to you.”
Uridiya left late for the market, remarking that what God had given her through the headmaster she could not get on her own even if she sold herself a hundred times over. She asked Jamike to eat the leftover plantain porridge they had the previous night and to be sure to fetch some firewood.
After his meal, Jamike went out to play soccer with his age-mates along the dirt road. They were envious of him because the headmaster came to their house. They did not believe him when he told them what the headmaster said. Later he went into a nearby bush and quickly got some firewood. Uridiya had warned Jamike about that particular bush, because the owner swore to put some evil charm in it against intruders searching for firewood. Jamike did not worry about
