By Amie Sillah
Growing Up
Prof travels most of the time to bring development to his village which has
now been transform into a bustling town by his friends and associates. Tanta Hor is hired to look after Baby Di and she did it well when Prof is around but what happens when he is away?
When Prof is away
Tanta Hor is harassed as she cares for Baby Di.
Yaate
She is very lazy and wants everything to be done for her. She hires many maids, one for laundry and ironing family clothes, one for sweeping and cleaning the compound and big house and the other for cooking. Tanta Hor is hired by Prof to take care of Baby Di who is being neglected since the birth of her younger baby sister Ndaxte. Yaate would not let her be.
“Tanta! Come and change baby Ndaxte’s diaper.”
Tanta
“Am coming Ma! I am taking care of Baby Dichanging her diaper and feeding her.”
Yaate
“Leave her there by herself she is 2 years for Allah’s sake, come and take care of my baby I want to sleep.”
Tanta
“Yes Ma! I’ll be there in a jiffy.”
Tanta took Baby Ndaxte and cared for her, she involved Baby Di.
“She is our baby, your baby sister; take care of her while I do the other chores.”
Baby Di
“Yes Ma, I care for my sister.”
Yaate
“What! Who left you with my baby? Is Tanta mad?” She called and scolded her.
“Tanta! Where are you? Do you want me to lose my baby by leaving her with Baby Di?”
Tanta
“No! Baby Di would never harm her baby sister; I train her to be kind and protective towards her.”
Yaate
“That is nonsense! Never leave my daughter with her again.”She pitched Baby Di and pointed at her.
“If you hurt your baby sister I’ll hurt you.” Baby Di cried and Yaate carried away Baby Ndaxte.
Tanta
When Yaate was gone Tanta reflected.
“What type of woman is this? She does not only neglect her first daughter but hates her as well. But I’ll not allow her poison my mind; Prof hired me directly not her.”
The Teenagers
The girls grew up into beautiful young ladies but very different in character.
Diborr
She is very nice in character, studiousand hardworkingand she helps in household chores whenever she is around. She learns to cook all the traditional and continental dishes from Tanta who is her guiding angel.
At school she excels and always come out first in all her subjects, loved and respected by teachers and colleagues. Yaate is not happy with the progress of things as she grudges her first daughter who becomes everything positive which the second daughter is not.
Diborr is religious and discipline, she spends her valuable time positively engaging in debates, symposia and involves in extramural activities.
Ndaxte
She is the opposite , lazy, rude, arrogant, steals, class conscious with vain pride, does not do well in school and hates household chores especially cooking as a result she cannot cook. Both teachers and students alike ignore and hate her naughty attitude. She prostitutes with ‘sugar daddies’, take drugs and gambles, she also keeps bad friends.
Yaate
Despite Ndaxte’s naughty attitude and behaviour she is Yaate’s favourite daughter. She makes excuses for her and hides her bad behaviour and bad habits from Prof.
Diborr and Ndaxte
Ndaxte dislikes her elder sister and calls her names.
“You are too dull for my liking, no fun in your life; you don’t even have a boyfriend. What sort of hermit life is this?” She chided her sister.
“Do I complain to you? Mind your business, you have chosen your way of life let me choose mine.” Di posited with dignity and Ndaxte laughed at her.
Yaate
“Your younger sister is right you are too dull for my liking. Books! Books! When are you going to part with books? Your preoccupation should be to have boyfriends who will court you and marry you in the future. Don’t you want to have a rich husband?”
Diborr
“Of course I would like to marry at the right timeafter completing my educationas I have promised my father but not to be jumping from every Pateh, Demba and Yorro.”
Yaate
“How do you marry if you don’t start dating a man? And please don’t act holier than thoughand not to be judgmental towards your younger sister who knows the world and what she wants.”
Prof
He came into the room and heard the conversation.
“Yaate I totally disagree with you.Di is right everything should be done at the appropriate time. I am very displeased with how you trained our second daughter to become a liability to us and obviously to society. My friends always tell me how my daughter dresses in public but when I confront her she denies and you end up backing her. What I witness is both of them dress modestly when they leave the home but what I can’t verify is what they do after leaving our house. But I know what to do,” Prof posited.
Yaate
“Your ‘sugar daddy’ friends chase after my daughter but when she refused all of them they decided to tell lies against her, please don’t mind them.”
Prof
“Well I’ll verify and how I’ll not disclose. Am I not Prof?”
He mortgaged their cottage for a bank loan and he brought in the money home.
Ndaxte
She came from school and went straight to daddy’s bedroom; she searched and found the money in dollars and euros and took it.
At the Lumpen Den
She invited her male and female lumpen friends. They bought cooked meals, alcohol, drugs and do bad things. She refused going to college after absenting herself for months and not doing exams.
Prof
He came back from his travels and went straight to check his briefcase. What did he find? An empty briefcase and he screamed and went to Yaate.
“Who took my money from my brief case?”
Yaate
“Did you have money in your briefcase and you never told me?” Yaate protested.
Prof
“I cannot tell you because of my sudden trip to Thailand, I went to make contacts for my merchandise and was expecting to pay for it when I come back. Where is your daughter?”
Yaate
“Who among our daughters are you referring to?”
Prof
“Who is the lumpen friend among them? Is it not your favourite Ndaxte? She is the thief who can cause such an atrocity on me her father because of how you have trained her to be insensitive and callous.”
At the Lumpen Den
Prof went with a close friend of Ndaxte to locate her hideout; what did he find?
To be Cont.
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