My grandpa is telling my daddy, my mummy's sickness is not ordinary, he should stop wasting money on hospital, but my daddy is not listening, instead, he frown, and tell him one doctor say he can help, but my grandpa laugh and remind him that since my mummy fell sick, whenever he close his eyes, he dream where my grandma is tying a female goat to a tree, but my daddy say it’s malaria dream, and beg him to stay with us, that he is going to collect debt to complete treatment money, even if he know grandpa will start telling my mummy to mourn grandma well, to do the Ọwu mịni rẹma ritual, and he say it and continue until my mummy turn her head slow-slow, look us with water eyes, and point her purse, only for grandpa to collect it and rush out, but he no take long before he return with a big goat and many women from my mummy family, even my mummy cousin, who always quarrel my daddy because he no let my mummy do the ritual, come, but she no sit outside like the others, she enter kitchen to cook the goat, and serve them to eat and talk good-good things about grandma, until night when my daddy return, and chase them away, shouting for grandpa, and entering the house to carry my mummy to the hospital, but grandpa say nothing, just enter room to sleep, only for him to wake after small time and start singing, say he no dream the dream again, my mother is well now, and that he will seat outside and wait for my daddy to return with good news, and true-true, when my daddy return, he come with news, news say my mummy has gone to visit grandma.
Meredith Chiwenkpe Asuru is a writer and epidemiologist of Ikwerre descent. He is the lead moderator of microtalks—an offline group of readers invested in exploring flash fiction from across the globe. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in 101 words, Five Minutes, Spillwords Press, Brittle Paper, and elsewhere
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