One Body Mark

One Body Mark

A few inches away from my left nipple, yes o, I too have one, is a swelling, the size of a bean seed.
I once prayed to God to remove it exercising all my faith based proclamations. The stubborn thing wouldn't budge. God must be using it teach me a lesson, I reckoned, as I submitted to living with my body blemish.

How did it come about? Hmm. Where else did this happen but Saki. When I'm done talking Saki, I shall enter Ife before Ibadan.

We returned from midweek service. Our church, His Coming Evangelical Church isn't one of those places that eyed the clock while dwelling in the presence of the Most High. So, it was no skin off anyone's nose if we were tardy getting home. After all, home is home.

Only on this ocassion I was ravingly  hungry. That kind of hunger that makes you want to  command the books in your bag to pizza, whatever that was then.

Mum was aware of the situation. God bless that woman.

But the choices for that night were thin and meagre. It had to be Beans. It couldn't be anything else. It must be Beans.

Those were the days of Ife Brown Beans. All of Ifedapo Local Government and beyond were in a frenzied Beans mood. We couldn't be left out. It must be Beans ooo.

In a jiffy, the three prong stones were filled with burning sticks. Both lean and huge ones. Obediently, the fire caught up and was burning with feverish fervour, taming and subduing the Bean pods in no time.
The huge bonfire lit the backyard, providing both illumination and warmth and yes, an assurance of a hot meal.

If anyone told me there would be no meal that night, I could turn Elisha on that person. Fire from hell would consume such.

Anyway jare. Sister Grace,  my Mum, continued with her other chores while I monitored the softening and conquering of my beans. Our beans.

Once it softened to my mind, I told Mum to come see o. She saw. She agreed it was soft enough to add condiments. And she did.

Finally, food was coming shortly, very.shortly.
Ode. I never knew I was in for a long wait.
I never knew that the Palm oil used came from a source much cheaper than the last supply. Mum was balancing a difficult account I wasn't aware of.

So, the meal had to cook, boil, simmer for much longer. All impurities had to die by fire and by patience. 
Patience was the only substance I didn't have. If it was fire, I added more sticks and the fire glowed brighter with relentless intensity. This fire had delivered nah. Wetin?

Each time I drew Mums attention to the broth she only came to stir the thing while she went back to her.account books balancing some numbers that never made sense to my hungry self.

I got tired. I could sell my birthday right to Durojaiye Oluwabunmi. I didn't care.

But before then, let me bring down the Beans meal from the fire first.

I did. I shouldn't have.

The fire that scorched my hands while removing the pot was so intense that I dropped the pot instantly.

The lid flew in a different direction while the grains of avenging beans seeds attacked my fAce squarely. They were more than 2.1 billion.

My scream drew Mum to my situation. Pathetic is an understatement.

Anyway,  by next morning I had punched all the watery bean mArks all over me, leaving only as a memento.

The beans? 
Ask the Alfa what happened to his goatee the last time he got inflamed.