The Scarlet Woman

Author: Josiah Omokanyani

Fasan Olumide

Mà was a thief, a con, a figment, a spineless shammer, a name amongst many my father's wife. Although pà was ashamed and distraught, he was still witless in love. He once told of an adulterous woman. 

"There was once a scarlet woman. She was sweet to the eye, but always left a shadow with a ring of bitter wickedness, a deceiver leaving lies and regret in her wake." Pà had said in his husky tired voice.  

"She would ride her rickety red bicycle all the way across town just to gloat to other brats how quick she was to drill through an unfortunate dolts knickers, draining his silver, gold and so much of his grasping sanity too. This scarlet woman and her barbaric friends would toast and merry at her escapades, iniquitous enough to be a conquest.

Drinking themselves to stupor, till they can take no more, filling their already frail lungs with nicotine, farcely shameless as some fell face down into muds, some belting out colourful profanities at those who had enough daunt to pity them. Blue bird, the scarlet woman he ain't like mà". Pa would always add that last sentence, whenever he tells me this same story, trying to convince me more or less himself.

The other day, I and Khaina saw Mà and the fancy porcelain man who lived on the other street hugging weird behind the large oak tree down the road. 

"Blue bird, she isn't Mà ...nn....nnno no it c....cc....can't be. The s-scarlet womm...m woman we....we.. see isn't mà." Pà stuttered as usual as I massaged my temple in distress. I wonder when and how he will get himself out of this cage he was locked in.

That same night Mà still didn't come home. The stunned man laid beside me murmuring in his sleep. 

"Nnnnno no.....nnno this isn't....oh scarlet woman don't shatter my world." In a trance he murmured profusely. I knew that he was close to his eye-opening moment. Mà was definitely the scarlet woman.

 

Mà sneaked in at midnight cus I caught her kissing Pà the next morning, professing her apt love for his understanding. Probably with a struggle of not bursting into  fits of hysterics, Pà would raise an eyebrow as if to say.

   

 "Blue bird I told you she wasn't mà"

With his lopsided smile threatening to fall off his face, I would smile back. Once again, he has succeeded in his self conviction and still I wonder how one can just not know. 

           

 Today, Pà brought me to this beautiful cliff miles away from home. We stared at the firmaments and watched it's winged beasts till the big star had to leave. Pà's gaze still never left it while I let my mind wonder to the mystery behind Mà

       Mà, the beauty you once stole is lost and all that's left is a reflection of the beast you've created. You wore a woolen sock on our claws so we couldn't scratch back, you've made a new monster out of us, kept a cast on our face so the world wouldn't see our ugly reproach. Yes we obeyed, at least pà did while I watched from the background.

 Oh Mà!, Your time is breached and your night has come. This time you won't see from where we would come, We would pay bountifully in your own acrimony, It'll just be us, a languid husband and I .

   

"She's mà, isn't she?" Pà spoke suddenly halting my strayed thoughts.

   

"Blue bird, Mà is the woman from the story isn't she?" He pushed making me weigh my options if I should let the truth out.

          

"Pà, Mà, was beautiful, a liar, a cheat on life's own temerity and quite intelligent too. She saw every other person who didn't think as she did a simpleton. She couldn't hide her scorn, still you forgot she was the lie. Yes, she was the scarlet woman from your story."  I replied waiting for his reaction.

    

Pà smiled wearily listening to me as if I had shattered his beliefs.  Even though he tried as much as he could to blunt the prick of the truth. I had always known what was real and what was a tale. I still wish he knew what I knew.

     

"Bird, I am a coward. I have hidden my scars beneath my coat and displayed an array of pretence, joy and naivety for those who wish to see, I forgot not all sown  secrets remain buried for ever. The big, healthy ones grow so large they begin to eat you up inside out, blotching your senses and poking at your sanity every step of the way.

I fell in love with a witty princess some years ago and last night was the first time I realized I had been blind for some years now. I am still blind and maybe a little daft, I have thought for too long and see where that has grounded me, thinking I could drown my sorrows with an act and you. But then, knowledge seems to love the castle you built in that little head of yours." He spoke with hollowness, gazing at the his calloused palms.

"I am a coward, a fool, an overly used tool, an imbecile but I was happy having you all the same. Wasn't I Rhemy?," Pà asked.

The silence spanned long and Pà stood at the edge of the cliff staring at vanity. His greying hair, crew cut, but standing tall, his khaki hanging on his hips, with legs wide apart and arms stretched like a bird. He began his hysterics. Still the only comfort I could give was to share my knowledge.

  

  "Rhemy." He called.

"Some men as they age, they grow stronger and bolder. I am not one of those, for I have seen how power can mistreat the innocent and that has left me  disciplined towards power. Some men ,as they age there grow wiser. I am not one of those, for I have considered ignorance as bliss, and I am yet to learn. Some men as they age, they become effusive. I am not one of those , I search for beauty where they shouldn't be and name them flaws. These act of triviality, searches for a reason and when none is found,  it blames.  I am sss....ssso so sorry I am a coward." He sobbed, staring at his trembling hands.

"I sh....... shouldn't run, nnnnno.......no, I shouldn't...I...

 "Pà..." I interrupted.

"No blue bird listen let me finish. I am a coward and I am so sorry I have to run. I could ask you to teach me what you know, like how you built that castle too, I could ask you to teach me how you fly." He paused as if to catch his breath.

 

"Blue bird, I wish I could. I am sorry I have to run, but sometimes the best way to learn is to first let go. The hardest way." Pa continued with a strange pain in his voice.

     

"Pà, you don't have to run and hide, Pà. I would teach you everything I know, I would teach you how I fly so high and the perks of flying solo. I would tell you how I killed the painters husband. He couldn't keep his hands were they were meant to be, so I helped him. I would show you where I buried the fancy porcelain man from the other street, I......I...I rrr.... really....I would tell you how...why I am still elated after I fed mà the ground bane leaves from you hid under your bed, I...could...I still....let me...." I rambled on a thrall of confusion and fear.

    

"Blue bird, I would listen, but even that's far to hard for a feeble mind like mine. Let me tell. Courage  is something beyond human ability. I mean...." He paused.

      

"I am afraid bird, I am human and I do not have the strength nor the sense of boldness to be courageous. Blue bird, remember these rules of survival or stitch them each to the strands of your hair. Remember, your doubts are robbers, your fears are feral foes, your word is your sword. It would either fight your cause or destroy you. 

Rule your thoughts and guard your heat. Deceit, wits, sensibility and compassion might run through you best works, but survival is to poise or be poised. I could lean and learn from you, but I am infact...... incapable of even that. I am just a stolid mind who has suffered from the unjust, yet taken a wrath-less route to fight back. I am a person confined to tool to hold everyone's baggage except it's own."

 

I have given it enough thought, maybe from this very cliff I'll learn to fly, I'll learn to let go." Pà spoke.

     

I watched with grave appall as Pà leaped off the cliff with so much grace, it scared my soul. Unbelief washed over me as my world plunged into silence. The one I failed to see now dawning on me. I walked to his former spot, I got stuck staring at the exact same vanity he saw.  An hour or so it took me to look down. His already pale lip looked like a line of smile. Maybe it was my own delusions, but I saw his brown orbs. Through them I saw the angel welcome him. His once cold face now faced the bleeding sky with deathly warmth. 

Anxiety then slapped me like a gust of strong wind. Waking me to the reality of what I had lost. Not just a coward father nor an irritating wanton mother, but the peace to run and fight again. How could even the sky know loss?

At this point, I knew I had lost my nepenthe. It had neither cured me of my pain nor taken me away. It had only numbed me to feel no more. The shock of realization has left a brawl on my face, a leakage of whom I used to be. An innocuous child. Yet it bore the opposite.

Puff💨