"Be asking me.Who are you?"
"Have you gone naught?You re asking me ,am i not your mother ?Oh you Ve gone mad because of those strange bedfellows you move with on the streets those gangsters to have the gut to utter gibberish before me?Am asking you"a counterblast in the raging inferno
"Have you gone mad too?Why did you leave the husband of your youth? Certainly you have gone mad.I ask you and am not surprised you now have many bastards like me.Mother of bastards!"
"Are you crazy you call me 'mother of bastards!"
Why did you leave dad and prefer single status?I ask you"
"Keep quiet but you have a doctorate too right go and marry an illiterate like him,you will realize the sense in my action later"
"Now I agreed with my friends completely and Jide was right about the feelings of daddy."
"What feelings are we talking about?"
"Inferiority complex.Why can't you burry your differences and come together and now your husband sick recently recovered in the hospital had told me he never knew educated folks sometimes could be so arrogant to stay with let alone marry them.He lamented the imbalance ."
"Are you crazy?Boy for your information I did not build this house with my husband money I m a lecturer ,so you should get out now and look for your baba."
"I will not"Gbenga hungry when he came in stooled near the upholstery and heavily devoured the plate of coconut rice on the table as he occasionally lashed out at his mother.
"Am not going.Do your worst."
"I say get out"her strong voice not enough to pacify him wielding anger in her visage and furious movement.
"This is my home after all when you re gone is my house as the only son."
"And so what ? Don't you know you have a brother and a sister."
"Too full of herself.People asked me why am I on the street?You re educated too why?"
"Uhmmmm"
"I could nt tell them but my friends like jide knew you re the trouble some character your naggings like a beast was responsible for this homelessness of mine."
"You re lazy like your Dad you don't want to teach they need lecturers in the Universities.Our universities are seriously under lectured with a ratio of one lecturer to 50 to 200 compared to advance countries of one to two and only the seven first generation universities the so called ivory towers have 60 percent of their academic staff to have a doctorate.The quality of teaching is so bad and now pay had improved a little.Still they dywant to teach Iike you."
"Am not teaching mum.How many times have I told you?"
"I don't blame you you have bad role model as your father and nothing l say count."He finished the food in record time still hungry searching the kitchen for left overs and now urchin in the streets returned back to senses at home.
"See the lecturers I have given jobs and doctorates like you.Bode and taiwo your fellow classmates.Why don't you wanna teach?"as she hurriedly flashed the photos of the guys on his phone to illustrate before him who was making calls when Gbenga wore out by hunger entered house at exactly 12.30 on the dot.
"I became a beggar on the streets begging for food because of my mother's arrogant behavior."
"I will not allow you to sit here and be eating my food if you would not give teaching a chance in your life ."
"Mum I asked you jide's mother is a professor unlike the husband but she didn't leave him .They Ve been married for over fifty years now.Now tell me are you a professor yet ?Just senior lecturer! Why can't you stay with your husband?"
"What rubbish?"as she left his presence into the bedroom her fingers still clutching the phone tightly.
"Honestly mum I know you re arrogant.Anyway I need a phone give me your iPhone"still sitting down now from the stool shifted to the sofa weakened by startling breeze and tired of making noise,having been fed with massive mountain of beans and potato chips slept off and snoring like jackal.
He woke up next day to see her mum departed to the classroom and started to entertain the strange thought of teaching to repay his parent though now separated for years of investment in him and also get a life for himself.
Fortunately he saw the iphone 15 in the bedroom the mother took smaller phones for school lectures and most outings beyond classroom avoiding expensive theft.Gbenga took up the phone and called his mother.
"Mum where are you?"
"Am in school"
"I don't care I Ve taking your phone is now mine"
"Pls boy come to the school if am your mother.Come immediately."
"I LL be there in a jiffy."laughing hysterically at the beautiful phone.
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