Extract from Imagine This

15th June 1978

Dear Jupiter

There has been another tragedy in the family, Baba my grandfather has died. He was sick the last time I saw him, and now he’s dead. I was lucky not to have died when I was sick. There is much wailing and crying in the house and there are some women sitting with Mama. I can hear Iya Dayo crying and singing at the same time. Mama has told me I can’t go over there to see the body being washed and dressed, I have to stay with her. Mama’s face is dry, but she is wailing and throwing herself onto the ground with such force I think she might hurt herself. Each time she lands on the floor the women pick her up and dust her down, she keeps screaming she has to die with her husband and making a dash for it but never getting beyond the front door.

According to Dayo, Mama hasn’t spoken to Baba since Daddy went to live in London, and that was over twenty years ago. They quarrelled over whether he should go or not. Baba wanted Baba Dayo to go but Mama chose Daddy instead because he was her favourite, but Daddy told us that he went to London to fight. Dayo and Aina keep telling me they would have been the ones born in London, not Adebola and me.

My Uncle is still at the farm and doesn’t know that Baba has died but someone has been sent to bring him home. Aase, the driver who brought me here, has been sent to Lagos to tell Daddy and messages have gone out to my other Uncles and Aunts who don’t live in the village. The house is still filling up with people and there’s nowhere to sit, so people are standing wherever they can.

Iya Rotimi has just arrived from the market, I saw her leap from the bus and run across to our house as she heard the cries. As soon as she found out that it was Baba who had died, she tied her headscarf around her waist, clapped her hands together and threw herself onto the ground just like Mama, while the other women tried to comfort her. When Iya Rotimi took me to see Baba, he told me that she never came to visit unless she wanted something and that the only time she had come and not wanted anything was when she took me. Now she’s very sad because in between her sobs she keeps on asking everyone what she’ll do without Baba. I really don’t want Daddy to die.

Dear Jupiter, it’s the same day but much later. Baba Dayo has arrived from the farm and is on his way to Baba’s house, his eyes were red but he wasn’t crying. I wanted to go with him but I’ve been told that no women are allowed out tonight because Baba was descended from the kings of Idogun.

Imagine This is available on Amazon (www.amazon.co.uk). To receive a signed copy, visit www.ImagineThisTheNovel.com.

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