‘We’ve found two girls in the village that you can choose from,’ she announced.  ‘We’ve already spoken with their mothers and they have accepted the idea.  We want you to come down to the village with us tomorrow morning and have a look at them so that you’ll know which one you want to chose.’ 

Augustina received the communiqué with uncharacteristic calm.  Apart from the fact that her spirit and all her reflexes were numb, she knew that a woman who could not produce children deserved whatever treatment she received from her in-laws.  So far, her only saving grace had been the fact that Paulinus was standing by her.  Several women had received even worse treatment from their husbands and in-laws combined.  There were cases where the wife came back home from the market and found another woman installed in the house.  In this case, at least they had chosen to give her advance notice.

Paulinus, on the other hand, reacted with uncharacteristic ferocity.  He slammed a fist on his knee, sprang up from the ill-fitting chair, and clenched his teeth till the two white rows almost merged into one thin, white line. 

 ‘I’ve heard what you people have to say.  Now, would you please get up and leave my house.’

He spoke in a low voice that still managed to startle everybody.  But Ada recovered quickly.  She jumped out of her chair, stationed her hands on her waist, and poked her face into his nose. 

‘Paulinus,’ she said, ‘it’s not today you started allowing your education to confuse you.  No matter what, every man needs children to carry his name.  Every man!  God forbid, but what if something was to happen to Kingsley?  That means your name will be vanished forever.’  She snapped her thumb and middle finger for effect.  ‘Just like that.  Is that what you want?  Eh?  Is that what you want?’

‘Look,’ Paulinus replied.  ‘There’s no point making a scene here.  I’ve told you that I’ve heard.  What else do you want me to say?’

‘That Is Not What We Came To Hear,’ she replied, pronouncing each word distinctly, as if she were reciting the title of a poem.  ‘For the past how many years, that’s all we’ve been hearing from you.  We’ve been talking and talking and all you say is that you’ve heard.  Now it’s time to act.  Do you think we have nothing better to do than to be worrying about you?  Meanwhile, you, the one that is inside the pit of shit, you’re not even bothered.’

‘If Papa had been alive,’ another one added, ‘he would have told you the same thing.  And Mama as well.  Look at the other sons from the other wives, all of them have many children.  It’s us that people are laughing at because our own Opara has refused to listen to advice.’

Paulinus roared like King Kong.

‘Will you leave my house right now!  All of you, get up and leave!  Get up and leave!  Now!’

‘Get up let’s go,’ Ada said, beckoning on the others with a motion of her hand as if she were fanning herself.  ‘You can chase us away if you want but the actual person you should be chasing is right here with you.’

She gave Augustina the sort of look that one might give a cockroach that had crawled into a part of the cupboard where the broom handle could not reach. 

‘Please where did you put our bags?’ she hissed.  ‘Let’s start going before your husband insults us some more.’

Apparently, Oluchi had been stationed at her usual eavesdropping position by the kitchen door.  As soon as Augustina stood up to go and get the bags, she appeared and accompanied her to the bedroom.  Inside, Augustina suddenly realized how fatigued she was.  She sat down on the bed while Oluchi took the bags out to the women.  She heard the front door slam shut and knew that they had left.  She heard the door of their bedroom slap against the frame and knew that Paulinus had gone inside to cool off.  Then the door in front of her opened slowly and Kingsley walked in.  He sat down beside her on the bed without speaking, and she knew that he also had heard.  It was at that point that she broke down and started crying.   The boy placed his arm as far as it would go around her waist and started crying as well. 

Oluchi came back inside the room and saw them.  She carried Kingsley in her arms and patted his back until he calmed down.  Then she waited till Augustina’s sobs had decreased.

‘Ma Kingsley,’ she whispered confidentially, like a rumour monger, ‘there’s something I’ve been wanting to tell you but I wasn’t sure how to say it.’ 

Augustina sniffed. 

‘The last time I was at home, there’s something my mother and Aunty Amaechi them were all talking about.’

Augustina perked up her ears.

‘They said that because of all these problems your husband’s people have been having since their father died, that maybe somebody from their family has padlocked your womb and thrown away the keys so that you won’t be able to have children.’

Augustina reflected on this revelation. 

Shortly after Kingsley was born, her father-in-law had died, leaving behind some few plots of empty land and cassava farms which his living seven-sons-and-eleven-daughters-from-three-wives had fought vigorously to put inside their pockets.  The wrangling had produced such bile.  And there were suspicions of some family members engaging diabolical means to frustrate others into relinquishing their interest in the inheritance.  From what her step niece was now telling her, it appeared that her family regarded her infertility as the outcome of one of those evil machinations. 

The informant continued. 

‘Ma Kingsley, I think you should do something about it.  There are some native doctors in Ohaozara who I hear are very good when it comes to unlocking people’s wombs.  Maybe you should speak to Pa Kingsley so that both of you can go there and see one of them together.’

Augustina looked up and saw the sincerity in her niece’s eyes.  Obviously, even though the girl had been staying with them for the past three years, collecting school fees regularly from Paulinus and going to school every day from their house, she still had no idea the sort of people she was living with.  All it would take for her and all her belongings to fly through the window and out into the street that evening, was for Paulinus to hear the words she had just spoken. 

Eventually, it happened when everybody was least expecting it.  A few months after Kingsley’s sixth birthday, Augustina took in with Godfrey.  Eugene followed a year after and Charity came last.  Then the same mysterious issues resurfaced and her womb closed shop forever.