EIYE ILE MI OWON (Song)

SWEET INFLUENCE

It was a breezy evening under the almond tree, when 7yr old Candy asked her grandma a question. The question unearthed memories that created the present.

Candy, the pretty brown eyed girl asked,

“Grandma, why do all the girls in our neighbourhood have names with sweetness in them, like Oyinkan, Berry, Tundun, Caramel Adunola, Flo…

Grandma interrupted Candy,

“Once there lived a lady down the street. She was so kind and helped a lot of people. She gave Afusat, the pap seller money to start her pap business. And then when Nnnena’s husband ran away, this lady fed her kids for one whole year, until her husband came back home all repentant and sorry.

You see that little house where your backside is pricked with a needle when you have a fever? She built it. Oh, she did so many wonderful things.

The wonderful lady would go out very early in the morning and would only get back home by night fall. When she passed by she would wave and smile beautifully at everyone she met. We all knew her house but none visited her. She had no family…no kids, at least none that we knew of. Yet, she had a kind word for anyone who spoke to her.

During the weekends when she did not go out, she would go from house to house helping kids with their homework. Somehow, she could tell if you were hungry, and she would give you some bread and warm stew.

She was not just kind but beautiful too, with silver strands of hair criss-crossing her full eyebrows.

Then, one day, we didn’t see her again. One day became two, and two became three. That’s when we went looking for her. Her door was unlocked. We all went in slowly. We couldn’t call out her name, not because she didn’t have one, but because we didn’t know.

Right there on her bed, the only thing in her whole house, we saw her propped on her pillow, sleeping peacefully. Death was drawn over her gentle smile.

That day we all wept, when we saw her name signed under a pencil drawn portrait of her that hung on the wall.

All was silent, as little Candy asked again.

“Grandma, what was her name?”

“Her name was Sugar”.