2
A cow does not know the value of the tail until it is cut off. And it was not until the evening that Edobor sent his first son out of the house that Collins began to notice what he had taken for granted. Sleeping under his father’s roof, he had had no responsibility. He had simply gone out to drink with his friends; all of whom had dropped out of school to seek another means; and come home to a meal placed beside his mother’s bed. That night, Collins thought about how his father had failed him. It wasn’t Collins fault that he had failed school. How could he pass English language when the teachers taught in Esan? How was he to understand math when his step mothers sent him on long errands whenever he sat down to consult his textbooks? It wasn’t his fault. Perhaps it was the two women who were heaping their pregnancy on him.
That evening there was little that his mother could do to console him. He ignored her attempt to console him. Edobor heard his loud sobs once or twice. He was sure that Collins was crying aloud to summon pity from the old man. But it only infuriated him more. How could a man in his late twenties cry like a child because he had been cut off from his father’s embrace? When the cock crow, Edobor intentionally shut his door tight so that he would not be called on to accompany Collins to the park. When he woke up later in the afternoon, the house was silent save for the clucking hens and the whispering kettles. Collins had gone. For the first time in many moons, Edobor smiled.