My brother is married to a woman whose family has bad luck.
I said bad luck runs in that family because so many young deaths have occurred in the last 20 years, well that is about the same period my brother has been married.
Now, this my brother isn’t really my brother like that, we are actually step brother and sister, I call him brother because we are very close despite the fact that we are not of the same mother.
My brother is the only child of his mother, whereas, my own mother had five of us, our father’s third wife had three; ours was a happy Muslim home.
Now, my brother met his wife at the university, and got her pregnant when she was in her third year. Slince she was someone we already knew about, I doubt that my brother would have tried to deny it like most university boys did back then. What’s more, his mum, who had just him as an only child was more than happy to have another child to call her own; so she welcomed the pregnancy.
When the child came, it was a girl and she was my brother’s spitting image! I’ve never seen a girl child resemble her father like hers even in temperance, in every aspect, so this one couldn’t be denied. She was raised by my brother’s mum because my brother’s girlfriend at that time had been disowned by her people.
My step mum was more than happy to take her in after the baby. So our baby mama went back to complete her university education and later married my brother.
After they got married, they had three more children, so in all, they had two boys and two girls.
Now, my sister- in- law, my brother’s wife comes from a weird family. I told you they cast her off when she became pregnant, leading to her coming to live with us; that is with my step mum. Then after the birth of the child, her family still kept their distance; until five years after, when my brother went to them to ask for her hand in marriage. At that time, she had lived with us for five years; not once did they come looking for their grandchild, though her siblings came from time to time but never her parents! This was odd!
When we went to meet them for the bridal things, they made so much demand, they gave us a list so long, it was shameful that a family that had cast their own child and grandchild off could be so greedy!
Thankfully, my step mum was up to the task. She was quite well to do especially since she had just one child to spend her money on. The rest of our mothers always came to borrow money from her, even our father borrowed money from her. Anyway, my step mum did not argue, she provided everything they demanded on the list!
In the space of about 10 years, my brother and his wife had the remaining three kids and right from then, we began to hear strange things.
First, my sister in law’s elder sister lost her 10-year-old twins to a mysterious fire… we heard there was power outage, when it was restored, there was power surge, their ac exploded, the twins were in the room when it caught fire, they died in it…only the twins were casualties, they were the youngest members of that family…the rest survived!
Terrible news!
Two years afterwards, my sister- in- law’s brother lost his daughter, a 12-year-old girl to a freak accident; she was biking with the rest of the other kids on their street, she fell off her bike like kids are wont to, grazed her knee. Her mother treated it, that night, she began to foam in the mouth then died before her parents got to the hospital…
Three years later, my brother’s eldest daughter, the one he had in school, she was almost 15 years at that time; fell sick from malaria, normal malaria, o. She was in boarding school and was taken to the school’s sick bay but before the school could even notify my brother and his wife, as the school would notify parents if a child sleeps over at the sick bay, Amina, that’s was her name, died there! From malaria, fa!
So that was how my sister- in- law and her siblings began to lose their children, one after another…at that time, we didn’t really make any bizarre connections, we are strong Muslims, we prayed, we took Amina’s death as the will of Allah. Who can question Him?Who can demand answers from Allah?
A few years after, say like another six to seven years, it started again, my sister in law’s sister’s son died in a motor accident, making three children all gone! I think that was when my brother and his wife realised this was no coincidence!
My sister- in- law stopped being a Muslim and joined a white garment church. Nobody could fault her because she was a mother fighting to protect her remaining children, though my brother remained a staunch Muslim!
Hummn, after her sister’s son’s death, my brother and his wife lost their son, Ahman, he was in SS2. What happened? He was playing football, some cultists came to smoke joint at the field where he was playing with his team. Their ball hit one of them, fight started, Ahman was stabbed…
Was he the only one playing? No.
Today, my brother and his wife have ferried the remaining two children abroad. They have refused to tell anyone where exactly these children are. When we ask, they will just shake their heads and smile. We all understand their predicament.
Same thing with my sister -in-laws siblings, they have taken their children out of Nigeria to places we don’t know.
Now, this is ten years after the evil deaths, I believe these children are still alive, I believe because they are where no evil eyes can see them, they will live, I also believe that the evil from that family, whatever it is, I pray Allah shames it and stops it forever!
(Series written and edited by Peju Akande and based on true stories)
photo credit