THEY CALL IT 'DADDY ISSUES'- CHAPTER 1

 Hi guys,

So I've been writing a story. I hope you enjoy reading it.

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 CHAPTER 1 

“Lucky you, my dad hates me”, I chuckled as I read this comment under a video of a girl showing off the flowers her dad gives her on random days. I read the sad comments about terrible dads; it felt like they were talking about mine.

My dad hates me, and he never fails to remind me that my mum died during childbirth because of me. Plus, he also wished I were a boy. I never got a glimpse of my mum, not even a picture. He got rid of all her pictures to help him grieve, yet he talks about her so often that I forget he remarried. My stepmother was really sweet. She convinced my dad to send me to school, saying he wouldn’t be seeing me all the time, but she sends me money even before I ask. 

She gave him the sons he wanted, a set of twins who had his button nose and full lips but had their mother’s almond eyes. It was hard to tell them apart, especially when they were still babies, but as they grew, the first twin, Richard, had a tan skin tone, while Raphael’s skin tone was just like mine, dark. My stepmum, Elizabeth, made sure we grew up together lovingly, but my dad showed he loved them more than me. He finally had the sons who would inherit his plot of land, bungalow and his 2020 Toyota Camry car. Elizabeth called me her daughter and loved me; she always smiled when she called my name “Daniella”, sometimes she would call me “Mama”.

I wished my dad would love me like her. I always tried to impress him, but he managed to overemphasise any mistake I made. He didn’t hit me or my stepmum, but he willingly gave his sons whatever they wanted; Elizabeth had to beg him for my basic needs. He often said I was a waste of his resources.

It was a Tuesday night, and I was nine years old, playing with my stepbrothers, who were seven years old. We were imitating our teachers and parents, and I was asked to imitate my father. It was my turn after Richard had imitated the walk of our very lean Mathematics teacher at school. I cleared my throat in a manner the Nigerian father does and said, “You, this useless girl. Hold your ears,” I pulled my right ear the way my dad would when asking me to hold my ears. He would then weirdly scrunch his nose. This earned me laughter from my brothers and my stepmum, who was amused by the action. “I will tell daddy,” Raphael said, still laughing. In that moment, my father stepped into the twins’ room, where we were, which was separated from his room by a wide corridor. “What are you going to tell me?” His voice startled me, but Raphael kept on talking, “Daddy, Daniella was imitating you, she was doing her nose the way you do it” He then imitated me. His eyes found me, and the smile on his face disappeared; the vertical line between his eyebrows appeared.

“So you are mocking me now?” He said, stepping closer to me.

“They were just playing, even the boys did theirs too. It wasn’t serious, haba” Elizabeth said

“You are mocking me”, He definitely ignored his wife. He noticed my hands trembling and smirked. “I’m coming,” he said, and walked out; Elizabeth followed immediately.

“Babe! Kene! She didn’t even do anything. Please! Please!” I heard her say as the footsteps disappeared. Not even a whisper broke the air in the room; Raphael’s eyes pleaded in silence for forgiveness. The only thought in my head was ‘I hate him’ because he made my dad angry at me.

My dad came back without Elizabeth and dragged me out of the twins' room. As we went towards the laundry room, I heard Elizabeth knocking on their bedroom door, shouting, “Open this door! Kene!”

I was welcomed with a large pile of clothes filled with his clothes and Elizabeth’s clothes. Both clean and dirty mixed in the pile.

“You will wash all these clothes with your hands. Wash all the plates in this house when you are done with the clothes. Clean up every inch of this house, except the bedroom, so you don’t wake your brothers and us up. Next time, you will not use me as an object of mockery in your silly games.” He said, stressing every chore. It was 10 pm, and I didn’t understand how I would finish all of that, sleep and get ready for school, so I stood there just watching him, with tears welling up in my eyes.

“Why are you still standing? It’s like I will increase the work” On hearing this, I went straight to wash the clothes. I had finished all these chores by 3:25 am, and everyone was asleep. I went to my room, climbed into my bed and cried myself to sleep.

I managed to go to school early because Elizabeth woke me up to get ready for school, but I found myself sleeping off in each class, which drew the attention of my class teacher. She asked if I was okay. I said that I was, and I just played a lot instead of sleeping at night. I knew better than to tell her the truth; she advised me to go to bed early to avoid sleeping off in class.

Classes ended at 1:30 pm, and it was time for sports. We often did sports for 30 minutes on Wednesdays after classes. The pupils of Bright Future Progressive School, Lagos, ran out of class with excitement in their sports attire: white shirts, socks, sports shoes, and shorts matching the colours of the sports houses they belonged to - Red, Blue, Green, and Yellow houses. Everyone assembled at the big field, including the secondary school pupils, who consisted of some prefects, including the sports prefects who coordinated the sports. There was running, jumping jacks, and local games were played. Since sports were compulsory, I participated in running and doing jumping jacks. Soon, it was time to go home.

My dad never picks us up from school; my stepmother does, so I was surprised when he came to get us. I found the twins on the field, and we started walking to the car. I noticed the familiar look on his face when our eyes met. The look of revulsion was one I knew all too well. It stopped me dead in my tracks. I watched him open the right rear door for the twins as I stood outside the school gate. I waited for him to invite me in, but when the twins got settled, he sat in the driver’s seat and drove off. As I watched the car drive off, tears rolled down my face, drop by drop, until it just flowed without stop. I gathered myself and walked home.