I had a feeling I couldn’t continue to stay in the house when I saw our New Daddy going to his bedroom on Wednesday night, after looking strangely at someone, standing at the kitchen door. It was also the night I knew I was going to be a lawyer, judging cases for rich people with big money, sometimes for poor people too so that they could call me the big oyibo name I liked so much... what was it again? Ehen, ‘humanitarian’. I really liked that word, because they said it meant you were a good person who helped people like the poor and widows. Even on that night, I already knew I would not do ‘charge-and-bail’ law at all. In my mind, it was rich people’s case equals big money, poor people’s case equals big fine oyibo name: humanitarian.
After all, didn’t old wise people always talk about paying in cash or in kind? That was also the night I knew I would not be having any children of my own and that, if I got married, I would not be wearing a wedding ring. Oh! I would like to get married but I would hide the wedding ring to look for trouble.