Case file — Yaba

I thought it was the regular argument that would end after five minutes, but that evening, I witnessed something my eyes had never seen before. I saw my parents physically fight for the first time in my life. I have to believe my parents had fought many times before that day, but this was the first time I saw them get physical and throw hands. Now, my parents would never do such a thing if they knew I was in that house with them. Most times, my parents will lock themselves in the room when they need to argue. The moment my mother says

“M.I Can i see you inside?” You already know it is about to go down. But seeing them physically throw hands felt like a movie to me. I remember that my father told me that long ago, before he married my mother, he swore never to lay his hands on his wife or any woman in the world. If only he'd sworn never to beat me and my younger brother too.

As they fought, I quietly opened my bedroom door and walked to the door that led to the living room. I opened it silently and watched them in 4K; they were performing WWE Raw vs SmackDown. I couldn't believe my eyes. Checkmates, I saw my mother beating the hell out of my father. This woman was punching him like Mike Tyson. She was mixing kung fu with kickboxing and Gidigbo.

I was so disappointed in my father. This man couldn't even land one punch successfully. He was just blocking his face. Oga give am one na. My mom was beating this man like a professional Mortal Kombat player using Liu Kang and Sub-Zero. [SFX: "FINISH HIM" — Mortal Kombat voice]

When it was getting unbearable to watch, I pushed the door open so they would hear and see me, and the moment they did, you would not believe that my parents immediately started laughing and dancing together without music like everything was fine. I was confused. Were these two not fighting some seconds ago? What kind of love or madness is this? Then my brain clicked; my parents did that because they wanted to protect the image of their marriage.