Advantage of unity

 I was five years old when my father and mother had a serious quarrel. This quarrel lasted for a week and my parents were still keeping malice with each other. 

Because of the Malice, my mother could not ask my father for the women's contribution she gave him to keep for her. She didn't want to be the first to talk to him. Instead, she went on to borrow the money from a friend to pay the women.

It was that serious.

After a week and three days, my mother conceded defeat but didn't want to come directly to my father to apologize. So instead, she went to our pastor to help talk to my father so they can finally settle. That way it will now look like it was the pastor that settled them.

Our pastor told my mother that he was going to come on Sunday, after service, to settle things between them. I was very happy that at last, my parents were going to be talking and playing again.

That day our pastor gave me 200naira as a gift to buy biscuits while leaving his office. I took the money home and gave it to my father to keep for me. He collected it and shoved it in his wardrobe.

That night when we slept, we heard a gunshot in the compound.

Then a man's voice sounded from outside.

"If we knock for your door, open am. We no come to kill anybody. We are good and gentle men from the roadside."

My mother stood up and started shaking like a fish. She pulled me close and held me tight.

My father started looking for a knife or cutlass to fight battle. I expected my mother to say something, but she didn't. They were still keeping malice.

The knock sounded on our door and my father was the one that opened it for the robbers to come in.

They started asking my father for money and while he struggled to speak, my mother told them we didn't have any money in the house. To get pity, my mother started crying and begging.

When the robbers pulled out a gun and corked it, my father screamed.

"The only money with me now is my wife's contribution money, sir."

"How much is it?"

"Twenty thousand naira, sir."

That was when my mother broke the silence.

"So you can call my contribution money but you cannot call your own. Why didn't you tell them about your shop money that you kept in the wardrobe."

The leader of the robber quickly went outside and called the other robbers.

"Make una come. This family get money."

My parents were still arguing when the robber asked my father to go and bring out the contribution money and the shop money all.

My father went and smartly divided his shop money into half, and brought out all my mother's contribution money.

On seeing this, my mother shouted.

"Ah! See this man o. So you can divide your own into two and carry my contribution money all. You see your life. You cannot be smart to divide my own money into two."

My father started winking at my mother with one eye and telling her not to talk.

And for the first time in two weeks, I heard him call her "sweety".

My mother exploded.

"Who is your sweety? So it has reach robbery I am now sweety. You are wise to hide your money but you can carry all my own to give robbers."

The robbers asked my father to quickly go inside and bring the rest. And when he returned and handed them all the money, the leader of the robbers asked my father and mother to sit down.

To our surprise, he started preaching about the effect of keeping malice. He said he could smell that the house was not in peace. And because of that, they had failed to cooperate with each other at a point like this, because they were angry with each other.

He pointed the gun at my father and mother and asked them to embrace each other and close their eyes.

When my parents opened their eyes, the robbers were gone.

My father started shouting.

My mother started screaming. I quickly stood up and went to check where my father had hidden the 200naira that our pastor had given me.

That was when my father told me that the robbers had taken everything including my 200naira that our pastor gave to me. I fell on the ground and started crying my cry. 

People left my parents who had lost thousands of naira, and started telling me sorry because of the way I was crying.

To be continued...