The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives by Lola Shoneyin Page A

came to the sitting room and asked if any of us wanted to learn how to read. Iya Femi stood up and hissed until she reached her bedroom door. Iya Segi’s knee began to shake as if she would kick a hole into Bolanle’s head but she just continued to count her money. I slowly lifted my hand. The look Iya Segi gaveme could have thrown me from my seat. But what could I do? What would you do if you could not understand the words that your own children were reading?
    The first day, I sat at the table and watched her show me how to write “A.” Small “a” and big “A.” I copied the letter out myself. Even though she said it was upside down and not quite right, my stomach was swollen with pride. Me! Writing!
    That night, Iya Segi came to my bedroom and told me she would destroy my useless life if I ever sat to learn anything from Bolanle again. What could I do? On the right was the person who gave me provisions and held my life and the lives of my daughters in the middle of her palm. On my left was the wife who wanted to teach me to read and write, the wife who did not yet know that she could also be crushed by Iya Segi’s powerful fist. The choices we have to make in this world are hard and bitter. Sometimes we have no choices at all. I did not go near the dining room at noon. In fact, I did not answer when Bolanle came to knock on my room. What would I do with reading anyway? Even if I learned how to read, what would I do with it? How would I use it?
    That was how it was. Bolanle would bring suggestions. Iya Segi would listen and shake her knee and Iya Femi would hiss for the world to hear. I learned to keep my head down and sing in my mind so I would not hear the sound of their voices.
    After a few months, the same Iya Segi who said we should watch Bolanle from a distance started to boil. She called me and Iya Femi to a meeting, saying that there were words tobe spoken. These words were curses and insults. You see, the more Bolanle puffed out her chest, the smaller Iya Segi became. Iya Segi told us she had changed her plan, that it was no longer enough to wait until Bolanle’s barrenness made Baba Segi chase her out. Iya Segi said we had to join hands and force her out. “Don’t you see her high brow and unconcerned eyes? She thinks we are beneath her. She wants our husband to cast us aside as ‘the illiterate ones,’” she said. “As a wife who has recently joined our household, it is her duty to submit herself useful to our wishes, not to think she can teach us!”
    I pointed out that Bolanle was kind to the children. What I really wanted to say was that it seemed Bolanle had learned to keep her suggestions deep in her stomach. In recent weeks, she had been keeping to her bedroom, only coming out when she was summoned. Was that not enough for them?
    “Iya Segi is right. She walks around as if she owns this house. Who made her queen over us?” Envy seeped through every word that came out of Iya Femi’s mouth. “And look at all the lace Baba Segi buys her! What has she done to deserve it?”
    “But our husband has always bought the same for us all!” I said. I was amazed that Iya Femi was still so bitter about Bolanle’s arrival. Iya Segi and I hadn’t despised her this way when she joined us.
    “Why are you defending her? Is it the same blood that runs through your veins? Is your allegiance faltering? Or have you forgotten that we are bound by the same oath?” Iya Femi asked.
    I opened my mouth but the words stuck to the walls of my throat.
    “Let us only speak words that will push this matter forward. This girl has already been here five months but I know there will be trouble if she stays.”
    “Iya Segi, you must have the gift of the Holy Spirit. In my church, just last Sunday, a prophet saw a vision while he was praying for me. He said he saw a dark cloud edging toward me, heavy with rain. He said the cloud would blow past but when he looked in my direction, I was standing without a thread of