The Deaf Way II Anthology: A Literary Collection by Deaf and Hard of Hearing Writers

The Victim of the Silent Void

90 Sotonwa Opeoluwa The Victim of the Silent Void Cast of Characters OLD MAN Etiloba’s father MAMA ETILOBA Etiloba’s mother ETILOBA Deaf millionaire LARA Etiloba’s first lover OWOLAFE Etiloba’s wife BOWODE Etiloba and Owolafe’s daughter TOSIN Etiloba and Owolafe’s son GEORGE Owolafe’s former classmate and lover MORIGBO Owolafe’s friend FAGBAMILA Herbalist KEKE Physically handicapped interpreter OGURODIRAN Deaf drunkard ODIDIRE Deaf drunkard MAMA ELEMU Wine seller MAMA MALOMO Abiku’s mother MALOMO Baby Abiku INTERPRETER ETILOBA’S UNCLE NEIGHBOR Prologue If you can hear, then what? If I cannot, then what? Is it not the same God that made the cow with tail that also created the cow without tail? Gallaudet Book 5/1/02, 9:55 AM 90 Sotonwa Opeoluwa 91 If I am rich, then what? If you are poor, then what? Does it mean that fingers are equal? If you are clever, then what? If I am dull, then what? Did the eternal painter ever paint our sense with equal color? If you cheat me because I am deaf, you think nothing? If you give me black for white because of my blindness, you think nothing? If I help you and you pay me back with evil, you think nothing? If you commend me in my presence and condemn me in my absence, you think nothing? The unbiased and eternal Painter, perfect Creator, will surely see you and me through. Anybody who, in this world, has half a loaf and a home in which to live, Is no man’s master and no man’s slave. Oh deafness, since the world’s reality is illusion, How long will you complain about this torment? Resign your body to fate and put up with pain. Because what the pen has written for you, it will not unwrite. Oh you without knowledge, the corporeal shape is nothing. And this dome of the nine charted spheres is nothing. Take comfort, in the place of being and decay. We are creatures of a single moment also nothing. You have seen the world and all you saw was nothing. And when you lurked at home, there was also nothing. See what I’ve got from the world, nothing. The fruit of my life’s work? Nothing. I am the light of the party, but when I sit down, I am nothing, I am a wine-pot, but when I am broken, nothing. Gallaudet Book 5/1/02, 9:55 AM 91 92 Sotonwa Opeoluwa ACT 1 SCENE 1 There are two chairs and a table on the stage. An old man walks in with a walking stick in his hand. He sits on one of the chairs. OLD MAN: (Coughs out loud.) I know that my days are numbered by the Lord of heaven. (Leans on the chair as if he wants to stand up, but suddenly puts away his walking stick.) O Lord, dear God why, why did you do this? Why? You gave me wealth, houses. I have them in plenty. Cars? Different kinds in my garage (suddenly stands up). Hmm, what if I die? Who will manage all this fortune ? You gave me only one son, but, to compound it all, the boy cannot hear, he is deaf. (He sits down again, thinking; Mama Etiloba emerges from the back of the stage. She walks gently until she reaches her husband, who is lost in his thoughts. She touches him. He is startled, as if he has been sleeping.) MAMA ETILOBA: (Exaggeratingly) C-h-i-e-e-f-u-u. I cannot understand you nowadays. When things have become better, you refuse to eat well. You are always in a passive mood. Why, and what is really wrong? OLD MAN: What is not wrong? Don’t you know that we are the laughingstock of the whole community? A rich man indeed, with a useless child. Whenever I drive past, they point at me with pity and scorn me. They call me “Baba Aditi.” Is that not worth worrying about? You see, it is better not to have a child at all than to have an incomplete, incoherent, completely useless, and handicapped child. MAMA ETILOBA: (Sympathetically.) We cannot blame God; we just have to accept our fate. But Chief! If you will listen to me, you will not worry yourself any more. Note. Dialogue in sign language between deaf characters appears in small...