PLOT SUMMARY OF THE PROSE TEXT, FAITH, BY GIFT EZEMONYE
Published in 2024, the plot of the prose text centres on the life of a young girl, Faith, and her struggles in life. Faith grows up to hear her stepmother repeatedly refer to her as a cursed child. This is because her biological mother, Rebecca, died not long after giving birth to her. According to the text, she had complications as the placenta did not come out after she was delivered of her baby girl. Since the midwife handling the delivery was unable to control the bleeding, she died before they could transfer her to another hospital. As a result of this, Faith did not know her biological mother - what she looked like or her likes and dislikes. She only saw a picture of her one day when they visited her grandmother.
Aftethe death of Rebecca, her mother decides to take care of Faith. Consequently, Faith grew up in her grandmother's house. When she turned three, her biological father, Sam, requested that his daughter be released to him as he intends to get married and his new wife will be a good mother to Faith. Rebecca's mother has to release her after urging Sam to take good care of Faith. Unfortunately, Faith's grandmother dies a year after her father takes her to live with him.
Before Sam marries Ama, the latter used to shower so much love on Faith. She takesFaith everywhere she goes to. People even think that she is her biological daughter. Also, Faith believes that she is her mother because Ama is nice to her. Things change immediately Sam marries Ama. She begins to show her open hatred for Faith. She calling her different insulting names, shouting at her and goes ahead to buy a thick long stick which she often calls, "Faith's food". On a particular day, Faith falls and spills the water she is asked to fetch in a bucket. Ama instructs her to mop it while beating her. Ama screams at her, "You blockhead! So you don't know how to carry water through the passage without falling down! So you think that all these your drama will stop you from mopping. Please, don't take my name to your coven. I don't want to die the way you killed your mother".
The next morning, Faith is unable to stand. Her stepsister, Benny, draws her mother's attention to it and Ama tries to force Faith to stand up from the bed but she keeps falling. On hearing the noise, Sam runs to the room, checks the leg, reprimands Ama and takes Faith to the hospital. At the hospital, an x-ray is done and the result shows that her bones are out of alignment which needs to be put back in alignment through a procedure known as, "reduction". The doctor advises Sam to ensure that his child is not being abused after giving Faith relief drugs appropriate for children of her age.
On Faith's sixth birthday, Sam travels on a business trip. Unfortunately, he is involved in a fatal accident after the vehicle he boarded collided with a truck. He is among the five passengers that die on the spot. After the news of the accident is relayed to Ama, she tells her daughter, Benny, "Call that witch girl of a thing for me". Ama accuses Faith of killing her father. Faith is not given food for the next two days rather, her stepmother instructs her to feed on her father's blood as that should be enough to satisfy her for days. Faith has no option than to feed on the mangoes in their backyard whenever her stepmother or stepsister is not watching. On the third day, a neighbour secretly feeds her. Though they are aware that she is being abused, there is little or nothing they could do to help.
Three months after the death of her father, Ama and Benny walk out of the house leaving Faith behind. Ama tells Faith that she is not her responsibility hence she should look for where to stay. A neighbour takes Faith to the house of the town head cause there were several other children like Faith staying in the house. On a particular day, Peter, the town head's son tells her rudely, "I don't like playing with orphans like you who killed your parents". He continues to mock her calling her a witch who drinks people's blood. Faith refutes being called a witch and Peter slaps her. She cries out in anger and wrestles him. When she realizes that he is overpowering her, she bites his stomach and he hits his head on the wall. He shouts and draws people's attention. They refuse to listen to her side of the story upon seeing Peter on the floor. Peter also lies that Faith threatened to kill him and drink his blood.
Faith did not wait to see how the town head will judge the case so she sneaks out of the house when she notices that no one is watching her. She couldn't explain why she has to face much hatred from such a young age. She runs to the town motor park. Though she does not have any money on her, she decides to join the last bus going to the city because she believes that if she gets to the city, she will find something doing in order to survive. There are nine passengers in the bus already when she enters. After drowning some bottles of beer, the driver drives off to the city with his passengers. After they pass the first military checkpoint, he asks them to pay their transport fare. The other nine passengers pay but Faith does not as she has no money on her. The driver is angry and tells Faith that she will pay with what she has. After dropping the other passengers, he drives the vehicle to a lonely place and tries to have carnal knowledge of her. Faith bites his stomach and throws a stone at him and runs off.
The next morning, a woman, Aunty Maggie, sees her lying on the road. She asks what she is doing there. Faith narrates her unpleasant encounter at the hands of the driver that brought her from Olokun. Maggie takes her home. There, she meets Vivian and Anne. Vivian is Maggie's biological daughter while Anne came to stay with them when she lost her parents. Richard, Maggie's husband, who hails from Olokun makes inquiries about Faith. He is happy to learn that she did not lie to them so that they would not be accused of kidnapping another person's child.
Faith is captivated by all she sees in the city. She keeps asking questions about the television, the billboard, the fridge etc and they do their best to answer her. Maggie also takes Faith shopping so that she can have her own clothes in addition to the ones Vivian gave to her. They also arrange for a lesson teacher to tutor Faith at home because she stopped schooling for a while and this affected her reading. At the beginning of a new term, Faith sits for the entrance examination at Wellford Nursery and Primary School and gains admission. She is in Primary 4B while Vivian is in the other arm in order to avoid distractions. At the end of the term, Faith takes 6th position out of twenty pupils while Vivian takes the first position as she usually does. Faith's best subject is Basic Science but she dislikes Mathematics. Faith also participates in the lemon race during their inter-house sports competition. At the end, Joy house takes the 1st position; Heritage house, 2nd; Favour house, 3rd and Love house, 4th.
Days turn into months and months turn into years. Faith attends the same secondary school with Vivian. When they are in SS3, one of the biggest banks in town organizes an essay competition in which the top best three writers are to be given scholarship to Cambridge University to study a course of their choice. Vivian is not interested because she already has a scholarship from African Initiative Empowerment to travel to New York for her university education. Faith enters the competition and wins. She spends years in England where she studies to become a qualified medical doctor. Upon her return to Nigeria, there is a serious pandemic. She is consulted as one of the strongest medical practitioner on the team working for a solution. Faith reveals her identity to the people of Olokun and they beg her forgiveness. She is also called to treat her stepmother who does not recognize her initially. Faith is unwilling to forgive her but Aunty Maggie encourages her to do so saying, "See all that has happened to you as God's plan. We may never know you if they did not do that to you. You may even be in Olokun and not get a chance to be a better person."