𝐓𝐄𝐆𝐀

A message

I sat down on the sofa in the living room, munching on the akara and bread I made for breakfast while watching Henry Danger on TV as my parents chatted and ate their breakfast in the dining room not too far from the living room.

It was a weekend and I was done with the house chores. I hadn't taken my bath yet because I was too hungry to take my bath before eating.

Once I was through eating, I kept my plates on the sink in the kitchen and went back to the dining room to clear the table where my parents had their breakfast.

I turned on the water heater in the bathroom and took my bath. When I was done, I came out tying my towel around my body as I moved around the room in search of clothes to wear. I finally settled on a pair of jeans trousers and a hello kitty off- shoulder.

I hung my towel in the hanger and went to the kitchen to wash the plates. My parents were still talking when I heard my mother's phone beep. She increased the volume of her phone to the loudest to enable her hear it from a far distance.

I continued to wash the plates as I hummed the "Into The Unknown" song from Frozen 2, when I heard my mother exclaim.

"Ernest, you don see your sister. She wan put me inside trouble oo, Ernest. See wetin some people send me". I heard my mother say. I was curious to know what they were talking about.

I grabbed a napkin and went to the dining room where they still were and began to clean the table as I forgot to do so before bathing. I began to clean the table very slowly. I saw my dad shake his head in disappointment.

"Ernest, abeg, make you tell your sister, warn am sef. Tell am say make she no try this nonsense again. Which kind wahala be this na! She dey steal money from companies and businesses na she come go give them my number say I be her close relative. If she no pay back the money na me dem go call. I be her papa? I only be her sister-in-law oo!!" My mother exclaimed.

"The time she stole from the company she was working in few years ago she promised to stop stealing after the police arrested her and we bailed her out". My father said, looking angry.

"That your sister eh! Sometimes I even dey wonder how una two be brother and sister" My mother said.

"She's not my sister anymore. She killed my daughter and I can't have a murderer as my sister". My father said, void of any emotion now.

I went back to the kitchen and finished with the plates in the sink.

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I sat comfortably on the sofa with my eyes glued to the TV as I watched the Ultimate Disney Princess songs remix on Disney channel.

Beep! Beep!

I heard my father's phone go. I rushed to his room unplugged the phone from the charger, I looked at the phone.

1 message from Mrs. Cassandra.

I groaned. Mrs Cassandra is our next door neighbor, she lives in a Bungalow beside our house with her husband and five kids. She's really nosy and never minds her business. She's also the biggest gossip in our street and a talkative, she's always trying to get information from people to talk to her friends about.

I could remember one time when I went over to a shop to buy recharge card for my mother and saw her sitting there eating groundnut.

She stared at me as I asked the person in the shop for recharge card, then as I was about leave she called me and asked "Eeem, Tega, have you started your menstruation and have you started wearing bra?". I looked at her as if to say "Are you okay?!". I was eleven then and had not yet started my menstruation or wearing bra.

A part of me just wanted to eye her up and down and walk away hissing, but my parents wouldn't like that when they hear about it.

"No ma" I told her, trying to be respectful.

"Hmm, okay, that your sister, Kemo hope she's reading her books and not following boy about oo". She said, awaiting my answer. I smiled and turned my head side ways as a way of saying no and quickly walked away before she could ask me anymore personal questions.

I gave Daddy the phone and said. "You have a message from Mrs. Cassandra".
My father took the phone and read the message. He looked at it wide eyed.

"Tega please excuse us". He said.

Oops! I didn't even realize I was staring at him.

I left but hid behind the door separating the stairs from the living room.

"Honey, take a look at this". He said, as he handed the phone to my mother.

"Enita is destroying our family name. Of all the people this message could be sent to, it had to be Mrs. Cassandra". My father said as he shook his head.

"Wait oo! Na your papa wey don die na dem dey say say na him and her na steal money? Abi she use him phone take do am. Eeeew! Ernest, see as dem write Ogenevero for capital letter. She don tarnish our family name be that na. Dem call our family thief oo, Ernest, because of Enita all of us don turn thief!" My mother said, angrily.

Thief? Stealing? Tarnishing our family name? My Aunty is a criminal?!!