IRETI
Tife made it a bit hard to leave the house in the morning. For some reason, he became overly clingy. He kept holding on to my mother's wrapper. Dele who was driving us to the airport decided our mother come with us. When we got there and he was still not ready to let go, we planned to just yank him away.
At the airport, Tife was adamant on not letting my mother go.
"Tife, grandma needs to go home?" I told him.
"Why can't she come with us?" he tightened his grip on her.
"Tife, could you please not do this here?"
"No, I want grandma" he started wailing.
"Gbeun e soun my friend. I will spank you. This is Nigeria, nothing will happen"
"No"
"Tife, don't worry I will come to visit you in Canada you hear" my mother tried to convince him.
"No, I want you to come now" he continued crying.
"Do you want your ball? You can bounce it till you get on the plane" Dele offered him his ball.
"No" Tife threw the ball away and it hit the leg of an elderly woman.
"Tife!" I yelled. "Oya apologize now, apologize before I slap you!"
The elderly man standing close to the woman picked up the ball. I dragged Tife to them.
"I'm so sorry about this" I apologized. I turned to Tife boring holes in his body with my eyes.
"I'm sorry sir. I'm sorry ma" he apologized in a small voice.
"It's okay" The woman laughed. "What's your name?" she asked
"Tife"
"What's that short for?"
"Boluwatife" Tife answered.
"Hmm. As God wants it. That's a nice name" she complimented.
"It seems like he doesn't want to leave home" the woman looked up to me. "Our grandkids get a little clingy too when we spend time with them. We are actually headed to see them"
"That must be nice" I smiled.
"It's time to take your pills" Her husband interrupted us.
"It's not even 10 yet" She complained.
"9:59 is 10 in my books" he placed the pills in her hand and gave her a bottle of water. She reluctantly took it.
"Had a little stroke and this one is overreacting. Just admit you can't live without me" she teased.
"I've never been ashamed to admit that" the man replied.
"Is your husband abroad?" The woman asked.
"Huh"
"The ring" she pointed. I had slipped it on this morning.
"Oh. Uhm, my fiancé"
"Oh well congrats"
"Thank you. Sorry again about this"
"It's fine" she smiled.
"It was nice meeting you" I nodded and took Tife's hands walking away.
"What was that about?" my mother asked.
"Nothing. She just asked his name and congratulated me on my engagement"
YOU ARE READING
Broken | ✓
Storie d'amore"You are damaged and broken and unhinged. But so are shooting stars and comets" ~Nikita Gill Ireti Alabi is a young woman in her late 20s scarred with a past that leaves her with broken pieces of herself. She hides her pain beautifully beh...
