MUNA

PART 31 : FAMILY REUNION

You can measure the happiness of a marriage by the number of scars that each partner carries on their tongues, earned from years of biting back angry words.

★ ★ ★

The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well on the surface of a ga-covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be.

Audrina thought to herself as she made her way slowly into the office.

The world was really absurd in a lot of ways but what was more absurd was the fact that she had a family member who owned a club—no, three clubs—and she knew nothing about it. Until tonight.

She wondered if her siblings had any knowledge of the fact and she also wondered if she'd have found out about it if she had not met Muna. She walked into the office with an open mind.

Audrina noted how well furnished the room was. The place was cold as fuck and she rubbed her arms even as she walked in with Folake.

"Boss, you have a visitor." Folake gestured for Audrina to come forward and she took her leave, briefly touching Audrina's hand as she walked past her and exited the office.

Audrina walked to where Nico sat, smoking some blunts, and his eyes widened when he saw her.

"Daberechi!"

She smiled at him and eventually laughed when he got up to give her a hug. He remembered her Igbo name, and nobody else called her that except for his sister, her mom, and himself.

She had warned her siblings about never calling her that name, especially outside the house and everybody agreed. They all didn't take too keenly to being called their traditional names. Their parents didn't care.

"Uncle Nicholas!" she gleefully replied. "Good evening, uncle. You're now going by 'oga Nico' abi?"

They were both laughing now and he offered her a seat.

She gave him a hug before sitting, and it brought back memories of him visiting her family and bringing lots of snacks and toys for her siblings and herself.

"It's been a really long time since one of you small rats gave me a hug. You hug like you want to snuff out the oxygen in me. Ehnn nne."

She let go and walked to the seat he pointed to. "Well, uncle, that's how people hug their loved ones. They put their arms around you and hug you when you're not so huggable."

He laughed again.

She couldn't be happier with the serendipity of the whole situation. Her uncle was all she had to talk to to get Muna out of this situation. Amazing.

"How are your parents? And your twin brother? Kelechi?"

"Uncle, everybody is fine, jare. Kelechi is as annoying as usual. He's fine, too. We're both doing our NYSC sef."

He looked surprised. "Wow! Already?"

She nodded her head and took a look around the office. The room smelled like scotch and the AC was close to freezing her but she liked the feeling.

"What would you like to take? Wine or something lighter?" He asked her, pointing to his fridge by the corner.

"Oh no, I'm okay. I've taken something strong already at the bar."

He finished his blunt with one long drag and threw the residue in a bin close by.

"That's good. What brings you here? Wait, oh, Daberechi, how did you find this place?" He looked intrigued.