Beyond Boundaries

Chapter Six

This chapter is dedicated to my younger sister. For being the first to go through all my works and egging me on to do more. You're an annoying lil piece of  sh** but I still love you. Of course more than I'm willing to show.

LEILANI

  The musty smell of feathers, feed and dried grass fill my nostrils as I step into the family's poultry farm alongside Jennie, one of the family's many farmhands.

  "Ok, you take the eggs and I'll add more feed and replace the water" she assigns, bending to pick a water trough, making the chickens scamper about.

  I nod, doing as she said. I didn't have to help her out, not just because it wasn't my assigned duty today but also because she pretty much had everything covered on her own.

  However, there was a certain pleasure I derived in doing work like this, probably a side effect from living in the city my whole life.

  As I gently picked up two brown eggs from beside a resting hen, I could barely believe that just years ago, I used to be so scared of them and I was glad that Jennie helped me get over it earlier.

  "I'm gonna go feed Billy" I announce the minute I was done, dropping the basket of eggs beside her before walking out and picking up a bucket full of peels and forage for the livestock.

  One of the reasons I loved the village life so much was that one could grow everything one needed here unlike the city where there was barely any land and you had to purchase everything you needed.

  This one advantage my aunt's family capitalized heavily on. From poultry farms to cattle sheds to palm plantations, they basically had everything they could ever need and more.

  I'd have fed the cows but unlike what happened with the poultry, I haven't exactly gotten over my fear of them so the guys had that job all to themselves.

  One would think that for a family as wealthy as my aunt's, they'd be more modern and developed. In truth, they really were but the Nigerian part of them wouldn't just let them be.

  So while we had all the modern day appliances, we also had that of the days before me. To maintain balance, instill hard work and teach our culture, my aunt had explained when I asked the first time I was here.

  Though I didn't understand then how washing my clothes with my hands when we had at least three washing machines in each of the houses was teaching me any culture whatsoever.

  With time however, I understood the whole point of it all and was then allowed to use whatever age appliance I preferred.

  "Ugh Billy, what have you been eating?" I scrunch up my nose as the smell of dung wafted up my nostrils.

  I take a look around, slightly expecting to see my sister busy with the other goats but there's no sign of anyone having been here.

  Where was she? She was supposed to help me but as I'd expected, she bailed.

  My sister had this brimming distaste for this specific four legged creatures and considering the way they smelled sometimes, it was kinda hard to blame her.

  He bleats in response, stretching his head as I caressed his now developed horns "Missed me?" I feed him a couple of peels and dump some into his feed bowl.

  Billy was just a kid when Uncle William bought him along with a few others and he was so cute, I had to beg him to let me own him. He had no problem agreeing because I was his favorite niece and it probably had to do with the fact that we both loved the farm and wore glasses.