The landing was a rough one that startled Adebisi out of her trance. Almost immediately after, an announcement was made saying that they had arrived in New York. Adebisi sighed as she exited the plane, she already noticed a difference in the air. It didn't take long for her to process everything and leave the airport as she was in business class.
She collected her luggage and headed to the area where she would meet her aunt who had come to pick her up. She wondered if they would recognize each other since they hadn't seen each other in thirteen years and Adebisi had definitely changed. Her aunt stood among other people waiting to receive their loved ones, she spotted a short girl wearing a dress and her head was covered in a turban scanning the crowd with her big, sad eyes. Immediately she recognized Adebisi Aduké.
She had grown up beautiful, though she had a resting mean face and her brown eyes did not open wide but still remained very sharp under her naturally frowning eyebrows. She stood tall as she needed all the height she could get with her five foot body.
Their eyes finally locked and Adebisi walked over to her aunt graciously with a dimpled smile that never reached her eyes, those big, sad, narrowed eyes.
"Hello darling!" Her aunt cheered.
"Hi aunt Shadé." Adebisi replied showing the gap tooth she inherited from her father.
They hugged tightly and aunt Shadé begun to explain how happy her daughter Toni would be to see her. Toni was aunt Shadé' s only daughter, her and Adebisi were the same age.
Adebisi and her aunt loaded the luggage into the car and were off, during the ride aunt Shadé talked non stop and Adebisi sat listening, answering when she needed to. Her focus was on the foreign country that she stared at curiously from her window.
Adebisi couldn't lie, she liked it! Her grief changed and she thought maybe it won't be that bad.
The busy bustling and crowding of the city changed to a quiet, peaceful residency area. To Adebisi' s surprise, they weren't tall apartment buildings but actual houses. That excited her as she hated apartments.
"We found a beautiful house here..." aunt Shadé begun.
"It's usually very hard and expensive to find houses in NY city but we finally did, it's so big you'll love it."
"I'm sure I will." Adebisi said with a smile.
Her aunt looked at her from the rear-view mirror and was happy to see her niece's change of mood. She continued to list all the good things about America and the new house and the college she was supposed to attend in an attempt to please her niece further so that her eyes may stop looking so sad.
Aunt Shadé drove into the familiar drive way and soon parked in front of the house. Toni heard the car approach and rushed to open the door and meet her mother and cousin. She saw a short, chocolate girl with big eyes, and full lips. Her nose was neither pointy nor flat, just in the middle like all perfect things.
This is my cousin.
Adebisi saw Toni and gave her a warm smile,
"Hey." She sung.
"Hi." Toni chuckled at the peculiar girl then walked over to help unload her luggage.
Adebisi observed her cousin's features, she had lighter skin than Adebisi but they had the same big Brown eyes that runs in the family, however, hers were open wide. Her nose was slightly flat but it was cute, her eyebrows naturally arched and her full lips smiling.
Adebisi couldn't help but stare at everything in the house, it was beautiful, though not as big as hers back home. All three women carried suitcases up the stairs and into the first room. Adebisi was shocked to see how big the room was, it was as big as the living room!
"We broke down the walls and joined two bedrooms." Toni explained.
"Adi you'll have to share with Toni for a while until you room is done." Aunt Shadé said.
"Okay." Adebisi was quite disappointed, she didn't want her own room because she had an unreasonable yet extreme fear of quiet and silence. Back at home the sound of the forest filled her room but in America, especially in that particular neighbourhood where it was already too quiet during the day, it would be deathly quiet at night and she'd be too scared to sleep alone.
Toni saw the hesitation in Adebisi' s face and asked, "Would you like to share forever?"
"Yes please." Adebisi said relieved.
"That's good." Aunt Shadé said and left them alone.
"I hope you don't mind..."
"No, no, no, no of course not." Toni cut Adebisi off, "It's going to be so fun like a sleep over."
"Turn up." Adebisi said and with that a great friendship begun.
