FROM LONDON WITH PAINS

CHAPTER TWO

2011

'But mom! Come on, not Nigeria!'

'Adaora, you have to go. We have to go back home.'

'What about my friends? Why are you doing this to me? Do you know...?'

'My words are final! We're leaving next week.'

Adaora was tired of arguing with her mother. She had lived in London all her life and was not ready to move to another country.

Since father had passed away a few years ago, her mother had been nursing the idea of going back to Nigeria, her home country, where she thought life would be much easier for her, and maybe she could remarry there.

Her mother had left Nigeria to study in London, where she met her Cameroonian father. Shortly after they began dating, they got married and a year later, gave birth to Adaora.

Now Adaora's life was about to change, and she knew it. She was going to live in a place where her mother called home. London was where Adaora regarded as her own home, not Nigeria. For weeks, she had tried to change her mother's mind, but the more she tried, the more hell-bent her mother became on going back to Nigeria. Adaora wasn't ready to leave her school, her friends or the constant electricity she had in London. The thought of living in a place with scarcity of water and electricity, high level of corruption and low security gave her goose bumps.

So many unanswered questions raced through her 16 year old brain when she heard a knock on her door.

'Hey girlfriend!' A stout girl with lenses beamed as Adaora opened the door.

'Oh hi. I forgot you were coming over today. Come on in.' Adaora held the door ajar.

You aren't looking peachy today, Addie, what's up?' Her friend asked, taking note of her gloomy countenance.

'Nothing much, just ...' Adaora tried to pretend, but her friend was too intelligent to fall for her trickery.

'Come on! I'm your bestie; you have got to tell me, sugar.' Her friend said persuasively. Adaora had no option than to tell her friend what had transpired between her and her mother. They ended up chatting for quite a long time, as they knew it was going to be one of their last chats with each other for a very long time, or maybe forever.

The day for Adaora's departure came swiftly. Adaora's mother made sure she shipped their London house furniture down to Nigeria. Which she explained to Adaora that: her father had bought a piece of land in Enugu state, while he was still alive, and built a house on it. All that was left for the completion of the house was its roofing, which would be completed before they arrived there. And also, she had paid some people who would pick up the shipped furniture and furnish the house. But while all these would be done, there were going to stay in Lagos for the main time.

Adaora wasn't enthusiastic about the whole plan. She kept on wishing her mother would change her mind.

AUTHOR'S NOTE.

You don't mind being an active reader, now do you?

So as you read on, also comment on. lol