Life as She knows it

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Little children are bound to be inquisitive and loquacious about quite a number of things, that is an undisputed fact.
          Jude was a bolder inquisitive child than the rest of us. Perez and I still had the sense to stop questioning when we saw the person being asked was tired of answering our questions. Gideon was a very quiet, shy and outgoing young boy, he was the odd one among us all for a long time. Gideon would see or hear something from another person and question my parents about it in a rather cautious way.
"Dad, I heard from my one of classmates that he had seen his father on top of his mother as he walked into their room. My classmate said his dad must have been punishing his mother for something because she was crying and begging him to stop moving on top of her. What could they have been doing?" And my father or mother would answer with careful words. They showed that they were more than willing to answer the questions of their young son who barely asked questions or talked for that matter.
Jude would still go on to ask more questions even after the first question, second and many times, third question had been answered. "If he was having sex with her and if you say it's normal for married people to have sex, why then was she crying?" Or "Do all women cry when having sex?" Or he would face my Mom and ask innocently "Mom do you cry too?" And he would ask without knowing his questions were uncomfortable at times.
          My aunts therefore did not know how to answer his question of what a condom was when he popped the question up - perhaps they were too shocked to do so- one breezy evening in the living room with everyone there enjoying the comfort of having a peaceful family time. My aunts were my father's twin sisters living with us at the time.
"I heard sister Peju tell sister Pelumi that her boyfriend bought another condom for them to use when next she comes to his house and sister Pelumi said she has more than enough of it." "What is a condom?" He asked again when no answer was forthcoming. Gideon, Perez and I looked on, expecting answers as our young minds saw it as a normal question like every other question we have always been asking. The elders were too speechless.
My parents had had to explain that a condom was a protection from 'diseases' and so on but they didn't mention sex, they were all the while giving my aunts looks as if to say "We are coming for you."
We all remained silent for some minutes after our parents explained what a condom was. We all knew to keep quiet. My father's face was evidently angry and my mother a disappointed one. But Jude would not give up on his quest of being a questionnaire.
"Can you help me buy it? Since it's for protection. Can you buy me a pack too? And how do we protect ourselves with it?".

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          Jude was still his inquisitive self.
Jude: I hope you know better than to go into his room?

Me: Haha!

Jude: I hope you haven't been leading him on? I know how much you like wearing fitted skirts, do not wear a fitted skirt to his house. Wear a long skirt if possible. And no sex!

Me: I have not. *Laughs!
I'll be fine, Do not worry.

Jude: I hope you've informed Dad and Mom about your outing?

Me: I have o.

Jude: What are you wearing to his house?

Me: Cloth.

Jude: Very funny. Be safe lil sis. God be with you.

I tell Jude about OluwaJuwonlo sometimes and when I told him I was going to visit him today Jude started asked series of questions. It's understandable. And annoying. I wouldn't call or tag myself a feminist but I ask myself why people question a lady and not a man when they say they're going to visit the opposite sex? Why can't a lady be treated the way a man is when she informs her parents or whoever that she's visiting the opposite sex. A man can be told to "Return on time" or "Mà pé o" (Don't be long). Even if questions are asked you'll never hear questions and statements like "I hope you haven't been leading her on" or "Do not enter her room or do something silly" or "I hope she hasn't been acting suggestively towards you". A lady is always questioned. A lady is always expected to be responsible, but a man?
I leave after saying goodbye to my parents and promising to be back in time for a church program. They're as inquisitive as Jude was when I was chatting with him. I write down the address of the house I'm going to and Juwon's phone number for my insistent mother. I drive out of the compound with his house address in hand.
          I get there in an hour and call Juwon. He opens the gate for me and I drive into the well tended compound with a manicured garden. I see four other black and sleek cars including Juwon's. The house's exterior is quite welcoming to whoever enters, but the interior is ever more so. It is quite eye-catching. The walls of the living room is painted a subdued yellow while every other thing is white or black. From the curtains to the huge chairs to the wall clock to the tasteful chandelier to the small flower vases placed on two corners of the room, it's white. From the center rug to the large television to the plush pillows on each chairs to the tables, it's black. The house speaks for the owners, comfort.
There is just one framed picture in a corner of the living room. I look at it and see a tall plump man with a round face that looked happy, Amaka as a baby in a beautiful woman's arms, she looks just like Juwon, I can say she's the feminine form of Juwon.
"This house is so well decorated. Kudos to whoever did this." I turn to Juwon he comes behind me.
"Well, thank you. Ama...." Before he could say anything else Amaka cuts in.
"My Mom did it all." She is wearing a short sleeveless peach gown with a flowery sandals on her little plump feet. There are signs of make up here and there on her round face- white powder and a pink lipstick. She must have put efforts in anticipation of her visitor.
"Yes she did, she was an interior designer." I nod in understanding.
"She did a really good job."
"I'll tell her you said that" Amaka says excitedly. I look at her then at Juwon in surprise.
"She comes to my room every night and we talk a lot." She says further.
"That's amazing" I say with raised eyebrows all the while over nodding so she wouldn't feel I think she's lying.
"Have a seat, visitor and feel at home, let me go and unveal my cooking skills in the kitchen." Juwon says hurriedly before Amaka says anything more.
"No. Let me go with you, I'm too restless to sit here while you're in the kitchen. You'll cook while I'll look on. And I do hope you've not exaggerated the fact that you can cook."
"Just wait and see. I'm not just fine for nothing."
"My uncle J can cook ooo!" Amaka exclaims.
"Hmmhmm. I hope he didn't cajole you to say that."
"He didn't kajolie me to say so oo." Juwon and I laugh. I give Amaka my phone after she asks me for it. I mentally praise myself for installing games children could play just before coming here.
          I follow Juwon to the expansive kitchen and close the door behind me. It is like every other modern kitchen.
"AC in a kitchen? Wow!" I comment as the cool air hits my face before any other part of my body.
"Amaka's father is one very rich man, too rich. He is a serious business man."
"That's great. Where's Kamsiyochukwu by the way?"
"He's asleep now but I'm sure he'll soon wake up." He brings out a pot and some spices from different cupboards. He takes different spices bottles from a cupboard just above him effortlessly and I'm sure if it were me I would have to get something to stand on before I'm able to get anything from the cupboard. I'm short.
"I can't wait to see him."
"Be rest assured that he looks like me." He winks.
"I hope so." He smiles and winks at me. He continues to cook. He is preparing a popular Nigerian dish 'Jollof rice'.
"Does Amaka really mean it when she says she communicates with her mother every night?
"Yes she does. She says her spirit keeps watch over her all the time. At least she acknowledges it as her mother's spirit"
We talk about other things after concluding the talk of Amaka and her Mom.
          We talk about quite a number of things in the kitchen. I had already told him about Perez my twin and my two elder brothers and he about his two elder brothers and four elder sisters on WhatsApp one evening when the conversation deviated to family. Theirs is one big family of six children excluding Amaka's late mother. He tells me how it was like growing up in a big family like his. He tells me that Amaka's father, Charles Umeh-Eze, is the only child of his late parents and how his- Juwon- parents had been surprised his sister didn't want to marry into a large family and have a large family like theirs. None of the seven children has- for those married- and aspires to have- for those still unmarried- more than four children. They had had enough of their large family. A loud cry of a baby interrupts another of Juwon's childhood expenditures.
"Here we go. Get ready to meet a baby that looks just like me. Simply adorable." He leaves me in the kitchen and goes to another room and emerges with a baby in his strong and muscled arms.
I carry the baby from Juwon's hands when he stretches his small hands. He is as adorable as Juwon claimed. The baby rests his small head on my chest as I pat his back continuously. He raises it suddenly, looks at me for seconds and smiles. He has deep dimples on his two cheeks and looks just like his Mom with small eyeballs, an equally small nose and shapely lips. I kiss his forehead when he continues to look at me and he rests his head on my chest again.
He is as gentle as babies usually are for the next twenty minutes of their waking up moment.
The kitchen door opens and Amaka comes in to say the gateman wanted to see Uncle J. As Juwon leaves the kitchen to Amaka plays with her baby brother's hands and starts to tell me a million and one things about him.
          Looking at the two motherless siblings, I smile a wistful smile. At least they are happy. I remember one of my friends back in junior secondary school who lost her mother in a car accident. She didn't speak to anyone for more than a minute before bursting into tears for months and cried during break time in the school toilet. Her mother was her best friend and she betrayed her by dying, she always lamented. We all got tired of seeing her cry all the time even after doing all we could to cheer her up, we would make her come with us when we were going to the school's kiosk, invite her for our birthday parties, buy her favorite things for her, even the most popular girl in junior secondary school one tried to be friends with her but she still shut herself from everyone else. Until a new girl came the following term. The new girl had lost not just her mother, but also her father years ago and lived with her aging grandfather. They became best of friends and till date they still are.
Amaka was unlike her junior secondary school mate. She was awed.
Juwon came in with a nylon containing vegetables. The gateman wanted to tell him that the woman who sold vegetables was at the gate.
"Food's ready." He announces after checking turning off the cooker.
Who's ready to eat?" He sings and looks down at Amaka.
"Me! Me!! And Me!!." Amaka sings in reply.
"And you Naomi?" I inhale the aroma that wafts to me deeply and say "I'm ready Sir."
"I see you're even more adamant than Amaka is." He moves close to me. "When. Will. You. Stop. Calling. Me. Sir?" He encuiates all the time moving closer to me. Amaka giggles.
I bend backwards a little as he looks down at me with a raised eyebrow.
"Tatatahahra." Kamsi makes babyish sounds at his uncle who is still looking down at me with a distant look on his face. I look back at him.
"I'm hungry ooo." Amaka brings us out of our staring reverie.
Juwon clears his throat, moves away from me and brings plates out from a cupboard.
          We are seated in the dining room. Kamsi is on my lap and I feed him bits of fish I mash and remove bones from before giving him. He is nine months old and doesn't have a complete set of teeth yet.
"This is delicious." I comment when Juwon gets off the phone in which he was receiving a call.
"To think you doubted my abilities."
"My brothers do not cook so it's surprising."
"Being the last born of my family, the cooking was left for me to do most of the time. Although we all had turns in cooking, that is one person per day, my siblings would pay me to cook for them which was almost everyday. Especially my brothers."
"You must have made a fortune."
"Oh yes, I did"
When we finish eating, I take the plates to the kitchen and Juwon puts it in the dishwasher and while it operates Juwon prepares Kamsi's baby food.
Charles Umeh-Eze, Amaka's father calls while I'm feeding Kamsi. He speaks with me and thanks me for coming. I see him a lot when he comes to drop and pick Amaka from the PUHAs meeting. Amaka speaks to her father and tells him to bring her about twenty things.
          We leave the house by 2pm and go to Frosties a big building where ice cream and other goodies are sold. We get ice creams and slices of cakes. We sit in the air conditioner room made for people to sit and enjoy their ice cream and whatever else they must have bought.
People glanced at us when we came in and a woman particularly kept staring at us when she was passing our table with a little boy at her heels. We must look like a very young family. Amaka makes sure the table is busy with her continous and incessant talk. She stains her gown with her strawberry ice cream. Kamsi enjoys the scenery, he looks around all the while making babyish sounds, he also enjoys the attention we give to him. Juwon and I converse while Amaka interrupts by the minute.
When we get back to the house I truthfully tell Juwon he's a great and patient uncle. He had kept wiping off Amaka's cloth when she spilled ice cream on her peach dress countless times, she had started taking it sensibly when he said "You'll wash this gown by yourself and with your hands."
Juwon in turn says he is doing it all because of his late sister and his genuine love for them. He thanks me for coming, Amaka hugs me tightly and Kamsi starts to cry when I hand him over to Juwon.
I conclude as I drive home that Love is indeed a beautiful thing.
Love is kind. Love is patient.

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Heyo! ❤
How was this chapter?
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