Against All Odds

Chapter Eight : Have a Taste

The sun had almost been swallowed up by the skies, birds were migrating to their homes after the day's journey.

The soft wind that rustled the leaves on the trees especially under the mango tree in backyard where they  sat peeling the cassava tubers, often made the work bearable as it made contact with their skins at instances keeping them dry.

Obi's two sisters had run off to play and even though Tobe grumbled from time to time, she insisted that he stayed behind. Obi often felt obiefune's gaze on her but she tried her best to not to look away from her work, thoroughly embarrassed by their encounter earlier.

Obi had stomped away from the siblings with the books encased in her hands while she craved for proper clothes. Chioma well aware of the irritable state obi was in, opted to do anything that kept her away from her friend at every instant.

She was either gathering the purple colored peels that slipped of the cassava with every slice of the knife and packing it to the barn very close to Mma's hut for the goats to feed on or she was answering to Obi's sisters who needed supervision.

The tension between Obi and Obiefune made them quiet and besides encouraging Tobe from time to time Obi made no attempt to acknowledge Obiefune's presence.

"Aah! Aaaiiioooo! Ooooom!" Tobe had begun to yell. He mistakenly cut his finger while he sliced away the cassava. At the sight of blood Obi ran to her brother, this was exactly what she was avoiding but she needed help and company to clear the heap of unpeeled cassava that was harvested from the farm.

Tobe began to sniff while Obi fished out a piece of cloth and tied Tobe's finger to abate bleeding. Obi tried to coax Tobe into staying with her even after his cut rendered him not useful to her.

"owu onye ogbu? Is he dumb? Daa(big sis) just stay with him let me see if I can play football with the other children"

Obi glared at her brother fighting the urge to scold him but the boy fell into tears. She couldn't help but think he deliberately cut his hand to evade the work cut out for him.

"Just let the boy go, it's not as if he's helping you here" Obiefune finally spoke feeling a certain level of pity for the boy who was clearly uncomfortable being around them.

Obi ignored him sinking her eyes to the cassava she was peeling refusing to acknowledge his presence or his words. They weren't in school anymore and she didn't have to listen to him.

"Bịa Tobe abi, stand up and run to your friends" he spoke again, this time ready to face whatever words she had to spew at him

The boy didn't even let him finish before he raced off leaving behind the knife he had been using and yelling out a ridiculous thanks on the way. "Thank you onye ogbu!"

Obi glanced towards the path her brother had run off to, accepting that it was too late to bring him back she sat back and continued with her work.

Obi could hear Chioma giggling with her sisters as they squashed palm kernels and extracted the nuts.
she could hear Chioma yell often as she tried to stop the girls from chewing the strong shell of the kernel. She'd supply them with more nuts every time she said "were" take.

Obiefune strode from the side he had been seating and settled where Tobe had left. He picked up the knife and a cassava tuber and began to peel, taking with the peel a huge chunk of the white fleshy part of the cassava which was the main part required in making garri.

He would get a sizeable tuber and reduce it to mere sticks in the name of peeling and Obi fought her mouth from speaking even though she was irked by his wasteful peeling. He kept at this till the words left Obi's mouth with a resignation that she was only talking to him to increase the quantity of garri they would get from the tubers.