Visible Essence

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Christmas was the only time we were free the do what we wanted, blending with our mate and having fun.

For obinna it was so easy to associate and make friends with other boys and the male cousins, as football bonds boys a lot.

They get together playing football and cards, and spend the rest of the day gisting of what I couldn’t poke my nose into and laughing hilariously. That at times I wished I was a boy.

On 25th there was lots of cooking by the women, they all cooked together as a family tradition, then slit the food among everyone. They men are served their food in a special way that was appetizing by their wives in special plates, and everyone gets to eat and drink as much as they like. It was fun with lots of Christmas songs.

The next day, Anulika, uncle mike’s daughter sat eating a plate of white rice and stew which was from the left over of food prepared the previous day, that afternoon in their house verandah, when Ada walked up to her with her own plate.

"Delicious isn’t it?" She said, referring to the food.

She continued, if all the women in the family are to open up a big restaurant, I bet they would sell the best and most desired meal in the world.

Anulika put down her spoon. She could barely taste the rice, and the sense of strangeness in the entire conversation, in that moment enveloped her. She brooded, waiting for her to begin again, and trying from the tangle of words to recall what she had said about food & cooking a few moments before. There was something indeed personal in her tone then; as if she were trying to get something across that she’d never had to say before.

"You look like trouble" she said when she finally spoke back at her.

Ada looked up at her with surprise and asked in a quiet tone; why are you being so weird and mean to me? I just want us to be friends and know each other better.

She gripped from the cup of water stiffly and pressed back in her chair.

"Don’t hassle yourself"

"I’m no martyr" Ada.

I love only whom i want to love, and censure or rejection hasn’t made a whole lot of difference. She said with a steady voice.

my mother is a banker and can never be a food seller, maybe yours can.

Ada sat still for just a moment, then got up, took her food and walked away with shame heading to our house with tail in between her legs if she were a dog.

She entered the house, dropped her food on the kitchen sink uncovered, walked pass me, ignoring mama as she enters the room.

What happened? Mama asked.

Nothing am fine, she said walking straight to the room, without looking back.

Her voice was steady, but the tears kept coming and she didn’t trouble to wipe them away. She threw herself on the bed and rolled over in the bed so that her back was towards the white ceiling, then slid into the reveries of semis consciousness.

As Christmas passes, and New Year approaches with its own unique celebrations, accompanied by school resumption and travel back to the city.

Mama had scheduled the 2nd of January for our visit the mama-nnukwu’s house. When the day came, we visited her, mama’s brother Uncle Sam had returned from the states, where he lives with his family. So the compound was filled with people and lots of excitement and joy.

We stayed at the verandah chatting and eating guava with Uncle Sam’s children, while mama, Uncle Sam and mama nnukwu sat at the parlor having their own discussion.

I could hear them from where I stood because of the loud nature of Uncle Sam’s voice. I heard them talk about mama’s conditions and how she had being unemployed and mama nnukwu pleading with Uncle Sam to assist mama start up a small business to aid her feed her kids and do some other things when papa refuses her money.

At the end of the long discussion, Uncle Sam handed over to mama a paper which I guessed to be a cheque and pleaded with her to use the money wisely.

When evening approached, we headed back home. Even duo mama never mentioned anything about the money to anyone; I could feel the joy in her, as if a heavy lad has being removed from her mind. When we got home, she hid the money at the bottom of her bag and never brought it out again.

We travelled back on the 5th of January just when others had started travelling and school resumption approached, with lots of food stuffs left from the Christmas cooking and a lot more from mama-nnukwu.