Alacrimia | √

Chapter One

07:02 am, August 29
Osun State, Nigeria.

Eniiyi woke up to something tickling her nose and she sneezed, opening her eyes. Her mom, Eartha, was sitting at the edge of her bed with one hand poised in the air. Eartha made a guilty smile, as though she hadn't expected to get caught.

She glanced at the alarm clock then propped up a pillow behind her and sat up, eyebrows raised. What was the occasion?

'Mommy, good morning,' she said, still confused. 'Am I missing something?'

'Good morning, Adekunbi. If you were to be missing anything, it'd be your smile.' She tweaked her nose.

Eniiyi smiled. Mommy was being Mommy today. She was extremely funny most times. She watched as she bent over her, her thick mass of onyx-black hair falling forward to cover her face.

'If you keep smiling at me like that, I think I'd have to pay a visit to the salon.'

Eniiyi smiled again and threw over the covers, swinging her legs to the side of the bed.

Mommy stood up too then sat back down, wringing her hands. Eniiyi thought she looked nervous. Strange.

She stretched and yawned. 'Mommy, do you want to tell me something?'

'Well,' her mom said after a moment of hesitation. 'Maybe you should go take your bath first.'

Eniiyi quickly scrambled back on to the bed. She wasn't ready to get up yet to bath. 'I've still got some sleep left in me, let me sleep them out.'

'Adekunbi,' her mom said.

Eniiyi glanced at her and blinked, the covers now covering up to her neck. What was Mommy going to tell her? It sure did seem like something serious. She couldn't come up with any answer except work. But then they had to go to work before and she'd be home alone again. That was the daily routine for most holidays except third term. It was third term holiday now and she should have gone for children's camp like she did every third term holiday but, for some reasons she wasn't sure she understood, the summer camp for that year had been cancelled. So what could it be now?

'Mommy, what . . .' she started to say.

'Adekunbi, we're traveling.'

She aspirated a sigh. Nothing much. 'Mommy, it's no problem. I've stayed at home for more than a day before.'

Eartha's cheeks slightly tinted at that statement. She always felt guilty at the mention of the incidence that happened a year ago although it'd been partly her and Mide's faults; external factors had also contributed to it, but it's their fault all the same. They'd left an eight year old girl all by herself in the house for almost two days.

'Adekunbi,' she started to explain, 'We are all traveling.' She sucked in her lips. 'You're going to stay at your grandma's for the duration of our trip to Japan.'

Eniiyi was speechless for a long time. Poor girl, she didn't know what to say.
Of all news she hadn't been expecting that. Staying at Grandma's? The grandmother she hadn't met since she was five months old. And to top it all off, she lived in a village!

'You're only joking, right?' she said in a strained voice, afraid of what she'd hear.

Eartha exhaled and tried to look less nervous. 'No, I'm not. We're leaving early tomorrow morning for Kogi State.' She added.

'No! Mommy, no! No, no, no, no. I don't want to go to G.ma's village. I'm going to die there. Can't I go with you to Japan, please?'

'No, it's a business trip. We were nominated together because we're a couple, and, I'm really sorry, Adekunbi. This project in Japan is very crucial to our company.'