REMOULDED

PROLOGUE & CHAPTER ONE

Prologue..

Is it the blend of amusing and yet scolding scenes?. Or the interwoven fates of betrayals in friendships and marriages. This book is a mix of tragicomedy that cuts across various realities of life.

The gentle touch on racism,its harsh influences on lives and reasons it should be totally eradicated.

The clear reproof of hasty wealth,degradation of culture and excessive rural - urban migration rampant in youths in the black countries.

The revelation of how untrue some trusted friendships can be and how secret wishes and envy could lead to predating and cruel plans.

What of the insight of how lovely marriage can be if there is love,trust and communication.

REMOULDED is a story of deep seated knowledge sweetly set between humorous writings.
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          CHAPTER ONE

Days and the rays,
All have things to say,
Wish we do,desire we may,
But not all go our ways
We crave for rain,
But we got the hails.

The ruffling of the almond trees marked it and the unique cold breezes differentiated that it was not the black man's home. The beauty of the stars,the sweet silence and the whitish streets could still further signify the exact place it was.

The projection of a well lit,but empty street came directly from the spy of the kitchen's curtain that was slightly rolled aside by the hand from an anonymous figure.

Behind it,there was the rattling of plates and sizzling of oil which gives the unmistakable source of the aroma that the anonymous watcher would simultaneously draw in with a sip of the tea.

The hand withdrew and the curtain fell after the searing noise went up again and immediately the figure turned to face the forty something year old Kemi Williams, the adjacent lights highlighted the planes and angles of his head and his identity shot up.

Earnest Williams; An athletic stature blessed with a charming face and height that will always give his peers their worry in sports;was there holding a beaker of his beloved evening tea and now casting a smile on the woman who was silently doing her duties on the dishes.

"I hope all is well,Earn" Said Kemi after she had noticed the smile on him again. It was a rare thing to spot her troublesome Earnest in the kitchen,and to see him stay longer with a smile even made it weirder. He must have been delighted with their return to the States, Kemi had thought.

"Does that mean you love it here than in Lagos" That was not a question, it was something she had concluded on. From her motherly observations, her son had always been a better version of himself in the States. He could play a gist or two,show up suddenly in the kitchen and give a rare smile which all will never happen back in their homeland.

Maybe it was because of Gideon, he has the chance here to go out with Gideon, enjoy a father-son relationship and run through the bars of California with him which are all still triggers of fear for Kemi.

Earnest love it here with his Dad and not that she hated it too. It was something that brings a little joy into the house,something that brings a better man out of her son but what if it carves out a lifestyle of Gideon's into her son.

Drinking late into the night, vacating house and family for long weeks only to show suddenly with variety of ladies is certainly not a lifestyle any sane woman would love her son to emulate.

"You think I will" Earnest's voice came into her thought and she showed her recovery with a shudder in the double-sewn apron.

"What did you say?" She couldn't help but smile as she couldn't pick any of his words.

"I wonder when you'll stop thinking about him" Earnest saw it and definitely knew the meaning of that reaction. She was lost in some awkward thoughts about her wayward Gideon. Kemi Williams was typically a cheerful woman who rarely goes down in her elation but whenever she does,it need no genius to know that the memory of her errant man had crept back.

"Who...?Thinking...? Am I ....?" She stammered, trying to form a sensible statement but she couldn't,he got it well,her mind had wandered back to Gideon, that was Earnest's observation as a son too,the story of Gideon Williams was something that would mainly bring her downcast.

"Well,I was saying that time,if you really think I will love it here than in Lagos" Earnest knew from a glance at her face that he had to change the topic if he wouldn't want to nurse a middle aged woman to sleep for the night.

"Of course, of course" She gathered her words back,blinked and smiled, " I do believe that"

Earnest raised a brow but did not say a word.

"You always stay in the kitchen here" Kemi pulled a joke and Earnest burst at it.

"I always come to the kitchen there too" In Lagos, he appears in the kitchen too. Not that he will do the meal in any case but at least he shows up a few times to pick his food or do some tea. Not that he doesn't know the way to the kitchen as Kemi implied.

"To pick your food?"

"To do some food"

"Do food?" Kemi was confused or was her son the one actually getting himself confused.

"Tea" Earnest could make a tea or coffee,he was not so totally bad.

"You call 'tea' food" Kemi hid her sneer with slicing of cheese into the baguettes.

"You know that's what I'm good at" Earnest simply shrugged, not bothered with her mocking gesture. On the scale of cooking or doing a meal,the best he could do was a milk rich,sweet tea. That was something very obvious to everyone in the house,even to Susane and Mohammed. There are awful lots of better things he could do but not cooking,not the kitchen stuff and not that it really matters as Kemi emphasizes.

"Aren't you ashamed by that" Kemi did not mean to be harsh but it sounded in that manner. It was a topic she had been more willing to discuss with him,or better still,it was a more pleasing topic than Gideon's saga.

"Ashamed? A man doesn't get ashamed of such" A man indeed. The man of the house as he always allude himself whenever he wants to pull a joke. Hardly anyone could argue with him on that,maybe only Mercy would in one of their weekly spats but still come back to realize there was no point barking at it. Earnest truly was the man of the house in Gideon's absence, he does the manly things, he makes the house feels it has a man in it,he fixes up the faulty things,all which his elder sister would consider as lazy duties and term him as 'useless' in the house.

The usual bone of contention in their eternal enmity, Earnest would never tolerate the sound of him being called 'useless' while Mercy would never also cease to complain about the untidy looks of his room and the fact that she had to stay hours doing the meal while he goes around practising his stupid tennis.

Well,Kemi had tried to solve that in recent weeks,she had forced the decision to bring in Susane as the housemaid to relieve her ever nagging Mercy even though she harbors her fears for Gideon. He hardly takes his eyes off ladies,but as it goes,he had only set his lusty eyes once on Susane, that night when he had come home with a Colorado lady and then disappeared before the morning broke.

"Being a man doesn't mean you should be ----" Kemi quickly put herself into talking or else she sinks into unpleasant thoughts again.

"I'm not useless,Mum" Earnest cuts in with his eyes going steely.

"I never said you are"

"You were going to say I am"

A short silence sets in which witnessed the emotional contact of their eyes

"Earn,I don't want you to be like him" In the last two seconds, Kemi had conceded it was the right moment she says it,the cause of worry that had been burning deep in her feeble mind.