THE EXTERNALS

Chapter Thirty

"Good afternoon, sir", Zach still had the effrontery to greet Dad.

"Hey, my boy. How're you?", Dad patted his head, thinking he was one of his siblings' grandchildren he couldn't get familiar with due to his constant travels."Whose child are you?"

"Hmm..Dad. He's not part of the family. He's a friend from the other street", I chose not to take advantage of Dad's lack of knowledge on what his relatives look like.

"Oh..How're you?" Dad offered him a harmless handshake. He had faith in me, so it didn't look like he was suspicious.

"Fine, sir", Zach's once calm voice, became queasy.

"Seems like you guys were about to go somewhere when I came in earlier", Dad allowed Zach to assist him in taking his luggage to the living room.

"Yeah. Zach's parents invited me to celebrate Christmas with them, so I won't be lonely", I said like it was the best offer anyone's ever offered me.

"That's good. My regards to them. Bring something for me when you're coming oo", Dad settled down on the longest sofa in the living room.

"Okay, Papa", I hugged him."Take good care of yourself, and don't miss me too much".

"Thank you, sir", Zach prostrated to appreciate Dad and led us outside my home.

Once we got outside, my eyes saw a beautiful red Toyota parked near our fence. I would have gotten angry at the owner for invading our space because I knew Dad wasn't capable of driving a car all the way from Abuja if Zach didn't open its passenger's seat door and made me sit inside. For heaven's sake, his house was trekkable, yet he chose to take me there with his mom's car which had a full air conditioning system, a pleasing scent of feminine perfume, and tinted glasses. Making snap chat videos in there would have made a lot of sense if I had the flair and charisma for it.

Previously known as Mrs. Bassey, Zach's mom had the nicest of all smiles. The Gucci dress she wore screamed money and went well with sixty degrees of human hair. Neither of the persons who saw her that day needed to be told that her earrings, necklace, and wristwatch were made of gold. It was hard to believe she birthed Zach because they barely looked alike or had similar characters.

The happiness I felt doubled when Zach's mom told me she loved my earrings and succeeded in her attempt to educate me about jewelry. I never imagined that we would have an easy flow of conversation due to her appearance but we did. Even Zach's stepmom became jealous of our sudden bond. On several occasions, I caught her eavesdropping on our conversation. Unsatisfied with that, she tried to put a permanent end to our discussion by inviting Zach's mom to come join her in the kitchen but Zach's dad came on time to prevent that from happening. From the look of things, his strong disdain for her didn't end even after five years of divorce.

The New Mrs. Bassey first served us slices of pawpaw, pineapple, and watermelon to stimulate our appetite then the main course, spicy jollof rice, and fried chicken came in fifteen minutes later. At dessert time, we ate the savory cupcakes Zach baked for the occasion with a bottle of lusciously sweet wine. That was after the divorced couple argued about whether the children should take alcohol or not. Surprisingly, Zach's mom supported it but his dad was strongly against it.