I twitched my left finger before going ahead to flip open my bag to check if all was in place. I sighed. I hated all of this and my mum knew I did. Moving to another state just when I'm about to finish schooling once and for all was a big downer for me. But I knew my parents meant no harm.
My dad was a corporal in the armed forces. It required him moving from one state to another for postings and the fact that task force duties. We had moved to Ibadan two years ago and this had been the longest we stayed in a state. I had begun to think that I could actually finish school here , have a normal life like everyone got to have, settle down in a place. But my dad got another mail short notice, requesting a posting to Port Harcourt. Another city, another life and yet another start. There goes my fantastic dream of settling down and building a life. I had already began to love it here. I had even made friends, in hope that we were planning to settle down. This just proved to me that i would never be genuinely happy or content in a place. It was fantasy for me to think like that.
My little brother Giwa raced into my now scanty room, plunging his head right into the already stacked carton boxes I'd suffered to pack yesterday night. The top box fell over and littered my underwear all over the floor. He scratched his head and proceeded to look up at me, flashing his broken tooth for me to see. I almost swore under my breath.
"You will clean up this mess you caused here."
He laughed heartily. "I wont. I cannot touch girl's undies. That's disgusting!"
I was sure my ears were flaming red now. I reached for him. "You little..."
"Mummy! Toke is bullying me!" He dodged and ran as fast as his tiny legs to carry him to the sitting room.
"Better come back here." I shouted after him. There was no use. The rubbish boy in all his 8 year old splendor would never get his hands on 'girl's undies'. This is what i got for being an older sister to a spoilt brat. I still loved him more than life itself.
Giwa was born on the a 14th night of April. It was a miracle that he survived at all. He had been born 3 months before the alleged day of his proposed delivery, making him premature. I remember that he looked green when he had been first placed in an incubator, his tiny red veins very visible through his translucent skin. My eyes were red and puffy from crying. I was scared that he wasnt going to make it, that he was going to die. My mother had been in worse state.
And right now he was the one who came to destroy my perfectly stacked boxes, all healthy and troublesome as the usual. I chuckled while I began to pick up my underwear from the floor. Giwa..