Of all the friends that Sam had me introduced to, I particularly had a liking for Felix. He was unique in a way and we seemed to share the same interests, like the love for superheroes, most specifically the Superman guy. Eventually, we got bored of playing soccer and some of the kids we were playing with headed to their homes. It was too early for us to go home, so we decided to play Hide and Seek afterwards, a game in which you hide and someone has to find out where you are. It was only the three of us, Sam, Felix and I. You know how the kids back in the rurals are always controlled by the city kids? Well, Felix and I hid and I made Sam look for us. After struggling, he finally found us. It was then Felix's turn. We got into the bush to hide with Sam. I found a perfect spot but Sam seemed to have been attracted to the same spot so I moved to the next bush. Sam kept on following me, despite my attempts to stop him. We kept on moving from one point to the next, not noticing that we were getting deeper into the woods and slowly getting into the forest. Felix looked for us for over an hour but could not find us.
He kept calling out our names. We could hear him but the voice was not clear, something we should have worried about, but we didn't. Even so we did not respond lest we gave out our hiding spots. He called and called until I thought he gave up and went home. We stayed quiet thinking he was playing a trick on us only to bump on us as we tried coming out of our hiding places thinking he had given up and gone home. When the quiet continued for another thirty minutes, we decided it was time we came out because it was also getting dark and we needed to get back home before darkness took over the whole atmosphere, but as we turned to leave, Sam noticed a tree with ripe fruits. He thought it a mango tree. Because we were always hungry, and I don't know why, I hurriedly climbed the tree to pick the fruits. I was quick to climb it because it was not everyday that I got the chance to climb a tree. I mean, there wasn't even a tree to climb back in the city. The fruits resembled the big mangoes they sold at the supermarkets back in the city.
We started biting them off as we walked our way out of the bushes and immediately I swallowed the first bite, I started feeling as if my legs had some weights put on them and my head became drowsy as if I was sleepy. Everything around me then started rotating and within a blink of an eye, darkness struck. We passed out.
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Mom had been away from home for quite some time and even though she always seemed to not care about home, whenever we brought the topic about missing grandfather, there was a way to which she reacted to it. Something about home was bothering her but she would not tell us, she was the kind to never show her weaknesses. Well, there she was! And they had a lot of talking to do, a lot to discuss with her parents,the father mostly. She had been wronged, her feelings not considered.
Grandpa had wanted her to further her education but she was already caught up in a relationship something that grandpa would never accept. Worse, she had got pregnant by him. Grandpa, Mister Kollah, got furious at that and would not hear anything about keeping the baby. He so much wanted her to finish her degree and proceed further to doing her masters. Grandfather even did the worst by hitting Gregory with his walking stick, something Elizabeth, my mother, said she would never forgive him for, when he had gathered enough courage to talk to him about considering keeping his baby. Mr. Kollah was a retired soldier, and was never an easy-to-deal-with kind of person. He always wanted things to be done according to how he wanted them done. He was more of a dictator if you asked me. When Elizabeth would not stop seeing the man, out of rage and anger, he chased her out of his home with instructions to never step foot in his home again. He wished she would learn her lesson quickly and come back on her knees begging to be let in again but no, days passed and it turned to months and she did not show up. Mom would often hire a private vehicle to take us home during the holidays but she always made excuses to not go with us. But that time she came.
Grandfather was old, and by the way his eyes shone with happiness when he saw mom, anyone could tell that the old man had really missed his daughter, his lastborn. Mistakes are made, but blood will always be thicker than water, I say. After a lengthy conversation and a lot of answering to the questions they threw at each other, good spirit was restored and I have to admit, I had never seen mom have such kinds of hearty laughs. A grudge is like an open wound, the longer you hold on to it the more it hurts you. Mom had been hurt for almost as long as I could remember and there she was, just a single conversation and her spirit was new again, she felt rejuvenated. After the conversation, she proceeded to help her mother, Mama Grace with cooking in the kitchen as they made stories and new memories altogether.
"Wendy, where's is your brother?"
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