As she boarded the plane, she looked back with smiles on her face as she looked back at her family members.
Looking from her Dad...
To her Mother...
To her three (3) brothers...
Suddenly frowning, Temi realized that she was the only girl child of her family (nuclear, that is...)
She last to was the last to climb onto the plane.
As she slowly did so, she stood at the doorway and stared back at the tarmac, she could see her family...
Her mother and father, standing side by side...
Her three (3) brothers, all standing on a line...
From oldest to youngest...
Tears filled her eyes when she remembered how Bryan didn't want to let her go...
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
"...C'mon, Bryan let her go!" Troy scolded Bryan who clung to his sister's neck, wrapping his hands around her neck, so tightly, Temi almost suffocated...
Shaking his head, Bryan whimpered as he shook his head.
"Nuh-uh!" Bryan whimpered.
"C'mon...!"
"I don't wanna let her go!"
"You...!"
"I can't imagine living without her...!"
Troy sighed out of frustration as he held the bridge of his nose with his thumb and index fingers as he slightly shook his head...
"Why would you imagine that...?" He asked.
"We've still got each other at the house...!" Troy said.
Bryan slowly looked at him, with his mouth pouted most adorably.
"You've got Mum and Dad...You've got Lucas and me...!"
"But none of you guys understand me as much as Aunt Temi does...!" Bryan whimpered a little as he slowly turned his head away to his sister's shoulders as he cried silently.
His words must have hit hard because Mrs. Smith's shoulders dropped slowly...
Temi noticed this and shunned him.
"That's not true baby Bryan, of course, everyone here loves, cares for, and understands you better than I do!"
"Nuh-uh...!" Bryan refused as he pouted.
"Well, you've got Mu...!"
"Mum and Dad are different!" Bryan cit his big sister short.
Then, bringing his face forward, he stared at his sister with a pout as Temi also stared at him, in surprise...
"Oh really?" She asked.
Bryan bobbed his head up and down repeatedly as he answered;
"Yes, 'really'...!"
Looking back at their parents, she could that her mother's face was slightly unreadable, but she knew that her mother was happy to hear that.
After some small talk, Temi carefully placed Bryan onto the floor.
Straightening up herself and looking up at her parents, she could sense some kind of happiness and sadness around them...
She knew that they were not happy, therefore she thought it was because she was leaving home...
Alone...
For the first time...
Walking over towards them, her legs felt wobbly...
She took in some deep breaths and smiled broadly as she walked in their direction.
Her mother's head resting on her father's shoulder...
It was a beautiful sight to see.
She wished that she would one day rest her head on her husband's shoulder, with her arms hooked around his as they also send their daughter off.
The thought made her chuckle.
She hoped her first child was a girl...
Or maybe girl(s), because she didn't desire to have many boys, because boys, she thought were a whole lot of headache...
Take her little brother, Bryan, for example...
Though she knew he was still little, he could cause a whole lot of racket from minor and useless things...
So she didn't want to deal with that racket anymore from small with the kids, so she preferred having girls like herself, who were tall, smart, beautiful, wins multiple scholarships (like her), and who attracts the guys, not the boys attracting the girls and then making huge mistakes in their lives and then expecting her to come to clean it all up for them...
It was just so strength draining!
After talking to her parents for a while, she hugged them individually one more time, before hugging them all as a family one last time.
She didn't know why, but the last hug ('the family hug'), felt warmer than the first times she had hugged them all.
And she also felt a tugging in her spirit, which made her sad.
Unconsciously, tears started rolling down her eyes.
It was after they had all released themselves from the hug, did Mr. and Mrs. Smith realize the tears on their daughter's face and pointed it out.
"Temi...!" Temi's Mother called out together.
"Don't cry, it's gon' be alright...!" Mrs. Smith consoled her daughter.
Frowning, Temi asked;
"What do you mean, Mum?"
Reaching out her hand to her daughter's cheek, she pinched it a little as she said;
"Wipe your tears...!"
It was at that moment that Temi discovered that tears were on her face.
No wonder they felt warm...
Wiping her eyes, she realized that that must have neem the reason for her feeling warm.
Rubbing her hand against her palm on which the tear had been on, she looked up and said;
"Death is not permitted in our family, therefore, I shall come back to meet you all healthy and whole with no single blemish, brighter and fresher-looking than how I left you all!"
Slowly rubbing her hands against each other, she slowly lowered her hands back to her back pockets and tucked them in.
With her eyes staring at the distance, she was silent for a while.
After some little time, she muttered;
"I hope death knows its boundary when it comes to the family...'cause I don't think I'm gon' keep livin'!"
At first, she didn't know what had just come out of her mouth, but when she came back to her senses, she realized her parents' faces were worried to the marrow.
Her parents' worried faces made her worried. When she asked her parents what the problem was, they only looked at each other, their faces not good. Then she asked what she had said.
She was not told but was told to board the plane as it would soon depart...
Giving them all a swift hug, she grabbed her purse and headed for the plane.
She wasn't sure what she had said at first, but she hoped her parents hadn't heard it...
And she also hoped it wasn't because of her journey that her parents were looking so sorrowful like as if they were mourning or something...
When she had climbed the last step, she turned back to look back at the terminal...
She didn't have a pretty good feeling about this...