And there sat in her front her most annoying cousin. Fred!.
From her paternal side, her dad's elder brother's last son. Fred, the Prince of the Ruby Kingdom. Fierce Fred. He was--
'Keep looking at me like that and I will grab the intention that you would love to have me for brunch'. Her eyeballs almost fell off from their sockets. Did she forget to say that he was a pervert?. Oh, she didn't. He was a one-time pervert!.
She watched as his eyes left her and back to his food where he took more balls wrapped with veggy leaves into his mouth and down his throat. So he was the guest the butler was talking about. Yes, he truly was a guest, but an unwanted one.
Someone cleared his throat and when she turned to the butler, he urged her to the first seat on the left side of the table. Her annoying cousin was on the right side, opposite her. And just by the head of the table where they sat to eat, a chair, probably for her dad sat there too.
Mouthwatering dishes lay on her front as she sat to accustom her being to the environment first before eating. A white dish bowl half-filled with the leafy mixture of meats and some bonus things of flesh. Could be fish. Another bigger bowl of wraps of the yellow solid food that Fred was picking from. A smaller bowl of ash-colored soup assorted with fresh fish and goat meat. Her mother had told her the name in her younger years and had taught the maids at home the proper preparation of the dish. Her brain felt empty of that memory. Unable to revive the name in her head.
Another big bowl like that one used for the wraps of yellow solid contained wraps of white solid. Other dishes she could not see lined ahead of her on the table.
A maid bought in a bowl of fried meats, chicken, she guessed it to be. Bringing it to place it in his front, she left the table for Fred to pick as many as he would love from it.
Diva watched her taking steps to her side from the corner of her eye, she looked old yet strong and agile. Maybe the head maid. She leaned sideways and saw the other maids behind the glass doors, ogling and giggling. Their eyes were fixed on Fred where their whispers and chatters reached the doors and bounced back to them. Her lips twisted in disgust and her body and eyes went back to their former positions where she saw the maid that had neared her.
Coming to her side, she asked Diva what she would like to eat. None!. She wanted to say but saying that would mean she is not appreciative of the efforts of the maids and butler and is rude.
' What would you like to be served to you? '. The butler added to the voice of the maid when he saw Diva mindedly absent.
' A little of this, of that and that '. Maybe tasting would be better for now.
The meals she had asked for were placed on her plate. The soup her mother introduced her to, the white solid and the yellow too. Picking up the cutleries placed by the sides of the plate she forked her way through the white first which was in small portion as the yellow on her plate.
With a tiny piece on the tip of the piercing cutlery and just like how Fred did it though he used his hand and the piece was a ball, a small rounded ball, one that could go down his throat. She dipped it into the ash soup. With the soup on it, she took it to her mouth.
' Do you even know what you are eating? '. His questioning voice echoed in her ears.
The fork with the yellow food hung in the air. She rose her eyes to look at his. That's true she did not even bother to ask the staff.
Turning to the butler, her eyes requested the name of the dish in front of her.
' It is an Igbo dish from the Eastern part of Nigeria. Nsala soup and pounded yam-- '. He pointed at the white solid that had been peeled off its wrap together with the yellow solid. ' And that is Eba of the Western part of Nigeria. The Yorubas '. She nodded in appreciation of the explanation and glared at Fred.
' What? Don't give me that look. You have this huge mountain on your plate. Just hope you can finish it '. She had to rub her palms against her thigh to curb the urge of punching that crooked smile that now hung on his face.