We were done cleaning hours ago and I'm banging some loud jams from my room as I had just woke up from a seemingly five hour nap and had taken my bath. When I do that on a regular day, Jane and Mother would usually oppose but today was Saturday so it was loud music day, it wasn't official but it was the only day I hurled music to the extremes and my parents didn't complain.. My phone rang and it was Gary.
"Hey what's popping you bear man?."
"My house is just boring, I've simply been playing PlayStation six for the past hour and it's getting..."
"What did you just say?." I asked in awe.
"I have a PlayStation six and I'm bored of playing it alone, I'm wondering if I should come over to your place so we can play it together."
"Isn't it better I come over since you've already been to my place yesterday?." I asked.
"Yeah, you're right, so I'll see you at..." He asked, I looked at the clock up in my room and it was three thirty pm.
"Four thirtyish or probably sooner?." I said.
"Fine by me." we paused for a little while. "Do you even know where I live?." He asked and after giving it a little thought, we began to laugh...
"You were gonna get ready to come to a place you didn't know."
"Bro I be soooo stupid man." and we laughed so hard I felt my rib cage shaking.
"But I gats say dude, what's music without Ariana Grande?." He said, he was clearly hearing the song Positions that held the atmosphere of my room.
"You get me man." I said. "You seriously get me."
"What are friends for?." He said. "I gotta go though, my dad needs my assistance but I'll text you the address."
"Yeah, no p, see you at four."
"Aight... Or sonner." He ended the call and I decided to step outside my room, as I did I began hearing a familiar voice, I headed down stairs, right then and there were Nandy, another girl that looked familiar probably because I had seen her in school I guess and... Miiiildreeed. I went forward and greeted them both.
"Hey ladies." she looked at me and responded.
"Hello." she said, she seemed interested which gave me the courage to continue, the other one waved back with a smile and my attention was back on Mildred again.
"Friendly day for a visit right..." I wasn't much of a conversation starter but I thought I was doing my best till Nandy said.
"Nope!." She said and she led them upstairs.
"Nandy did you get any sleep?."
"Harry did you take your bath?."
"I only asked a question."
"Me too." They all laughed going on. My history with girls has not been the best, maybe that was why I follow Chloe Taylor on TikTok, her tips has been awesome so far. I knew that soon I was gonna get some alone time with Mildred so I didn't bother stressing, right now, I saw a video game in my future and I was going to grab it. I received a notification and it was a text from Gary, he had just sent me his address.
I took out my skateboard and was soon on my way. "Good morning Ms Turner." I greeted our old friendly cat lady next door neighbor.
"Oh hi Tobias, how're you doing?."
"I'm good ma." Probably the only other person other than Debra that would call me Tobias and I wouldn't complain, They would all pronounce it as To bi as, but the pronunciation was really To bai yas and that was the pronunciation she and Debra used.
"Ok, good goings and stay safe." she said with a smile, she also held her favorite cat Pudding's arm up to wave hi.
"Oh hi Pudding, say hi to the family."
"Sure I will." she said in a tiny little voice trying to indicate that it was what Pudding would've said if she could talk. It was so weird how them cat people knew the genders of their numerous cats, personally I just can't tell not even of dogs and I'm kinda a dog person.
"Stay safe!." she shouted again a phrase popularized few years back, I turned back and forged a smile. It was a few years ago but she still adamantly believed the COVID 19 was a real stuff. We all knew that the virus was a big world wide scheme by the elites to shut down the world's economy for a brief period, keep everyone distracted with extremely large number of deaths, keeping them indoors, leaving them fearing for their own lives, keeping them also distracted by dumb TV shows and stupid news on social media networks that were extremely irrelevant at that point in time, whilst they the big important people, the elites all sat down and reshaped the world economy to suit their pockets because the activities of the world was spiralling out of their hands. If you're to be honest, check out the big businesses that got popularized because of COVID, you have to be able to think and read between the lines, being called a conspiracy theorist may be considered an insult but the same conspiracy theorists live longer than most because they that insult them end up falling prey to the antics of the elites.
We all also know that they're ready to do it again if it spirals outta control again, that they don't really care about us, but there others who don't know, and they keep on falling prey to the evil dirty antics of the elites, They try keeping us distracted by stupid irrelevant news all around of which lots are lies but many don't see it. They lied to us and still are and anyone that tries to tell the truth is deleted or worst killed, yeah, ask Abraham Lincoln, JFK, MJ, Tupac Shakur or Lady Diana Spencer all of blessed memories.
I soon got to the address, their house was ok from the outside, it didn't seem particularly different from the rest of the houses around but it was ok. I got to the front door and rang the doorbell.
"I'm coming." Someone from inside said.
Soon the door opened and a jacked up looking guy that was almost mother's age from the looks of it came out.
"You must be Harry right?."
"Yup, good evening sir." I gave the slightest bow as I greeted him.
He touched my shoulders as he replied "Evening Harry, my son, my son Gary was just talking and absolutely loves talking about you." I smiled and nodded, I also wasn't the most social human being, I couldn't have a reasonable conversation with an adult, so once they talked to me I would usually smile, nod or shake my head according to the situation. But yeah most of the time if I felt insulted by the adult, I wouldn't mind giving them a piece of my mind, respectfully or not depending on whom and on the situation. In this case I was pretty amazed, sooo... Mr Cimino muttered something I didn't quite catch, I tried putting my head around it but Gary came over...
"Harry my gee, what's going?."
"Nice, dude, see, no time, no time, connect those bad boys up and switch on the motherfucking system, let's get this game on the road."
"Whoa, your zeal is infectious, but I must warn you, I'm kinda pro at all these shit sooo..." Gary bragged.
"Nonsense, dude, if you can play PlayStation three then you can play any PS, let's get on.
Two Minutes Later...
"See man, I told you, play PS3, then the PS world is yours." Gary shrugged.
"Up for another round of gaming, 4:3 is not a win, it's weakness."
"First of all, you're wrong and second of all, you're really hungry for some defeat and I have a full fist of it so amma just hand them to ya.
"You're on..."
"But seriously man, I'm hungry, got any snacks?." I asked rubbing my stomach with a slight squeeze of my face.
"Are you hungry for food or snacks?."
"Well, I don't eat real food in people's houses."
"So there's fake food and I dare do ask, but why?."
"Fake foods are snacks and yes, family tradition, we don't eat in people's houses, we only eat food bought from outside, please don't feel offended but it's for lots of reasons but I don't think there's time to say them all, anyways just get some snacks you child."
"Will do." He went on and got some Snickers bars and some Kit Kats and a bottle of orange juice, I gobbled them up immediately. "Bro are you always this hungry?."
"Not likely, but skating takes alot of my strength." I said. I ate quickly so I could immediately get back to the game. "Ok now that I'm done, time for some sweet wins, bro, with all dude respect, you're fucked!"
"You're on nigga!." We played for almost an hour with denominations of ten minutes for each game and we ended up with a tie.
"3:3, nice." I said, we looked at each other with a raging dead stare, I was a Cityzen so I always loved using Manchester City and he was a Gunner, so he loved making use of Arsenal, we just played seven times and we had won three times each and a draw.
"So look, we're gonna play this final one and whoever that's the winner is gonna take home this four hundred dollars." He said.
"Ok, nice deal but I only see two hundred dollars." He looked at me and laughed loudly.
"You didn't expect me to drop the four hundred dollars alone right?." I looked up and rolled my tongues round my mouth.
"Checks out." I got out the money in my wallet and counted out two hundred dollars and dropped it on the ground with his.
"Ok let's go." We played for five minutes and with a 7:6 defeat he came out victorious. "You were saying?." He tried mocking with a smile.
"Dude, I didn't say anything."
"Yeah you did." he said. "You said and I quote, if you can play a PlayStation three, you can play any PS." I looked him, I really don't appreciate being mocked.
"I, I don't sound anything like that." His impersonation of my voice was terrible. He simply laughed and I went over to go get my phone.
"You down for another hot round?." He asked, I was feeling lucky but I had principles to uphold.
"I'd love to bruvva but it's almost six and I gotta meet up with the curfew."
"Checks out!." He pressed his lips inwardly and nodded. "I'll excort you out man." He then called out to his dad. "Dad, I'll be right back, I'm gonna excort Harry out."
"Sure thing son, stay safe." He shouted back from inside. I saw him go out the front door.
"I thought I saw him go out the front door, how did he get inside?." I asked, I immediately realized how stupid the question was because they had a back door obviously... then Gary gave me a knock on the head. "Dude, what was that for?."
"buhun kasusuwa, we have a back door you illiterate." I laughed, but this dude wasn't meant to knock, but no worries, we're together.
Gary chuckled, "He's saying we should stay safe he thinks COVID was ever real, we all know the COVID pandemic was a world wide scheme to reshape the world economy to suit their purpose."
"Right?, damn adults put a lot of faith in the News on television and they run to the same News channels on social media, sad, that's bad social media."
"And some teens put their faith in the wrong sort of social media too"
"Right, we all know The clock sound app is basically the only place where one speaks facts and his or her accounts doesn't get blocked."
"Factos!, but to an extent too." Gary said.
"Birdie app claims to be among but you know..."
"What the fuck are you spitting, Birdie app simply wanted to make us believe that they were accommodators of free speech but nope, compared to Free mode and Instant videos it's highly better but the clock sound app, not even a chance.
Soon we got to my house and I rang the doorbell, Nandy soon came to open up. she then went back upstairs. "So cool you have a sibling." Gary said looking almost sad.
"Yeah I did notice you're the only kid, I actually wished my life was like that?.
"Nooooooo bro, don't wish that, it's actually really boring."
"I actually needed some of that only kid vibe in my life." So that's why his house was more eerie than a graveyard at night when I went to go pee in the visitor's bathroom."
"Look bro, to you, you may feel you're not getting disturbed or stressed and it's all about you, but when it's time to have fun and no one's around, no one your age, sure dad is cool and fun but sometimes he doesn't always get teenage stuff, he's from the last generations, his youth was I think around when George H.W. Bush first became president, so he's trying to be cool, you get?." I nodded in agreement and smiled suddenly realizing my folly. He just nodded slowly.
"Bro, you're weird." I laughed, then he laughed. He checked his watch, which made me check mine. "But man, almost six thirty I better head home." I said patting his back.
"Yeah but first." I brought forward my right palm and beckoned on him to do same, we jammed the back of palms gently thrice and gave ourselves a slappy handshake which ended with us shaking our right hands in the air as they were still tightly clenched together, it was weird for him but we had just made our new handshake. "It's based on the regular Igbo traditional handshake for the elders abi you know?."
"Ohhhh, ok, good to know, I love it, so cool and unique."
"Right?, maybe one day you could teach me something from your traditional Kanuri customs." I said.
"Would love to." He shook my hands again. "I wanted to excort you out but I'm now at your door step." We laughed it up, I didn't even realize when we had gotten to my door step.
"This is actually my neighbor's doorstep, mine's the one right before this." I pointed at ours. "That one."
"So if na Lagos now, you don lose me, fool, see you tomorrow man." He said.
"Yeah, or the next... you know, tomorrow is Sunday."
"Facts, sha Later na." I then went inside shutting my door, I definitely won't forget to call him in the next hour like I did with everyone to ensure that they had gotten home safely, I had learnt that from my uncle Buchi, such a nice man but he decided to cut all ties with my family because of his wonderful beliefs of which I'm a steady follower, my role model.