"You know she doesn't hold anything against you, right?"
Akpene asked Mawuli
"hmm"
Mawuli didn't know what to say
"you are going to forget about this soon, you'll even wonder how"
Akpene tries to reassure her brother. The problem is, he doesn't look like he is just going to get over this any time soon.
Akpene was about to exit the kitchen when it seemed like she remembered something.
"Senior man, didn't you bring anything from the traps today?"
she asked Mawuli, seemingly expecting him to bring something out of his bag. Mawuli has never come home without a game.
Mawuli chuckled and moved towards the kichen, upon reaching the entrance, Akpene stood in his way not allowing him to enter
"Where do you think you are going to?" she asked eyeing him up and down. "Is that the bag on you?"
"Are excusing me or not, madam?" Mawuli jokingly pushed her against the kitchen's doorframe. "Your prize is in the kitchen, mama" He added, making it look like he was teasing her.
"eh? eh?"
Akpene exclaimed, moving out of the way,amd rushed over to her mother's room. She thought Mawuli just came back from the farm when in the real sense, he came back quite a while ago, he was just waiting for her to come back so they can both go to the farm together. That explains why he had the sack on him but still wanted to enter the kitchen to show her what he brought home.
When she came out of her mother's room, she could see him holding a deer in his hands.
"Did the traps catch this one too?"
"No please" Mawuli answered seemingly enjoying the surprised look on her face. " I shot this one my self" he added with a chuckle.
She took then took the game from him and started to inspect it, not that she doubts him being able to hunt something like this, she just didn't know why he'd come home with something like this and be quite about it.
she looked up at her brother with a frown
"You are a wicked person" she dropped the deer on the floor and rushed towards him, playfully hitting his chest.
" Calm down, the reason I didn't tell you was because you didn't ask, I had to wait untill you asked" He innocently tried to defend himself.
"You a just making matters worse, you bloody liar" Akpene left him and picked the deer off the floor and gave it to him. "How many times have i asked you what you brought home before you showed them to me?"
"You, its okay, I'm sorry, princess. hurry up and let's go. papa must be hungry." He said, giving her back the deer
" Take it to the kitchen and bring papa's food and let's be on our way"
She took the deer and entered the kitchen. just immediately, she came to stand at the entrance to the kitchen looking at Mawuli and smilling. She had two big rats in her hand
"So you brought this too?" she asked and started to laugh
"Mawuli, you are a wicked person" she added and they both laughed. Now she had seen exactly what Mawuli's intention was. He wanted her to be surprised and she fell for it.
she took the rats inside and came back with the food.
moments later, before they'd set out, a woman came out of the room Akpene entered, initially. She was Akpene's mother, Edinam.
Edinam looked to be like a woman in her early thirties, she was the mother of two; Akpene and her younger brother, Sitsofe, who was four years old.
She was the second wife of Efo Ganyo, Mawuli's mother, Dzidedi being the first.
"I thought you people are already gone to the farm, if your dad gets too hungry in the farm, you'll have to finish the work yourselves"
Edinam said as she walked towards the kitchen. She turned to look at the two of them, with a serious expression "I heard you talking about a deer, where is it?"
Mawuli and Akpene burst out into laughter. They knew she came out because of the game Mawuli brought back from the traps, and the serious expression she had, just gave her away.
"Mama, do you know you are bad at acting?"
Akpene asked, still laughing.
"Well at least, I'm not bad at dancing" she replied, knowing she had been caught.
"Akpene took her dancing skills from you, she's not a better dancer like you though" Mawuli said. he said that on purpose, well aware that Akpene was going to refute to that.
As expected, Akpene didn't agree with him "Come on man, I dance better than this old woman here". There was a burst in laughter, as the three of them laughed. Edinam knew Akpene wasn't going to accept that she danced better than her, she has never accepted it.
"Who is she calling an old woman?" Another voice asked. It was coming from Dzidedi's room. Her room was next to Mawuli's room. Their side of the house was at the left side of the compound, if one was to stand at the entrance of the compound, facing the compound.
It's a typical house of the village. Most of the houses in the village were built like this. The house had seven rooms, three separate buildings that were built in a way that they were attached to each other. Up on entering the compound and standing at the entrance, one would see the the three buildings, Akpene and Edinam had the horizontal one on the right side, it had three rooms Akpene's coming, after a vacant room, and before her mother's , they both had their separate rooms, leaving one vacant . Next to Edinam's room was Efo Ganyo's building, it had two rooms, and vertical too. He lives in one, counting from your right side, the other is where his parents sleep anytime they pay the family a visit. The other horizontal building also with three rooms, was where Mawuli and his mother slept. Dzidedi's room was the closest to Efo Ganyo's, and after her own was Mawuli's. The last one closest to the kitchen, was also vacant. Visitors usually sleep in the vacant rooms. The kitchen was separated from the main house. it was made with perfectly cut woods, and placed in a way that it faces Edinam's side of the house and is the closest to the entrance. It was built on Dzidedi's side of the house, few footsteps away from her building in a way that makes it appear to be in the center of the compound. The whole house was fenced with mud as thick as an average adults thigh, it had a very large entrance and unsurprisingly, no gate. Houses are fenced in this village mostly just to show ownership of the land. They didn't gate their houses because they also deemed it as a means of not welcoming anyone in their homes.
Exiting Dzidedi's room was herself, she poked her head, first out from behind the curtains covering the entrance of the door.