I headed straight to Katie's place and within a few minutes, I arrived there. I knocked at the door and Katie's mom opened the door.
"Good evening, ma'am " I greeted immediately.
"Good evening my dear. How are you doing?" She responded as she was very happy to see me.
"I am fine."
"Please, come inside" She beckoned on me.
"Have a seat"
"What brings you here? Since your friend travelled, you stopped asking after me." She smiled.
"Aunt, it's not like that. I have been busy with my school stuff." I defended myself smiling nervously.
"I came to ask after Katie and to know when she will be coming back as schools are about to resume."
"Hmm, that's thoughtful of you. You care about your friend."
"Don't mind that silly girl. She will be coming back in two days. I don't know what she saw at her uncle's place that she has refused to come back home and left only me to handle her school stuff." Katie's mom lamented.
"Don't worry, I'll make sure she comes to see you the moment she arrives."
"Okay, aunt, I'll take my leave now. Please greet uncle for me." I stood up to leave.
"Oooh, greet your parents for me. Bye-bye."
"I'll, bye-bye." I waved at her.
I looked at my wristwatch and found out I had only three minutes left to get home. I ran back home as it was already getting late and I didn't want to get scolded.
I made it back in time as Katie's place was just a stone's throw away from our place.
***************
The next day, Fred didn't go to the mini-mart again with Dad but after staying at home with me for a whole day, he discovered that the screen time rule was just the same at home. Dad kept Our laptop(Dad's old laptop) in his room which meant we could only watch movies on the television and the power supply wasn't always steady.
Fred had so many toys, but for how long could he play with them without getting bored and so he went back to his usual routine after that saying that the mini-mart was much better as he could play around with other children and get busy arranging the counters with the sales assistant.
I sat outside in the verandah patiently waiting for anybody to come back home. We were expecting Mom to come back today as she was now working in the daytime and no longer shuffling between day and night shifts which made her stay away from home for a couple of days.
It was already 6 pm and yet nobody has shown up, including the young lady that was supposed to come back today.
As soon as I slept off, I heard a loud bang on the gate. I woke up startled and reached for my pocket to check if I had the keys to the gate with me.
I rushed to the gate and peeped through the keyhole to find out who was at the gate but I couldn't see anybody.
I sighed and left thinking it was the children in our neighbourhood who were up to their tricks again or playing "knock at the gate."
"If I catch the person playing this trick, I'll make sure to spank the person," I murmured to myself as I opened the gate.
I looked around to see if there was anyone around and as I was about to close the gate in anger. I heard a deep voice shout my name.
"Elsie!"
I was so startled that I ran back inside leaving the gate open.
"You are such a scaredy-cat!" Katie shouted after me as she came inside and bolted the gate.
I looked up and saw her smiling at me and felt very angry, I picked up a stick lying around and started chasing her with it.
"Katie, come back here. How dare you scare me like that?" I yelled at her.
We continued running around for a while and when I decided to rest to catch my breath, Katie came up to me and I quickly held onto her cloth and started hitting her with the stick.
"Elsie, I am sorry. Please stop."
"When did you come back?" I asked as I let go of her cloth and dropped the stick.
"We got back in the afternoon."
"Ooh, how was your trip?"
I asked as we made our way to the veranda and sat down.
"You can make yourself uncomfortable." I chuckled.
"I prefer to make myself comfortable." Katie sneered.
"Our trip was okay. We wanted to catch a flight back home but it was cancelled, so we had to board a train.
I felt so bad that my chance of being on a plane for the first time was lost just like that."
"You don't have to feel bad. At least, you got the chance of leaving this town and exploring other places. You will get another chance." I patted her shoulder.
"Are you prepared for school?"
"No, I am not. I even forgot that school resumes on the 7th. Luckily, my mom has finished preparing everything." She sighed.
"I'm going to miss you." She hugged me.
"Elsie, did you hear anything about Victor?"
"I didn't just hear. I saw everything going on. He wanted to see you before leaving but it wasn't possible."
"Hmmm, my neighbour really likes me. He visited us at my uncle's place with his mom."
"Waw!, his uncle is a nice person. He already allowed him to be with his mother. I am so happy for him." I screeched in excitement.
"To think that he would try to reach out to you so soon. He's so thoughtful." I added.
"With the way you are acting, one would mistakenly think that Victor is related to you." Katie smiled.
"It's not like that, it's just that..."