"Uju, where are you?" He calls out to her.
"Brother, I'm here!" She responds running out to meet his wife open arms in an embrace. Chizoba follows suit in a bit to get in on one of those but she gets a rather cold embrace, not as warm as the one her elder sister had just received. "Brother good afternoon." Uju greets excitedly, she's so happy to meet her brother, it has been a week.
"Good afternoon mummy m." He says as he lifts her up and plants a kiss on her forehead. "How's my baby doing today?"
"I'm fine brother. See brother, did you get me the apples and bananas I asked for?"
"You know you can always get what you want, you can always get the fruits from anywhere in the continent..." She jumps down upset as she folds her arms and looks away.
"It always tastes different coming from you." Chiukwuemeka smiles heartily while Chizoba rolls her eyes, shaking her head in wonder.
"How the hell are you thirteen months older than me sef you overdosed baby." She swipes at Uju and as Emeka lifts her up again she replies.
"An entire year, don't you forget it."
Chizoba glances at her in ridicule, "Werey!" Emeka smiles and sneakily, he gets out a small basket of apples and bananas hidden behind a table next to them and hands it to Uju. She immediately lightens up, hugging him so tight round the neck he thought it would explode like a balloon.
Chizoba turns to Emeka, "Brother, how about me na, I also want pink vanilla ice cream." Emeka gives her a good look.
"Shey you know road to kitchen, and don't you have your own pers... No wahala, I'll see what I can do." He drops Uju and turns towards the exit. "Mummy m, nna' bia oh?, I'll be right back ok?"
"No wahala." She replies and follows Chizoba back into the room exiting the corridors.
Their room was pink orientated, Chizoba's idea, Uju usually just went with the flow in every idea, their bed was right next to each other in the spacious room and there was space between the two beds that both rested on the walls length and width. It had two reading tables, chairs and lampshades, the ultra pink colored ones were easily Chizoba's own. The doll house by the side no longer interested them because now they had their phones so it was pretty much bye bye to reality from then on. It seemed every inch that they both got everything they wanted, they had everything they needed but why wouldn't there? They were the daughters of ancestor Onyechi who had left vast amounts of wealth in stocks and investments and a seemingly unquenchable legacy even if he was just a music mogul as the world was indoctrinated to believe.
Uju and Chizoba didn't get to meet their father neither did they get to meet their mother, she after hearing of the news of her husband's passing while lodging in Chobe, in the motherland region of Botswana the shock took her into impromptu labor at seven months, she gave birth to baby Uju but baby Chizoba didn't wanna come out, it was complicated and the midwives decided to let matters be for the ancestors, when the baby was ready, she would make a hassle and be released but weeks turned to months and in those times, Uncle Akaji flew Emeka to Chobe to be with his mom, he was the family lawyer who was officially in charge of the Uzoka family estate in cash and kind. The entire stuff would be designated to Emeka when he was twenty five years old but till then should the next of kin Adamma, Onyebuchi's wife not be alive, Akaji got to be in charge till the boy became a man .
Emeka was with his mother eleven months as she held unto the pregnancy while being lodged in the hospital for easy check-up by the medical personnels, the doctors' idea. Finally on what was the seventeenth day of the thirteenth month, Chizoba decided that it was time to come out and at the point of her birth, Adamma decided she wanted to go be with the love of her life in their next spiritual experience, adventure. Emeka fainted upon learning of his mother's death, and when hours later he woke up, he just cried his eyes out, to him life couldn't be any more unfair.
An average height, bow legged, fair and chubby nurse who went by the name Nkosazana came to comfort him when the rest of the crew decided to give him some space to think. She always had a happy face that one could easily notice that even when pissed up, it wouldn't be long before she got smiling and happy again. "So your name is Chiukwuemeka Onyebuchi Uzoka? Interesting, I'm guessing you're the son of the late music mogul, sorry for your loss though and your mom's time being cut short, but I'm not sorry for saying you're one hell of a loser for sulking up and crying like a banshee. Look, if your sisters were older and more capable of independence I wouldn't be sitting down talking to a deadbeat loser like you I've gotta be honest." She murmurs to herself, "Gosh, men are so emotional!"
"Men are not..."
"Anger's an emotion! Know it and know peace! Sorry for calling you emotional at a time like this but you guys really are... Like... most importantly, like I was saying, I have no choice but to try encourage a dumbass like you who doesn't understand how to be strong for others, well I don't blame you, for one who doesn't know what an emotion is, you might not really be all that of a smart... Look! it's either you or an adoption home for those beautiful angels and you had better picked yourself. Those girls need no one else but you right now, especially that first kid in the incubator, both are in incubators but one's chances are slimmer than a needle and the other, she is on a safe side on the scale of eighty nine percent but those girls still need you bro." She stands up still facing him. "Young man, get your ageing butt outta this bed and go be a great big brother that those kids will be proud of in the nearest or farthest future." He stared at her a while wondering how old she was. "You think you have it tough?" She asks as if reading his mind. "Try being a single mom of two twins and four girls..."
"But the economy is good..."
"Yes it is but my presence is what really matters you know, money isn't really everything, money can't buy happiness, money can't buy everything..." He smiled, finally he has gotten a chance to repeat one of the great sayings of his father.
"But poverty can't buy anything." He replies so calmly yet convincingly, he realizes he has hit the woman hard when she states.
"I'll be on my way now, I believe you have siblings to go take care of. Make sure to be a great father figure and influence to them like your father has clearly been on you." She concludes as she exits the ward murmuring "Umuaka kita eh, kids of now adays, using his late dad's words on me..." He thinks a while and realizes that's she was so right and had made valid and solid points there. He wipes his tears dry and clear and calls out for the nurse and another enters, "Please can I get a doctor?" When the doctor arrives, he requests permission to go check up on his sisters. "Ok boy, lemme just make sure you are good to go and please, don't over think or stress up when you get home ok?" He nods. As she brings the stethoscope to his heart region, checking his temperature and all, she concludes he was finally ok and good to go. She instructs that the nurse on duty should release him. "Before that, do you know of any adult I could put in charge of you?"
"My uncle Akaji, the family lawyer, he flies in often." He proceeds to call out the number as she registers it in her phone. "The western motherland region?" Emeka nods in agreement. "Thank the ancestors for a borderless Africa where one makes seamless across country calls for free." She says to the nurse beside her. "Abi aunty? E no dey like that when I was small o, even this visa free across country flights, train rides and voyages, Omo we don dey try o."
"Thank the ancestors o." She sends her appreciation to her late ancestors as the nurse beside her waves to the skys and then turns to Emeka who was equally waving appreciations. "So boy, please do be careful and do not forget what I told you right now ok?"
"Ok, thank you aunty." He replies. She shoots him a smile and leaves for her next duty. The nurse soon releases him from the drip and follows her boss. After getting his face rinsed in the bathroom, he goes over to be by his siblings in the incubator room.
Unfortunately for all involved, as they were growing up Emeka took an instant liking for Obianuju who was a carbon copy of their father, he didn't find much interest in Chizoba and most times ignored her, only focusing all his energy on Uju and in turn making her to neglect Chizoba causing the girl to develop feelings of resentment for the perceived ill treatment by her elder brother and to make matters worst for them, they were both being home schooled, uncle Akaji's idea of security.
"Gurrrrrrrrl, I'm tired of being at home, who even invented home schooling? Home schooling, kedu udi ife bu nkea? " Chizoba complained to Uju one day.
"I don't know sis but I really don't mind it." She says as she grabs another piece of apple and banana which she had one of the helps cut into tiny slices for them. She was always going to share her stuff with Chizoba, they were basically best of friends.
"What do you mean you don't know?" She queried her easy going sister. "So you're glad we don't get to go to school and socialize like our mates?" If looks could kill, Uju would be long dead by now.
"Chi calm down girl, I feel your pain, really I do but you need to understand that if we try to fight it, we may end up losing."
Chizoba suddenly lost it, "In the words of Oram Uwkuhcawn on October ninth twenty twenty seven, and I quote, '...this is the reason Africa is still the way it is today after three hundred plus years, we see they've been jamming their big, fat, western pipes down our sorry cheeks for the past few hundred years but we wanna just go dwith the flow, we wanna take it easy with them, well, guess what? We've been taking it easy for a long while now, it's time to rise up, give the west and their puppet leaders in our nations violent middle fingers and swiftly take back our lands!"
"Ok, your point?" Uju asks half heartedly over her cell phone.
"Wait you don't get the point?"
"Clearly! I never actually get your point I just agree for my peace of mind and even if I did, I don't think it correlates with the matter on ground." After a brief moment of silence, she glances over her phone at Chizoba who stands with her arms folded and a frown that said "girl, you're not funny!" She was basically already immune to what she would always refer to as Uju's stupidity.
"Look I don't have time for your stupidity right now..."
"Ngwa I'm sorry but I don't even know who's Oram Nnukwummadu..."
"It's Oram Uwkuhcawn, U- ku- ka- wun!" Uju stares at Chizoba a while. "What?"
Uju smiles shaking her head, "Who knew pretty and classy girls were smart?"
"Awwwwwn! Babyyyyy m." She goes over to meet Uju in an embrace till she realizes... "Wait a minute!" Uju begins to laugh in her defense. "So are you saying I'm a bimbo? I've got nothing upstairs?"
"Chill out sis, no be wetin I meanu ah!"
"You're probably obviously likening me to the girls in foreign movies..."
"I mean I'm not wrong! You're not so great in the school related studies that the lesson teacher comes along to teach."
"Way! That's because I've got my interests in other things of which school isn't a priority, are you saying a girl can't be classy, fashionable and still be knowledgeable? Wake up from your dirty indoctrination and unlearn to learn... This was from a TikTok trend in the gen Z period, our parents' them time but most importantly what I mean is that we should not just keep quiet but should question that which doesn't seem right to us and when we don't understand we still ask some more so if paradventure we realize we're being cheated we unite and challenge the status quo and that's how to get our rights back."
"Ok, I hear you sis, I hear you loud and clear, so how about talking to uncle Akaji and brother Emeka?" Chizoba stares at her a while. "What? What did I say wrong?" Uju asks as she drops down on Chizoba's bed.
"Finally! That's what I'm talking about! It actually took you this long to pick up what I'm dropping, to eat up what I'm serving."
"Cos you were too busy talking history. I had a lot of history jammed down my brain for me to think straight."
"Those who fail to learn from history will become part of history. History is important because when we get to look back and continuously see the different ways we got it wrong then we can begin to find different, innovative and creative ways to fix our f ups..." Uju yawns so openly right in the middle of her sentence, much to her dislike. "I'm sorry am I boring you?"
"Chizoba, I love you but I don't like history, I only pay attention cos it's you." And as she rises she plants a kiss on her sister's cheeks, "Lets go find brother ok?" Chizoba with a frown shakes her head and follows suit.
"This is the reason Africa was in shambles till the early thirties of the twenty first century..."
"Girl, catch a break!" Uju replies.