07:02 am, August 29
Osun State, Nigeria.
323Please respect copyright.PENANA81rVrIY6WX
Eniiyi woke up to something tickling her nose and she sneezed, opening her eyes. Her mom, Eartha, was sitting at the edge of her bed with one hand poised in the air. Eartha made a guilty smile, as though she hadn't expected to get caught.
323Please respect copyright.PENANAF0uQHmgW3l
She glanced at the alarm clock then propped up a pillow behind her and sat up, eyebrows raised. What was the occasion?
323Please respect copyright.PENANAqKKc5BJqPE
'Mommy, good morning,' she said, still confused. 'Am I missing something?'
323Please respect copyright.PENANATSefU6yQYN
'Good morning, Adekunbi. If you were to be missing anything, it'd be your smile.' She tweaked her nose.
323Please respect copyright.PENANAb89Wa6xOTk
Eniiyi smiled. Mommy was being Mommy today. She was extremely funny most times. She watched as she bent over her, her thick mass of onyx-black hair falling forward to cover her face.
323Please respect copyright.PENANA77lzzeI4H0
'If you keep smiling at me like that, I think I'd have to pay a visit to the salon.'
323Please respect copyright.PENANAC7AsPv5SPf
Eniiyi smiled again and threw over the covers, swinging her legs to the side of the bed.
323Please respect copyright.PENANAmIDO7aiclg
Mommy stood up too then sat back down, wringing her hands. Eniiyi thought she looked nervous. Strange.
323Please respect copyright.PENANAwiuWdLdwO9
She stretched and yawned. 'Mommy, do you want to tell me something?'
323Please respect copyright.PENANA49HZPUFOk3
'Well,' her mom said after a moment of hesitation. 'Maybe you should go take your bath first.'
323Please respect copyright.PENANA34MYiHNjoc
Eniiyi quickly scrambled back on to the bed. She wasn't ready to get up yet to bath. 'I've still got some sleep left in me, let me sleep them out.'
323Please respect copyright.PENANAdPnn2pC6Tm
'Adekunbi,' her mom said.
323Please respect copyright.PENANApoUZkSc0mQ
Eniiyi glanced at her and blinked, the covers now covering up to her neck. What was Mommy going to tell her? It sure did seem like something serious. She couldn't come up with any answer except work. But then they had to go to work before and she'd be home alone again. That was the daily routine for most holidays except third term. It was third term holiday now and she should have gone for children's camp like she did every third term holiday but, for some reasons she wasn't sure she understood, the summer camp for that year had been cancelled. So what could it be now?
323Please respect copyright.PENANABBjG11ERO6
'Mommy, what . . .' she started to say.
323Please respect copyright.PENANANdnIeuG4xr
'Adekunbi, we're traveling.'
323Please respect copyright.PENANAuTr60FdWwV
She aspirated a sigh. Nothing much. 'Mommy, it's no problem. I've stayed at home for more than a day before.'
323Please respect copyright.PENANAMmY6Bq5FsV
Eartha's cheeks slightly tinted at that statement. She always felt guilty at the mention of the incidence that happened a year ago although it'd been partly her and Mide's faults; external factors had also contributed to it, but it's their fault all the same. They'd left an eight year old girl all by herself in the house for almost two days.
323Please respect copyright.PENANALsXovCNVss
'Adekunbi,' she started to explain, 'We are all traveling.' She sucked in her lips. 'You're going to stay at your grandma's for the duration of our trip to Japan.'
323Please respect copyright.PENANAuFSX9XehQ4
Eniiyi was speechless for a long time. Poor girl, she didn't know what to say.
Of all news she hadn't been expecting that. Staying at Grandma's? The grandmother she hadn't met since she was five months old. And to top it all off, she lived in a village!
323Please respect copyright.PENANAb7cwrDJg07
'You're only joking, right?' she said in a strained voice, afraid of what she'd hear.
323Please respect copyright.PENANAeJJcnVZQzv
Eartha exhaled and tried to look less nervous. 'No, I'm not. We're leaving early tomorrow morning for Kogi State.' She added.
323Please respect copyright.PENANAPG4mSvKdaf
'No! Mommy, no! No, no, no, no. I don't want to go to G.ma's village. I'm going to die there. Can't I go with you to Japan, please?'
323Please respect copyright.PENANAruLIsKVBWg
'No, it's a business trip. We were nominated together because we're a couple, and, I'm really sorry, Adekunbi. This project in Japan is very crucial to our company.'
323Please respect copyright.PENANA26TwlFj4Cs
Both her parents worked in Pengine, a feted company where they manufactured motor vehicles of the same name. Everybody knew their products, Pengine was the shit. Their headquarters was up in the North in Kaduna, where the Hausa* CEO lived. They had their branch offices at Osogbo — where she was —, Ikeja, Jos and Owerri, where they assembled the vehicles.
323Please respect copyright.PENANAt1sVMLBYt1
'Mommy, can't I go to your own parents in Somalia?' At least she'd met them thrice. Twice when they were still in Nigeria and once when they came visiting from Somalia. They were Somali but had at one point moved to Nigeria where they had her mother and then gone back a few years ago.
323Please respect copyright.PENANACjZJHzRb1I
'You know we don't have time to start arranging that,' Mommy said, trying to explain.
323Please respect copyright.PENANAF4zgrahgim
'What of Uncle Felix's place?'
323Please respect copyright.PENANAN25O8MoawT
Her mother smiled apologetically. 'Uncle Femi recently had his wife's relatives join them and we didn't want to burden him more. It must be a full house already.'
323Please respect copyright.PENANA7k8yWq34Kv
Eniiyi scowled, feeling her hopes dashed against the wall.
323Please respect copyright.PENANA3jTfaW5JNO
Eartha tucked a wayward strand behind her left ear. She tried to press down the guilt that was eating it's way up to her heart. If she had her way she'd have had their daughter come with them, but as it was she knew it was better she stayed. The project was going to be needing all of their attention and the poor girl was just going to be stuck in the middle.
323Please respect copyright.PENANACz0SGSDmTx
Little did she know that the decision was going to change their lives forever.
323Please respect copyright.PENANAcpXzsh69kv
'Mommy, why didn't you tell me this earlier, so I could have planned my escape?'
323Please respect copyright.PENANAyrHfzQZpJT
'We too just got the message this morning. I'd have arranged for you to stay with family friends but most are unavailable.'
323Please respect copyright.PENANAsTVcvZQwrh
'Probably went on vacation. Adeayo's and Adanma's family are on vacation. That's what families do during the long holiday.' She gave her mom a pointed stare. The pointedness of her criticism was impossible to miss.
323Please respect copyright.PENANA1WGezNxhNF
Her mother flinched at the stare and looked away, blinking her eyes once, twice, thrice. 'Adekunbi, you know how important our jobs are. Me and your dad have to work hard to earn money so you can live a comfortable life.'
323Please respect copyright.PENANAnXuCIIKRBQ
Eniiyi scoffed inside. As if! She didn't know just how rich they were but she knew for a fact that they were one of the richest in the estate and was aware the school kids called her rich brat behind her back (the brat part wasn't true).
323Please respect copyright.PENANAOWhFqr2Qcn
She pursed her lips and gave her best scowl. There was nothing she could do about it, even if she tried. She knew it was just for show that she was being asked for her opinion, so it wouldn't seem like she'd been forced when in truth their minds were already made up on the matter.
323Please respect copyright.PENANANyCdWUREDz
It goes without saying that her parents didn't work for the money, no, they had that already in overflowing abundance, it was because of the thrills and spills of their damned job. Eniiyi accounted this to the fact that they worked together, 'But then I'd never have met your mom if not,' as Daddy had put it. They'd have thrown her into boarding school long since if not for the fact that Mommy had phobia of them. It had something to do with the bad experiences she had while she had gone to boarding school in her days which had left a scar on her and she had vowed that no child of hers would go to boarding school. Eniiyi didn't know what it was or how bad it had been, Mommy always avoided that subject whenever it was asked about.
323Please respect copyright.PENANA06bKuFlNCa
'But I don't want to go, Mommy. I'm not going,' she still demurred, crossing her arms over her chest and scowling some more till her face muscles started to ache.
323Please respect copyright.PENANAPYhdUNG8OJ
Eartha closed her eyes for a second and aspirated a sigh. 'I can't deal with this now, Adekunbi. Please, try to understand. There's no time to arrange for you to go anywhere else and you know that, so just stop trying to make things more difficult. You're going to your father's mother, whether you like it or not.'
323Please respect copyright.PENANARx8CpXESqQ
Eniiyi looked away bitterly, feeling something die inside her. 'Okay,' she said in a small voice. It had taken her all to utter that one word and her heart filled with bitterness at it.
323Please respect copyright.PENANAtVMTtPP9RH
'That's a good girl.' Eartha smiled at her daughter and pat her head. Her hair was looking rough and needed fresh braiding but that would be another time. She could even have it done at Mide's mother's place. She felt that stab of guilt again but numbed it out. Everything would be okay.
323Please respect copyright.PENANANgIocZCUq0
'Now, how about you get up and go have your bath?'
323Please respect copyright.PENANAxRZ1EX3kdw
Eniiyi continued to stare off, unresponsive.
323Please respect copyright.PENANAxtOpr8A4pP
'I'm serious. And come say hello to your father after that.' Eartha started to stand up.
323Please respect copyright.PENANATDRgIX9ESp
After a while, Eniiyi flung back the covers for the second time that morning and got off the bed. Getting angry wasn't going to do anything. She might as well play along and try to be on her best behaviour, maybe that would make them change their minds. Besides, she was sure going to the village was all Mommy's idea, if she talked to Daddy he'd listen to her.
323Please respect copyright.PENANA8J0vI5hNQH
'When are you leaving for work today? What are you even going to do, anyways?' she asked, although she didn't really care.
323Please respect copyright.PENANAuC3dHAMX05
'Oh. We're not exactly going to work today. We'll just go get the necessary documents and the likes for our trip. And it's about extending the company to Eastern Asia . . .' she was reluctant to go on, since she didn't want to start boring the girl with the details.
323Please respect copyright.PENANAkPZU0YuXfH
'Then are you going to learn how to play shogi?'
323Please respect copyright.PENANAvB78dZn1n4
Eartha smirked. 'So, you still haven't forgotten. We're going for strictly business and nothing else.'
323Please respect copyright.PENANANlG7YS2AM3
In one of their rare family moments together, they'd gone to the cinema and watched this movie where they played shogi. Eniiyi had been fascinated about another form of chess and had asked her parents if they could go learn it together. The question had been asked flippantly, for she knew what the answer would be. Work.
323Please respect copyright.PENANAsPkj3ogUSB
Eniiyi scowled back. 'That's very boring, you're very boring.'
323Please respect copyright.PENANACX0LEaQ4iN
'Ìwo lo mò,' her mother said in Yoruba** and headed to the door. 'Freshen up and come downstairs.' She shut the door behind her.
323Please respect copyright.PENANABfjm8QMsL0
Eniiyi slumped dejectedly unto the bed. Was there really anything she could do? She was just a small girl, no one would listen to her.
323Please respect copyright.PENANAOjDdgUXvDn
She sighed and reached for the remote control on the bedside table to turn on the flat screen TV mounted on the wall but remembered what she'd been posting on her website yesterday and dropped it, reaching for her fire-engine red Samsung tablet instead. The colour of the tablet was actually black but had a red pouch.
323Please respect copyright.PENANAJnGEyw4WZ9
She wasn't gone on ten minutes when her mom popped open the door.
323Please respect copyright.PENANA1F6PEkWqvk
'Are you . . .?' she froze.
323Please respect copyright.PENANAoPgArnfsUM
Eniiyi stared at her mother, frowning.
323Please respect copyright.PENANAbgWtdpnwoK
'Adekunbi, I'm closing my eyes now—' her mom shut her eyes '—if by the time I open them I still find you sitting in this room, I promise you, you will find more cause to keep frowning at me,' she threatened.
323Please respect copyright.PENANAwp8foDvXsN
She wanted to object, to show she was still angry at her, at them, but she dropped the tablet, anyway, and dragged her feet to the ensuite.
323Please respect copyright.PENANAHLpgf4v7aw
Later when she had changed out of her nightdress she picked up her tablet and slid down the banister to the lounge room. Daddy was sitting in front of the TV which was on but his full attention was on the laptop balanced on his thighs as he typed away.
323Please respect copyright.PENANAF4vPse6SVd
Not good enough for her, but she was going to make the most of it and try to convince him to let her go anywhere that wasn't her grandmother's.
323Please respect copyright.PENANAyMGtEZvxqS
'Morning, Daddy,' she said in greeting, hugging him from the side.
323Please respect copyright.PENANAmue6mQaoGO
'Morning, Adekunbi,' said her father. He suffered two seconds away from the screen of his laptop to kiss his daughter on the cheek.
323Please respect copyright.PENANAFUKditKmZf
She stared the computer screen. She didn't comprehend jack of what she saw. 'Daddy, what're you doing?'
323Please respect copyright.PENANAcfxEBkdnwJ
Her dad threw her a how-could-you-be-so-dumb look. 'Typing.'
323Please respect copyright.PENANAQCeRh7xYp9
She turned down the corner of her lips. 'Daddy . . .'
323Please respect copyright.PENANA0a18aROKHT
'Work,' Daddy finally said. 'Has your mommy told you of tomorrow's schedule?'
323Please respect copyright.PENANAYFvaElWRLC
Of course, everything was a schedule to Daddy. Even getting off the bed and brushing his teeth.
323Please respect copyright.PENANAuCl6Cxnun9
'Yes, sir,' she replied. 'But, Daddy, I don't want to go,' she countered.
323Please respect copyright.PENANAlkHjMOph4j
'And where do you want to go?' her dad asked, not looking away from the computer.
323Please respect copyright.PENANAdNYB4H1zu3
The crashed hope in her started to stir. She could really talk Daddy out of the idea of going to the village.
323Please respect copyright.PENANAPPl9k8NaMi
' I don't know, anywhere that's not G.ma's. Uncle Felix's?' she provided.
323Please respect copyright.PENANAd8xW6Badtn
'Femi has his hands full,' her dad said of his brother. 'I don't know why you're so worked up about the idea. Mother is very nice and you'd love her at once.'
323Please respect copyright.PENANAIKsv3WLeQn
She scowled. 'I seriously doubt that.'
323Please respect copyright.PENANAsJfWZG2YHF
'You go on and do all your doubting till you meet her.'
323Please respect copyright.PENANAO0czCURiEv
Eniiyi wanted to reply but then Eartha arrived, a steel tray balanced on her palms. 'Breakfast,' she announced. 'I thought since we're all here we could as well have our meal here.'
323Please respect copyright.PENANAzaiVQSYP4X
'Mide, did you manage to get through to the agency?' Mommy said to Daddy.
323Please respect copyright.PENANABUITzlYRh1
'Oh, I booked for the 11:15. I figured we'd be at Zik*** by past ten, all else the same.'
323Please respect copyright.PENANAaoHkyryO7F
The young girl glanced from her Daddy to her Mommy and sighed sadly. Anger and hurt married in a quick ceremony in her heart, her stomach, her head, her soul. It was now very obvious that whatever she did wasn't going to stop them, their minds were made up.
323Please respect copyright.PENANAHyfgc9U1Gi
She tried to mask her anger and disappointment as she stood up and picked her tablet from the couch.
323Please respect copyright.PENANAEzj4xmCk2j
'Where are you going?' Her dad glanced at her.
323Please respect copyright.PENANAcPaygr3gQd
'I'm going to brush my teeth,' she replied, although her mouth still smelled freshly of the Close Up**** she'd used not long ago, and stormed off to her room, slamming the door as loud as she could.
323Please respect copyright.PENANAR2hY8dXzyU
She knelt by the bed and buried her face into the sheets, her body shaking in anger.
323Please respect copyright.PENANA3Z8gRXygNu
She was doomed to go to the village, after all, she was just a small girl, her decisions didn't matter.
323Please respect copyright.PENANAZOGOTGyaMe
When Eartha made to go after the girl Mide put a hand out to stop her.
323Please respect copyright.PENANAX7eradGpFW
'Let her be. She'll get over it, soon and realize going to the village is the best decision we could make for her.'
323Please respect copyright.PENANAlmJ1nVljF1
Eartha sighed and went to sit beside her husband. He was right. Going to the village was the best decision.
323Please respect copyright.PENANAfKI5iAL6Om
Little did they know that this decision was later going to change their lives forever.
323Please respect copyright.PENANAIQ6YQsxe0F
323Please respect copyright.PENANAB6LMbWR23P
323Please respect copyright.PENANADW3S7tIOgn
323Please respect copyright.PENANA4k0aTunoun
323Please respect copyright.PENANA3FgR6SGMwP
323Please respect copyright.PENANA7wekeUruLP
Eniiyi – a Yoruba name which means 'person of prestige'.
323Please respect copyright.PENANAC8dL41VuM1
* An ethnic group living mainly in Northern Nigeria.
323Please respect copyright.PENANAV3ZiXtEyMs
** An ethnic group living mainly in Southwestern Nigeria as well as in communities elsewhere in West Africa, Brazil and Cuba.
323Please respect copyright.PENANA4wPT3bSSyN
*** Shortened name of airport at Abuja, the capital of Nigeria.
323Please respect copyright.PENANAftknCWkjRX
**** A popular toothpaste brand made by a plc in West Africa.
323Please respect copyright.PENANAJO3dOuzJKV
323Please respect copyright.PENANARR6VMRvYIn