TÓDÙN

51

TODUN

What is it you heard about family? Especially the ones that are together, father mother and their children, sticking together through thick and thins. Call it a dream come true and I will tell you that is what I feel having my family together. Even though it is more like a polygamous family, it gives me joy seeing my father visiting and my mother feeling very well without her usual attacks of asthma.

Funsho and his mum had begun to warm up to me, while I and his sister get along very well. At first, it felt awkward talking to her but with time I began to get used to it. She goes to the extent of telling me about her boyfriend and also asking for mine. My usual babyish smiles as she refers to it makes her want to give birth to a baby that looks just like me. She only stops being lively whenever she talks about her younger brother who she said died from a motorbike accident and that reminds me of the pictures I saw in my mum's box.  There were three children in the picture but her explanation has made me realize why they were now only two.

I sat on the bed and arranged my clothes into a black leather box, more beautiful and spacious than the bags I took to school the first time. I listened as my mother slippers clicked the floor as she walked around the house. We had been made to move to a bigger and better apartment than the one where we received the DNA test result. My life turned around just like Cinderella and the only thing I have in mind is that it should just continue like a fairy tale. "And they lived happily ever after."

"Morountodun!!!" I heard my mum calling me, laying emphasis on each syllable. My mind had wandered away that I didn't even notice her stepping into the room, let alone call my name several times.

"Yes mum." I answered, dropping the cloth I was holding and took a slice of watermelon that she placed on a stool.

"What were you thinking about?" She asked me, taking a slice from the tray as well.

"Nothing really, just that this wasn't how we were before I went to school some months ago." I replied looking around the well painted room, furnished with a single piece of well crafted furniture, wardrobe that I would say swallowed my clothes and curtains that added glamour to everything.

"We thank God for everything, who would have thought that getting to know your father will bring you so much luck? And to think I thought it will be otherwise but we thank God." She replied and bit off some part of the watermelon, munching on it vigorously while I smiled.

"My baby is going back to school." She continued, dropped the rind of the watermelon into the tray and stared at me. I knew she was missing me already and I miss her as well but we knew we had no other choice. "I will miss you so much, especially now that the house is too big." She moved closer to me and wrapped her hands around me.

"I will miss you too mum." I tightened my hands around her and sighed.

After she released me from the warm embrace, I went to the toilet washed my hand and came back to meet her already helping me in folding and arranging my cloths.

"I see you have not even used some of these clothes at all." She said holding up a cloth that still had its label and price tag on it.

"Yes mum, Funbi got me more than a enough cloth last weekend." I replied. Funbi was Funsho's elder sister.

"So mum, what will you do when I am gone." I asked her curiously.

"Business and travels, I think. Your father has told me to think of a business I can do."

"You didn't tell me about that mum." I protested.

"It is not like that o, we just talked about it last night after he spoke to you. You know I can't keep things away from you."