Chapter 5
They quickly pulled away from each other as someone emerged from behind the curtains. Ijeoma stood there, black paper bag in one hand, phone in the other, smiling at them. After a couple of seconds of awkward silence, she said, “I’m going to tell mommy.” As she ran past them, Chinaza got off the couch and chased her. They both ended up on the floor behind the couch Chinaza and Wale were just about to kiss on. Chinaza had tackled her sister to the ground. “I’m just joking,” Ijeoma said between laughs as she wrestled playfully with her sister. “Mom is not even around.”
After a few more seconds of giggling and tussling from the two sisters, they got off the ground. Wale was sitting sideways on the couch now, with his eyes on them as they straightened out their clothes. Ijeoma winked at him before walking off down the corridor that led to their rooms.
When Chinaza came back to sit on the couch she avoided eye contact with him. They watched TV in silence for a couple of seconds till Wale slowly got off the couch and said, “I should get going.”
“Oh! Umm… Okay.” She said and got up to lead the way.
He could hear people talking outside, and when they stepped out the sliding door, they saw two teenage boys packing up the chairs and tables that had been used for the meeting. Wale greeted them with head nods. The engine of a truck could be heard being fired up just outside the gate. With each fire, black smoke was released, till it filled up the air and was visible from inside the compound. Wale and Chinaza walked zigzag through the stacked up chairs to get to the gate.
As they stepped outside, the man in the white pickup truck packed just after the gate looked at them from his side mirror. He was a heavyset man in his fifties. The white singlet he had on underneath the rumpled black shirt had sweat stains all over it. A frown appeared on his face as he heard them mutter some words in complaint about the exhaust smoke. He fired up the engine some more, and they coughed as they fanned smoke out their way and walked off.
When they were a few meters away from the air and noise pollution, Wale said, “I have something to tell you.”
“Oh… What’s it?”
“My grandfather…Umm… my dad’s dad, not my mom’s dad…”
“Oh… Okay.”
“He just died.”
“Sorry to hear that.”
“Well, I didn’t really know him that much. And he was like 90 or something.”
“Hmm… Okay.”
“So… he had just one son, my dad.”
“Okay.”
“And my dad died a while ago, so I’m the next in line.”
“Hmm… The next in line”
“He was like a King of some sort.”
“Whoa! So you’re going to be the next king?” She stopped walking now, and her eyes lit up.
He smiled before saying, “That’s what I thought at first.”
“Okay.”
“But the crown is going to another family; they rotate it between some certain families.”
“Oh. Okay.” She said and continued walking.
“Yeah. It would have been cool to be a King though.”
“Yeah.” She said and smiled at him.
“Anyway, my aunt…my dad’s sister came over today to see me.” He was saying then stopped when his phone beeped. He pulled out the black Samsung phone from his pocket, had his head down on the screen for a few seconds before putting the phone back in his pocket. “So… My aunt said there are some things I have inherited from my grandfather and they’d like me to come get them.”
“Oh. That’s cool.”
“And she said one of the things is… a car.”
“Are you serious? A car? Whoa!”
“I’ve been so excited since I heard about it.”
“Wait,” She said and stopped walking. Her eyes were on him and her mouth opened. “Wasn’t your birthday wish to get a car?”
“Yes. And you laughed at me.” He said and laughed lightly.
“Oh my God.” This is like a movie.
“I know right.” He said excited as they started walking again.
“My birthday is…” She was saying and stopped. He looked at her and when he followed her gaze, he saw a black Mercedes Benz approaching from the other side of the road. It slowed down and came to a halt when it got close to them. “I’ll call you,” She said to him before crossing the road and getting into the front passenger’s side of the car. Wale bowed his head in greeting at Chinaza dad as he wound down the driver’s side window of his Mercedes. He was intimidatingly big, bald, and never smiled. Even though Wale had been around him many times for many years not to be scared of him, he still felt uneasy as the man stared at him from across the road. He didn’t blame him. Chinaza had blossomed into such a beautiful young adult in the last couple of years, and he must feel the need to protect her; even from familiar faces.
He watched the car drive off, and at that moment, while standing there, it dawned on him that he felt much more for her than he had realized.
