The Dream Part 2

We were at the place again. (It started…)

I could hear the waves, slapping against the sagging sandbags that lined the dirty beach front which the broken shed was sitting on.

It belonged to the old carpenter; he used to make coffins and crosses for the Catholic Church beside the road to our school.

He was gone now, mad from loneliness and smoking too much igbo (weed), or so everyone in our school said, he used to make the sweetest roasted yam and fish! I looked at the road again, it was still empty.

Omini came a little late, limping, one of his legs was smaller and thin, he got that way from being too sick and not taking his medicine when he was a baby, that was what aunty Rose told us when we got sick and refused to take our bitter medicine, she will say, “Your leg will soon grow small like Omini’s own, then all your friends will laugh at you!” after that we always take the medicine.

We told him we were going to share the boli and groundnuts without him.

He panted as he climbed the fruit tree to meet us. Eno and I exchanged conspiratory glances and nodded.

“Have you shared it?” he asked a little breathless, staring from one to the other, his gaze stayed on Eno, my younger sister, everyone talked about how beautiful she is and that she should be a superstar on television, I wanted her to be a superstar, then I can visit her and meet all her wonderful friends, then we can just sit around and have fun all day, rich and eating good food every day.

She tried hard not to laugh but couldn’t, I rolled my eyes, she wasn’t good at keeping secrets, “wey the boli (roasted plantain)?” Omini asked, raising his voice, I stared at him without talking, he was always so annoying and then I turned towards the road again.

It was dusty and deserted; the heat from the afternoon sun made everything look like it was melting, my stomach growled, “If you don’t give me my boli I will tell!” Omini warned, I turned sharply and the branch I was resting my hand broke, I almost fell off but I balanced myself, “Are you mad? We promised we won’t tell anybody or else he will not come again!” Omini hung his head, “but I am hungry now!” he complained, the wind moved the palm trees and kicked up more sand, I closed my eyes and rubbed the grains from my face, when I opened them Eno pushed me and pointed to the road, he came from the sand wind like an action hero in the cowboy films we watch at aunty Rose’s house on Sunday afternoon. I smiled and quickly climbed down; just before I reached the ground my pinafore caught a tree branch, scraping my upper leg.

I didn’t care, he came again.

I ran towards him trying to outrun Eno, as usual, she got to him before me.

He scooped her up and swung her up, I got there and screamed for my turn, he set Eno down and grabbed Omini instead, I danced around screaming at the top of my voice, “me toooo!!” as he swung Omini and put him down, then he reached for me and lifted me with a small grunt, I smiled broadly as he swung me twice before putting me down.

Then without another word we headed for the tree shade. We gathered around him as he sat on our school bags, “ahh this feels so much better!” he exclaimed as he stretched, we watched without a word; now he was here I didn’t know how to tell him everything I planned last night.

He looked at me and smiled; I looked down on my hands as my heart beat increased, “How was school today?” he asked me, I nodded without a word, “I played football today in school!” Omini said jumping on his laps, I frowned, I told him to stop behaving like a baby but he will never stop, “I got ten over ten in my home economics test!” I screamed from where I was standing, “papa said all I need is be a good cook and I will make a good wife and bring big dowry for him!” I looked to Eno for confirmation she was there when papa said so but she hung back standing behind me.

He took my hands, they were sweaty, he didn’t seem to mind, “don’t let talks like that limit you Ima, you are a smart thirteen years old girl, you can be the president tomorrow” we all laughed, I was going to be president tomorrow, “I will buy ice cream and jollof rice and big fried chicken for everybody!” I declared, it made him laugh too.

He nodded his head, “good, dream about becoming the president, concentrate on math, English, biology, subjects like that” he said counting them off his fingers, “what is biology?” I asked stepping closer to him. Omini continued jumping on his knee and chanting biology over and over again.

“It’s a subject, just like math and English, I’m sure you will like it” he explained.

Then he opened the nylon bag he was carrying and we all stood still, waiting.

He brought out something wrapped on old newspaper and I started to smile, boli!

He unwrapped it and handed me the longest one, then he gave the remaining to Omini and Eno who had stepped closer and was standing next to me, “thank you sir!” we chorused still waiting.

He reached in again and brought out another wrapped nylon, this time we could see it was groundnuts, he shared it among us and again we chorused our thanks and sat on the damp ground and ate quickly.

“So how is your father?” he asked, “fine” we chorused again and continued eating.

He nodded his head looking to the sea.

I looked up to him and broke some of my boli and offered him, he smiled shaking his head, but took it and ate, he looked both happy and sad at the same time, “and Aunty Rose? Is she around?” he asked as he reached and took some groundnut from my hand.

 I shook my head, “she went to sabbatical”

“Sabbatical?”

“Papa said she went to sabbatical for her school” I don’t know where that was, but I hope she returned quickly, he nodded his head, I guess he knew the place; we all continued to eat without talking.

When we were done we all rose to our feet, himself included, “who wants to go to the shed and learn karate?” he asked looking from me to Eno, she stopped chewing, “ME ME ME!!”

Omini screamed, he was never picked anyway.

He smiled, and took my hand instead, I resisted a little, then I followed him, he smiled down at me,

“I will make you enjoy it this time” he whispered as we got to the shed with no door.

To be continued....