That Sunday morning, I got out of uncle cheatmaster’s
arms, leaving him snoring on the bed. I went to the kitchen
to prepare breakfast. I fried some plantain and egg then
boiled water for tea. I wanted to be done before he was
awake so I could serve his breakfast immediately. He always
enjoyed when his breakfast was ready before he was awake
and I had taken joy preparing it for him always. I had been
draining the last set of plantain when I felt someone from
behind hold my hands that held the plantain in the strainer. I
knew it was uncle cheatmaster so I turned to face him
before greeting him. He planted a kiss on my forehead and
greeted back.
“Hmmm, Meso will not kill me with food. Who knew the
small Meso of those days could take care of a grown man
like me. Why wouldn’t I be happy?” he said smiling at me.
I only blushed and served his food on the dining table where
I joined him. We talked about a few things laughed about
some until he kept a straight face. He stared at me for a
while before he said;
“Meso! I love you so much okay? I’m not going to let
anything harm you or your sister. I know so many things
have happened in the past and so many things are
happening now but it’s what we call life isn’t it? Just let me
know whenever you need me. Any time you need my help,
you know where to find me Meso.”
I looked at uncle cheatmaster for a while before saying;
“I wish Esther lived with us”
“Meso, you know the reason why Esther stays with your
aunty. She is still much younger than you are and needs
guidance. Remember everything that was explained after the
meeting with everyone two years ago. I promise that it won’t
be like this forever. You will get to be with Esther soon. They
all just want you to finish your secondary school in Lagos
first. And you know all about cost as well. See…..”
At this point, uncle cheatmaster stood up and bent down
close to me. He held me close to his chest while he
consoled as tears were already streaming down from my
eyes. He continued with his talking and consoling until I told
him I was okay and not going to cry anymore. It became
quiet for a while and I decided to ask him a question;
“Can I ask you a question?” I said to him.
“Of course! You can ask me anything.” he replied.
“cheatmaster, when you get married, what will happen to
me?”
He must have been very shocked because he paused for a
while and just before he was about to answer, he heard his
phone ring so he excused himself and stood up to get it
from the room. I immediately stood up, packed the plates
and took them to the kitchen. I decided to wash the plates,
then clean the house as uncle cheatmaster was not yet back
from where he went to get his phone. After I was done with
the cleaning, I retired for my room. As I got into my room, I
heard uncle cheatmaster call me from the living room so I
quickly went to answer him. When I got there, he was all
dressed up in a casual outfit. Before I even asked, he already
said he was going to meet up with a friend and I was
surprised because It was just 11:36am on a Sunday.
Nevertheless, I didn’t ask further because I knew he was a
busy man. He brought out some naira note and told me to
use it to get anything that was needed by me or the house.
He was very fond of doing that. It was a Sunday and I
wasn’t planning on going anywhere so I told him, we didn’t
need it as usual but he insisted I kept it anyway so I
collected it and thanked him. As usual, he pecked me on the
lips and went out the door while I shut it close.
I got back to my room, went to take a shower and after went
straight to lay on my bed. I hadn’t been to church for over a
month and I didn’t have any reason. Uncle cheatmaster
didn’t also care as much because he always said he wanted
to spend the Sundays with me alone. Even though he didn’t
mind if I wanted to go to church, I never just did for a while.
So as laid on my bed, I thought about a lot of things. I
remembered Anabelle who used to be my close friend that I
hadn’t spoken to in a while. I also thought about Daniel, the
senior who was my school father and it made me miss them
a lot. I remember I used to get in touch with Anabelle but
after a while, we lost contact. I never even spoke to Daniel
after that day he got suspended for beating up a student. I
used to ask Anabelle about him but she always told me that
she hadn’t seen him in school either. I still felt guilty
because everything that happened to him was all because of
me.
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