CHAPTER 2

                              Grow and live for two 

The bylines of growth is exceptionally difficult to engage in, sometimes directly living as a child can lead to unexplained obsession for growth and drastically wanting and needing. 
All the scenario of me and Chiamaka where all parts of my childhood memories, and it kind of Drew me all the way back to one  landlady  at my mother’s shop- she was so mean to my mother, she despised her so much that she could go all the way to embarrass her for our fees, I didn’t know I was born in that house, my parents used to live there which was why she got a shop there as well. During those times the landlady chased my parents out of the house they had no other choice but to sleep in her shop until they found a near by apartment and moved in- all these were happening when I was just a baby

My mother filled me in on the marathon story which was why i got the full knowledge. I remembered the land lady treated everyone in that building quite bad, both the other shop owners. Back then she had a son who we called Chi-boy , he had a dog that bit me on my stomach. Chi-boy was very playful with me and my brother but quite mean just like his mother. Years later I came to the knowledge that Chi-boy was not her biological son but her grandson in which the daughter had at a young age and handed him over to her mum to nurture and care for.  With the whole situation getting worse my mother packed out of her shop and bought a huge container and mounted  a shop which was across the road to her formal shop , the landlady at some point became envious of my mother but couldn’t show that expression to avoid being called lame. 
We had a neighbor across the road who was good friends with my mother her name was Anti- Ifeoma            Anti ifeoma lived with her mother and siblings gogoo, Nonoo, ebuka. Anti ifeoma was like a second mother to me- she takes me to church some sundays, takes me out with her and people asks randomly if I was her daughter. Gogoo was my brothers Godfather, basically birthed him in baptism the relationship we all had envied so many including my father. My father was not in total support of our closeness to this family and wished my mother would stop taking us there, it came down to me as a shocking scenario  when the unexpected happened My mother was done with her work at the shop so she came in to pick me and my brother up 

She sat down and talked a few more with gogoo and her mum before she decided we go home and rest since it was getting late 

On our way out my father came in- looking so well unkept like he may have gotten into a fight or something then he asked my mother “what were you doing in there by this time..?” My mother basically Ignored him

“Am I not talking to you woman” my mother chose to ignore him while she walk past through 

Then my father grabbed her tightly and threw her on the ground 

She rushed back into gogoo’s apartment and my father joined her, there they started a huge fight which led to gogoo’s mother advising my parents to take their fighting skills back to their house- as a child I have never seen my father in such an angry state and I wouldn’t have imagined what triggered to that but I was left speechless, I had no single feeling at the time, I was too young to understand a thing. While the whole fight was going on my mother grabbed her shoe  which had little hill and smashed my father’s  head which cursed an eternal bleeding   My father’s anger suddenly collapsed and he took me and my brother upstairs to take us to bed

I quite remember seeing my Dad washing the wounds inside the bathroom and I approached him and said “daddy you shouldn’t have done that to mommy” he was full of pity and felt like he was so ashamed of himself 

I felt sorry for him seeing how everything drastically changed in just about a minute- he was quite ok one minute the next minute he was gone in his feelings. I didn’t know much about what marriages were  all about but all I know is that I have a  mum and a dad who cared for me in their very own best interests 

I did remember one night while we were sleeping, basically me and my brother sleep in my mums room, we have two beds that of mine and my brothers, my father entered my mother’s room in the middle of the night but was chased away in pain- I felt sorry for my father the very next day and I only wished my mother would apologize..

We had this next door neighbor named uncle Charles who was very plump, he had a wife who was also a nurse and quite plump like him - uncle Charles had a maid called Nnenna who I did call my best friend at the time, though my mum wouldn’t occasionally allow us to come outside and relate with others Me and my brother still made out time to come outside and chat with Nnenna and play with uncle Charles’s sun Saun 

Before Nnenna came  into the picture and before uncle Charles got married my brother and uncle Charles were quite close, he played a lot with him. Usually my brother leaves our apartment just to go play with him but one certain day came by my brother came home with a red eye and he told my father that he was  slapped hard on the face by Charles - my father who loved their friendship at the time was not having it at that moment he was so disappointed 

He confronted him and he apologized claiming he lost his job which led to his undefined misery 

Ever since that time my brother never stepped  into that house ever again. Fast forward to when Nnenna came in- I also had this second floor neighbors who attended this same primary school as me - there was Cynthia and Obinna with their younger brother Arinze  who was my brothers namesake 

They had a maid called Chinelo who usually does the whole house chores and comes outside to gist with their close door neighbors, one of them was Friday, Their sister Chinonso and the elder brother onyema 

Since my mum restricted us from going outside plus our house door can easily get locked if the breeze could lightly intervene  we used a chair to hold  it and prevent it from getting shut - this was the only way Nnenna and I could see and chat plus interact with the others

Nnenna was my good friend close to being sister Which i never had, she advices me and tells me amazing stories plus she complements me alot 

Our friendship started falling apart when the dirty young experiences took part- back in school there was this girl I usually admire and wanted to be like her- her name was Ngozi she was my junior but we usually sat at a corner and share stories and ideas- while we were exchanging words Ngozi placed her Arms around my neck and slide her fingers through my nipples which she gently caressed at the time- I didn’t know what to feel at this point- to feel pain, worry, anger or pleasure but what I did know is I let her do it anyway. That evening I sat with Cynthia, Obinna  and Chinelo infront of their house as we exchanged gossips- Chinelo was sitting close to me and I felt the need to do to her what Ngozi had done to me  earlier, seeing how uncomfortable she was as she nearly pushed me away I understood  that the energy was seemingly not thesame so I left them. The next day Nnenna snubbed me , I tried to reach out to her and understand where I was wrong so she told me what Chinelo told her-I begged Nnenna to please forgive me I had no idea what came over me at the time. Nnenna’s friendship was that important to me. 
As time passes by gogoo acknowledged that my mum allow us join a prayer program for children called “block rosary”where children come to gether and pray the rosary 

I was so excited at that time because finally I get to step out of the house, me and my brother 

It was an exciting feeling to join the block rosary because it helped me get  acquitted with somany children in my street, the good, the bad, and the ugly. Relating with these kids gave me a similar vibe of me in school and it was just as the same. We had this president called Chidera who lives two blocks away from us, at one time me and my brother were play at the window side, and I was wearing a revealing top and a tight trousers - Chidera convinced me to stop wearing such nonsense that it made me look like a prostitute- I was very angry by those words and I fired back with so much emotions. I called him names such as stupid and good for nothing, without letting me finish Chidera gave me a revealing slap on my face right infront of everyone, I was so pained by this that I started screaming- my anger wouldn’t let me sit through the whole program as I left and reported to my mother

Instead of him apologizing he finished me right infront of my mother living no crumbs..

It later occurred to me that in this life you can’t always have what you wish for, sometimes the negative side of things usually takes charge of every scenario 

AUTHOR : incase you haven’t red the chapter one of this story, check it out in my profile to get the full gist..