THE JOURNEY TO THE VILLAGE

CHAPTER SEVEN

Dorathy!

Chioma!

Churchill !

Junior!

Jennifer and Jane!

we were at the backyard breaking palmkernal when we heard our names, we we quickly stopped what we were doing and ran in to answer the call. It was uncle Sammy the eldest son of the family and the meanest of them all ,sitting down calmly with his legs crossed waiting for our arrival. 'I heard you people went to the stream yesterday it that true?' he asked looking at us

'How many of you went there?'

'We all did' answered Dorothy

'So did anything happen?' he asked

Everybody kept quiet

'Am I talking to human being at all?' he asked angrily

'Is there anything you people want to tell me?'

No body said a word

'If I should repeat myself I will do that with hot water' he warned

Chioma immediately spoke at that instant knowing fully well what her father is capable of doing , she narrated everything to him.

'Who permitted you people to go?' he asked

'We took permission from Grandma and aunt Linda' I answered.

'Did they tell you to go there and swim?'

'No they just said we can escort our friends to fetch water' I answered

He looked at us calmly and started scolding us especially Jane for swimming and keeping that incident a secret.

'I don't want to hear that any of you went to that stream again'

'Did I make myself clear?'

'Yes sir !!'we exclaimed quickly with our heads down looking at the floor

'you can all go' he said dismissing us his hands

'Thank you sir'

'Wait have you told your mother about this?' he asked referring to me

'No sir' I replied feeling guilty

'You and your siblings should go and tell your mother immediately'

'Okay sir'.

My cousins requested to go with us and tell our mother but I declined knowing fully well to avoid punishment we have to tell our mother by ourselves. Junior and I literally dragged my sister into mom's room despite her pleading

' Mom won't beat you if we tell her now' I told her reassuringly

'but she will if she finds out later' Junior said

We entered the room, mom was busy folding her dried clothes I washed in the morning.

'Mom'. called Junior

'yes Junior' she answered not looking up from what she was doing

'Mom we want to tell you something' I said

'Yes what is it?'she asked looking at us suspiciously.