Maple and Light.

Chapter Two.

Have you ever felt like, a lot of things was happening in your life-crazy things-but then something new happens, and suddenly it feels like the starting point of a positive change was marked?

I felt that way right now, walking behind this unnamed stranger that my grandmother had sent to open the door from me, trying to match her pace as she was moving a little fast, but seemingly confident; almost like she was a little nervous, scared of me. I’m not scary, am I?

Well, I dunno. I suppose I’m scary sometimes. When I put on my ‘I don’t give a f**k’ look, and wear my ‘I don’t give a f**k’ clothes and face and confidence...only, I discovered now that I thought of it, that I do these all the time. Well, I guess I might be a scary person. But that’s not my fault, my energies and confidence should not be scary, the colour black I wear almost all the time should not be scary either; people just enjoy putting stereotypical ideas on certain looks and people, and attribute me to ‘scary’. That’s their loss and their problem, not mine, right?

We reached the door to the palour downstairs and I reached, from the stranger’s back, to open it, but she beat me to it; the girl I’ve been talking about since. She opened the door for me and beckoned with her head and free hand for me to go in and...I don’t know, it felt weird because no one had done that for me, ever; as simple as that gesture was. That was my thing, what I do for others, what I’ve done for others all my life; service. It shouldn’t be this big of a deal or this deep, but, well, know this about me now, I feel things very intensely.

Anyways, I smiled in appreciation, even though it was a little awkward ‘cause I was taken aback and I took a second to recover. I walked in almost slowly, like I was savouring every moment, like this was the beginning of a new chapter in my life, of a transit even.

I spotted my Grandmama at her usual seat on the couch and my legs moved faster than my mind as I rushed to hug her, and kiss her cheek, then did the same to Grandpapa who sat right beside her. And then I proceeded to hugging them both at the same time, squeezing my little head between their big ones in a tight, very awkward but familiar hug. From the corner of my eye I saw the stranger smile at our...moment, and then I realised this was something I did around family, and never really around strangers, because I have never really had to do so. It felt a little awkward. Again.

I’m pretty sure I have lost count of all the awkward things that have happened since I met this girl. Including not even knowing her name, which was every embarrassing and awkward when I needed to call her from a distance after I had hugged my grandparents.

Grandmama asked me to help pass her glasses that were at a nearby stool, but was a little far from my reach while sitting down. The stranger (god I really need to get her name, because calling her ‘the stranger’ is becoming tiring) was very close to the stool, and could have easily passed it to me. I was about to ask her to help me pass the glasses before I realised...I really did not know what name to call her to get her attention, as she was already looking at something on her phone. I didn’t want to sound rude and yell “hey!” Grandmama would even say she raised me better than that. I just had to get up myself to get the glasses, and made a mental note to ask her for her name.

After I gave Grandmama the glasses, I looked at the girl, and what immediately crossed my mind again as she typed away on her phone was, she’s so freaking beautiful; it seemed unreal.

“Jade darling, have you said hi to my visitor at all?” Grandmama asked me as she sipped her black coffee. My eyes immediately met the stranger’s (oh god) and we locked gaze. I quickly broke the eye contact and replied, “uh, yes Mama, we’ve met. She uh, opened the door for me.” Mama looked at me like she was studying me, as Grandpapa was watching something on the T.V. “I know, I sent her to do it,” she said to me in a blunt and sarcastic tone that I found so funny, I laughed. She continued with a small smile, “so, what’s her name?”

I stopped laughing so fast. I couldn’t reply. I did not know how to answer that without embarrassing myself.

It was even weirder because the stranger was in the room and Grandmama kept talking about her like she wasn’t even there. “I uh...I don’t know how to answer that,” I said. Mama raised a beautiful brow as a way of saying, ‘oh?’ I quickly added, “why do you ask Mama? You already know her name.”

I kept trying to catch the girl’s facial and body reactions from the opposite side of me where she sat, trying to see if anything I said might offend her. I didn’t want to offend her. Grandmama didn’t seem to notice I was uncomfortable, or she simply didn’t care and wanted to teach me a lesson about manners, even if I feel the girl should have told me her name too.

“Have you called her by her name today?” Mama pressed on, while I gulped.

“No,” I said.

“Oh? Pray tell, why?”

Silence. Total silence except for Grandpapa laughing at the T.V., oblivious to what we were talking about. Or was he laughing at me?...

“Onyinye.” That was my saving grace, and when I saw where the maple-like voice came from, my whole body gave a sigh of relief. It was the girl. “Onyinye. That’s my name,” She said, giving me a half smile of pity because of the uncomfortable position my grandmother put me in.

I gave her a small smile, but quickly scooted closer to Mama’s side and whispered fiercely; “why did you do that? You’re making me look like a fool!” I tried saying that with a straight face and looking normal, so no one would really know what we were talking about. She lowered her glasses and looked at me with an amused smile, with those eyes full of wisdom, and said quite louder than I had spoken to her; “oh darling, it wasn’t my intention. I only noticed you hopelessly making efforts to get her attention earlier to pass my glasses, and I kept wondering why you didn’t simply call her name. Now, I know,” She finished up with a smile.

I felt like running from the room to have a cup of water cause damn! Even Papa laughed, and I caught the stranger- I mean, Onyinye- silently chuckling too. I whispered even fiercer than before; “Grandma!” She winked at me and whispered too, “gotcha,” and tapped my nose with a finger.

I cleared my throat as my grandmother continued to sip her coffee. I looked at Onyinye, and then made a quick decision to go sit beside her at the couch opposite me, where she was seated. I gave her a smile, she pressed her lips together and nodded awkwardly; it was obvious there was an awkward tension in the room, and one quick look at Mama for help told me that she (Mama) expected me to fix it with the nonchalant look she gave me in return.

“Hi...,” I started slowly to Onyinye. “Look, I know we didn’t exactly start off on the brightest foot...” I sighed because I didn’t know how else to say what I wanted to say without being blunt. “I’m sorry Onyinye. So far, since the thirty minutes we’ve met, I have been low-key rude and nonchalant, and that’s not exactly how it should be. I love my Grandmama and very rarely does she have friends yo-...my age.” That was so close; I was about to say, ‘friends your age,’ then I realised I didn’t even know her age and assuming her age out loud might be considered rude in that moment, even if I was still assuming indirectly by saying “my age.” Does this even make sense to you?

I sighed and continued, “very rarely does she have friends this young, unless they’re really awesome, you know, like me?” I teased and smirked, hoping that would make her laugh. She chuckled; well it’s still close. “So I would really like to know her friends, you know? And I don’t want you to think I’m just rude or anything, so if I’ve given off that vibe, I’m sorry. For the awkwardness, silent rudeness, not asking for your name, everything. Although now the way I’m saying everything it’s sounding like I destroyed a town, rather than I made the atmosphere tense. Haha.” She looked at me, amused, it seemed like I was talking too much so I decided to round off my mini-speech. “I’m just sorry for everything. That’s...all. That’s all.”

She laughed.

She just laughed when I just did the most serious thing of the day. I was so taken aback that I laughed myself. Then she started, “it’s not this deep Jade.” She laughed again, then said, “I’m not mad. I should have told you my name too, but there has not exactly been an opportunity for me to do that, except for when you were at the door and then you looked like you’d just seen a ghost, so starting a conversation about me, or a little introduction, might have been, not so good, at that point. That would have been awkward.”

I smiled a little. Was I too serious? “Ease out a little Jade! I’m not the daughter of Hitler.” That made me laugh. “She’s the granddaughter of Denise,” Mama said. I looked at Onyinye sharply. What?

“You’re Mrs Denise’s granddaughter?? Really?!” I looked at Papa and Mama, “why didn’t you tell me this since?” Papa looked at me like I was ridiculous. “You barely even got her name. How then would we have known you’d care?” he looked in Grandmama direction to see if she relates with what he feels, and then the both of them laughed. “You’re ridiculous Jade,” he completed.

I narrowed my eyes playfully. “I thought you were busy with the T.V.?” He only laughed more. I rolled my eyes. I swear to god these people...

Mrs Denise is probably my Grandmama’s oldest friend. They both attended Queens College at the same time, and went to the same university. They’ve practically known each other all their lives. And honestly? She’s just like another version of my Mama; together they’re like a zodiac sister sign; like Pisces and Virgo, or Leo and Aquarius. I love her, god knows.

“I love your grandmom!” I excitedly told Onyinye. “Really?” She said with a smile, her excitement matching mine. “Yeah! We’ve gone on so many trips together! I’ve even had tons of sleepovers at her place, sometimes with your other cousins. It’s just funny how I had never met you before.” “That’s probably because I was living in another country till a few weeks ago.”

I raised my brows in surprise. “Oh really? Well that makes sense. But how do you know my grandmom?” I asked. She replied, “I’ve known her for a little while Jade. When I used to have my yearly visits to Nigeria, to see my grandmother, I used to come here sometimes too then. That was how I met your Mama.”

I felt so excited, it felt surreal that someone this close to me had been so...far. We kept talking about how the families were connected and who knew who in the families, that I didn’t even realise when my phone rang, till I saw three missed calls from my mom. I asked Onyinye to excuse me as I called her back.

“Hey mom.” I said when she picked the call.

“Hi honey. How are you now?”

I looked at Onyinye. “I’m actually better. Much better.” Onyinye gave me a smile which I returned. “How are my parents doing?” my mom asked me. I looked at my Grandmama sipping her coffee, and I Grandpapa still watching the T.V. I looked at what he was watching; Spongebob. Omg I love that show so much; this is why I love Grandpapa. “They are excellent, Mom. Still as corny and annoying as ever.” I heard my mom laugh over the phone as Grandpapa gave me a look to say, “who’s corny? You’re corny”. I laughed too.

“I’m glad you’re feeling better honey. I knew a change of environment would be good for you.” I bit my lip, and replied, “yeah, a change of environment is awesome, but I really think it’s more than that.”

“Oh? What’s it then? What’s going on over there?” I could hear the excitement in her voice and it matched mine. “Mom, I don’t know if you know who this is, but Onyinye is around. I just met her for the first time today.”

“I know her. I’ve met her a few times honey, she’s a sweetheart.”

“How are you, Mom?” I felt her pause a while. “I’m okay,” She replied, “I’m just want to go home.”

“Oh? Why?”

“This place...I don’t really like this place. I thought I was going to a conference to learn more about mental health in relation to God, but everything they’ve said and done just reeks of ignorance and pure, sheer stupidity.” I frowned a little. “What? Are you...are you sure you’re okay?” “I’m fine baby. It would soon be over, and I’d soon be home.”

I walked further away from the palour to have some privacy with my mom.

I wasn’t convinced with what she said one bit. My mother was in the habit of being untrue about how she’s doing many times she’s not happy. Sometimes she comes out straight to tell you she’s not fine, but the rest of the time she’s just assuring you she’s feeling good, even when she’s not. She thinks by lying about her feelings she’s protecting me from her sadness or darkness, so I don’t feel bad, but really? All she’s doing is making me worry and increasing my anxieties.

I know better than to pressure her to tell me though. She’d tell me whenever she’s ready, and I’ll wait.

“What exactly did they say, by the way Mom?” I asked her. She sighed. “I will tell you later. When I get home. Honey, the conference break is almost over, so I have to go now. I love you. When I’m done here I’d come over to Mama and Papa’s and spend some time with y’all, and maybe see Onyinye if she’s still around.” My mom chuckled at the last part, making me chuckle too. “Oh I think she’s still gonna be around Momma, she seems to be sleeping over. PS, I was super excited and shocked to my bones to find out she’s Mrs Denise’s granddaughter! We should have a sleepover with both families, maybe at our place, soon! Omgggg!”

My excitement made my mom laugh. I was happy she was better, and I think she was happy I was better too; this lifted both our spirits. “Slow down honey. When we get home, we’d talk about it, okay? Bye baby.”

“Bye Momma.”

The call ended. I felt good. Way better than I was feeling before I came to my grandparents’.

I walked back into the palour, and I met my grandfather busy, being an amateur manicurist/pedicurist. He was busy with Onyinye and Mama’s nails, and I found the scene so funny because he was obviously trying too hard, and felt like he might not be getting it right.

“What the hell is going on here? And Mama, what’s with that funny looking hat?” I was referring to the weird looking bonnets she had on with Onyinye. “After our manicures, we will do our skincare routines and face-masks.” She paused to look at Onyinye and continued, “what do you think honey, charcoal face-mask or avocado-and-eggs face-mask?”

There was a short pause, Onyinye was thinking. Then she actually opened her mouth to say, “how about both?” while giving Mama a sneaky smile. “We’d first do charcoal, then the other one.” Mama smiled and said in satisfaction, “good girl.”

I chipped in because it felt like they forgot I existed there. “Uh, don’t you guys think that would be a bit too much for your skin?” They all looked at me like an outcast. “Jade, we are suckers for leisure. And if we need to wear five face-masks to be satisfied, we will,” Grandmama said. Papa kissed her cheek and said, “that’s my girl.”

I found them all ridiculous.

I sighed and took the remote control of the T.V. to increase the volume of Spongebob. “I go away for twenty minutes and when I come back, y’all turn this place into a salon.” They didn’t seem to even hear anything I said except Onyinye who chuckled. “Oh well,” I replied myself.

I was closest to Onyinye on the long couch we all sat on so I whispered to her, “these people are so weird...” She laughed and replied, “we all are weird.” We smiled, and for a second, it was like we locked eyes with each other, searching into our souls. I broke the gaze and cleared my throat, moving my face away from hers.

“What country did you grow up in, Onyinye?” I asked, making an effort to make new conversation. “Finland”, she said. I raised my brow in surprise. I did not expect her to mention that country. In fact, I thought she might mention Canada or U.S., because many of our family members and friends live there, or have lived there at least once. Good news though, I like Finland.

“I don’t know much about Finland, but I like the little I do. Like your educational system. I heard it’s one of the best in the world. That’s so cool.” Onyinye nodded. “I agree it’s cool. And the people there are cool too. I loved growing up there.”

I remembered that Finland’s current Prime Minister was a woman, and that made me speak even more things about the place. “Plus, y’all’s Prime Minister is a woman? Sanna Marin! God I love that place a lot already! Even the U.S. hasn’t had a female President. I’m so proud. It shows that the educational system has not failed in teaching and normalizing equality.” Onyinye looked at me with a little surprise when I was done. She asked me, “are you feminist?” I sat up in my seat and said, “hell yeah!”

Her smile got wider. “Me too.”

I widened my eyes dramatically, and then punched the air (in my head, of course). “Oouuu! That’s what I’m talking about!” I said excitedly. Onyinye freed her right hand and raised it so we could do a high five. “You know it gurl!” She said.

I got so excited with all that was happening, that I decided to bring out my goofy side. “I humbly ask that you teach me many things about Finland, Madam, because that is one place I would like to know and go,” I dramatically said this to Onyinye, in a British accent, then took a little bow with my hands gesticulating, so it would look like we were talking about Royal or court stuff. Like something from Bridgerton. She found this funny, and we both laughed. “It would be my utmost honour to defend your loyalty, and teach you, oh dear Miss!” Onyinye replied, with a British accent too to match my dramatic pace. We laughed harder after this one because it sounded better than mine did, and put my accent-copying to shame.

I guess she’s a little goofy too.

We both heard Grandmama and Grandpapa chuckling at us. That made me smile.

She gave me a short glance and said to me, “you’re cute.”

I smiled and faced her again, “you sure you’re not my spirit animal Onyinye?” She laughed out loud and said, “that depends. Maybe.” She paused a little, then continued; “what’s your star sign?”

I wasn’t really sure what she meant by this. “Uh...,” I hesitantly started, “what’s a star sign?” I chuckled nervously. I really didn’t want to look ignorant. “I don’t really know what it is. Unless you mean ‘zodiac’ sign,” I said. “Yeah, your star sign and your zodiac sign are the same thing,” She said. Even with that, I still didn’t know what that was. So I decided to tell her straight.

“I don’t know. I mean, I know I’ve heard about it in the past, but I never paid attention to it nor took it serious. What exactly is it anyway?” I asked.

“Haha it’s okay Jade. I’d tell ya. See, zodiac signs are like, signs that each person has, that are determined by their dates of birth. Each sign has common personality traits, and these traits can help people understand others and life in general better. Or you could just use it for fun like watching YouTube videos making jokes about the signs.” We chuckled at the last part. Then she seemed to have remembered something, maybe those zodiac jokes on YouTube, and laughed at the memory. She continued telling me, “I think knowing your zodiac is quite important as it can explain to you why you act the way you do, and even show you the right way forward if you want to dig deep, but most people don’t, and that’s fine too."

I nodded my head in understanding. I noticed that behind Onyinye my grandparents were arguing about something on Mama’s nails, something on the line of “not doing it right”. I think Papa put the wrong colour combo or something on Mama’s nails. I wanted to make fun of their situation, but what Onyinye was saying held my interest more.

“So what’s my zodiac sign then? Or, star sign, whatever.”

“When is your birthday?” “Huh?” I said, slightly shocked, “you’re just gonna change the entire topic just like that?” She chuckled. “I need it to know your star sign. Remember it’s known through dates of birth?” It was evident that my head and face went, “oohhh.”

“Okay. My birthday is next November. November 7th.” I saw her face light up like a kid in a candy store. “Oh my goodness! You’re Scorpio! I love Scorpios!”

I didn’t understand what she was talking about. “Uh, what is a Scorpio and why do you love it?” She sighed, and said dramatically, “man, I have a lot to teach you.” This made me laugh.

“Scorpio is the name of your zodiac sign. People born in that time of the year are called Scorpios and they act similarly. Your element is water and-” “Whoa whoa hold on,” I interjected, “element is water? Care to explain what element means please?” Onyinye replied, “it’s a little complicated, but still quite simple, so I’d tell you later, with a little help from the internet.” I chuckled, “if it is anything close to Kendrick Lamar’s Element I don’t think I’d have a problem, right?” Onyinye face was straight, that was obviously not funny. “Oh. Bad joke okay.” She laughed at that last statement and asked me to pass her her bottle of water, which I did. I noticed that she hydrates a lot; that’s really good for her. I love drinking water too, that’s my personal reason apart from it’s one billion and one health benefits.

My grandparents told Onyinye it was time to do the skincare routines, so she was to go to the spa room, all of them. I decided to follow them, rather than staying here alone which could even trigger another one of my numerous episodes. And maybe, I could get a face-mask too...

The spa room was, in my opinion, one of the most beautiful places in my grandparents’ grand house. The colour was a mixture of light caramel brown and gold, everywhere. Even the chairs were brown, but dark brown. There were tall stools around, where one could keep spa materials. My Grandmama was a sucker for leisure, as she had earlier said, and so when they were building their house, my grandparents had made sure that a place for body care would be inevitably part of the plan of the house.

“Who’s going to put the masks on our faces?” Onyinye asked. Then, suddenly, all three of them looked at me. I chuckled nervously. “What is it?” I asked. Papa then said, “care to apply the masks to our faces?” I blinked. “Please?” he added, with a voice tiny like a six year old boy's, in an attempt to convince me.

“No,” I said, rolling my eyes. “What?” Mama asked in slight surprise. “I want a mask too. Who’s gonna put on my face?” I asked all three of them. Mama laughed like I cracked the funniest joke. “Jade! Weren’t you the one just saying our masks were too much for our skin? Omo yii gan, o ma funny o,”(Yoruba for; this child, you’re quite funny). They all joined her to laugh after this. Even Onyinye. I narrowed my eyes at all of them and tilted my chin forward, in an attempt to defend myself from my own earlier words. “Yes, well, I’ve changed my mind. I am allowed to change my mind, right?” They laughed again. “I like leisure too, you know.” By this time, I was already getting bored of their laughter, so I went to the closet and took out the avocado-and-eggs and the charcoal face-masks. My Mama and Onyinye had homemade the avocado-and-eggs masks earlier, before I came, leaving it in a bowl in the opened closet.

“Everybody will apply their masks themselves, on their own faces,” I started, “or you could ask one of the maids to help, but I’m pretty sure they’d rather stick to what they know best, and are awesome at it by the way, cooking and cleaning. Oh oh! And tolerating you all.”

They fell silent, like children chastised by their mother. But even as I walked around to drop the big bowls of mask mixes on the beautiful tall, big brown stool that sat in front of our grand spa chairs, and pass each person a brush to apply the masks on their own faces, I noticed from the corner of my eye that they were trying hard to stifle their laughter. I rolled my eyes, trying to suppress a smile. My grandparents were so immature, and having Onyinye and me around probably made them feel young again. Like teenagers.

I took my bottle of water from a corner and drank, then sighed. “let’s begin!” I said. I almost laughed at them. They seemed hesitant to apply it. Except Onyinye who was already cleaning her face with a wet wipe. “You know how to do this...right?” I asked Papa and Mama. They looked unsure. “Are you kidding? You’ve never done this by yourselves in your lives?” Their silence confirmed my suspicion.

“What?!?” I was quite shocked. These people! They need to learn to not be too dependent! What if spa workers didn’t exist? I knew they could do this, since Papa could apply nail polishes; they could definitely do this.

I was so awed. I knew my grandparents had had people doing a lot of basic things and services for them for as long as I could remember, but I didn’t know it was this bad, that they couldn’t work without those people.

“Have you guys ever done anything on your own in your lives?” the shock was still in my voice. “Now watch your tone, young lady,” Mama said, visibly embarrassed. I simply sighed. “Okay. I apologize.”

I got the box of wipes and offered it to the both of them. “Take. Clean your faces. I’d teach you. It’s pretty easy and fun.” I ended with a smile. Maybe I shouldn’t be too hard on my grandparents. It’s not entirely their fault. They were basically raised that way; to have others serving them. They were trained to be more focused on the family businesses of their individual families, before they married of course, and that was how they’ve lived their lives ever since. Surprisingly, they didn’t impose this way of life on their children because my mother was not that way, which in turn gave me a chance to be my natural self; quite independent.

Well, good thing they had a queer granddaughter like me; I was odd compared to other members of my family and didn’t believe in needing someone a hundred percent to do simple things of life. It’s not like I’m handicapped or sick or too old, so I believed I could and should get some things done on my own.

“Onyinye,” I asked, “would you like to join me to do this? It might be fun.” She smiled, that sweet smile that brings light to all that it befalls.

“Sure,” She said, wiping her brush to get it ready to apply the masks to her face.

“Okay people,” I started, like a Professor about to lecture her students, “let’s begin! First of all, you wipe your faces with those wet wipes, yes, exactly that way, do it, get to the edges..."