The Story of us

Chapter 3

Ammi signed and collected the parcel then told the guy to come in for some refreshments, he politely declined but she won't have any of it and so he removed his shoes and stepped in. She went into the kitchen and came back moments later with a bag containing soft drinks and doughnuts. He thanked her and left. She eagerly tore open the parcel to reveal the contents. First, she took the letter and started reading it aloud.

If this letter reaches you before the 29th of May, then Happy Birthday in advance, if it reaches you after that date, then Happy Birthday in arrears but if it gets to you on that day, then, a very big Happy Birthday to you my darling and of course this is to my sweet adorable baby Manal and not you long neck small headed Santuraki.....

Ammi laughed and I laughed too. That was mostly how mummy Nafisa's letters started. It always bore 29th May as the date, even though she sents them months before then. She leaved in Berlin, Germany with her husband Uncle Ibrahim and two kids Salih and Fatima. She always reminds Aunty Fatima not to get excited because Fatima was named after her own mother and not her. She was an arbitrator, Ibira from Kogi State while her husband was Yoruba from Osun State. She's Ammi's only friend I concurred to calling mummy. She was three years older than Ammi, Aunty Fatima was a year older and Aunty Hairat, who was the youngest in their class was two months younger than Ammi

You are pregnant Santuraki are you? Please tell me yes. I can't believe it's only Manal upto now. You seemed to be someone who will give birth to a little community when you get married when we were in school. Please get playmates for Manal soon.

Ammi will throw her head back and laugh at this "See Nafisa oo, this girls think I'm planning. Why on earth will I do that" she will turn to Abii and say and he will draw an invisible zip across his mouth, saying he won't get involved in friends' talk anymore, because he's wiser now.

She wrote how work was going smoothly, Fatima starting school and other things I couldn't even understand then. Other things that came in the parcel were clothes and shoes for me, including a Cinderella costume and a wrapped package which bore Ammi's name and she refused to unwrap. Ammi said they called mummy Nafisa mother of short stories back in their school days because she loved writing short stories, Ammi wrote short stories too while Aunty Fatima's was poems. Every year, mummy Nafisa sent me a collection of her hand written short stories for children. This year's was titled 'Manal's book of short stories'.

"Nafisa's handwriting has really improved. It was so bad in school, she wrote notes she herself could barely understand and read later" Ammi chuckled.

Apparently, the two had been a crazy combination right from time. They enjoyed nothing like sleeping and eating, if at all they enjoyed reading, it was novels, studying was at the bottom of the list. The best of their many stories I enjoy is whenever exams approaches and they were left with no choice than to read, they did go out to read by 10pm, and with food and tea of course. She said they would spray their prayer mats in front of the school post office and read using the street lights, as lanterns and reading in classes were for serious students of whom they were not. They will end up eating, gisting then one will sleep and the other will read for 30 minutes then wake the sleeping one to read while she slept too. They will take turns sleeping and reading then come back to the hostel with sleepy eyes around 2am and probably meet Aunty Fatima crying because she on her own slept throughout when she went to read and was now scared she isn't fully prepared. They did cheer her up saying they're in it together as they didn't read much too. They will then cook in the middle of the night, eat and gist instead of reading and sleep around 4am, wake up by 6 pray, get ready, eat again and use an hour to really read for an 8am exams.

"2pm exams were the best, you could sleep throughout the night and read in the morning. Hairat was the only serious one among us" Aunty Hairat was awarded as the most hardworking Law student when they graduated, Ammi got an award opposite of hers. Most stress free Law student, though she got most decent also. Mummy Nafisa was most outspoken while Aunty Fatima and Uncle Abdul got the best couple award. When I asked her why none of them got the best student, she said "When will eating and sleeping leave us to be serious and top the class. I was very bright in secondary school, but I became dull in university, well not entirely dull, an average student. I know I would have done better, well not that I'm regretting, I had a great time with my friends"

When I asked why they gave food much relevance, she said their mothers advised them to eat well "but we later got wiser and started buying clothes, to the point that my mother had to start buying foodstuffs for me from home"

She parked the things up and took them to her room, coming back with two large basket and the aroma of different dishes hit our nostrils Abii helped her with them and put them in the back seat of his car. While Ammi was locking the front door, he whispered something into my ears "We want moi-moi, else we're not going again" we said in unison and she turned to eye us. "Okay then, give me the car keys" she collected the car keys from Abii saying bye to us "Ammi wait for me, me I'm coming with you" I ran after her.

"Oooh Manal why are you such a plan spoiler. You know she would have given in eventually" Abii joined us and collected the key to start the car while still grumbling and Ammi just laughed.

The ride was a smooth one. We first drove to Fedaral Government Girls College Yola, Aunty Ama's school, were we will spend two hours with her before traveling to Hong local government for Ya Sadiq's. Aunty Ama and Ya Sadiq were Ammi's niece and nephew, but she preferred referring to them as her kids, as she always told people I was her third child. They were her eldest brother, uncle Auwal's kids. Their mum died immediately after giving birth to Aunty Ama, Ya Sadiq was just two then, and so Ammi's mother took responsibility of taking care of them, they grew up almost as siblings with Ammi, until her mother died too and she automatically became the mother at such a young age.

When she was getting married, Ammi cried and wouldn't go without Aunty Ama and Aunty Ama cried and wouldn't stay without her. So after much persuasion, she was allowed to go with her, and so she's been living with us since before I was born. Ya Sadiq lived with their father, but he spent most part of his holidays with us, he even had a room in our boys quarters, where he normally stays when he's around.

We stopped at the shops that were almost opposite air port and bought bread for them. FGGC Yola was the last building before the town's main entrance, which had the inscription 'Welcome To Yola' when you're coming in and 'Farewell From Yola' when you're going out. I always cried and threw tantrums whenever we were traveling, saying we should go in and see Aunty Ama, I never understood the protocol of 'No visiting unless on visiting days' and I won't stop crying until Ammi gets tired of petting me and resolves to beating.

The first thing you will come across in front of the school gates was a statue of the school's first head girl, in school uniform skirt and blouse with beret, holding up a flag with one hand and books in the other. We drove into the school building and after all the formalities, Abii saw a student passing by and sent her to call Aunty Ama, giving the girl her full details, Amatullah Auwal Santuraki, SS1 red house. We sat in the area allocated for visiting parents and waited, minutes later, a fifteen year old, younger, slimmer and less taller version of Ammi ran towards us wearing a red check compound uniform.

"Ammiiii" she squealed, running to give Ammi a big hug. I watched them as they flashed their gap-toothed teeth at each other. With her around, I was always in the background, almost forgotten. I climbed onto Abii's leg.

"Ama, so it's only your Ammi you saw right" Abii said

"No Abii, I'm sorry" she replied with a bright smile and gave Abii a brief side hug and picked me up "Kid sis, how are you. Happy belated birthday, don't worry I have your gift in the hostel"

"Really Aunty Ama?" I beamed

"Of course. I will get it for you later. Yesterday was public holiday, and I had the chance to sneak and come home, but I know Abii would sure send me back, probably report me to the school authority" she pouted, glancing at Abii and he chuckled "Thank God you know your Abii so well"

"My birthday was so tweet yesterday, and guess what? Ammi bought new bed sheets for us, mine is pink and yours is purple. Our best colours"

"Yaay, Ammi thank you" she hugged her. I and Aunty Ama shared a room, our beds adjacent to each other, a room we hardly ever slept in, as we made Ammi's room ours.

She started talking then, she did tell Ammi all that happened in the last one month we came visiting, and Ammi will fill her in on things that happened in her absence too. "Ama you look slimmer than the last time we came. Do you eat at all? Is your dining food okay"

"Stop worrying Ammi, I'm fine. It's just the stress of waking up by 5 am everyday, running to classes, to the dining hall, sports... All those things. Ammi did you bring my doughnuts and cup cakes as promised? Please say yes, I have been hoping" she shook Ammi's hand and whined. It was so difficult believing Ammi's just 13years older than her. With her, Ammi behaved 40 and she behaved 5. Abii held my hands and we strolled to the vice principal academics' office, who happens to be his old school friend, to say hy. We came back and met Aunty Ama eating rice and stew, fried rice, pepper chicken, moi-moi, doughnuts and cup cakes all from one plate, with two bottles of coke and zobo handy. "Manal come let's eat" she invited and I happily got a spoon and settled down to eat.