Chapter 6 Leaving

The holidays were coming to an end and my friendship with Jeremiah was waxing stronger. With every moment we spent together obsessing over swimming, or him correcting my grammar or showing me some fancy show on his laptop computer, our bond grew tighter. Over three weeks with him and my English got as good as any average city kid. So good that I could hold a conversation with he and Uju for hours without having to inject more than a few words in Igbo. I was even learning to express myself like he did.

Like use cartoon or movie scenarios to compare real life situations, or make 'sarcastic statements', as he called them.

"Hmm, your sense of humor is tremendously improving!" Jeremiah complimented every time I made a 'sarcastic-enough-statement' to crack him up. I acted like I didn't care, but his compliments and attention to every little improvement and sarcastic encouragement urged me to strive even harder to improve even more.

Ironically, he learnt nothing in return from me! His Igbo was still as horrible as it was the first day his plane landed in Nigeria. The only words he had managed to learn were words of greetings, because I greeted everybody that passed by anytime we were together, that is. And even then, he said these words with the weirdest accent, as if he had food stuck to the roof of his mouth and he has to take it off with his tongue. Maybe he was right. Maybe he was a better teacher than I. Or maybe I was right, and I was a better student than he. Or maybe I was so selfishly focused on learning how to speak like the city kids and didn't care that my friend and tutor wasn't learning how to speak like the son of the soil he was.

I guess I was forgetting he would leave once the holidays were over, because I was getting so comfortable having him around I was even making future plans. He reminded me one afternoon while we were sitting around in their living room, me fooling around with his laptop.

"My parents say we leave by the second week of January." He said. I looked up, his expression was sad and his eyes didn't meet mine, instead they fixed at the back of the laptop I had on my thighs.

"Oh." I said. I didn't know what else to say. My mind was blank, and in a split second, I imagined the year ahead without Jeremiah.

In the past, it had always been hard bidding my friends goodbye after every holiday came to an end. But with Jeremiah, it would be twice as though!

Jeremiah had filled me in a few weeks more than anyone I had ever known for years. During our time together, I went to sleep thinking about everything we did through the day and I woke up every morning wondering and expecting all the new things we would do together. He was involved in my everyday life even when he wasn't there, and I couldn't wait to meet him. Hanging out with him was the highlight of my everyday.

Now, I had to go a year or years without him? Who knew the next time he would be visiting us again? It took him fourteen years to come here for the first time. When next would he come? Another fourteen years?

A sudden sadness swept over me and I fought with the tears that clouded my eyes, threatening to pour down.

"Are you crying?" I heard him ask. I looked up, he was looking at me. A tear had escaped and was trickling down my face. I quickly wiped it away.

"You're crying!" He smiled bringing his face closer to mine. "You miss me already?" He asked

"Leave me alone." I mumbled and tried to turn away from his gaze.

"If you'll miss me, let me know." He said. "I really want to know." He sounded serious. I looked at him, he looked serious.

"I'll miss you Gina. And I hope you'll miss me too." He said meaningfully. I just sat there starring at him.

"Will you miss me?" He asked seriously and I knew he needed an answer. I nodded my head, but he didn't approve.

"It'll mean a lot more if you say it in words. Because I like you and I'll like to know you'll be thinking of me how I'll be thinking of you when I'm gone." He said.

I froze.

I made it a point of duty to avoid Jeremiah in the days that followed. Guided by our previous unwritten schedule, I made myself scarce in places he would usually find me. I left the house when I felt he'll come calling soon. I avoided the stream all together because that was his favorite spot in all the village, our favorite hangout. I made my self scarce in all the streets and literally dodged him when we mistakenly crossed paths.

I wasn't even sure why I tried to avoid him, it didn't make sense to me. I just knew that I couldn't face him after that day. The day he had told me he liked me.

No, I wasn't avoiding him because he had said he liked me. I was avoiding him because after I gave it a thought, I realized that I liked him too!

All that feeling, looking forward to our hangouts, he being the highlight of my day, planning everyday with a place for him; that was me liking him! Me falling for him slowly, and I hadn't even realized! Bottom line is, I was still in grade school!

I promised to wait till highschool before I like anyone. But here I was, 12 and in grade school, helplessly falling for Jeremiah and fooling myself we were just great friends! For some reason I could neither explain nor grasp, it didn't feel right. It felt like a crime. It had to be in highschool! I told myself, I had to wait until highschool!

In all this, I was successful in avoiding Jeremy for a total of three days. Scratch that, two days and a morning, that is. He caught up with me on the noon of the third day. We often went to the stream at noon, so I had sneaked out of the house earlier and was hiding in the woods on the way to the stream. My family didn't know of our situation, because when they asked me why he wasn't coming to get me, I told them we had agreed to meet at the stream.

"He missed you the other day, he came after you had left. Are you sure he'll remember?" My sister asked me.

"He'll remember." I assured her.

I guessed he hadn't told them I was avoiding him, since there was no way he hadn't figured it out! He was too intelligent not to have figured it out.

I was sitting on a dead stem in the woods, messing around with dead leaves that littered the ground to while away the time I had calculated would take Jeremy to get to the streams, so that I could head out to my next hideout!

Suddenly, I heard the rustling of dried dead leaves, and I looked up to find someone hovering at the entrance to the space in the woods. I flinched. It took me a moment to figure out who it was.

It was Jeremy, standing there, staring at me, disappointment written all over his face.