Chapter 4 He's Interesting

"Regina?"

I looked up from the tuber of yam I was peeling to see Jeremy standing in front of me. He was there in my father's compound, in flesh and blood! I couldn't believe it.

"Jeremy?" I asked, wiping my eyes with the back of my hand. He smiled.

He was wearing a plaid shirt which he didn't button up so that the white shirt he wore beneath showed, over a pair of denim trousers and white boots. He looked out of place standing there on the red soil in the backyard of our compound. I looked down at my self, I was wearing the same faded burnt looking black gown I had been wearing all morning. It was so dusty as I had been doing all my house work in it, all day. I hadn't even taken my bath. Wait, he was in our backyard! Who let him in? Uloma and her friends were out front, my parents were out. Uloma must have let him in!

Without even warning me!

She could have at least made him wait at the front yard and asked me if I wanted him to come to the back or if I would meet him in the front instead. So, Uloma saw him. Her friends saw him too! I knew then that I would never hear the end of that visit. I resolved to take notes in preparation for the endless interrogation that would begin immediately my visitor left.

"How did you find me?" I asked as I didn't know what else to say and he wasn't saying anything. He just stood there smiling down at me.

"Well, you pulled an Ariel on me back at the stream. Luckily, unlike prince Eric, I wasn't left with just your voice. I saw your face clearly, plus it's a small town. Everybody knows everybody." He smiled, but I just stared at him blankly. I had no idea what he was talking about.

"Ariel?" I asked.

"Yeah, The Little Mermaid. You know, like, you disappeared after we talked like Ariel disappeared after saving prince Eric. You disappeared right after we talked....... You've seen the movie right?" He asked.

"No." I shook my head.

"Oh!" He cried apologetically. "I swear, I thought you've seen it. I didn't mean to leave you in the dark." He apologized.

"No, don't worry." I assured him.

He appeared relieved.

"Can I seat?" He asked moving towards the pavement where I sat.

"No! Don't." I cried and sprang up. "Wait, I will get you a small chair. This place will spoil your cloth." I said slowly so that I didn't mess up the words as I spoke in English.

"I don't mind." He argued, but I didn't listen and hurried towards the kitchen to get a stool.

When I got back, he was sitting on the pavement, smiling sheepishly like a naughty kid.

"You sit on the stool." He told me, his grin widening and his dimples threatening to show the back of his head.

I stood helplessly, holding the stool to my chest.

"Let me help you with this......." He said reaching for the knife I was using to peel the tuber of yam.

"Leave that!" I scolded, quickly setting the stool aside. "It will make your body scratch!" I warned him.

He reached the knife before I could and wouldn't let go when I tried to take it from him.

"Stop acting like an annoying child this boy! It is not funny!" I scolded in Igbo. He burst into laughter, a hearty bubbly laugh that lasted for a long moment. All my annoyance distilled as I watched him laugh. He looked so handsome.

"I'm just grateful I don't understand anything you said!" He said when he controlled his laughter for a moment. "If words were weapons, that was sure a sledge hammer!" He burst into laughter again.

"I said you do like a child!" I shot at him with the last string of annoyance I had left in me.

"And, you my dear, act like my mother. No, scratch that. My grand mother." He laughed again. "I'm not even sure you are up to ten years old, yet you live so seriously."

"I am eleven." I corrected him.

"I'm 14, and I still don't take life seriously." He grinned and shrugged.

I puckered my lips in a frown, racking my brain for a comeback. I found none.

"Well, if you want to peel yam, wear cloth for peeling yam." I said.

"If you could lend me a gown...." He smirked and I couldn't help but laugh. He joined me in the laugh and we laughed for an awkward long moment, then we stopped and stared at each other silently for another long awkward moment.

"Why did you come here, Jeremiah?" I asked for want of something to say to break the awkward silence.

"I wanted to talk to you. I liked talking to you and like I said, I want to talk some more." He answered, starring me dead in my eyes until I had to look away. I slowly moved to his side and sat beside him on the pavement.

"Give me the knife let me show you how to peel yam." I said. He smiled and handed the knife to me. Then he leaned on his upturned palms which he wedged against his knees, and watched me like a diligent curious three year old, hungry for knowledge.