Chapter 4 Aunty Iyanu

The rest of my day moved in a haze, I didn't even notice when the siren was blared for the end of school session until the teacher tapped me lightly on my left arm.

"Are you not going to your house?, .. if you're not, me I want to be going oh", she makes her way to her desk

" I'm sorry ma, I zoned out a little.."

"I can see that...you're mates have already left the class, you should be on your way now". She picks her bag and I carry mine too, my Mother did give me a transport fare but I'm not sure if it would be enough to take home because my house is still far from the school. I start making my way to the door.

" Ehn, come"

I turn to face the teacher , I don't even know her name.

"Yes ma",

" I was told to inform you that you should go to the administrative office, so you should be making your way down there now".

" Yes ma". I turn and walk out of the class.

I am welcomed by the cool atmosphere from the door step of the Administrative office.

" Good afternoon sir" , I say to the man who is sitted on the desk beside the door of the Administrative office, I'm guessing he is the Secretary.

"Okay, miss Ameh, your mother told me that she would like to speak to you after school today.."

" Yes sir.."

" I'm not done talking ma", he says looking up and I shut my mouth.

"Over the phone, and also, I want to inform you that as you know you're on a scholarship , this meaning that you will not be attending the hostel since your mother didn't make payment for it. With that being said, let me put a call through to your mother so you can speak with her. "Hello ma, she is here now" , he stretches the phone towards me , "here" ,

"Good afternoon ma."

"Me I thought the hostel was free too oh, I didn't know it was not with the salary thing, I've already called Aunty Iyanu, abeg you'll go and stay with her so you can be closer to her, don't stress her , you hear, do what she says you should do and be a good girl. Oya nah, bye bye, shey you know where she stays nah, it's close to that Elegushi side. Bye ", she hangs the phone, she didn't even wait for me to say anything.

"Thank you sir", I say, giving the phone back to the secretary

"Okay, be going" , he dismissed and continues with whatever he was typing in his laptop

"Why are people so weird here" , I mutter to myself as I pull my box out of the School so I can get a public transport.

...

Aunty Iyanu's house is a cream and brown duplex located beside the Elegushi beach. Her house is not very far from the school, if you take transpot, that is, and her house seem to still be in it's best shape since the last time I saw it 5 years ago when we just arrived in Lagos for the first time, infact the color has not faded at all. I'm guessing they must paint every year .

I pull my box towards the gate and pull my hand inside to open the gate. Once I'm done opening the gate, I struggle with carrying my box inside the compound. I'm stopped by a footstep I hear infront of me.

"Good afternoon auntie", a well dressed man in uniform, who must be the Gate man says to me.

"Good afternoon sir", "I'm here to meet my auntie, Auntie Iyanu. I'm supposed to live with.."

" Oh okay, she told me you will be coming, oya nah, make your way through that door there" , he says pointing to a large brown door infront of the house, " she's inside"

"Thank you very much" , I reply and start to pull my suit case inside again.

"Okay, let me help you with your box, so you won't break". He says and laughs, I don't laugh back

" Thank you", I let go of the box and make my way into the house. The house still looks the same, the inside still as white and beautiful as I remember. Auntie Iyanu who is my Mother's Elder cousin is married to a very wealthy man although she had not had any child till date, she has been looking for a child for seven years now. I overheard my parents talk about it when I was seven.

I hear her footsteps and arrange myself, I actually have no idea on how she is going to react when she sees __

"Ihotuuuu, my babyy" , I am pulled into a crushing hug, "How are you?", "Ah ah, look at you, you've become so big", I'm crushed again, I can barely breathe.

"I'm fine aunty", I say between pants.

"Your mother called me , she told me you got scholarship recently. So you are going to Crystal High now ", she smiles and wiggles her brows

"Yes ma",

"Omor, Ihotu don turn big girl, you know that school is for big people abi?" , she finally lets me go and goes ahead of me to the stairs and I follow her.

"Yes ma_"

"You no go talk anything apart from 'yes ma', again?, na WA oh",

I laugh a little as we come to a stop in front of a door "I'm even very disappointed in you, do you know that?"

" Me?, what did I do?"

" So you couldn't suggest to your mother that you want to come and stay with aunty Iyanu, especially when you knew you where coming to Lekki abi, and I used to be your favorite aunty oh, una too dey disappoint for that Family, no wahala sha".

" But Mummy told you I was coming here",

" That was because I called her to tell her Jacob has travelled ". She folds her arms under her breasts and sighs. Jacob is the name of her husband. I'm even surprised she calls him by his name sometimes. Most of the women I know either calls their husband sir or baba something, she's one of the most modern married women I've met. And to add to it, the fact that she stays in Lekki. I really hope she's able to give birth to a child soon, she has such a happy marriage. I guess one can't always get everything they want.

"What are you thinking about ma?" , she snaps me out of my little trance

"I was just...I'm sorry I didn't tell mummy about staying here with you, it completely skipped my mind"

" Na WA oh ", she says opening the door

"But I said I'm sorry",

"and I said na wa", "so this is your room , I didn't have time to arrange it, so when you're done arranging your things, change and come down stairs and eat, there's food in the kitchen.

"Yes ma, thank you ma" , I reply and enter the room, my bag is already in front of the closet so I'm guessing I didn't see the gateman pass with my bag. I move to the middle of the room and start to pull my tie over my head.