CHAPTER ONE My name is Vanessa Stanley, I grew up in the typical Nigerian home and environment where your freedom is limited until the day you leave for the university. My Dad a sergeant who is currently serving in the Nigerian Army and my mom who happens to be the only optimistic person in the family, always seeing the good in people, spent her time with organising charities and Christian Organizations. I have two senior siblings who are both girls, the first is called Helen and the other Cynthia.
Mom is from the Southwest part of Nigeria which is Ondo state precisely Idanre local government While my Dad hails from the Southeast part of Nigeria which is Ebonyi state precisely Ezza south
Amudo
with their origins rooted in diverse culture they both decided to give us English names. Now back to my sisters Helen being the first was a very secretive, Loving and No Nonsense kind of person. A 300Level student studying performing Arts in Adekunle Ajasin University in ondo state though we were based in Calabar. Helen is 21 years old and like dad enjoys traveling.
Cynthia on the other hand was just like mom so gentle, kind and a strict disciplinarian to the core studies history and international studies at the same university as Helen but in 100L. She is 19 and loves the church just like mom.
Well, for me I attend a mixed boarding school named Command Secondary School in Abakaliki, Ebonyi state. Am in SS1. Am addicted to Novels, it all started the night I stumbled upon a romance novel in my neighbours house, it was during the holidays and I had to hide in the room I share with my siblings if we are all present at home, mom hated books like that she always said it is against the moral codes of humanity but I couldn't stop I loved it and anytime she started her sermon about those books I listen to my first love
Music
.
Unlike my sister Cynthia, I didn't fancy the church that much not like I hated it but it was all just too fake to me, from the young girls in the choir who only sang to impress with their mini skirts, long lashes and terribly long nails to the boys in the ushering unit, winking at every single person wearing a skirt, down to the pastors always asking for donations and money to see visions about your life. It's all too fake but mom with her optimism always said Just Serve God thats all that matters but dad never cared, all he thought about is to just go to church on Sunday as Commanded by mom or else no one will have peace in the house that day. She will just keep nagging and nagging and trust me when mom is unhappy so also is the food.
Growing up, my mom wasn't the kind of mother that puts her children on tight leash, rather she let us go into the world see and learn lessons but mind you the freedom she granted wasn't far fetched. I didn't have much friends, I always loved the private and quiet life. Am what you will call an average student, not bad and not too good. I just stayed on the sidelines never really standing out.
So it all started on March 25, just a day left to my birthday, for me to clock 16, my grandmother came to visit she is my father's mother, so we weren't too open to the idea, she wasn't a cheerful person always giving us the disdainful eyes. She hated mom for not giving dad a male child and because she is a Yoruba woman. Grandma hated the Yorubas and the Hausas she blamed the Biafra war entirely on them. She kept trying to turn dad against mom but dad was just too busy trying to get promoted.
I remember the night grandma arrived, i was home for a short term break and watching TV, Helen was checking out hairstyles for her next appointment at the salon, PS, she can be very dramatic about it while Cynthia was reading a history journal lying face up on the couch. Mom came bursting through the door that led to the living room and connected to the varendah that led up to the kitchen, she quickly turned off the TV "mom"!!!!!!! I whined, "shut up , your grandma is downstairs she just arrived". Cynthia and Helen jumped up "what" they shouted in unison. Almost immediately grandma and dad came in through the front door, the room fell silent, mom was the first to snap out of it "welcome ma, please sit down" mom started to clear the couch of nothing in particular just trying to avoid eye contact with Grandma. Grandma turned to daddy ignoring mom's greeting "see the kind children you give me eheenn Stanley, shey nah children wey no fit greet elders you want make I stay with"she just kept blinking. As if on cue we all shouted "welcome Grandma" as usual she ignored and sat on the couch, dad went in to drop her bags, mom returned to the kitchen, my sisters and I decided to leave too but her evil shriek she calls a voice stopped us "who tell unna say unna fit go, mtchewww" Grandma speaks broken English or popularly called Pidgin English because we don't understand Igbo before you judge blame it on my dad.
We all came back and sat down respectively on the couch beside her, she faced the TV and changed it from my Disney channel to African Magic Igbo, I hissed loudly, Cynthia gave me a hard stare as a strict warning to behave myself. Mom brought in grandma's food on a stainless steel tray, I pulled out a Stool beside the couch for her to place the food on, grandma opened the food and stared daggers at mom, well my mom served her okro called okra by most people and pounded yam, a special Yoruba delicacy. I understood immediately it was my mom's own way of getting back at her for everything, I giggled quietly, grandma with her evil abilities magically heard me, "wetin dey make you laugh" the smile on my face disappeared immediately "nothing ma". Grand ma had no choice but to eat the food. After dinner, I noticed dad seemed down before I could point it out to Cynthia grandma cleared her throat which served as a signal that she had something to say, "ehennnn van go call your mama come" I frowned "grandma my name isn't van it's Vanessa" I stood my ground in front of her with my arms crossed. Helen played the Saint, she went in to call mom, we all sat down together though I was still frowning about the wrong pronunciation of my name. Grandma asked us to leave that she had something to discuss with mom and dad privately, we glady ran downstairs to get some air. We stay in the barracks so the block we stay in is occupied by military personnels and their families. I laid down on the well trimmed grass outside facing the moon, stars and sirenity then I saw a truck pull up in front of the block followed by another "seems like we have new neighbours"Helen said staring at the trucks "maybe they will have a girl my age I could become friends with"she added happily. Mom's voice calling us in cut through the silence we raced up the stairs eager to hear what the drama was all about, we never knew we were in for the shock of our lives, if I had known I would stayed downstairs and enjoyed the serenity a little longer for our lives changed after that night.
