"Off I go to the market boys!"
Mom declared with a sassy wave of hand
over her head as she stepped out of the front door on her way out! My
brothers and I nodded almost absentmindedly one after the other where
we were, engrossed with whatever it was we were busy with, me with my
phone scrolling through social media, Karl on his laptop, Hamz with the
playstation and QT with his headphones on listening to midday news on
radio- his recent obsession being...news- .
It was towards the end of
the rainy season with a very hot sun usually preceding a heavy downpour
of rain so Mom decided to hurry to the market to get a few supplies
before it gets intensely hot followed by a torrential rainfall.
On
approaching the ever busy and bubbling Garki market, she saw the sea of
heads in the hot sun simmering ahead in their hustle and bustle with
bodies brushing against each other as people passed each other by, she
quietly said a silent prayer to herself as she's accustomed to doing
when entering any market as she once told us, the market place is a
gathering of not just humans but also evil spirits and jinns in the form
of humans who also came to sell and make purchases and deposit problems
in people's lives hence we should always commit ourselves to God's
protection before entering the market...Mom is heavily hinged on things
spiritual, religious and supernatural so, I've chosen to believe
her...after all, mothers knows best.
Soon, Mom was bargaining with
different sellers of wares when she bumped into our paternal cousin,
Aunt Wati (Hint: NAIRA, DOLLARS AND PESEWAS ) she was also in the market to make some purchases and
naturally, they got into an exchange of pleasantries when a busty lady, a
friend of Aunt Wati passes by and sighting Aunt, stopped and greeted her so
she paused her exchange with Mom to say hello to her, the friend went
on,
"I got the "aso ebi" uniform cloth material for the wedding, my son
said you left it with him and he also gave you 35,000 naira, the money
for the cloth"
Aunt looking a little disconcerted, dragged through her
response, saying yes, that indeed, the son gave her the money and that
she's grateful, her friend went on to pray for her, wishing the upcoming
marriage, a huge success and so she left. A confused Mom stared hard at
Aunt and asked her who was getting married, Aunt stammered a bit and
said it was Khalid, her younger brother and also our cousin! Let me
remind you that our late fathers are direct blood brothers. Mom was
shocked,
"So I'm suppose to find out about this in the market? In fact
through a friend of yours? So the Adagiri family chose to not tell me
before hand about this? Not even after the sons I gave you people? Wow!
That's fantastic!"