#Surpriseawaits 1

At the dinning table,Mom's piercing gaze swiveled back and forth between Hamz and I,eagerly waiting for a response...my rather moist eyelashes blinked rapidly which drew her angry gaze towards me...slowly letting out a long exhale,I sputtered with a rather croacky voice from palpable fear of how she might react,

 "Hamz ...didn't have a ....virus,it was just a case of benign tumours sparingly spread across the center of his scalp..."


 I started,using a few medical registers for my opening case to make it seem a bit serious but unrelated to anything virus-y,lol,I continued after seeing her angry face calm down just a little but enough to give me the confidence to flow steadily,

".. and upon taking a closer look,I discovered it to be warts but to be very sure it was indeed warts,I googled up what it means,including images of warts and Hamz felt terrified because of the way it was medically described,so we decided not to bother you as you might be alarmed as
well and thought to go together to your office clinic to get it treated since I know your office I.d number and thankfully,it was a mild form of warts...a common one and he was given  a freezing gel for it ma" ,

 I said calmly,feeling proud of myself judging from Mom's countenance which slowly relaxed with a wry smile at the corner of her lips which I translate to mean "am proud you could take care of your sibling in my absence", her brow suddenly furrowed into a quizzical look,asking me what a freezing gel was and what it does to warts,I promptly turned to face Hamz,asking him to take off his headwarmer and show Mom how the gel is applied and what it does to the warts,she sighed with relief,asking us to make sure we fix our faulty clippers or get a new one,

"I don't want you guys running the risk of contracting some infection from public clippers....besides I don't know why you won't insist on getting the clippers well sterilized at the barbers but you
can scream thunder at home to your brothers when you want your demands met"

Mom critiqued facing Hamz who tried to protest but kept shut when Mom's eyes went all saucers at him,she continued,

" Don't protest...apparently the warts found its way to infect you by sipping through a broken scalp on your head,so am guessing the clipper wasn't properly sterilized"

 Hamz sighed with resignation as Karl stood up to meet Hamz to take a proper look at his warts.

 So lately,Mom and I have been taking our health even more seriously especially since her invasive surgery as read in WARD 309 by incorporating into our lives,the habit of taking on a daily bases,detox drinks which is essentially lemon water,sometimes mixed with mint leaves and diced cucumber,teatox beverage which is a blending words of tea and detox and also taking infused waters,this simply means slicing up fruits,vegetables and cutting up herbs and immersing in cold water. The effects,I must confess is
neither here nor there or perhaps,we are still going through the cleansing process,all I know is,we started farting a lot which made observing our daily prayers quite difficult (muslims must perform another ablution when they break air until the third time) and also sweat a lot which...well,is a form of body detoxification,initially making Mom fret she's having a hot flash.

 It must be around past two a.m in the middle of the night,I stirred sleeplessly on the bed,feeling the snugly  hug of my pajamas which had gone quite damp with night sweat,I sat up on the bed,took off my pajamas top and went back to sleep,"my body is probably doing a spring cleaning of my insides" I thought,regarding the sweat. By morning,I was looking rather drained of colour and when I googled up my symptoms,I saw from the results that I was simply going through the cleansing process,like it-gets-worse-before-it-gets-better kind of situation. I managed to prepare breakfast of bread
and tea for Karl and I and corn pap with akara (bean cake) with smoked salmon for Mom,Hamz and QT as Karl and I don't take pap,then with diced mixed fruits for us all,while at it,Mom suddenly dropped her spoon,sighed and clearing her throat to draw our attention,she asked us all what we wanted to do with our lives,

 "You guys are through with school except Hamz and I understand that there are no jobs but it's been a while we had a family talk...you know...a heart to heart with my boys,so I want to know what your plans are,your dreams,talk to me boys"

We all slowly sighed,sharing awkward smiles,not knowing what to say or how to start or who to speak first,Mom turned to face me with a smile,an encouraging smile for me to speak up,so I talked about my love of writing,my dream job,amongst other things (story for another day) after which,Mom sighed,quite impressed and all,Karl,Hamz and QT also spoke up about their dreams and desires,Mom nodded and went up
to her room to relax as it was a saturday.    The next day which was a sunday,Mom told me she had texted our details to an acquaintance of hers at NDE (National Directorate of Employment),my eyelids fluttered inquiringly,she further went on to enlighten me on the work the NDE is constitutionally saddled with which is to get unemployed graduates work placements based on their discipline,I nodded quite enthralled,so,she had texted our details to her acquaintance to help register us so when any organisation or company needs any of our disciplines in their fold,NDE would contact us,I thanked her for her help and went about my normal daily routines,the week went by very fast and by the next week,on a working day,while typing a draft on my laptop for kuwda , Mom's call came in and from the tone of her voice,it had to be something urgent, "Son! Where are you right now,are you home?" She enthused,I said yes,she made an excited sound and asked me to quickly
gather my credentials and take to it to meet her acquaintance at NDE office in central area of abuja,

"you've been offered a job sweetheart!"

she squealed happily,my heart skipped a few beats,totally surprised at the news,

 "em...wow!, where?! "

 I asked as I immediately reckoned my reaction sort of downplayed Mom's excited earlier reaction,feeling a tone of disappointment in her voice for a nanosecond while responding,perhaps because of the way I'd answered her,her tone quickly raced up to an excited pitch when she relayed to me where I was offered a job,though not fully disclosing the place,totally leaving me eager and dying of suspense

 "it's a federal parastatal love...under the presidency"

 My jaws fell to the ground,

 "But where exactly?"

 Mom wouldn't say until she got back home from work and hung up

 "Urggggh! OH NO" 

 I almost died of suspense so am dishing same out!  Wanna know where?

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