An Incident with Auntie Bella
Amaka yawned and stretched as she got up from the bed. "Umm, how I wish this sleep could just continue," she mumbled to herself, "but wishes are mere thoughts."
She stood on her feet to go greet her parents. "Good morning, Dad. Good morning, Mom," she said as she walked into the room. Her parents were sitting on the bed, kinda immersed in a conversation.
"Good morning, our daughter," her dad responded. "I know you slept well, dear."
"Yes, I did," Ami responded.
"Come sit here, dear. You're the reason why your mom and I are having this serious conversation," her dad said.
"What!" Ami thought. "I pray Dad and Mom didn't believe Aunt Bela's lies."
"Hope all is okay, Dad?" she asked.
"Yes, our daughter," her mom responded. "Just listen to what your dad and I have to say."
Growing up with her parents as an only child wasn't very exciting, because the playful aspect of her life wasn't very complete. Dad and Mom had to go to work very early every day, leaving her to the care of an aunt.
How she fared, how she behaved, life after they left wasn't what her parents knew. All they cared about was money, thinking Ami was safe with her aunt.
When Ami was twelve, Aunt Bela left her in the kitchen alone, instructing her to do the dishes and make noodles for herself, while she went to the sitting room to entertain her male friend.
That day, while she was dicing the onion she needed for the noodles, she got injured by the sharp knife, which made her feel a sharp pain. She screamed from the pain, but her Aunt Bela didn't hear her, due to the volume of the music she was playing.
That day, while her young mind tried figuring out what she could use to ease the pain, her mind quickly flashed to the first aid box and its contents, which she saw when Dad had an injury on his ankle. Where the first aid box was kept was what she didn't know.
She stood up from the ground and walked to her dad's room. She checked around the room, but didn't find the box. As she was about to leave, she remembered there was a cabinet she didn't check, but the height of the cabinet was a challenge to her, because the cabinet was closed, and the height of the handle wasn't accessible to her.
She was still rummaging through her young mind when a thought came to her mind... "What if I climb this chair, then place my leg on the wall, tiptoe a little, and see if my hands can get to the knob?" she soliloquized.
Following her naive mind, she did what her instincts told her. She climbed the chair, placed her leg on the wall, tiptoed a little, and stretched her hands to reach the knob. Unfortunately, she lost her balance and fell.
"Gbum!" She landed on the floor. "Ahhhhhhhhhh, my backkkkkkkkk!" she screamed out in pain.
Aunt Bela quickly ran into the room. "Hey, Ami, what are you doing here? Did you try stealing money from your dad's cabinet? Huh? Just four, and you're already stealing? You're just so unspeakable."
"No, Auntie, I fell," Amaka tried explaining.
"Shut your crap! You fell while trying to steal, isn't it? Who taught you how to steal? Huh!"
"I wasn't stealing, Auntie. I had a cut on my fingers. I was looking for the first aid box. I thought it would be inside Dad's cabinet, so I had to climb to access the knob. When I..."
"Shut your toilet mouth!" Auntie Bela butted in. "Let's wait till your parents come back, so they'll see the child they brought to the world. With this, she hissed out from the room."
Amaka slowly stood up from the ground, arranged the things her leg scattered, and managed to get herself to her room, amidst the pain from her back.