“It shall be well with you my son” Mama said blessing her son
“Mama, I am only doing this because of you oo, not that I love her”
“Chijioke my son, with time you will come to appreciate making this decision. Now she is already pregnant, we need to be very fast before her pregnancy becomes noticeable. We need to see her people for introduction, then collect list for the traditional marriage requirements. I want everything to be done under two weeks.”
“Mama, you did not even ask if I have that kind of money now”
“It’s not stipulated you must do everything at once. The main step is for us to declare your intention to the family, pay the dowry, the rest can be done in the upper months.”
“OK mama, if you say” Austin said
Mama said “yes”, jubilating that her second son will be getting married. And that soon, she will carry her grandchild on her arms.
Seeing how joy and happiness were radiating on his mother’s face, Austin was glad, at least for the sake of his mother, he accepted the marriage.
Later they called Anna out, and broke the goodnews to her. But before then, she had already had the knowledge because she and Obioma had been eavesdropping. They went into wild jubilation that Austin had accepted her into the family.
She knelt down thanking them, promising to be a good wife, daughter, sister to the family.
“It’s OK my daughter, sit down, we called you to know about your family, your village, and to tell you the time we will be coming to see your people”
Anna said “Ok Mama” and sat down, rejoicing loudly in her heart.
“Oh my God, I can’t believe this is happening, so finally, I’m getting married to my Cyko….wow”
When she remembered her sister, fear gripped her.
“How am I going to handle this? Onyinye does not need to find out until the wedding is over?” As she was still contemplating on what to do, Mama called.
“Ebby, seems you are lost in your world of happiness”
“Mama, I am the most happiest woman in the world right now” Anna said
Mama was happy when she noticed the deep love she had for her son.
So after everything, Anna had to return home to inform her people about her suitor who will be coming with his family for introduction.
But her problem was Onyinye, she doesn’t need to find out.
“How do I handle this now? Definitely, she will love to be at home the day they will come, what am I going to do?” Anna asked herself contemplating on the best way to handle the situation.
Suddenly, an idea popped up. So she went to the school, headed straight to the noticeboard to check the days Onyi have exams.
Luckily for her, Onyi had two exams on Friday, the day they picked for the introduction.
“Yes! yes!! yes!!! She screamed in joy and said:”everything seems to be working in my favour, this explains it all, Cyko and I are match made in heaven, if not, God wouldn’t be favouring me like this, God I thank you oo” she said bringing her phone to call Onyi.
“Onyi where are you?”
“I am at home” Onyi answered.
“Alright, I will be coming home in the evening”
Later in the evening, Anna returned home, met her siblings and handed them the things she bought for them.
Anna was the eldest child of her parents, Onyi was the second, and their third daughter was Nonye, the most stubborn of them all. And she had two younger brothers.
When she broke the news to Onyinye, she couldn’t contain her joy. The news brought wider jubilation among the siblings. They started planning already on the colours for the Aso-ebis, colour of the day, and who will be the chief bridesmaid and all that.
She laughed listening to her siblings, but having a little fear in her heart of what will be Onyi’s reaction when she finds out, would she continue loving her like she used to?
Onyi and Anna grew up to be like friends. People mistook them as best friends due to the kind of relationship they share. Only few knew they were sisters. Their type of relationship emanated when they were in boarding school. They share everything to each other without hiding anything.
Later in the night, she informed her parents the reason she returned home.
Her father kept quiet for a while and asked:
“Ebere, this man you said that will be coming to marry you, where is he from?
What does he do? And where does he live?
As Anna was answering the questions her father asked her, her mother who was suspecting some changes in her was observing her body.
After their discussion that night, her mother brought her inside her room and sat her down.
“Eberechukwu, tell me the truth, are you pregnant”
“Noo Mama, I am not.” Anna denied.
“Shut up! I am your mother and with my years of experience, I can detect pregnancy, even as early as 3 weeks. Tell me the truth now” Mama ordered
She kept quiet for a while, and told her mother the truth.
“Mummy, it was a mistake oo, the devil’s handwork. I have been a very good girl oo, I don’t know how the devil dragged me into this” Anna said hiding her face in shame from her mother.
The mother was down in disappointment.
“Eberechukwu, you are the child who opened my womb, I never failed in my duties into bringing you to the ways of Christ and now you want to bring shame to this family so that I will become a laughing stock among my church people and the whole street.” Her mother said sitting down in bewilderment.
“Mummy, I am sorry, its the devil’s work……..”
“Come on shut up your mouth” Mummy snapped in anger.
“Pray that man marries you or else, this house will not contain you and I. Come on, get out from here, useless child.
Anna rose up and left. And decided to inform Onyi since her mother is already aware. When she told her, she was surprised.
“How did it happen? You never told me you had a thing with him that day.”
“I am sorry about that, just that I never had the month to tell you because you will scold me for it”
“Scold you, how? Since when did you start hiding things from me? This is so unlike of you oo”
“I am sorry, it will never happen again”
Onyi said OK and blurted:”But to tell you the truth, you fucked up oo, somebody you just met, you dont even know if he is a HIV/AIDS patient, go and get yourself tested oo ” Onyi asked laughing..
“Now you see why I never told you, because I know I fucked up big time”
The two sisters laughed out and later slept off.
On the day of the introduction, Onyi was in school writing her exams. She felt so bad that she was not around, but it was not the big day, it was just for the introduction.
Anna had pleaded with her younger sister Nonye to give her her phone to snap the event, that her own had fault. Her reason was to prevent any means Onyi will findout that Austin was the man who came to marry her.
“Sister, this my phone is a gift oo, I don’t give it to people anyhow, you might press something into it. Don’t worry, I am here, I will do the snapping myself. And besides, you shouldn’t be the one taking pictures. I will capture every moment.” Nonye refused.
“Nonye, are you now saying I don’t know how to handle a phone. Have you forgotten i started using phone before you?”
“Sister, you are not even understanding me” Nonye said and walked out from her.
“You stubborn child!” Anna said.
“I will snap the video for Sister Onyinye to watch when she returns, since her exams prevented her from witnessing the event. And she will be happy when I show her the photos plus the video. She will not miss much.” Nonye said in her heart
To be continued…………….What happened next………?
The author of Kukere Sisters is Ngozi Lovelyn O.
Warning: No part of this work should be copied, use, reproduce, redistribute either electronically or manually without prior permission from the author..
Copyright:©2017
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