Two young boys made their waydown the winding road from the onitsha expressway to Abagana.This road was more akin to a bush trail, or a path whose very existence

Chapter !:

 The pride of my fathers table.

Two young boys made theri way down the winding road from the Onitsha expressway to Abagana.  This road was more akin to a bush trail, or a path whose very existence

was constantly threatened by the approachment of luxurious branches from the surrounding iroko trees and thick elephant grass.  Thousands of these little paths must have existed throughout the region, having been the main routes of communication between villages for as long as all could remember. These thouroughfares had no signs; to the uninitiated, or to the stranger, these paths spelt peril, or, danger enter at your own risk.  But to the inhabitants of the region, these were friendly paths that led to loving arms and friendly hearths filled with jovial hospitality.

            Food was never far from the imaginations of the two travelling teenagers.  Not unlike teen agers everywhere a considerable amount of their daily routine revolved around efforts of acquiring and consuming healthy quantities of the same.  They liked to eat, and this they did as often as they could..  Being boarders at the teacher training college of St Andrews in Onitsha did not exactly aid in tempering their appetites; as boarding houses would go it was not a bad place, however the diet tended towards monotony.  Egusi soup alternated with okra soup every other day.

            Obi had assured Anene that at his fathers table there would be no sparing of provisions for their entertainment, and that his mother was an astoundingly good cook.

'

Mr Okeke had been enjoying the evening breeze on his balcony.  The balcony straddled the entire front of the little bungalow.

  He saw them approaching first as they had been engrossed in their con versation and had not seen him seated in his favorite chair, which was a little removed from the front of the balcony and  was such a low arm chair that he tended to sink and vanish deep in the cushions.  Bracing himself on his wooden cane which he held in his right hand he jumped up and trotted down the stairs waving his arms all the while to draw attention to himself from his son.  His left hand held onto his wrapper which sat precariously on his hips and was in danger of falling down at any movement.

"Obi, Obi"  he yelled as he rushed forward .  His son on noticing his approach could not help but break into an affectionate laugh.

 "Papa " he shouted back,

"You are so tall now, even taller than I", he said laughing all the while and after greeting him with a hug he stood  back so as to admire him from a little distance which favoured his aging eyesight..

"At home, I am the tallest".  Obi explained to his friend. And continued turning back to his father " But see Papa, my friend is taller than I".

His friend nodded in acquiesence still not saying anything.

Yes, i know"   " I think the next generation is getting taller and taller still.  You are welcome " he said turning his attention to the friend.

He proceeded to lead them up the verandah and motioned for them to be seated on two wooden stools that flanked the cushioned chair he had been previously been sitting on which he now reclaimed.  Introductions were duly made and likewise inquiries of their school work.

 when attempts were made to summon Vincent from the kitchen.

After calling out for Vincent to no avail obi got up from his seat and walked  through the unoccupied livingroom  and into the kitchen without encountering anybody.  The kitchen back door stood ajar but on peeking out there was still no one in sight. On the right hand corner stood a little kitchen table with cups on a tray left to dry, and underneath the table stood the calabash with the drinking water in its usual spot. He used the little dish beside it to transfer water into a plastic jug and returned with two cups for himself and his friend.

" Did you not find Vincent, to bring this in for you?"

"I looked for him everywhere and I have no idea where hes gone to, but what happened to mother and all the girls?"

" Oh dear!" he replied  " Did I not tell you already they left early this morning for Enugu bein convinced that your college was on vacation from next week".

On hearing this his face could not help but betray disappoinment which was similarlt reflected in the hesitancy of his voice.

:"Did they not know that i was coming?"

" You know this was not my idea, and infact I was quite unhappy about the timing, I sometimes get the feeling that they go on vacation when I am home to avoid me."

The two young men burst into a smile at this but dared not laugh loud.

He continued his tirade unprovoked " And infact, I discussed this with her on multiple occasions.  She reassured me that she would be back within the next few days although I have hesard nothing from her since she left.."

At this he shrugged his shoulders, they had been married so long that a day more or less away from each other mattered little.  Not that they were not in  love with each other as far as love goes, no they still enjoyed each others company in the evenings.  Ne vertheless a few evenings without the bickerings of his teen age daughters were a welcome relief and could b e a novelty as long as it did not last too long. 

He con tinued:

" They have left me with this small boy vincent who can neither cook nor clean nor do laundry.  The other day I found myself cooking soup in the kitchen, after he had served me some inedible food.  so we have now come to a mutual agreement that we shall survive on sipler fare as roasted yam and palmoil, garri and sugar.."

The two laughed again , the fare here sounded worse than at the boarding house.

Chapter 2:Mrs Okeke in Enugu.

When Mrs Okeke had arrived in Enugu accompanied by her three teen age daughters who were on vacation from school. She had not cherished very high expectations for the holiday.  Certainly it was a welcome relief for her to get out of Abagana, even if only for a few days.  To say the least, at times she felt stifled by village life in general; and by her husband in particular.  Sometimes she felt stifled by everything.  Admittedly, Abagana was a small town and there was not much to do there, (as such she could hardly be blamed for possessing such a state of mind).  Of course that was not including the housekeeping duties, of which she felt there was only too much of.  Moreover there was never enough water and no electricity at all.

  Not much thought had been given to how Mr Okeke was to survive during her absence in the city With only the boy Vincent to cater to him.  At the thought of this she could not but help herself from having a little inward chuckle; for she knew quite well that the boy, though well intentioned could neither cook nor clean. Men never truely appreciated you until they lost you she thought.  Considering all these things, her visit to Enugu had taken on the form of a panacea for all their ills.  The drudgery of everyday existence was to be replaced by various forms of amusement and all boredom was to be swiftly driven away by the solace of her sisters companionship.  In the meantime it could only be hoped that her dear husband would benefit from the lesson meant for him, and avail himself of the hardship of his present condition to dispel from his mind all inclinations to taking her for granted.  Ah she sighed deeply to herself, even if that were all that she accomplished it would have been time wellspent. She thought furthermore that the quiet silent lessons were the best teachers.  Then she decided that she was on vacation and she would not allow her mind to wander one more time to things pertaining to abagana or to mr okeke either for that matter, as for now at least she planned to enjoy her stay to the utmost.  further thoughts of dreary chores and sullen people in sordid places could be of little benefit.her father had always admonished her to do what you do well, and so when she was at home she excelled in housekeeping and cooking and when she was on vacation, voila, she faced that too.

Ngozi was well situated intown.  her husband Joseph was not a very well educated man, but he had finished secondary school lower six with his credentials in order.  Not being bookishly inclined his father who was a trader in the timber buisness in Jos had set him up with the basic finances he had needed to start buisness.  Over the next fifteen years he had dabbled ina whole host of different things.  not because he was fickle, but by necessity, it seemed that every time Joseph found a business and if initiall floundered then just as it began to grow the government seemed to get wind of it and duluy outlaw the buisness, at least that was how he perceived it to be.  So much so that his wife Ngozi had joked, that she always knew which buisness would be banned next by the all powerful and ever controlling government,by the new buisness that her Joseph had assumed.  despite these regular setbacks, joseph had a feel for buisness in a way he had not for book learning, and the family lived well in A large house right off Zik avenue in Enugu.  The house was a three story and imposing structure built ina square with a central courtyard where in the evenings the family and tenants could socialise in the relative peace and tranquility that such an arrangement could readily afford.

Ngozi was overjoyed at seeing her sister and her daughters alight from the taxi from the motorpark, and she had run to welcome the little trrop withtheir bags and yams and udalas straight from the tree.

In the evening the two girls were gossiping with their cousins upstairs and the two sisters were alone in Ngozi's bedroom.  Joseph was as usual out of town on a buisness trip trying to clear some goods from customs in Lagos and did not really have any definite day of return outlined as he would come back as soon as possible.  but there was no predicting how long it would take to " clear " the goods.  Ngozi was used to this, and did not seem to be in a bad mood on that account at all as she fingered a George material in her hand which was of adeep purple hue;

" Ah, sista, I kept this material for you becaues I thought you might like it and I have one already exactly like it>"

Mrs Okeke examined the cloth closely and rubbed it between her fingers to assert that the material was silk, which it was.

" Thank you my dearest, but surely you must know that since I am so dark in complexion this purple will make me look even darkere still?

" Sista, you are not dark."

" You forget my dear because you are the fair one andtook after Papa while I am the dark one who took after Mama and evryone elsew is right in between>"

" Well your georgina is as fair as me and you can take the material for her"

" A young girl does not need george, how exorbitant"

" well, keep it in the bottom of your box until she is married one day and then you can bring it out for her to use."

Of all her sisters Ngozi was the beautiful one, and she was also coincidentally the fairest of them all, and had married the " best" at least in trems of money.  Mrs okeke was on the other extreme, she was the eldest and the darkest, and because of her dark hue had had difficulty in finding an eastern man who would commit to her, inspite of her achievements education wise.  that was until she met her future husband, Mr Okeke at a national teachers conference.  he was a handsome viceprincipal in Abagana at the time, and he had quite charmed her off her feet, inspite of his obvious poverty.  And to top this all off, he had his head squarely placed on his shouders, he was a religious amn, who took duty to state and family seriously and he treated his wife with kindness ever mindful of the fact that she had settled for him, being in aposiiton to have married much better, shoulkd fate has so arranged it for her.

Whenever she remembered thelong and lonely weeks of Ngozi, she would not for all the money in the world have traded places with her.  Sure, at the Okeke's house could not be found many luxuries, but what was lacked of monetary value was more than compensated for by a loving and closely knit household.  Still the family could laugh together, and in the quiet evenings they would sit beside each other on the sofa and read their respective books.  They still attended mass together on Sundays and sitting side by side they were forced to shake each others hands during the peace offering, in the event that they may have quarelled they always made up on sundays after mass.  SDhe may have tried to console herself that perhaps her sisters marriage was not as solid, but this was more how she fekt that justice shoukd berather than reality,  It seemed wrong for God to have given Ngozi everything and as such her sisters had ci=onvibced thenselves that Ngozi though the richest was also the unhappiest, although they always carefully pointed out that she tool great pains to hide her sorrow.  this was a pure fabrication of the sisters, for infact, when Joseph and Ngozi were together, it was obvious that a deep love and affection for each otherb was combined with mutual respect.  The sisters must have mistaken the circumstance of joseph's work with a desire to avoid his wife.  as he spent more aqnd morre time in Lagos attending ti his business there had been b anter back and forth of thye advisability of relocating the family to lagos. TRhen the girls had entered secondary schools and the boys were doing so well in their own school . that it was decided to stay on at least for the time being in the house in enugu.