Chapter Three

When the clock struck eleven o'clock, I heard the doorbell ring. By this time, Ola was upstairs and fast asleep.

I went to the front door and let my mom in.

"Good evening mom. How was your day? Hope work wasn't too stressful?" I said, taking her bags from her.

"Nothing out of the ordinary, son." She replied. "Is Ola asleep?"

"Yeah, she is. She wanted to wait up for you though." I replied.

My mom sighed.

"I wish I could come home earlier but I have to do this until the manager can find more Chefs to cover different shifts instead." She said.

"Don't worry, we understand." I assured her. "Although, if you'd let me, maybe find a job or something it'll help."

"No, Michael, you are still too young to take up such responsibility. Let me be the parent here. You do enough at home and in school already." She said firmly.

This wasn't the first time we would have this conversation. But my mom never agreed to me getting a job.

"Alright, alright. We've had this talk so many times. I really am just going to back down." For now.

"Good, because I'm exhausted."

"Well, we saved you some food. Would you like to eat any tonight?" I asked.

"Hmm… I think I'll just go to bed now. I'll pack it up for tomorrow morning instead. You should go to sleep now too." She said.

“Good night." I said as I gave her a hug and made my way upstairs to my room.

#

Mrs Damari watched her son walked away. She was proud of how strong and brave he was, both her children were. She also knew that if left to his devices, Michael would take up the responsibility for this family. But it was her duty to provide for them now. Samuel, her late husband had done a great job in taking care of them while he was alive. 

She would continue his legacy.

Regardless of how her body had been feeling lately. The sudden palpitations in her chest, the occasional pain she felt below her breastbone and the dizziness that sometimes threatened to overwhelm her.

She knew that she hadn't cared much for her body, but how could she find the time to do so? She brushed the thoughts away. Her children were her priority and that was all that mattered. 

#

The weekend was finally here. I grinned as I came downstairs that morning.

Ola was probably still asleep. She rarely woke up earlier than 10:00 am on weekends, except Sundays and my mom had already gone to work. Our dad used to make sure everyone got up early for church on Sundays.

We still went even after he passed on because it was one of the things that we remembered him by and it gave us some peace to be in a holy place.

A few minutes into my second bowl of Coco Pops, I received a text message from Ayo.

Party @ 6:00pm till who knows when.

I quickly thought about it and replied.

I'm game.

After a couple of minutes, my phone chimed.

Cool. Will pick you up.

I sent him another reply.

Alright man. Later.

  After replying Ayo's text, I made my way over to the sink to wash my used bowl and spoon when I saw Ola coming down the stairs, still in her pajamas.

"Morning bro." She said.

"Morning sis, sleep well?" I asked.

"Like a baby." Ola replied with a smile as she prepared a bowl of Strawberry Pops for herself.

"Good. Oh yeah, I won't be home this evening. Ayo has a gig and I told him I'd be there." I said.

"Oh okay, when will you be home?"

"Well, I'll try to be home before midnight." I said.

"Hmm…maybe I'll go and visit the Johnsons. You should try to be home before mom though."

"Yeah, the Johnsons are cool. Just make sure that Christopher boy doesn't come within ten feet of you." I said in a no-nonsense tone. I had noticed his little infatuation with Ola and wanted to stop it as soon as possible. She laughed.

"I can't exactly ban him from his own house but yeah I'll avoid him. Too bad we don't have relatives for situations like this huh?"

She was right. Both of our parents were the only child in their family, so we didn't exactly have an abundance of uncles, aunts or cousins.

"Yeah," I sighed wistfully. "All those times I could have been rid of you by just dumping you over at a relative's place."

"Hey!" Ola protested. "I'll have you know that I am a bundle of sunshine."

"You think?" I asked with a straight face. "More like a bundle of headaches."

She waved dismissively.

"Anyway, could you please make me breakfast?"

"I thought you just ate." I said, confused.

"Well that wasn't much." She shrugged.

"Ola, we both know that you are perfectly capable of making breakfast by yourself. So, no." I replied.

"Oh? Well fine." Ola began. " I'll simply tell mom when she gets back, that you, my one and only brother left me, your kind and adorable little sister to fend for herself, to starve, to-"

I cut her off.

"Oh hush already. Now what do you want to eat?" I asked, reluctantly.

She grinned widely. It was obvious she knew she had me at 'mom'.

"Not much really, I wouldn't stress you out like that." She said innocently.

"Uh-huh…" I said, unconvinced.

"Well, I'm really in the mood for pancakes, you know. Then I was thinking potato chips and ketchup for later. Oh! oh! And a milkshake sounds great maybe with a-"