Femi sat down and choked most of the food down while the twins stared bewildered from one parent to the other. The sadness they understood but anger? “Kenny why is she so angry?” “She’s sad, just sad. . .” Kenny trailed off thoughtfully “No, I can feel a lot of anger from her towards dad” Kenny just stared at the opposite wall. Tai sighed deeply and fell back on his bed. They had nothing to do all day, they had finally written JAMB..

“Tai, Kenny!”

“Yes mum” they came the reply from the top of the stairs.

Julia and Femi were just returning from work. They stood at the foot of the stairs until both boys came down to them.

“Welcome mum, dad” it was a chorus.

Both parents were smiling at the kids. JAMB results were out and both kids had done very well. Julia was almost bursting with pride.

“Your results are out” Julia gushed while Femi just stood behind her beaming with pride. The good news was so apparent that both boys didn’t wait to hear the scores before jumping on their mum, planting kisses all over her face while she giggled, yelling at them to stop as she fell on the nearest couch. No matter how grown the boys were, they would never stop being her babies.

Femi just stood there beaming; he loved his family and would give up the entire world for them

“What did you score?” Kenny was trying to peer over his twins shoulder. Tai snatched his brother’s result and looked at it.

“Higher than you as usual” Tai replied as Kenny took both slips from him.

“Only two points o” said Kenny

“This time” came the reply and then he turned to his dad.

“So we can finally get phones now dad?”

“Yes you can, i-phones in fact” he said as he produced two boxes from his brief case.

The twins yelped in unison, it was his turn to be jumped on and smothered with facial kisses. He did some horseplay with the boys and then extricated himself from the tangle. He didn’t want his suit to get rumpled. The boys went on to unbox the phones, but not fast enough.

Julia had refused to let Femi get phones for their sons even after they had finished from high school. The boys had argued that they were old enough. Femi had also argued that other parents were getting for kids younger than theirs.

She was adamant “My kids are not old enough and a couple more years won’t hurt them.” Femi always knew when to back down where his wife was concerned.

“Mum can we run down to Bob’s? we want to show him our phones” said Kenny

“I don’t want to show him mine”  Tai stated

“But you know you do na” Kenny teased

“No I don’t but I won’t mind taking a walk sha”

“You want to show him, admit it”

Tai ignored his twin and Julia said it was okay to go as long as they didn’t come back late. The boys were returning from Bob’s, where they had been assured by him that he was changing his phone to something more “tech” than i-phones.

Tai was the first to spot her. “That’s your girlfriend o” Tai teased, pointing to a figure sitting hunched over on one of the benches just outside the perimeter of the basketball court. Kenny did not look up from his phone. He had hardly  looked away from the contraption since he got it. Tai on the other hand was already bored with it.

They were walking on to the basketball court, taking a short way home. Tai pinched his brother in the side to get his attention.

“It is her” he pointed again.

“Who?” Kenny asked absent mindedly

“The girl who slapped you na”

“How can you be sure? You can’t even see her face”

“Same dress” Tai responded.

They were much closer to the hunched over figure now and she was shaking almost imperceptibly.

“Is she sobbing?” asked Kenny looking concerned.

“I think so” replied Tai in an equally concerned tone.

They walked quietly up to her, she was holding on to a tear stained Jamb slip and sniffing

“Hi” said Tai as he took a seat beside her, while Kenny remained standing, looking undecided. She looked up and tried to wipe the tears from her face. Then without saying a word, and before either of the boys could utter another word, she took off as fast as her legs could carry her. She was a strange girl – Claire. Both boys looked at each other and shrugged simultaneously.

“Weirdo” murmured Tai.

“Weirdo” repeated Kenny in a louder voice. They completed the rest of the walk home in silence.

Stay tuned for Episode 6 next week Friday. Thank you for reading.

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