The Girl with Fire in Her Hands and The Boy with Flowers in His Hair

Chapter 3

Ẹni tí ò mọ bí ẹgbẹ́ rẹ̀ ṣe là, á sá àsákú.

Whoever unduly bothers about his peers' successes, will hustle himself to death.

"So, Momo, how was school today?" My mother asked to fill the silence that had enveloped the car in a cold shadow. I didn't really want to talk about anything that happened in school, not about the principal or Miss Agnes or the small cut that I had gotten from an afterschool football injury (that last one would set her off for days).

But I guess there was one thing I could tell her....

"Well, we had a new teacher today, a man," I chipped in. "He was strange but funny in a cool way but I don't know, his eyes..." I trailed off, trying to find the best words to describe them with. It was odd that even me, who was normally so good with words, suddenly couldn't find my old friends to help me.

My mother's hands tightened on the steering wheel, her voice raising just a bit. "Oh," was all she said before she was quiet for a while.

"What did he say his name was?" She asked, her voice tight.

"Mr Anisan but he said we should call him 'Ani'," I replied, wondering briefly why she was acting so strange but she didn't budge or say anything more after I answered. She just nodded her head and continued driving, humming along to Fela's Opposite People playing in the car as she drove.

What was meant to be a short drive was stretched impossibly by traffic I was sure was caused by something small and not worth all the stress. I hated staying still or waiting, my nerves always threatened to jump out of my skin. I had to move a part of my body or it felt like I would go insane and so I just drummed my right fingers against the window, at least allowing a part of my body move as fast I wanted it to.

It was while we were in traffic that my mother suddenly froze, her eyes widening. "Dammit!" She shouted, hitting the steering wheel and accidentally honking her horn.

"I forgot to pack the cake from the bakery." She said, facepalming herself and then proceeding to make a U-turn, ignoring the angry horns she was getting.

"Cake?" I asked, my eyebrows raised, practically leaping off the front seat. "Oh my God, is it Nani's birthday?"

"Oh, no, of course not," she said, shaking her head, manoeuvring the car with expert precision and speed. "That's all the way in July. It's, uh..." She was saying and then she looked at me, blushing.

I slipped back into the seat. "Oh, its your anniversary!" I exclaimed, hitting my forehead with my palm.

"Ugh, how did I forget?" I said, feeling a little bad. These were the two most important people in the world to me and I didn't even remember their anniversary.

"You seem to have a lot on your mind nowadays, sweetie." She stretched her arm to the side, giving me an awkward hug as she drove with one hand.

"You know you can always talk to me about anything, right?"

"Yes, mummy, I know." I answered but I knew that there were things I couldn't tell her, things I never even told myself.

But that was my mother, kind without a fault. She would give anything to make me happy, anything.

It took us about forty-five minutes to get to Ikoyi and the trip while a nice one gave me way too much time to think, my mind was a jumbled mess. I had another one of those headaches again and I gritted my teeth in pain as I cradled it softly in my right hand without my mother noticing.