I Should Have Spoken Up (Part 1)

Bose learned to be responsible at a very tender age…her parents died when she was just 13 years old. It was the gloomiest day of her life…her parents had dropped her and her siblings at school; they had traveled to Lagos to be back later in the day. As school closed that day, Bose took her siblings home (they lived pretty close to the school) and served them lunch as her mum had made lunch and put it in some kind of thermos.  They did their homework and waited for their parents to return. This was not the first time their parents would travel to Lagos and leave them at home…they normally returned around 6pm. They waited and waited until it got dark and they were hungry. Bose had to be the makeshift cook for the evening. She got her siblings something to eat but she was kind of worried because her parents had never been this late before. Her younger sister, Bola was 11 and Paul the last child was 9 at that time…somehow they all slept off on the couches while waiting.

There was a persistent knocker on the door and Bose got up, it was around 11pm…she asked who it was and it was their Aunt Mary and her husband Uncle BJ.  As young as Bose was, she could tell something was off…she knew something had happened. Long story short, their parents had been involved in a ghastly motor accident on their way to Lagos earlier in the day. There was not a single survivor and that was the beginning of another life…totally different from what Bose and her siblings were used to. Their dad was an only child and Aunt Mary was the only sister their mom had. The whole family decided that they moved in with their aunt in Lagos. Everyone promised to be there to support and help out…but Bose soon found out they were empty promises as none of them was forthcoming when they truly needed help.

Aunty Mary was god sent as she took care of them along with her own 2 kids…she would remind Bose and her siblings of how their late mom took care of her and paid for her education from the little money she was making as a hairdresser. Aunty Mary had a good job with one of the first generation banks and could handle all the expenses. Her husband on the other hand, was not a very resourceful person…he was always claiming to be a ‘contractor’ but was hardly on any project. He was always at home anytime the kids got back from school and just spent most of the day watching TV and discussing politics. However, he was really nice to Bose and her siblings and helped with their homework from time to time.

About three years after Bose and her younger ones moved to Lagos, Aunty Mary had some issues at work…an audit report had indicted her and she ended up losing her job. She claimed she was implicated but the best the bank could do for her was drop the charges so she wouldn’t end up in jail. It was a tough time and taking care of 5 kids, with a husband with little to no income, became a daunting task. Aunty Mary had to sell her almost completed house to start a business as it was almost impossible for her to get a job with another Financial Institution.

After about 4 months, the new business took off. It required Aunty Mary traveling out of the country to buy her merchandise and supplying it to retailers. Her first trip was a success and things were beginning to look up again. They had moved to a smaller apartment to reduce the cost of rent…at the former house, Bose had her own room. Her aunt said she was becoming a young lady and needed her privacy. The room had its own bathroom as well but in the new house, she had to share a room with her younger sister and her cousin (Aunty Mary’s first daughter). There was also only one bathroom in the new house so they all had to share it. It was better than nothing and things were getting better…Aunty Mary had promised that she would get them into a better house as soon as her business stabilized...

© 2015 Lanre Olagbaju All Rights Reserved

                                                                                                  PART 2

Picture Credit (c) thechildrenarewaiting.org

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental