Behind The Gate of Lakeview

~Two~

                               ~Uthman~

Dinner had always been a hurdle in the house. Not like we always eat together because dad was hardly ever home but the few times he was home, he'd make us eat together. I still don't understand why he'd that because eating together does not do anything to help our family. In fact, contrary to the popular opinion of family bonding well over meals, ours only seemed to highlight how torn apart our family was.

Aunty Bola was always on edge anytime dad was planning on eating with us and today was no exception, she had been on edge since he got back. She was trying to put dinner in place and even from my room, I could taste the apprehension in the air. I did not step out of my room until dinner was served. Now, we were all seated around the table pretending to be normal when there was absolutely nothing normal with the setting. Heck! There was no one normal in my family except my baby sister, Moji of course.

'You should reduce the amount of salt you add to food. I keep saying it. It's not healthy.'

That was the first thing dad said since we started eating and it worsened the already worst apprehension in the air.

'I'm sorry.'

She replied curtly and went back to eating. We continued the game of silence and I was only swallowing, not tasting the food I was eating. I wanted to retreat to the corners of my room. To lie on the familiar sheets. I wanted to be anywhere but here. I glanced at my younger sister. She was chewing silently and noiselessly. It was so easy to forget she was here. She can ghost indeed. Ghost was a term we learned from After Earth and we twisted our ghosting to mean 'when we are in the same room with dad and we act so invisible that he forgets we are there.'

I stood up. I was done with my meal. It was one of my favorite food and I'd have enjoyed eating it on a normal day but with dad's overbearing presence, I did not even know how the food tasted like. I only ate as fast as I could so I'd leave the dining room faster than usual.

'Thank you, sir, Thank you ma.'

I said and gathered my plates.

'Meet me in my study in 5 minutes.'

That was dad and my heart sank at the idea of spending a minute more with him. A distant memory suddenly came to my mind, a small boy and his dad playing football. I closed my eyes.

Not today, please.

Five minutes after, I was standing in front of dad. He was sitting on his chair, glasses on and flipping through a file. We stayed like that for a minute or so with the air thickening with awkwardness each passing minute.

'I called your principal today and I told him to have you evicted from the school's football team.'

I stared at him for a minute, the words not registering in my brain. Evicted and football teams can not exist in the same sentence for me.

'Sir?'

'You heard me.'

'But I can't... You can't force me to leave the team.'

"You have no option here, I've tolerated that mindless obsession of yours for five years, now it's high time you grew up. You have big exams in front of you."

That's it. I knew it. Dad was going to take one of the two things that matters to me away from me because of what he wanted me to become. I've signed my whole life for that.

'No dad. I'll do the two together. It's not like I have bad grades because of football. I'll try harder if that's what you want.'

'No son, this is neither a debate nor an argument. I've said my piece and that's the final.'