Law Of The Sun

Chapter Two : A Silent Wish

She looked intently at me, curious at first but after a while, a huge smile appeared on her face and she spoke.

"Did you pour a whole bottle of powder on your body? One could have mistaken you as a ghost in one of those old movies"

She smiled again before plunging two big loaves of bread into my small hands. I hadn't noticed that she was holding them as my eyes were fixed on her face. "What is your name?" she asked bending so that we were at the same level.

My lips moved to give a reply, till I remembered that I hadn't greeted her. Mother would be disappointed if she found out that I was reminded to greet an elder, she had taught me better. The words flew out of my mouth before I could properly arrange them.

"Good morning, o iwu". I had meant to say good morning, it's iwu but it sounded like I had questioned her If good morning was a law. As my name iwu meant law. She was astonished with my reply, i had noticed with the way her eyes widened.

I spoke again, but this time I made sure to place my words well. "Iwu? Iwu" she repeated, probably because she didn't understand my father's choice of names. I had been told in school that my name was unique but the faces they made told me otherwise. I had resorted to using my baptismal name Elizabeth which only served me in school.

"Iwu, help me take those loaves of bread into the house" she finally said. I obeyed her instruction and headed toward the house. Dera and Ebube were awake by the time I got in, but grandma and aunt Oluchi were busy praying at the corridor.

I told Dera and Ebube of our visitor and how feminine she was. We were wrong with our assumptions of her probably behaving like a male. This raised another question in my mind,

"what manly course did she study, that didn't change her?" When grandma and aunt Oluchi finished praying, they barely acknowledged our presence before strutting off with a bottle of olive oil and the Bible. I carefully placed the loaves of bread on the table in the living room, while I waited for the aunt to come into the house.

Ebube called out to me from the bathroom and when I got there, I realized that I needed to wash my body as well. Father and mother returned an hour later with newly harvested yams. That was when it occurred to me that they had gone to harvest the yams just for my aunt. It was some sort of tradition to give visitors the first harvested new yam, before the rest of the family began eating the rest of the yam. The aunt had bought so many things for the family, there were cartons of milk, pasta, noodles and processed tomatoes. She also bought gallons of oil, bags of rice, beans and other edible food items that were stocked in the verandah.

Ebube and I sat in the living room and watched from the window how they interacted with each other. Mother had embraced our new aunt, so did grandma, aunt Oluchi and some of our other relatives. There was clearly tension between her and father because he only nodded to acknowledge her presence and wished her welcome. She introduced the man who had been standing by her side as her fiancé, Frank, and the women began to make joyful noise.

We watched keenly as she spoke to some of them and we became intrigued with her person.

" Sister, sister, do you know her name? “Ebube  enquired ” I shook my head vigorously in response with my eyes fixed on the adults. The introductions had started and my uncles were introducing her to their children and soon we were also called out to do the same. It was then that father said,

“Children meet your aunt, my immediate younger sister Apunanwu" 

She smiled at us and shook us with her very soft hands. Father gestured to us as he mentioned our names one after the other. When he got to my name she beamed a huge smile at me, while I replied with the same. Dera and Ebube walked back into the room while strutted slowly behind them. I halted when I heard aunt Apụ mention my name.