“I am sick and tired of this house,” Inemesit confessed. “I am going to move out.”
Nelly knocked hard on the study door of Mr. Smart. Without waiting for an answer, she barged in, and Mr. Smart swung around on his swivel chair.
“Have you heard your son?” Nelly barked.
“Shush!” Mr. Smart whispered, pressing a finger to his lips. “Can you give me an hour or two, please? I am right in the middle of an important webinar.”
She stormed out, murmuring to herself, “That is always the case. Every time I want to speak to him, it’s always one thing or the other in the way, and that’s how issues get unresolved. Before you know it, we are in the middle of a crisis.”
“Inemesit,” Nelly called out.
No answer.
“Inemesit,” she called louder.
Still, nothing.
“Inemesit!” she shouted.
“Yes, mum,” Inemesit responded, and strolled lackadaisically into the kitchen.
“Why are you screaming my name?” he questioned his mum.
“Right. So you are so big that you cannot answer when you are being called anymore?” Nelly barked.
Nelly was losing the plot. In southern Nigeria, there was a saying that went: two legs cannot enter the same leg of a trouser.
“It’s either you realise that you are the child in this house or you go to where you can be the boss. I don’t feed men. I feed children,” Nelly stated. “You are only fourteen, and I tell you what to do. Period. Now wash your dishes.”
Sitting on the terrace and enjoying the fresh evening breeze while eating roasted corn and African pear, Nelly raised the issue again with Mr. Smart.
“Smarty, I have told you this before that Inem is threatening to move out of the house. You better talk to him o.”
Mr. Smart didn’t pay any attention to what Nelly said. He rather paid more attention to the corn in the bowl and the African pear. He complimented his wife on her roasting skills.
Mr. Smart talked about the speculation for the year’s harvest. He was hoping for a good harvest for the year. The previous year did not work out too well for him. There was a glitch in the market. This year held better prospects. He was monitoring the situation. Nelly felt Smart wasn’t paying enough attention to the unfolding drama with Inemesit.
Inemesit felt he had come of age. He didn’t like the way his mother talked to him. He didn’t like the way he was being treated in front of the maids. He was the only son of his mother, and she wanted him to grow up to be a responsible and fine gentleman. Inemesit felt overwhelmed. The pressure was too much on him. He wanted to get out of the house. He had ideas like most young folks did. He thought that going off to his mate’s place would be the panacea to taking daily reprimands from his mum and an occasional reprimand from his dad. He knew his dad was a busy man and that he was more concerned about recovering from the previous year’s glitch than being bothered with tiny details of him threatening to leave home. As long as he did well at school, did not get into trouble, did not do drugs or alcohol, did not receive bad reports from the neighbours, did not get a girl pregnant, and did not enter the bad books of those who mattered, his dad was okay with that. Most importantly, his dad wanted to keep him close by too, because he had caught his dad in the pub once or twice with Delilah.
Nelly was shocked to see the packed-up suitcase in Inemesit’s room. This time she did not wait for Mr. Smart to get home from work. She dashed straight to the farm.
“You have been paying deaf ears to my alarms, now the worst has happened,” Nelly cried. Her voice was drowned by the sound of the tractor.
Mr. Smart turned off the tractor’s engine and jumped down. He held her by the shoulders.
“What’s wrong, my dear?” he queried, wearing a puzzled look on his face.
Nelly hardly came to the farm alone. Whenever she came, it was always with Mr. Smart.
“You have been paying deaf ears to my alarm bells. I have been telling you about Inemesit, and now we are about to lose him,” Nelly sobbed.
“No, we’re not losing him,” Mr. Smart reaffirmed.
“There you go again with your attitude. Do you know that he has packed his suitcase and is about to leave home?” Nelly announced.
“Oh, that? Nelly darling, you worry too much. Inemesit has nowhere to go. We feed him, clothe him, give him pocket money, and do everything for him. If he goes to his friend’s place with a suitcase, the father of his friend would get in touch with me. He just has nowhere to go. Wherever he goes, he will have to come back to the comfort of his home, free food, and free accommodation. So, relax.”
“That’s why I love you. Life is so much easier with you darling,” Nelly concluded.