TWO
It‘s amazing how Jambalaya is still reigning in this 22nd century. I heard it has been for centuries in the United States of course and it still hasn‘t lost its taste in homes. Guess some things cannot change while some can, like accuracy in IQ measurement. Many years back, there‘s no way or equipment to guarantee the accuracy of IQ score but now science has gone wild and more technical and scientists are growing too stubborn they aren‘t ready to give in. They‘ve gone wilder than science itself and are ready to deal with science anywhere it takes them. Maybe if it were back in the days, I wouldn‘t have gotten my own death date.
Brad eats with great satisfaction; everyone at the table seems to be enjoying the Jambalaya. There are other edibles and deserts on the table and fresh colourful flowers sit at the centre of the table. My mom has a way of handling her meals and her Jambalaya with Pepperoni is always never tiring to eat. I especially love it. Aunt Hillary thought her the Jambalaya in one of her trip to the United States which she stopped having because of me but with her extraordinary intellect and love for eating healthy, she created a new dish, Jambalaya with pepperoni – not the pepperoni in the early years. Now it‘s spreading into Nigerian homes, guess there are lot of Aunty Hillarys.
Times like these when we make it at home, we always reserve some to take to Sean in the hostel. He‘s always waiting for it. My dad would wake my mom in the middle of the night and request for it, thank God she always have in reserve and when she does not, she would bribe dad with herself and make it for him in the morning.
'Hmm I still don‘t know how you make this dish,‘ Brad says with his mouth full.
'I can teach you if you want, my American friend thought me but insisted I collect money if I‘m to teach someone else.‘ 'Mom,‘ I giggle.
'What? I‘m not lying.‘
'I know,‘ I snicker and continue eating. I look at Brad as he stuffs himself with the jambalaya, 'Doctor Brad, you are going to be fat Doctor Brad if you don‘t stop eating like that.‘
'I work out.‘
'Enough to burn those calories?‘
'Yea trust me beauty, moreover I want to stop but it seems the jambalayas are objecting to that.‘ Mom chuckles.
'Yea right,‘ I say and continue eating. We all concentrate on our meal.
Minutes later, Brad looks up at us, 'Ted went to London last night?‘
We look up at him from our food.
'Yea, he called when he got there,‘ mom answers. 'I‘m glad he won the contract,‘ he says as he picks his glass of water to drink.
'You know out of all the great competitors, it‘s so surprising he got it,‘ my mom wonders.
'It‘s not a surprise to me,‘ I say.
'Yea me too, I‘ve always known him to be the best at what he does, no one can match him,‘ Brad says, now chewing slowly. It seems he‘s gotten to his maximum satisfaction, now approaching his diminishing returns. 'Thanks Brad,‘ mom smiles gratefully.
Brad looks at me, 'how is school beauty?‘ he is looking at me but I‘m too busy enjoying my Jambalaya with pepperoni. I notice there‘s silence and look up at mom. She is looking at me, then I look at Brad; oh did they say something?
'Huh?‘ I raise my brows at him. 'Did I do something?‘
They look at each other and chuckle.
'I was just asking how you coping in school,‘ he eats on.
'Oh great, very great,‘ I assure him
'Oh, I‘m happy to hear that,‘ he smiles and pauses, 'I want you to forget whatever happened and move on; go to school, forget your worries and pretend it never happened.‘
I look at him as he eats then I look down at my food.
'Can I?‘ I say looking at my food holding my fork to it.
They look up at me and then I look at him.
'I mean, something did happen to me, something is happening to me, can I forget that?‘
'You can try,‘ he says.
We stare at each other.
'Sheila you will be fine, all you need to do is reduce whatever neural stress you do, don‘t work your brain, then you will be fine,‘ he assures.
'I‘m already losing my sight, that does not look fine to me.‘
'That‘s just the effects of the headaches but you are seeing better now— with those,‘ he gestures with his fork at my glasses.
'But the headache is the effect of the— what is happening to me.‘
'Trust me you will be fine.‘
'Will I— be fine?‘
'Yes my beauty,‘ he nods. 'Just don‘t make the same mistakes again. Whenever you notice any strange feeling, let me know immediately,‘ he smiles at me, 'okay?‘
'Okay,‘ I nod and smile back at him.
'Promise?‘
'I promise,‘ I assure him and I continue eating.
My mom and Brad look at each other, Brad smiles at her but she just looks worried. Then Brad nods up for her to continue eating and she does.
Even as I eat, all I could think of is my story, my notepad, with everything rushing into my head now and so clear, I have to be careful and steady not to write rubbish. Now that I have my awesome glasses, I could see and write very well with no fuss. Did I tell you I was struggling to write? Oh yea I was; because I didn‘t have a clear vision so I did a lot of erasing and rewriting, thank God I was using a pencil. I finish my food and sigh.
'Thank you God and thank you mom,‘ I rush up and away.
They look at me and chuckle.
I enter my room and walk majestically to my table feeling awesome to have my new eyes. I sat majestically like I‘m boasting to the notepad. 'Here I come with clear eyes to write in ya,‘ I smile at myself.
And yes I joke; I play a lot but only with myself, Mom, Sean and dad and of course Doctor Brad, who else? No one; uhh… yes Clyde, Clyde Ramson our neighbour‘s son. Clyde is another person I‘m comfortable with. His family has been our neighbour since I can remember which makes him my childhood friend though I‘m sure he knows nothing about my problems. Funny to me is, his father‘s name is Brad, though late and is mother‘s name is my mom‘s second name, Grace. And they have been good neighbours and friends. And also, Clyde tries his best to bring me out of my shell every time he‘s chanced.
*****
I was reading bigger books and still had a lot in the stack to read from the ones my mom and dad read when they were younger and the ones they are still reading. They are book lovers. We all are book lovers, but Sean prefers anything science, he would always go for science books while I went for all. Sean has a high IQ too but not compared to mine. What would take me seconds to solve would take Sean minutes; maybe that‘s why he has no brain issues. My parents always believed they are the cause of whatever brilliancy in us. They were the best students in their classes, so they believe we took after them. Sean took one and I took the both of their brains coupled with whatever brain I was to have; all together in one head, my head, is the cause of my problem, the problem which I don‘t even know the name now.
I usually read in the living room; I would lie on the soft carpet with books around me, reading. Times my mom would look at me and wonder.
'How can she understand what she‘s reading?‘
But my dad would smile and shrug, 'who knows— our daughter is a spirit in a skin,‘ he laughed. 'That is not funny.‘ 'Really? I think it is, and you should laugh. Seriously when funny things are said, the response should be laughter and you should laugh at that 'cos it‘s so funny,‘ my dad teased.
My mom looked at him in bewilderment, 'our daughter is a spirit is funny?‘
'Yes, in a skin,‘ he laughed again.
My mom looked at him and shook her head then she walked away to continue whatever she was doing. 'Seriously Thelma, how can you be so stiff, that is so funny,‘ he concluded.
I looked back from my books and chuckled at him.
'See? She can even hear and understand us… spirit in a skin!‘ my dad laughed harder.
My mom looked at me and my dad and chuckled.
Many times also she would run and carry me in anytime a visitor was around. When asked why, she would reply.
'How can I let a visitor walk in on a three year old girl reading a novel?‘
'So? She‘s our pride,‘ my dad would counter.
'No, I‘m not about to put my daughter in the world, okay?‘
'Clear ma‘am,‘ my dad would surrender.
Despite my intelligence, my parents did not put me in school early, for the fear of the world‘s reaction towards me. My parents tried their best in making me a happy and lively person as most high IQ score persons they knew - though not high as I - were always so lonely and found it hard to mingle even with people around them. They use to be so cropped up in their shell but I was a happy child and lively around my family. I could never remove myself from the attitude though, as I always loved to be alone doing one thing or the other that was not given to me by anyone as an assignment and I found it difficult to make friends. But the difference was people wanted to be my friend as I‘m lovely to be with 'cause I was always ready to share my knowledge and I never looked down on people. Maybe that‘s the gene working or my parent‘s teachings; either ways, my parents taught me well and showered on me much love that I felt so loved and shared love everywhere I went. But I found it difficult crawling out of my shell entirely.
At age five, they decided to put me in school but I went to Elementary straight, no Nursery. That was when life started.
I need my sleep now, my eyes are closing already. I look through what I‘d written today and then I close my notepad, pick it and walk to my closet. I pull some of my cloths up and hide it under, close my closet and walk to my bed and sit. I breathe in then out and stretch my arms. Oh I forgot my robe; I walk back to my closet for my night robe, change into it and back to my bed. I lie in my bed silently, and then I close my eyes quietly and try not to think. I sleep off.
'Sheila, come out, you‘re going to be late for school,‘ mom calls standing at the entrance of the living room.
She‘s all dressed up to take me to school. She will be going to her office after dropping me off.
I walk into the living room in my school uniform with my backpack on my back.
'Oh my God, ain‘t you growing so big— and beautiful too,‘ my mom comments. She‘s always like that; never misses a chance to adore me. She walks to me and adjusts my collar. 'Common mom, you‘re embarrassing me,‘ I blush.
'Grown too,‘ she kisses my forehead, looks at me and smiles then we start to walk out of the house, 'no one will believe you are just 13 Sheila, you are my height already.‘
'I didn‘t ask you to stop growing.‘
She snickers, 'that‘s funny.‘
It seems like a long drive to school, we are both silent and occupied in our thoughts. I look out of my window while she concentrates on her driving as we scoot down the Marke road then to the Bank road to link Route 9 and then straight to the Lange Express. There is another route to my school which I prefer, it‘s shorter though it‘s much turns; but my mom would complain of the turns and prefers to take the straight long roads.
I look at the trees dancing to the tone of the breeze, soon I‘m taken into it and it feels like I‘m flowing above all my worries and before I could come back to my real world, we are turning to the Express to my school which is just few minutes drive to my school.
'I will pick you up in the afternoon. We will visit Sean, and catch some fun,‘ she says smiling at me. 'Okay,‘ I nod and smile back then resume to my window looking.
'Are you sure you are alright to go?‘
I look at my mom and smiles, I was expecting that. She always asked me that every morning after her knowledge of my attack if I‘m sure about going to school that day. At first I thought she was being over protective but after knowing the truth about me, I‘ve come to understand all her worries and I try as much to make her see I‘m fine.
'Sure mom, I‘m good,‘ I nod happily.
'That‘s my girl, just if you feel anyhow; we can drive back home right n—‘
'—mom I‘m fine, don‘t worry about me,‘ I assure her.
'Okay.‘
We drive into Greenland and she stopped at the drive way.
'Alright baby, take care of yourself, I will pick you up after school.‘
I lean towards her and give her a peck on the cheek.
'Love you mom and have a nice day at work,‘ I smile at her and she smiles back and nods.
I open the door and get down from the car but I can sense her eyes all over me as I walk my way into the building then I hear her drive away.
It was fun with mom and Sean today. I had a great day with them. I reflect everything with smiles as I put my bag on the bed. I pick my notepad from my closet and set to write. I have to be fast about it now that the attack has worsened in the past one month; it has even affected my vision, who knows what next is going to happen.