What goes around...

*******************************************
The power of Gratitude should never be underestimated
******

"Unu enyefukwanu anyi nwa caku ọ bu eh
You didn't even give us the cake"
Daa mgbeodi stated with disapproval as Onyedikachi urged her forward, his hands on her rusty vehicle with her vegetables secured behind it.

The old partially sane woman had almost taken a hard fall off her rickety bicycle if Onyedikachi hadn't caught the vehicle on time.

Onyedikachi had stepped out from their house to catch a glimpse of the football games going on in the village. It had been a competition hosted by the new king to mark the beginning of his reign after his late father died on top of his young wife.

It was a marvel to him that such an old man, whose bones often creaked to people's hearing would still choose to marry a virile young woman.

Arinze had made countless jokes about the death of the king which even he couldn't help but laugh to.

He said the king was an old car with a failed engine on a new road.

A packet of chocolate danced around in his blue trouser pocket as he sauntered towards Daa mgbeodi's house. The item had been gotten for his little niece who had wanted to go out with him but was reprimanded by her grandmother.

The previous day had been his mother's birthday which was primarily why he had come back from Rivers state where he was working as a Corp member.

He had bought lots of items for his mother including three cakes which she distributed to some friends mostly her Anambra kin residing in the village.

Arinze had surprised his mother with a sizable sum of money and news of shop expansion. Olivia had gotten her mother in law  a new set of kitchen wares and yards of hollandaise materials.

Adannaya, his niece had given her grandmother a piece of biscuit which she had sunk her teeth into, leaving a large hole on before handing over the item to the grinning woman.

They all fell into a fit of laughter when the little girl requested for the biscuit almost immediately after handing it over to her grandmother.

Adannaya was a constant source of Joy to his mother who lavished all her love on the little girl.

Daa Mgbeodi m ga enye ubosi ozo inugo, Daa Mgbeodi I'll give you next time " Onyedikachi tried to pacify the woman

She only hissed loudly and began to murmur. Onyedikachi quickly fished out a five hundred note and handed over to the woman and she blinked in astonishment.

" He na o bu isi Zik? Is this a five hundred naira note? Nnamdi Azikiwe's head?

Onyedikachi nodded quickly and she couldn't hide her displeasure.

"Dee cle kwanu?  Any 1000 naira note?

" I'll give you another time just manage this one for now inu"

She mumbled some more as she made her way into her house after securing the note at the edge of her wrapper.

Onyedikachi kept her bicycle beside her house then promptly stepped away. He had sworn to only give her five hundred notes.

He made his way towards his house, noting the change the village had encountered so far. He could remember vividly one of the places he had walked past which had been turned into a supermarket , as a farm where he and Obanma had broken a cassava plant. His lips curved into a grin as he remembered how much she struggled to rotate the cassava leaf.

It was the same place he handed the ground nut he bought to her but had failed to defend the little girl when the time came.

The guilt gnawed at his conscience once more and he shook them away. It was all in the past, it was not as if the girl and her siblings would return.

Their uncle Osisioma had assured his mother that they wouldn't on one of his strange visits to their house.

Their mother had claimed he had come with the proposition of having her as a mistress since her husband had died.

Arinze had almost pummeled the petite man to the ground that day, after his mother revealed the reason for his visit to them.

A certain bird which bore colorful feathers perched on a tangerine plant beside the road and he was drawn to it.

He stared at the creature for a while, then fished out his phone and took a shot of it. Onyedikachi hadn't realized how much he had missed the village.

He gently placed the phone into his pockets and made a move to leave. A sound halted his steps and he turned to take a closer look at the bird.

Was it a parrot?

It sounded as if the bird had just said

"Nwaanyi a!"

Onyedikachi chuckled as the sound came again from the bird and he squinted his eyes to figure out if the bird had a curved beak.

It was indeed a parrot.

It flapped its wings and flew into the bush and Onyedikachi followed suit. This time he wanted to record the bird while it spoke again. He had seen countless videos of the parrot talking but never in reality.

His eyes roamed the top of the trees in search of the bird and he captured it on one of the rubber trees in the bush.

Both green and dead leaves had formed a carpet on the ground with dead twigs lying around. The sun rays were filtered by canopies donated by certain tree tops.

Onyedikachi could now hear more chirping from different birds and certain cooing sounds from others but his attention on the colorful parrot never wavered.

The parrot flew back to a tree which they had passed earlier and he took a turn himself,adjusting his phone camera. He zoomed in on the bird and waited.

This time the parrot sounded different.

"Bia nwaanyị a!"

Onyedikachi grinned as he captured the scenario on his phone and quickly placed it back into his pocket . The bird flew away and he made no attempt to follow it. It was amusing how he had followed the bird into the bush and made him feel somewhat like a wildlife researcher on the geographic Channel.

A resounding slap landed on his chin which sent him crashing to the ground. Mostly for the fear that ghosts had found him the bush. There had been certain myths about visiting areas alone and how susceptible they were to robbery and ghost attacks.

Onyedikachi quickly rolled off the ground, preparing his fists for battle and his legs for escape but was surprised when he found a scraggy, dirty looking old mad man standing in front of him.

His teeth bared out in utter amusement. He seemed to be genuinely enjoying himself.

Onyedikachi made a move to hit the man but he seemed reluctant to even run. The mad man moved forward in a counter attack motion and Onyedikachi stepped back,seeking for ways to escape his nemesis.

It seemed mad men had a thing for his chin.

Another mad woman came screaming out of the bush with a twig with which she whipped the dirty man's buttocks, who ran out of the bush laughing hysterically.

On a much closer inspection Onyedikachi realized that the lady in question was not insane.

She was panting heavily as the twig fell to the floor, then stood aright to look at him.

"He pursued me into this part of the bush" She began, adjusting her clothes that had received tears. She quickly brushed off the heap of grass on her head and rubbed her forehead furiously.

"He slapped me" Onyedikachi muttered slightly embarrassed and she gifted him an apologetic smile.

"That is supposed to be a bad omen" She hinted, halting her grass removal movement. Onyedikachi took a long glance and noted how truly young the lady was. His eyes ran over her features and he was amazed by her beauty. She seemed too light skinned to be normal and her hazel eyes seemed too striking not to notice.

Suddenly losing his composure, Onyedikachi's mouth clamped shut. He only nodded in approbation.

The lady made a move towards another part of the bush and Onyedikachi followed her. He felt a sense of responsibility for her safety as she had saved him from the mad man.

She picked up books on her way and finally a phone. It seemed the mad man must have engaged her in some pursuit for her to have relinquished her belongings to the Bush.

She made no other statement to him as he followed her silently till they approached a tree.

She kept her belongings beside the root and started ransacking the leaves for an unknown item.

She gave up on her search almost immediately and went back to the tree. He couldn't tear his eyes off the lady in question.

How was her hair that long?

The thought kept running through his mind as his gaze roamed around her back. She graced him with a smile and he ended up scratching his beards without reason.

Was she a bush spirit? Was a spell cast on him? Was that why he followed her?

His gaze searched her features once more and they seemed vaguely familiar.

The young lady made a high jump, holding a branch of the tree which ended up slipping out of her hand.

She slowly turned to him with a grin and asked the most ridiculous question.

"Do you want to eat achicha?"

He shook his head then stared at the fruit in question.

Of course she meant if he could get it for her

Slightly amused he quickly moved to the tree and caught the branch with one leap, then proceeded to cut the fruit.

The lady seemed genuinely happy, he could see the glint in her eyes and even her dimples had come out to play in delight.

"Thank you" The smile accompanying the words of gratitude made Onyedikachi want to cut the tree and strip it off its fruits.

"I used to come here with someone" She stated on a somber note

She peeled off the hard coat of the fruit exposing it's orange and fleshy fruit, then handed it over to him with an enquiry

"I ga eri? Will you eat?

Onyedikachi was taken aback by her question, he pictured Obanma asking him the same question on the same spot,but still shook his head in response.

She didn't seem to take his rejection badly but simply smiled and made her way out of the bush after packing her belongings with him trailing behind her.

He could see the books she had with her and remembered his own days. It seemed it  had been yesterday when he wrote his own JAMB. He had deliberately postponed his service after graduation because he wanted to acquire certain skills in the place he had finished his internship.

A phone call interrupted his thoughts and he listened with rapt attention as she spoke.

"Daa I am not a baby, I can take care of myself. Agala m nṅa ahu, Mba!
I've not gone there yet, I know I won't talk to anyone . Tell him not to worry I'll be back after tomorrow"

She heaved a sigh of relief and shook her head in amusement.

"They still treat me like a child"

"Parents never truly accept that we grow" He replied with a grin

"My mother still comes to check up on me every night" He added and she could not help the laughter that ensued from her lips.

"My au... My mother thinks I can't stay on my own. She would have accompanied me to this place because of JAMB"

"I wouldn't really blame her you know, you are truly beautiful " Onyedikachi stated with a sheepish grin. He wanted to mentally scold himself for acting like a goat around the stranger.

"The beautiful should be isolated right?" She stated with a scoff

"They are all liars" He blurted out

"Who? Our parents?"

"No........ The ones who said the beautiful ones are not yet born"

He could see the amusement that danced in her eyes as she tried to suppress a grin.

"Until you meet my daughter" Was her sarcastic response.

It did bother him that she stated having a daughter but was convinced that she was joking.
They approached a junction where a group of okada men rallied and she notified him of her departure.

"I didn't even get to ask your name" She stated as she climbed the back of the motorcycle ignoring the eyes the other okadaman feasted on her.

Onyedikachi didn't know why he felt a tinge of loss as she claimed the bike. He had forgotten to make proper introductions as they conversed.

Her beauty had really done him over.

"Onyedikachi" He stated somberly hating how simple his name sounded.

He couldn't help but notice her change in countenance. An emotion he couldn't understand flashed across her features and she swallowed.

What's yours? " He enquired with a smile

She only stared at his face, her eyes boring into his.

" What on earth was she looking for? "

His question met no response as she ordered the okada man to move.

He felt very disappointed and quite curious with her attitude. He hadn't even asked for her number and his phone had been with him the whole time. But had he said something wrong?

The thought lingered in his mind till he got home and for a while his encounter with the lady seemed like a dream. Maybe the slap had caused him to hallucinate. He seemed aloof till the next day till he spotted someone familiar in the next compound.

The young lady seemed to be struggling with opening a door and he was quite ready to step into Iheanyi's forbidden compound just to help her after he had pacified his mind about its sanity.

It baffled him that the stranger would be in such a place , then the truth dawned on him which seemed to terrify him.

Her comment about achịcha and someone. She must have meant her twin, but why had she lied about her mother?

It was really her, it was.......

"Is that Iga eri?" Came Arinze's voice behind him, startling him. It was strange how Arinze recognized her with one glance and he hadn't.

"I think so" Was his curt reply, hoping Arinze hadn't noticed his terror.

"She turned out very beautiful, just like her mother. I do hope she hasn't come to stay"

"Why? It's still their house" Onyedikachi retorted

"For your sake my dear brother" was his terse reply accompanied by an evil smirk before he walked away.

**************************'

Hello everyone!

How are we?

Hope we enjoyed this chapter?