My father was born a twin with a woman, 'Aunty Augustina' as we usually call her; she was the sweetest of all my dad's siblings; she liked us so much that she took my immediate younger brother as a ray of hope into her home to terminate her two years of childlessness in her marriage.
Just a year into my brother's stay with them, she experienced the joy of motherhood with the birth of a baby boy, followed by a baby girl three years later. We all rejoiced, celebrating the arrival of the new generation. Out of excitement, she informed my dad that she's never going to allow my brother(her nephew) back to our home; she will train him at any level of academics because he brought joy into their home.
Three years after the birth of her baby girl, a severe sickness held Aunty Augustina, a sickness I didn't know its name because I was just 13 years old then. My dad, her husband, and other of his siblings rushed her to the hospital to save her; she stayed there for two weeks, and amidst her fragile recovery, my dad seized the opportunity to tend to his long-neglected farm.
Just the very first day he resumed farm work, Uncle Jasper, my dad's elder brother, came looking for my dad.
"Did he go to the farm as he said?" He asked as he brought out his Nokia phone and began to move his half chopped figures on the keyboard while his head was bent down.
"Yes, he left to farm as we were going to school in the morning," I replied, and as I was about to go inside in a way to dodge buying him cigarettes because he's fond of that, he held my hand and made me stay put; he must have been reading my mind. "What about your mom?"
"I didn't see her when I returned from school, and I'm sure she didn't go to the farm; that's her bicycle." I pointed at the bicycle.
He raised his head to look at the bicycle and went back to his head bent position. I could send thst things were not alright with him.
He placed the Nokia phone on his left ear after disturbing my ears with the beep tone from the phone's keyboard.
"The MTN number you're trying to call is unreachable; please try again later. Thank you."
"Ohhhh!" He exclaimed and almost hit his phone on the ground when he heard the feedback from the server as he dialled my dad's line.
"If it's my dad you're calling, you should have known; there's no network in that bush," I said while tiptoeing away, he caught me again and seized my hand.
He cleared his throat and pointed at the bicycle* "See, you need to go to the farm and inform your dad that Aunty Augustina's sickness has returned to a more severe level. Please use that bicycle and go"*
"Me?" I pointed at myself in disbelief. I looked at the time and the blazing hot sun like that of a desert. I wanted to dodge the task, but my mind concurred with it because I didn't want anything to happen to her. I brought out the bicycle and tied a cutlass to it because it's not an idea to go to the forest without a cutlass. Oh! I nearly forgot my Sony Ericson's phone. I went inside, picked it up and dropped it inside my trousers pocket, jumped on the bicycle, and off I went, riding with unwavering determination. The sweat on my brow dried in the breeze of the frantic journey.
As I ventured along asphalt roads, people with loads of firewood tied to their bicycles and motorcycles were returning while I was going the opposite; their inquiries about my destination fell behind in rearview. All my concern was to meet my dad to inform him about the critical condition of his twin sister.
Still in the area that has network coverage, my phone rang. I slowed down a bit, using one hand to handle the head of the bicycle while using my left hand to bring out the phone from the pocket. I checked who's calling, and it's Uncle Jasper. Still on top of the bicycle while in motion with little pedalling while it's running on its own due to the speed I was at earlier, I answered the call, "Hello sir, I'm yet to reach."
"Kingsley, have you gone far? It seems you don't need to go further because Aunty Augustina is dea..." He could not complete it before he went off and I could hear the trembling in his voice.
Goosebumps arrested the whole of my skin, and I didn't know when I lost control and found myself and the bicycle swallowed up by the giant guinea grasses on the roadside. My body began to shake like a fowl that was drenched in the rain. Thick droplets of sweat clothed my body, and the sharp edges of guinea grasses had their way into my soft skin. My heart was beating fast, and I wasn't bothered whether there was injury to my body or not. The news was so shocking.
After like 5 minutes while trying to regain myself, I got up, strugglingly dragged the bicycle out of the grasses, and my eyes were so blank that everywhere looked so different. At some point, I thought I was in heaven because, the once road that farmers were filled up suddenly became empty...Nollywood has it that, the road to heaven is always empty.
As I brought out the bicycle, I checked to see if it was fine, and it was. I stood there with my hands resting on my waist and the bicycle supported by me, not knowing whether to return home or whether I should go further to the farm to relate the news to my father that his dearest twin sister is no more.
No way! I wasn't ready to see him cry, so I decided to let him come back home by himself and let his elder brother relate to him.
The journey back was a somber ride, the once brisk pace now a listless trudge.
Around 5:00 p.m., my dad returned to meet his compound filled with his family members in mourn, and he broke into tears.
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