Nengi graduated from secondary school and was to write her JAMB for university entry. The town she stayed in was very retro and didn’t have any center for the JAMB examination. So she got posted to a center in the city to sit for the exam.
Luckily for her, her uncle lived in the city where she was meant to write the exam, and his house was a stone's throw from the center. Nengi’s parents were quite old, so she had to make the journey to the city alone. She was a very smart and intelligent girl, so finding her way around on her first time traveling wasn’t hard for her as long as she had her mobile phone and destination address, and was able to make contact.
Nengi went to the city a week before the examination because her mother wanted to avoid any problems. Nengi safely arrived at her uncle’s house. Her uncle and his wife both worked in an oil company and didn’t work from home. So it was only her three cousins—Aisha and Amanda, both the same age as Nengi, Bob, the only son who was three years older than Nengi—19 years old, and her uncle’s younger sister Bara, who was the same age as Bob.
Staying in her uncle’s house felt very different from home. At home, she had her room as she was the only child of her parents. But in her uncle’s house, Bob had his room while Aisha, Amanda, Bara, and Nengi shared the biggest room in the house. Although the room was big and quite spacious, she still missed her privacy. One thing that made her miss her privacy was the way Bara littered the room with her clothes everywhere.
At first, Nengi tried ignoring it, but after a few days, it started to get on her nerves. Bara would just come in, throw her clothes wherever she wanted, and leave. Aisha and Amanda didn’t seem to like it either. They often talked about it when Bara wasn’t around, and if she was, they would whisper, making the atmosphere in the room tense.
Nengi spent most of her time preparing for her exams in the small bed that was moved from the guest room, and would often watch Bara shed her clothes like a snake and leave them on the spot. Nengi tried her best to focus on her studies, but the tension in the room was becoming distracting.
One afternoon, Nengi was on her bed studying, Aisha was on her phone probably chatting, while Amanda was watching a movie in the room when Bara walked in. She was wearing a jacket on top of her normal wear and was sweating. She stopped at the center of the room, unbuttoned the jacket, and shrugged it off. Nengi watched as Aisha rolled her eyes at Bara in irritation. Bara, who didn’t notice a thing, rushed out of the room, leaving her jacket on the spot she took off.
"Mtcheeeew," Amanda sluggishly stood up and picked up the jacket, then threw it on Bara’s bed. Nengi saw that Amanda was tired of the habit too. It was obvious now that this was bothering everyone.
After a long time, Bara came in and saw her jacket on her bed. She didn’t seem to care, though. Nengi noticed this had been happening every day since she got there. Bara would come back late, see her clothes moved, but still do the same thing over again the next day.
Nengi felt it was high time she addressed the elephant in the room. "Bara, can you wait a minute? I want to speak with you," Nengi stopped Bara at the door.
Just as Aisha stood up to leave the room, Nengi stopped her too. "You too, Aisha, I want to talk to you three about something."
"Okay, what do you want to talk about?" Amanda dropped her phone, ready for some gist.
"It is about the tension between the three of you," Nengi said.
"What tension?" Amanda acted like she didn’t have any idea, but Nengi could tell she knew exactly what she meant.
"The tension caused by Bara not picking up her clothes the moment she takes them off," Nengi said, turning to Bara. Bara faced down, embarrassed.
"Bara, I want to know why you have that habit and if you are even aware that it is wrong?" Nengi asked. She knew Bara would be embarrassed and she knew the answer, but this was something that needed to be talked about.
"I know it’s bad, and sincerely, I am still trying to drop the habit," Bara said in a low tone, clearly feeling guilty.
"And you guys also added to that," Nengi turned to Aisha and Amanda.
"How?!" Amanda said with a smile, not believing they had anything to do with it.
"I’ve watched you guys these few days, and you two have never corrected her when she makes the mistake. Instead, you just complain within yourselves," Nengi said.
"Well, we didn’t want to seem like we were trying to insult you or anything, and it is just tiring picking after you all the time," Aisha said to Bara, respectfully, with remorse.
"Please, anytime I do it, correct me, no matter what. It will help me change. Anything I do that is wrong, you should correct me or tell me if it bothers you. I am human and not above correction," Bara said to Aisha and Amanda, her voice still low but sincere.
Nengi couldn’t help but smile as she watched the problem resolve itself. The three girls, who had some tension between them, were now sitting on the same bed, going from apologies to gisting and laughing. The atmosphere in the room had changed completely, and Nengi was relieved that they could now move past the issue.