I once stayed with a family friend because I loved her so much and couldn't bear to be apart from her. Her young son was like my brother, so when she moved to another state, I requested her to take me with her. At first, my parents balked, but eventually agreed that I could go.
When we first arrived at the motorpark, my aunt's younger sister's husband came to pick us up from the park with his car because we had a lot of bags and it would have been difficult for me to transport them in a taxi. After we settled at her sister's house, I learned that my aunt had no intention of staying there and was going to leave her son with her sister because she didn't have a child of her own. I was sad when my aunt left after two weeks with her bags, and then the only advice she gave me was to keep myself safe and treat her son with care.
At the time, when I was 12 years old, I did my best to take care of her boy, whom I had begun to call my brother, and I treated my aunt's sister as if she were a mother figure. I started referring to her as mom so the son, who was only two years old, could learn the word as well.
After a year, my aunt returned. I was glad to see her, but after two weeks, she and her sister got into a quarrel. I tried to resolve the conflict between them by speaking to each of them separately, but my aunt's sister said something that really stood out to me. I felt really awful since it sounded like I was the cause of their argument. I tried my best to apologize and try to diffuse the situation, but it didn't work. She stated, "I never know she was bringing you to my house, if not, I wouldn't have approved for her to bring her son."
My aunt wasn't home when I left for the store (her sister's shop) that day, but when I got to the house and knocked on the gate for what seemed like a while, the security guard came to open the gate and said he was attempting to settle the fight between two sisters. I hurried inside and noticed that everything had been scattered throughout the house,I didn't look at it, but I was aware that I would have a lot of work to do later.
As I entered the room, I ran into my aunt, who was furious. She inquired where I had been, and I told her I had gone to the shop. She asked if that was why I had been brought to the house. I replied no, but I had been going to the shop to help her sister, and after what seemed like a long time, with a lot of questions and answers, I realized that accompanying her to Port Harcourt was a terrible mistake, and I should have listened to my parents when they said no.
Their words stuck with me like glue, her sister said if I left their house, I wouldn't become anything in life, I'm not sure why she said this, but it stuck with me, so I asked to be taken back home, or escorted to the park so I could go home to my parents, which I did and I had my rest, but I still wonder what she meant by that to this day.
Thank you for taking the time to read this.
My response to the ink well nonfiction prompt 19
Designed on canva
