8 8 PICKING UP ALL THE BROKEN PIECES (1/2)
Even Kompa behaved as though the world had come to an end. He moped around all day and wouldn't leave Eghe Boom Boom's side. He had become her shadow and when I asked him why he wouldn't give her some space, he gave me a side-eye, promptly ignored me and cuddled up beside her feet as she played a game on the tablet she was holding while sitting wrapped up in blankets on the couch.
She had a cold and my dad hovered around her in fear. He had given her all the home remedies he could make: hot chocolate, honey and lemon tea, honey and ginger tea, eucalyptus oil, hot water bottle, hugs, sweet words and songs. And Eghe Boom Boom soaked it all in. This was also in addition to all the medications my aunty who had come for the weekend had given her.
I kept asking her, ”How are you feeling?”
One time, she responded without looking away from her tablet, ”So, so. But can you get me more tea?”
She said it with such authority that she came across as a queen or some form of royalty and not the sick girl everyone was so concerned about.
I looked down at her for a minute, ready to pounce on her with angry words, and then promptly changed my mind as the words of my mum came tumbling into my mind.
”Promise me you will take care of your sister.”
I ruffled the full head of soft black hair, which my aunty had helped her wash and oil earlier that day, and muttered the words, ”You know you can be so annoying.”
She responded again without taking her eyes from the tablet. ”Not as annoying as you.”
”You are so rude,” I spat the words at her; irritation was getting the best of me.
She looked up at me; her eyes were open in that innocent way that made her so lovable and adorable. It appeared as though she was about to cry and her voice was very low as she said to me, ”Sorry, Osaik, I didn't mean to be rude. Please, can you get me some tea?”
It was disarming. One minute you were mad at her, another minute, she irritated you, the next minute, you couldn't stand her, and just with one of her looks and her tiny voice, she made you love her fiercely.
I went to get her tea and did a lot of other things she asked of me. We all were at her beck and call—my dad, my aunt, Kompa and I.
Eghe Boom Boom had a way about her. It was like an air of unconcern. As though she didn't understand why there was a lot of fuss about her. It was as if she didn't even know she was living with sickle cell anaemia, or that the same disease that had taken our mum from us and made her a star, which hung up in the sky, was also in her body.She wasn't one to argue a lot, instead she obeyed you if she felt you had authority over her or simply ignored you if she couldn't be bothered by what you were saying, or made you melt with one look at her pity-me face and a tiny fragile whisper from her if she needed you to help her.
It was hard not to like her and if you stayed around her for a long time, you would not even realise when you had fallen in love with her.She would surprise you with her sudden show of emotion.
Sometimes she would run over to you and hug you tight without any reason and whisper to you, ”I love you so much.” Other times, she would come up to you with a paper in which she had drawn what she would claim was you and say with a bright smile on her face, ”See, I drew one of my most favourite people in the whole world, you!”
There were times she would come to you and begin to discuss with you in a way that was far above her age. She would ask you questions after questions and listen attentively to your responses, and when you are done, she would smile and give you a kiss on your cheek, before she would say, ”That is for being a darling.”
Even her laughter was lovable. She would start from a giggle, then it would rise and rise until it cackled loudly with careless abandon. Her eyes watered and her body shook as she leaned back in a way that made you think she would fall over, and when she finally stopped laughing, she never failed to say, ”That was so so funny. Can you please make me laugh again?”
No matter how many times you repeated the same joke or did something that made her laugh, she would laugh again. It was like she never got tired of it or of anything that she liked.Her clothes. Her shoes. Her toys. Her books. Once Eghe Boom Boom liked it, no one could take it from her. She arranged them neatly in her room and visited them over and over again with the same kind of excitement she had when she first got them. But once Eghe Boom Boom didn't like something, she was completely dismissive of it. She would not waste her time trying to get to know it. Her instinct was all that she relied on.She looked at it, if it was a thing, or at the person, with a frown on her face. It was her thinking face. Then she turned her head from left to right and then right to left, as though she needed to see clearly. Then if she decided that she didn't like what she was seeing, she would just look away and start to do something else. Nothing you could do would make her change her mind. That was why it was a shock for everyone when Eghe Boom Boom began to like Kompa after she had earlier disliked him.When I had asked her why she changed her mind about him, she responded in an honest way, as she looked up at me innocently.
”I wasn't sure about him before, but now I am. So he is my friend.”
It made her sound so old. Like my uncle or Mr Ojo.
She had met my uncle a few times, and she didn't like him.When he called out to her, ”Hey, Boom Boom, my baby. How are you doing?”
She would look at him as though seeing him for the first time and then she would murmur, ”I'm fine.”
Then she would walk away and leave him standing there with his arms opened wide in expectation of a hug that would never come.
That was Eghe Boom Boom, my kid sister. The one who found it easier to dislike, than she did to like. And if she liked you, she took to you instantly. She would walk up to you smiling and introduce herself.
”Hello, I am Eghe. Everyone calls me Eghe Boom Boom or Boom Boom for short. What is your name?”
Her favourite colour was pink unlike the colour yellow, which was mine. Her room was a large splash of pink, and her dresses and shoes too.Her dolls, which were everywhere around the house, always wore pink dresses.
One time, I had told her that she should pick a different colour because pink was most girls' favourite colour and was boring. I wanted her to be different. Just like the yellow I picked which wasn't what you would see the average boy picking.
Eghe Boom Boom made a pout and said, ”No. I like pink and it is not because I am a girl. I like it because it is pretty. If I was a boy I will still like pink. You can like yellow if you want that is your prerogative.”
I was taken aback by her use of the word.
”Who taught you that word?”
”What word?”
”P-r-e-r-o-g-a-t-i-v-e,” I pronounced it slowly.
”Oh, that word, I heard dad say it to mum.”
”Do you know what it means?”
”Yes.”
”They told you?”
”No.”
”How do you know?”
”Because I knew what they were talking about, so I understood what it meant by what Dad was trying to say.”
”What was he trying to say?”
”He said mum didn't need him to decide for her if she should go to the salon in the morning before she went shopping, or in the evening after she finished shopping.”
”So prerogative means my right to decide for myself?”
”Yes. To decide if you like yellow or not.”
I repeated the word in my mind and smiled. It had a nice ring to it. I couldn't wait to use it when I got to school.
I used it one day during English class and my teacher, Mrs Uzor, asked me who taught me the word. When I said it was my baby sister, she looked at me in disbelief and proceeded to ask me again, as though she couldn't believe her ears. I told her the same thing again. My baby sister, Eghe Boom Boom. Then she asked me how old she was, and I told her she was five. She looked like she didn't quite believe me but she told me to bring my sister to her anytime she came to school. I did.
When she saw Eghe Boom Boom, she bent low before her and said with a happy voice.
”Eghe Boom Boom, nice to meet you finally. What is your name?”
There was a moment of silence as Eghe Boom Boom looked at her with her signature look—head to the left then to the right.
Mrs Uzor asked, ”Are you shy?”
Eghe Boom Boom responded, ”No.”
”So tell me your name.”
”You already know my name. You called me Eghe Boom Boom before you asked me my name.”
And with that, she turned around and walked away from Mrs Uzor. She had become another person that my sister didn't like. Yet the other teacher that was sitting at her desk in the same staff room where Mrs Uzor had spoken to her was pleasantly surprised when my sister walked up to her after leaving Mrs Uzor and introduced herself to the teacher. Mrs Uzor stood up, crossed her arms across her chest and frowned. My mum who had brought my sister to the school to pick me, quickly chipped in to save the situation.
”Forgive her. She is just like that. She warms up to some people and not to others,” she said to Mrs Uzor.
All Mrs Uzor did was nod her head, but the frown still remained on her face as she looked at Eghe Boom Boom who was laughing effortlessly with the other teacher.
Eghe Boom Boom finally fell asleep with the tablet in her hand. My dad lifted her up gingerly and carried her to her room. After tucking her in, he left the door of the room ajar and Kompa, who had jumped into bed and curled by her side, stared out of the opening in the door.
When my dad came back to the living room, he sat by me. ”Don't you think it is time you went to bed too?” he asked me.
”There is no school tomorrow, it is the weekend.”
”Still you need to sleep. You are a growing man, you need sleep.”
I liked that he called me a man.So I acted like one.
”I want us to have a discussion,” I said to my dad.
”About what?”
”A match for Boom Boom.”
”I am looking into it.”
”I thought you said you didn't know what to do?”
”Yes, at that time, I didn't, but now I know what to do.”
”What are you going to do?”
”Find a match.”
”How?”
”The foundation is helping out.”
”What foundation?”
”The Sickle Cell Foundation. They are the ones who run the clinic where we went to give samples.”
”Why do you call them a foundation?”
”Because that is what they are. They raise money to support scientists and doctors who are working to find a cure and they do all they can to tell people about the disease and also to make the lives of people suffering from the disease better. They work on making them happier.”
”I thought a foundation was what you build on the ground before you build a house on it.”
”One word can mean a lot of different things.”
”Like a synonym,” I said proudly.
”Hmm. Yeah, somewhat. Although a synonym is more like different words that have the same meaning.”
”But why will…”
My aunty came into the living room at that moment and handed my dad a bowl of pepper soup.
”Thank you,” he said to her as he collected it.
She smiled and looked over at me.
”Do you want some?”
”No, thank you,” I promptly replied.
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I didn't like peppery foods and I wasn't hungry. She walked back to the kitchen and I turned to my dad as he slowly began drinking the pepper soup and chewing some of the small pieces of meat in it. He would scoop a spoonful, raise it to his lips, blow some air onto it for a short while and then drink it before he will take another spoonful of meat, blow on them, put them into his mouth and begin to chew, his eyes misting over as he sniveled. I sat there silently by his side for a while, then I began to speak again.
”How is the foundation going to find a match?”
”They have a register of a lot of people. They will contact them and tell them to help out by coming to give samples.”
”Will they come?”
”Yes.”
”Even if they don't know Boom Boom?”
”They have already volunteered to help anyone that needs a match.”