3 3. Ighos Grandparents Home (1/2)

THE first thing that came into view was Ibedeni Secondary School, with its motto: Knowledge for Progress! On all sides of the road from Ivrogbo, it was all bush and tall trees that formed a canopy over them. Igho held on tightly to his seat. He had not come this close to a real forest before. He was afraid. For a moment it seemed they would continue deeper and deeper into the forest and be lost in it.

The tarred road formed a thin, black strip that snaked into the bowels of the forest. They pa.s.sed only two cars, a woman on a bicycle and a man on foot coming from the opposite direction. It was all quiet; Igho felt as if the forest had eyes and was looking at them in the car. It increased his anxiety.

Then they suddenly came to an opening and it was the school; it was something familiar. Igho heaved a sigh of relief. They were not lost after all.

”Look, it's a school!” Igho said as though he had made a discovery.

”Yes!” Uncle Utomudo. ”I almost attended this school. But I insisted on going to NDC.”

”It's so bushy!” Onome said, disappointed.

It is nothing like they were used to in the city.

They drove on for about one hundred metres and saw buildings and then Edeni Primary School, the community's primary school, came into view to their right. Farther into town, buildings dotted both sides of the road that run through the middle of the town. Shortly after the primary school, Ase Creek opened to them and Onome and Igho screamed in delight at the open waters.

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”Can you swim?” Igho asked his cousin.

”No!” she said, a bit sadly. ”But Daddy promised to take me to NPA Quarters so I could learn how to swim. What about you?”

”I can swim,” Igho said proudly. ”We have a swimming pool at home.”

”Well,” Uncle Utomudo cleared his throat, ”Igho, you may know how to swim, but that is in a swimming pool. This is an open river and it has fast-flowing current that makes it different from a pool. So, while you are both here, you must not go to the river to swim alone or with Onome. Thankfully, Ufuoma is here. You must never go anywhere near the river without him! Do I make myself clear?”

”Okay, Uncle!”

”Okay Daddy!”

They drove on in silence along Ibedeni town, with buildings sometimes on both sides of the road and at other places only to their right, with the open river to their left. Suddenly, Igho began to feel excitement welling up inside of him. He had heard his mother talk about this small town, but it did not occur to him that a river like this was part of it. He saw the inhabitants, men and women and children, on land and others right in the river, inside canoes, and could not contain himself.

He wondered why it was called a mere creek and not a proper river. He decided to ask his uncle.

”Well,” he began, ”in the estimation of those who measure bodies of water, it fits only into a creek description. Ase is the name of a town a little bigger than Ibedeni and is farther down the creek before another town called AsabAse, where this creek joins the mighty River Niger!”

”Wow, the River Niger!” Igho exclaimed. I read about it in Social Studies. I wish we can see it also, Onome!”

”Yes!” Onome said. ”Is it far from here, Daddy?”

”No, not too far,” he said. ”Maybe what it took us to drive from Ugh.e.l.li to Ozoro. But I can't promise now that I will take two of you there. Maybe at the end of your holidays, when we're going back, we could pa.s.s through AsabAse and come out through Uzere to Oleh and back to Warri.”

”Awesome!” Igho exclaimed. ”Uncle, you're the best!”

”Well, you need to know that there is more to life than what you have in Lagos or going to Disneyland in America!” he laughed.