IGHO did not expect his result to be that bad in his third term in JSS1. He had never scored below the second position in primary school, and even in his current cla.s.s, had managed a fair result twice. He could not understand why he slipped to the 15th place in a cla.s.s of 22. He held the result in his hands and his eyes clouded over with tears.Of course, his parents were not happy with him. He didn"t blame them. It was clear he was turning out to be the black sheep of the family. He didn"t like it. His siblings all came out tops in their cla.s.ses. He was the only exception. He promised himself he would have to read harder next term.
Right now, however, he knew he would pay a price for not doing too well. His father might not take it too badly, but he was not sure about his mother. She was always too harsh; he did not know why. It appeared as if she was the head of the family rather than his father. Igho"s mother made many of the big decisions in the family and usually overruled their father. It sometimes annoyed Igho. He knew that taking a distant 15th position would have repercussions.
After dinner, Igho became the subject of discussion. As predicted, their mother overruled their father once again. She simply made the announcement that shocked Igho and his other siblings—Oke, Okiemute and Uzezi. They tried to protest her decision but she hushed them up at once.
"For not being such a bright lad," she announced like an actor on stage, "Igho will go to the village and help grandparents in the farm. He will not go with us to America for the summer holidays. And that is final!"
Oke, Okiemute and Uzezi"s chorus of protest fell on deaf ears. Mother can be adamant. Daddy only raised his hands up in despair and looked helplessly at his wife, who stared hard at him in direct challenge. He looked away in defeat. Igho stormed away from the living room to his bedroom and shut the door.
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"But mummy," Oke did not give up easily, "the punishment is too harsh for Igho, please!"
"Well, next term Igho should learn to be harsh with his studies like you all did and pa.s.sed excellently," she replied, "and then he can choose to go wherever he wants to spend his holidays, including going to the moon, if he so desires!"
And that was the end of the matter. Igho was banished to the village to spend the holiday with his maternal grandparents, who still worked in their many farms at Ibedeni. For Igho, it felt like the end of the world. How would he cope in the village while his siblings flew to America, precisely Orlando, to Disneyland! Although he had been there before, the fun and excitement of Disneyland was endless. You could never have enough of the variety of fun on offer; the more you discover the more expansive it becomes. You may go to Disneyland as many times as you like and still discover so much fun.
Igho buried his face in his pillow and tears stung his eyes. Why was Mummy so wicked? He groaned. Soon, he heard his siblings shuffling into his room. He heard them consoling him, but he still had his face buried in the pillow; he didn"t respond to them. After a while, they left him to bear his pain alone.
Serves me right, he chided himself for paying too much attention to his new phone. It was his gift for his 11th birthday from Daddy. In fact, his mummy had opposed the phone gift, when his Daddy suggested it. Igho sat up in bed. Did his Mummy know he would misuse the phone? How did she know it would distract him from his studies? He wondered how their Mummy knew so much even before things happened.
Igho had found the gadget too exciting. With his access to the Internet, Igho found he could do anything his heart desired. He toured the internet endlessly. He played music videos on YouTube, Vimeo and explored Facebook, Twitter and Instagram with their exciting pictures and followed his favourite music and movie stars across the world. He chatted endlessly on Facebook messenger, Wechat, Palmchat, Imo, and WhatsApp.
It was a world of endless possibilities and he got carried away in it. He chatted till the early hours of the morning and neglected his schoolwork. He barely did his homework and read far less than he should have. At the end, he told himself he was to blame for his poor performance in school. What was worse, he chatted online with people he didn"t even know.
Gradually, Igho reconciled himself to the reality of his banishment to the village. Mummy had spelt out his itinerary. He would fly to Warri. From there, his uncle Utomudo would pick him up at Osubi Airport and drive him straight to Ozoro, where he would spend a few hours with uncle Nigeria before finally being taken to Ibedeni, his final destination.
He always wondered why this particular uncle was named "Nigeria." Who named his child after the name of his country? Was there no better Isoko name at the time of his birth? Nigeria as a name made him giggle a lot.
He had only been to Ozoro once during the wedding of a close relative. That was years ago. It was where he met his grandparents, who had also come for the wedding. He enjoyed their company so much; the thought of seeing them again thrilled him although he wished he was not missing out on the Orlando trip. He was convinced that the Ibedeni trip was final for him.
He began to prepare his mind for the worst possible time in the village. But Igho was determined to make the best of it. He wondered what he would be doing in the village in two long months. How would he occupy himself and not be bored? Would there be DSTV so he could watch his favourite channels, particularly MovieMagic and Cartoon Network? Would there be youngsters like him to play with? What does life in the village look like? What do villagers really do? How do they pa.s.s their time? Where and who do they visit?
Igho had so many questions on his mind, but he didn"t know who to ask. Since Mummy was determined to punish him, he didn"t think she was the right person to ask. She would only succeed in rubbing pepper into the wound she had already inflicted on him, which was still raw. He didn"t want to ask Daddy either. He wanted to bear his burden alone.
He had heard Mummy say there was no electricity in the village. He thought fast. If that were true, then watching films was out of the question. He decided to take a lot of books, particularly storybooks. The next day, he went to his Daddy"s library and took down some interesting t.i.tles. He made a quick note to visit the bookshop on Awolowo Road, Ikoyi, the next day. He felt he needed to arm himself against loneliness and boredom since he didn"t think there would be anything exciting to do in the village.
But if Igho knew anything about the village, he would have worried less about boredom. As he found out, he only had time to read just two out of the ten books he took with him. The village proved to be another form of excitement even Disneyland in Orlando, America could not provide! And Igho knew he would have more interesting stories to tell his siblings and schoolmates than they could ever share with him this holiday.