"Just like I introduced myself when we first met, I am Olakunle Abraham" he started.
"I know right, Lakunle for short" I teased him as I paid rapt attention to all he needed to say.
"My family has always based here in Ilorin as well. I have always ran away from talking about my family not because I’m not proud of where I am from but talking about them always bring me a lot of mixed feelings"
"I'm sorry about that, I just hope I'm not going to be opening any unhealed wound" I quickly interrupted him.
My mind was wandering around whether asking him will still be necessary or not
"My younger sister, Ayokunmi developed a measles at the age of 2 which eventually made it difficult for her to speak but she can at least hear a bit"
"Oh my God" I shouted
"It is fine, the family spent all they can on her. We move from one hospital to another, we were introduced to different specialists but we had to leave with the fate that my sister wouldn't be able to talk again",
"On her 10th birthday, we called for all and sundry to join us in celebrating her. We don't always want to make her feel less because she couldn’t t talk. More reason why we tried to always make every moment eventful for her" he pulled out his phone and showed me the picture of his younger sister.
She's also a light skinned beautiful girl. It must be that one of their parents or both parents are light skinned as well.
"So where is she now?" I asked after checking through a few of the pictures. He sighed and poured more yoghurt to his cup.
"Unfortunately, she died the night after the birthday. Everywhere became so empty and I could feel the echoes of her voice in my head every single time",
"My mother became the shadow of herself, she fell sick repeatedly after my sister’s death. The consolation she and my father had was the fact that I'm still alive and also my elder brother",
"Not minding the fact that she couldn't talk and we were all forced to learn how to communicate with her using our hands, we still love her so very much and dearly until she died."
I tried fighting back my tears and I almost wanted to stop him from talking about his family because I don't know if there is any side of his story that is not tragic, if there are other exciting part, we could fast forward to it.
"I'm so sorry about that" I said.
"The day I met you at the mall, you reminded me of my sister. She loved pringles a lot and you have same eye balls. It felt like I should take you home that day but then, glad we exchanged numbers and we are still in touch",
"My sister’s death brought out the writer in me and that's with poems, I had a small note pad where I used to write poems before I moved to writing songs" he added
I know grieve sometimes push people to other forms of self discoveries and everyone don't handle pain the same way.
"Meaning, the music writing and all gave you closure in a way?" I asked.
"Yes, you are right but every year, we celebrate her even in absence, she won everyone's heart"
"But how about your big brother? Where is he?" Curiosity couldn't allow me to keep calm as I wanted to know every bit of his journey.
"You know back then, our parents were uneducated, so it didn't occur to them to run a blood test to know if they are compatible" he said and I can affirm to that based on some of the stories I've heard from my parents too and from the book and movie that I have seen .
"They allowed love to blind them so much that they married each other without knowing that they were both AS genotype, I know if they both could turn the hands of time back, they would have just done all the needed tests and investigations."
I could feel his pain as he was talking about his family. There is so much trouble around him and now I see why he has been avoiding talking about them.
"What if you have kept quiet and never asked?"
"But I need to know who I'm moving with to be on safe side too "
My mind was saying different things and I started feeling bad. I wished I didn't bring him to talk.
"Don't worry, I chose to tell you about my family not because of the conditions but because I put myself in your shoes, wondering, how can I be friends with someone who I know next to nothing about asides his name and his Christian lifestyle?" He said out loud as if he was reading my mind.
"Thanks so much for understanding and I really appreciate this little you've shared with me." I added so as not make him change the topic to something else.
"Don't worry, let me around it up with my brother's story, I'd tell you about my parents when next we hang out"
"So where is your brother now?" I asked.
"A lot was spent on his health, we became regular costumers with the hospital so much that it affected my brother's education as well. Back in primary school, he passed out almost always so much that they asked our parent to withdraw him"
"Wow, that must have been a lot for the family" I said
"He started taking his lessons and schooling with the home teacher and that was how he was able to scale through primary school" he said as he sipped a part of the yoghurt in the cup.
"Till one day that something else happened" he added.
"What happened? I hope it's not what I'm thinking. I didn't realize my voice was loud until I saw people across the other table turn back.
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