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Buchi and Obioma are identical twins born apart due to circumstances of tradition and love.
The day Buchi finds out that she has a twin else where,she leaves her rich home to go and stay with Mama while making Obioma take her place.
A tale of motherly love,traditions,school life,sisterhood and ohh something to spice your book buds!

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Prologue
I stood watching all of them.
I could not believe it so i asked Mama if what i just heard from Buchi's father-my father,if it was true.
She could not or did not want to give me the reply i wanted.
She just stood there like those small gods at Mazi's Ezedi hut. She wept and wept and continued weeping and then went into tiny sobs.
I wished i could get away from Buchi's father and mother but they too stood watching me and Mama.
Then Buchi's father-my father..my biological father,spat out useless words.

"come my child, bịa nwa m"

Then and there i finally shouted,

"who is your child? Onye? Tell me who?!"

And now,i have turned,running and running away from the truth,that ugly big headed truth.

Will i ever stop?

new on nairaland literature much love and help needed please


cc:KimKardashian ishilove seun lalasticlala marianneada divepen1 obinnau angelsss shewrites kimberlywest and others
i dunno anybody joh am such a JJC!

Welcome to Literature section.


Please what's the title of this story? Cos the prologue rocks and am eagerly waiting for the first chapter.

Sunday 10th January 2016.

Today,Mama is preparing my favorite meal,Ofe Nsala and Ede(pounded coco-yam). I am very excited even if i have spent close to 30 minutes pounding it till it is smooth,soft and fluffy,everyone likes it that way. Mama,Chike,Nnenna and I in our small mud house wash our hands quickly with the water used in washing the mortar. It is said that there is always a blessing when we don't waste water.

Mama has just turned off our old hurricane lamp,though it is older than Chike who is just 7 years and Nnenna barely a year old. It lights well and we are glad that cool air runs through the holes in the house. Chike says he likes the holes because he likes to watch the lizards play hide and seek in them. He becomes sad when Papa who is out hunting for anu ohia-bush meat says that he will fill up the holes and also change the thatch roof with new ones from the city. No one is happy because if he does so,it will become hard for air to come in.

Mama says a brief prayer of thanks and Chike eyes the two pieces of roasted grass-cutter in the soup. As we eat,i remember that i have a meeting with the block rosary members tomorrow morning. We all attend St.Monica Catholic Church situated just near Oji river where we all wash clothes and fetch water to bath. I am glad that it is Chike's turn to fill up the two wooden drums at the back of Papa's little barn so i am free to attend the meeting early after i wake and complete my minor tasks.

As Mama takes one piece of meat,she leaves and the other piece is for me and Chike to share but we leave the soup for Nnenna to scoop and lick. After,i go out to meet Nkechi and Arinze so we can discuss on how to sell the Udala-cherry we have just plucked from Mazi's Ude's house after helping him the day before to cut the grass surrounding his compound. He has a nice house with beautiful flowers and that roof Papa wants to put on ours. His wife has just passed away after the village doctor says she has a disease. I remember Chima's tears,their son crying like a woman who has returned from the women without a child after 9 months of sweet suffering.

As we approach the market,Arinze tells us about how his father has just tapped wine from a very tall palm tree. He gives us some to taste from the small bottle he carries around and i conclude that it is the best i have ever tasted after i became 5 years of age.

Next week,i will be 15 years old and Nkechi has promised to give me some of her beads for the next dance. This beads were made from sand from the Mmmmri river that possess some healing qualities. Sometimes i envy Nkechi because her mother has very beautiful beads which she sells and often gives to her,even her father is a chief who owns a very nice palm wine shop with a green saloon car which he drives to the monthly village gathering with pride unlike Papa,who owns a common bicycle which he claims was passed to him by his father.

We finish selling the cherry and have earned a total of four hundred and fifteen naira. As usual,I take the smallest share which is one hundred and fifteen naira while Nkechi and Arinze part with the rest since i am the youngest. We all depart for our homes and i sing one of the festival songs as i pass Umu path. I quickly keep quiet because it is forbidden to sing while walking on the path. Once Papa told us of how he watched a young man being killed by unseen spirits when he shouts and sings stupidly because he is drunk with Arinze's father new wine.

"It is new and ripe and so the young man sings aloud forgetting that he is passing the forest."

As i drift closer to our home,a young girl bumps into me and as i look at her there is something shocking about her appearance and she too is shocked. I know she is not from our village because she dresses like the young woman who has just come from the city. The most amazing part is that this girl has the same image with me when i stare at Mama's old mirror. But how is this possible? I know i am the first child and then Chike and then Nnenna and no one else.

She smiles at me and hugs me even if i am dirty and sweaty after selling the cherries in the hot dry sun. She takes my hand and tells me who she is as she walks with me. Her name is Silvia and she tells me everything about herself. I only tell her that I am Obioma but known as Obim. I try to pronounce her name but it is hard and she laughs like a child and tells me to call her Buchi because that is better to say.

She tells me of how she wants me to do something for her. As i listen,it seems difficult and stupid. She tells me that she wants to leave the city for a while because she has something to do here. She says that it would be easy to swap identities,for me to become her and for her to become me. When i ask why she wants to do this,she says more stupid words that i cant understand. She gives me two hundred naira and says she will give me more if i do what she wants.

I become greedy,not for myself but i think about how i can help Chike with his schooling at the village school. Going to school there is free bbut one still needs to purchase textbooks and other stationary. Stupidly i take the money,foolishly i do not know that two hundred naira will do little or nothing for Chike or for anybody else.

Thanks Kim it's titled "HELLO SISTER" . i hope you'll get to like it!

Quickly and in an enclosed part of the path,we exchange our cloths and i see how much she looks like me with my worn out clothes. She still does not mind my dirty and sweat filled clothes and smiles at me again as if she has known me all her life.

Buchi gives me something that is like the village doctor's possession. We, the children all call him "village doctor" because we do not know his name or what or whether he has a feather in his cap. What she has just given me is a called a smartphone and she stressed it out well SMARTphone.. The one that can make another person's image appear on it. I know little on how it works because i have seen the village doctor use it twice. She tells me to use it to call her if i am need of help but most importantly for communication reasons.

Then Buchi drags me to a van and makes me enter it without the driver seeing her. The van moves and i watch her go to Mama,to my home where i have directed her to. I still have not told her of my birthday and womanhood celebration next week. That thing that i hoped to see,if it would ever happen to me.

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I arrive at her house and as i step out of the van,a dog rushes towards me thinking that i am Buchi. It sniffs me and starts growling because it knows i am not her. No one is bothered because a woman i meet which i get to know as the maid only thinks that it is hungry and drives it away giving it something to eat.

Buchi is usually with her maid and her dog,lily as a companion. I also get to know that her parents come home once in a while or if they have something to do because they are busy people. Pushing my thoughts away,i greet the maid and she has a shocked look on her face.. Maybe Buchi never really talked to her except if necessary or Buchi was not trained greet and respect people older than her or this or that or whatever i could think about a million reasons why!. I feel like i have so much information in my brain after all She has told me previously.

Buchi calls and says she has fit in well but complains that there was little to eat and did too much work in such a short time. Buchi goes on to ask if i am fairing well and i tell her that i am well. I complain to her about the dog and she tells me to spray a purple sweet smelling liquid on my body and her clothes which are now mine. The scent will betray the dog's smell and then she hangs up saying that she has been called by Mama.

I drop off the phone and lay on the bed. It is very soft and silky just like Mama's wrappers,the ones she uses every time she is going to church and the women's meeting. The bed is better than ours which is made off bamboo and worn out clothes,it makes me wonder if she can cope with it.

Minutes later I move about looking for the Phone Buchi gave to me. I call her Buchi to tell her about tomorrow's meeting at the church. I instruct her to ask for directions or just follow a short fat girl when she arrives at my home. I tell Buchi her name and other necessary things for her to know,then we bid each other goodnight and i sleep off with thoughts of tomorrow lingering in me.

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"Buchi!"

"Mother!"

"i am glad that you could make it. I am so happy that i get to see you again my child.. Ezinne.. i wish things couldn't be this way but i hope every thing turns out fine.. if..if my chance Obioma or my children or my husband finds out,i dont know what i'll do..i wont loose you again.."

"Mother it is okay,nothing will happen.. we'll stay here without any suspicion from anyone.. obi m na-agụ agụụ kwa ụbọchị na-site gị n'akụkụ. ị maara otú ihe i na-eche ihe mere i nyere m ka m pụọ? ga-mgbe ị na-agwa m ihe mere na? bụ m ezughị? mere nne ya? mgbe ị ga-agwa m ihe mere na? my heart yearned everyday to be by your side. do you know how much i wondered why you gave me away? will you ever tell me why? was i not enough? why mother? when will you tell me why? "

"Nnọọ anya nwa m. nnọọ anya unu ga-amarakwa ihe mere nna gị na i na-adịghị ọnụ rubbing ọ bụla ndị ọzọ igbu mgbu n'obi. ihe mere i ji hapụ m .. mere .. Very soon my child. Very soon you will know why your father and i are not together rubbing each others aching heart. Why you left me.. why.."