Chapter 1
Ichie would have been a certified mad man if he were to be living in America; of course his ailment would have had a very long name probably starting with the letter ‘p’. But he was also a lucky man, being born in eastern Nigeria, here people called him ‘mad man’ with that tone that spells admiration giving the impression of genius rather than lunacy. Like the day he pursued his wife through the street with a ball of foo-foo in his hand and people hailed him while Charity ran for her life, she was too embarrassed to go out for the rest of the week and she felt ashamed for her children especially for Onyinye, who feels the most embarrassed by her father’s behaviour. The other children have more or less accepted their father for the eccentric man he was, especially Nwanne who seemed to have developed the capacity to live above the whole chaos. One time when she was five, Ichie had beaten his wife to a pulp and turned Akwugo upside down by throwing things at everyone and everything in sight, when they had finally calmed down, Nwanne was nowhere to be found, Charity had already broken down and was wailing for her missing child when one of the neighbours found Nwanne sleeping under one of the flower beds in her compound, the child had ran their at the beginning of the chaos at Akwugo and had cooked with imaginary friends, served some imaginary people and gone to sleep with some of her friends represented by sticks and broken headless dolls lying next to her.
Every morning he stated what he wished to have for breakfast, it was split between Pap and akara or tea and bread and this morning he had wanted pap and Nwanne was sent to buy the akara from the woman whom Ichie eats from. Buying akara from another seller might seem like a very simple thing where the option is agreeable but in Ichie’s household it meant war.
Nwanne hummed the tune from Sunday service as she walked the familiar street, everywhere was wet from the night’s rain and she walked in zigzag to avoid the puddles that litter the road side. Tall and a bit light skinned, she is considered by all to be the beauty in the family, still a child and unconscious of her looks. The promise of a very curvy female could already be seen in her young body, the male folks have been calling her ‘fine girl’ for as long as she could remember and many even went as far as calling her their ‘wife’. This was normal especially when a female child is exceptionally pretty and it mostly means nothing even though some very mischievous ones could try making true their jokes when the child blooms to teenage age by proposing marriage openly to the parents or friendship, secretly to the child.
Nwanne’s school uniform looked worn but neat; most of her cloths were hand downs from her elder sister Onyinye but since Onyinye was slimmer than she was, most of her cloths end up looking fitted on Nwanne. Some people were even convinced she has gone to shape them so as to show off her figure. Nwanne did not make much sense of their logic, she only wishes that ones in a while she could be able to have a brand new cloth that is hers instead of having to wait for Onyinye to outgrow hers.
The major problem with buying akara in the morning was that her father; Ichie, likes it fried in a particular way. The bigger problem was that the quantity he requires was too small to warrant that kind of special treatment, they none the less provided it for him because of his personality. Nwanne privately feels embarrassed at her father’s strictness and eccentric behaviour which she considers to be an unreasonable stress on the seller. This morning was no exception as she had to wait for the woman to attend to several of her customers before she placed her orders since hers requires special attention, all at the risk of going late to school.
As she hurried back with the black nylon holding her father’s breakfast, Ona was already eaten breakfast on a dining table, she had a plate of fried eggs and toasted bread with a hot cup of tea. Nwanne didn’t notice the child waving and calling out to her until she felt a hand touch her. She turned and saw the man walking past her point to someone in front of her. It was Gozie, her little brother, waving with his hands and motioning for her to walk fast with his fingers.
‘Goo…what happened? I didn’t even see you’
‘Ichie left already, mummy said you should just come home so you won’t be late for school’.
‘Oh! okay, take’ she offered him a piece from the bag of akara
‘Thank you’, Gozie ate his gift happily
‘My counter grew this night, I left it outside like you suggested and now I have more than one thousand million!’ He said excitedly, using the highest number he could imagine. My aunty will say that I am a very good boy, am sure everybody will clap for me since I will have the highest number.
‘Yes, am sure too,’ Nwanne agreed, she had convinced him to rest when she noticed he was really tired but insistent on picking two hundred bottle covers for his maths projects, when he refused, she convinced him to leave the ones he picked outside since the spirit always fill up counter bags for good children. That had cost her the evening, because she had had to pick over two hundred bottles cover that same evening and fill up his bags so he will not have to worry about it the next morning. She picked till it got too dark to even see in front of her before she gave up and was lucky that she has picked more than he needed when she counted it.
As she walked to school that morning, her name was not Nwanne and her father was a doctor and her mum; a nurse, she was driven to school every morning by a driver and she has a lunch pack packed by her mum which she didn’t even want to eat, but her mum always insisted on packing lunch for her. Everybody loved her and wanted to be her friend, she was also a very beautiful girl and she had her own room in their big house with a wardrobe full of her own cloths which are mostly new and unworn because she had too much…
Nwanne enjoyed her day dreams; she could be anybody, in the past she had been a princess, an American based Nigerian girl visiting for the first time, or even the governor’s daughter depending on her mood. But for over a year now she had been Ona, the only daughter of the talented rich doctor.
The only thing Ona had in common with Nwanne was that she also took first position in her class. Ona loved to dance and was pampered by her family, her older brother’s where much older and are living in different countries so she receives lots of gifts from them.
Ona’s life was exciting and fun filled, the things she could do were limitless and the more novels Nwanne read, the more flavours are added to Ona’s life, Ona did things Nwanne could only imagine and toured the world with her family. Venice was one of her favourite places in the world; a city on water with dinky boats to take one around town, the beauty of Paris from the Eifel tower had been her favourite spot, she felt superior when she discussed this places she had been to in her dreams, books gave her stories and took her on adventures and she lived them all by becoming Ona. The beautiful life Ona lived saved Nwanne from a lot of pain and embarrassment, the only area it hasn’t been able to help her was her mother’s pain, Nwanne felt her mother’s pain more than anybody in Akwugo, Charity might have been the one being tortured by Ichie but her last daughter; Nwanne, suffered with her.

Interesting story. Well done! The only thing I think I need to point out is that in a couple of instances, you made use of "AM" when it "I'M".

Thank you, I will correct the mistake immediately

Nice work. Great imagery. Take note of "their" and "there".

i have applied the corrections

Ghost01: Interesting story. Well done! The only thing I think I need to point out is that in a couple of instances, you made use of "AM" when it "I'M".

thanks