THE UNION

Chapter 25: JOURNEY BACK HOME

"Grandma." Tolu says as she knock on the door of a upstairs house very early in the morning, she had

left Abuja and went to her dad's village to cool her mind off most of the things she had seen, she also

wanted to seek advise from her Grandmother. A old woman using a walking stick while wearing a

wrapper around her body opens the door, within a second Tolu hugs the woman.

"I've missed you Grandma." Tolu says, her voice was breaking down.

"I've missed you too, what happened? You don't look alright." Grandma says worried. Immediately Tolu

got inside all her little cousins were still asleep so she was taken to a room to rest cause she looked

really tired.

"We have a lot to talk about." Tolu says, she sits on the bed.

"After you rest." Grandma says softly and lays Tolu head softly on a pillow.

Tolu falls asleep within a minute, she suddenly had different dreams of her winning trophies, money at

the station. One particular dream, Tolu is awarded a car and the team all come out of nowhere to

celebrate with her.

"Guys!" Tolu says, she runs towards them. "I won a car." Tolu yells happily, the team couldn't move

except Ayo.

"Why weren't you there?" Ayo asked sadly.

"What?" Tolu asked, she was confused, suddenlu the team's heads all explode. Tolu screams all their

bloods covered in her body.

"No!" Tolu yells as she wakes up, she checked the time and it was already noon. She gently stands up

and looks through her window, she sees her cousins all playing outside while her grandma sits on a

chair staying around the balcony. She never got to know much about her Grandma like most of the

people in the village, she didn't even know her name the only thing she knew about her was that she

was a farmer and she supplies food to the people at the village.

"Let's get this over with." Tolu says, she sighs heavily thinking of the trouble her cousins would be to

her, she leaves her room and goes outside. Her cousins would had all been waiting for her to wake up

all run towards her to hug her, some of them were biting.

"We've missed you." One of her cousins says, she couldn't identify who was talking cause they were all

giggling.

"We came to spend the weekend with Grandma." Another of her cousin says, her Grandma quickly

comes to her rescue.

"Let her go, she needs some strength." Grandma says as she waves her can around them, the children

all giggle and run away. Tolu struggles to get up

"Those dangerous animals." Tolu says, Grandma helps her get up.

"I'm already uses to them, so what's wrong with you?" Grandma asked, she walks back to her chair

and sits down.

"What was my dad like to you?" Tolu swiftly says.

"Your dad......" Grandma says and chuckles. "He wasn't perfect that's for sure, he had secrets like

everyone does............" Tolu interrupts her Grandma

"I just want to honour him, I watched my father died and I couldn't do anything to save him after I've

seen him suffer for so many for taking care of me. I want to honour his legacy, now I'm.just confused

about my own identity." Tolu says.

"You don't owe anyone any damn things this is your life and you only have it once. Do whatever you

want to do." Grandma says talking from experience.

"Well, it's good to be with family." Tolu says, she sighs in relief.

"You don't have anyone you consider family in Abuja?" Grandma asked.

"My best friend died last week so it's pretty hard for me." Tolu says and goes inside the house. Còntens bel0ngs to Nô(v)elDr/a/ma.Org

Hours later, everyone gathers in the dinning getting ready to eat lunch, there's a lot of noise cause of

the kids. "I wrote a speech about family for my homework." A young girl says, she brings out a sheet of

paper from her pocket and stands up. Tolu smiles, happy to hear the speech but she suddenly sees the

dead body of Gboyega sitting beside her.

"No!" Tolu yells and covers her eyes, her cousins quickly run towards her.

"Are you okay?" One of them says.

"Yeah, just a slight headache." Tolu says awkwardly, the young girl scoffs and starts talking.

"What is family? Family are people that are always there for us, people who care about us and are

willing to do anything to protect us. Family doesn't have to be by blood but they are people who will

stand by us, comfort us, listen is and we can't stop thinking about them............" The young girl goes on

but Tolu's mind immediately goes to her team she left.

"Family." Tolu quietly says to herself and exhales deeply.