FIRST TIME

This is the first time we are doing these things together, and I am nervous.

It is not the big things that scare me. It is the small things. The way you hum when you are cooking and you think no one is listening. The way you argue with the keke driver over 100 naira like your life depends on it.

My mum travelled. You know. And she left the shop for me. I called you that evening not because I needed help to close the shop, but because I did not want to sit alone in that quiet.

You came. With two Gala and one cold malt you said we would share.

We counted money together for the first time. We laughed at customers together for the first time. We sat on that small bench behind the shop after closing, sweating, tired, and just looking at the road.

When NEPA took light, you brought out your phone torch and placed it between us. That small light made your face look soft.

You said, "We have never done this before."

I said, "What?"

You said, "Just... be. No school, no church, no people. Just us."

I did not know what to say. So I just smiled. My heart was beating fast like I had run from Ring Road to Ugbowo.

It felt strange and right at the same time. Like we were writing our own small story inside my mother's shop.

And for the first time, I did not want my mum to come back quickly.