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A barely tall woman in her sixties with dark but smooth skin had just walked into the general ward with another woman who obviously was her younger sister—same look: round face, though a little younger, and quick steps. They both had firm and broad shoulders that were now getting saggy and a bright look enhanced by their makeup.
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With their matching iro and buba, they followed one another with food wrapped in long scarves.
“Aunty mi, wait at the door; let’s ask someone before we enter the wrong place,” the younger woman called to her sister.
While listening to the radio, one of the nurses had gotten him as a gift. Tunji walked into the general ward with robust laughter.
“Finally, something good to listen to! When will we ever hear anything good about Nigeria?” He quizzed the uninterested patients.
“Is this not Tunji? Bola, Adebola! What am I seeing here?” The older woman called to her sister.
“Tunji, Adetunji Amusan!”
“Mama!” Tunji called back.
With curiosity on the side and displeasure at their pains, patients in the ward looked on.
“Mama, why do I feel you and I know each other? Something tells me you called my name. Am I right?”
“Who has done this to you? Why are you not in Lagos? Why did you not reach out to us to tell us you couldn’t brave it to Lagos? I have only followed Bola, Iya Nike, my younger sister, to see our cousin admitted here. Who knew that the nudge I was getting this morning from Sulu the goat was for you?”
“Mama, I don’t understand everything you have said. What is your relationship with me?”
After giving a loud wail and a bit of rolling on the floor, nurses rushed into the general ward and guided Tunji, his mother, and Aunty out.
“So much drama to last the day,” one of the nurses sighed.
“Mama, can you please explain why you have displayed the entire agonies of a Yoruba woman all in a day?”
“Bola, Adebola, what shall I answer this ungrateful child?”
“Mama, I’m currently on duty, and here is no place for dilly-dallying; when you’re ready to talk, take a walk back to the emergency room, where I help the doctors and nurses of this great hospital perform their tasks easily. Ask Made for more, and the people shall do well to guide you to me.”
With a reminder that her theatrical acts wouldn’t cut it, Tunji’s mother ran after him, leaving the food to no one.
After a while, the three were joined by Dr. Solanke, who explained Tunji’s medical condition to them.
Seeing how relieved his mother was to get a grasp of the situation, he pleaded for her to return in a week’s time so he could bid a proper farewell to the people who had cared for him despite not knowing where he came from.
With a convincing look from her sister, Tunji’s mother agreed and hurriedly visited their cousin before returning to Ijebu Igbo to announce how not properly sending Tunji off to Lagos had backfired.
