Mommy is there somewhere that you feel really happy when you are there? This was a question my 10 year old son Obi asked me one evening, and I paused for a moment, Obi never asked normal questions like a 10 year old would. He always comes up with questions that will make you think before you can even begin to answer.
As I lay in bed with him and my youngest child Elizabeth, I wondered at his question, and he eagerly sat up beside me anticipating a reply.
Where indeed am I the happiest?....umm.. and then a smile lit up my face. Two reasons mind you brought about this. His question, and the fact that I had been feeling really miserable about my right knee and the arthritic pain that tormented me at will, and the fact that his dad was miles away in London instead of being right by my side. Also the fact that my mind immediately went to my happiest place......my home town.
I love my home town,, in fact it's about the only place that I can think about about and it would melt away any anxiety or sorrow that I may have been feeling, so I cleared my throat, and quietly replied him" I love my home town Obi...I was born there, lived the first 6 years of my life there, and spent every moment I had growing up as a teenager there."
He looked really excited and he smiled and replied that he thought my home town was a village. He wondered what made it so special to me. I then told him a little about this amazing place I had grown to love so much. Obi was just like his dad....his eyes could tell you just how he felt. In excitement it widened and glittered, and it smiled so broadly when his lips smiled.
He quickly came under the duvet pushing Elizabeth further up to me, and waited for me to begin. I told him about the forest and the rivers in my home town, about the hot harmattan afternoons, and cold evenings when we sat by the dying embers of the coal fire in the backyard and listened to the old people tell stories from the past.
I told him about the festivals of the new moon and new yam celebrations, and how the new yam brought also the season of the masquerades, and how at certain ages young boys and girls were initiated into puberty and adulthood by rites and cultural dances.
I told him of the dances by the moon light and the dew that dampened cassava leaves which when you walk by in the mornings, a little flicker from them and your uniform for school would become wet. I told him of sneaking off from school and going to the big lakes to swim and pick cashew and dates to eat. He sat in awe as I spoke, his eyes widening ever so often and suppressing a smile or laughter here and there.
When I stopped talking, he spoke for the first time and said "wow mom your home town sounds like so much fun....I wish we live there now!" I liked seeing him like that, most times he plays outside, so much that he forgets the time and I have to send his sister to get him.
Lying there in bed with me was nice, I saw my little boy again, not this 10 year old grown man....that's how it feels talking with Obi most times, he's an old soul.....I call him Nna madu, which means "someones father".
Elizabeth began to fidget.....the phone rang and Obi sat up quickly and asked again "Do you have a second place that makes you happy to be in"? I looked up at him and smiled ....yes baby....I love being here at home with you kids and dad. His face lit up again as if in acknowledgment....."That's what I told Mrs Mcarthy he said, I love anywhere my mom and dad and family are, that's the place am happiest in."
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