I quickly ran to the kitchen when the smell of the soup I was warming hit my nose. I took the pot of soup down from the cooker immediately I got to the kitchen and the hotness of the pot handle burned my fingers. I winced and quickly rushed towards the sink, turned on the tap and put my hands in the gushing water. The coldness of the water relieved the pain in my fingers a bit. When I took my hands away from the running water, I saw blisters on my fingers. The spot in my fingers where the blisters had formed was hurting badly. My mood instantly turned foul.

I opened the pot of soup with napkin this time around. As I stirred it, I noticed from the bottom that it had almost burned. A good thing I came into the kitchen soon before it did. I wasn't in the mood for another rounds of shouting and flogging.

"Daniella!" Aunt Caro shouted.

I frowned. "Why is this one calling me now?" I muttered.

"Daniella!" She called again.

"Ma!" I answered and as I was about walking out of the kitchen, aunt Caro walked in.

"Okay you're in the kitchen. Hope the soup didn't burn, this one I'm smelling burnt soup."

"No it didn't." I answered.

"Please prepare semo for me." Aunt Caro said and I found the please in her statement weird. Her statement were usually commanding and never polite. "Thank you." She said as she was walking out and then stopped like she forgot something. "That reminds me, mama called me yesterday and told me she really wanted to see you in the village. I asked her why, but she wasn't willing to tell me."

My face lit up as I heard that. It's been two days since I had told mama to tell aunt Caro that she and papa wanted to see me, so aunt Caro could release me from this prison called a house.

"Aw really! I've missed them o. I really want to see them too!" I said excitedly.

Aunt Caro rolled her eyes. "Em, but the thing is I can't go to the village, so... I don't know. Can you go by yourself?" She held her hands akimbo and poked her face forward as she asked.

"Ah I don't know o."

"How about if I took you to the station where you can get a bus going to owerri, would you be able to find your way to the village from there?"

"Err, yes I can try."

"You're not a baby anymore, so you should be able to do it." She said and I fought the urge to roll my eyes at her. "So get yourself ready today, you'd be traveling to the village very early tomorrow morning."

Hearing that, I wanted to jump and shout in happiness but I did well to control myself. I felt as happy as a lark. The same feeling I had when I was told that I was moving to the city. Ironic right?

When aunt Caro walked out of the kitchen, I squealed quietly and stamped my feet on the floor in utter excitement. So I was finally going to be leaving this prison to the village to see mama and papa again. Oh how I have missed them! But thinking of it, I was going to miss Peter and my other friends in the city so much. That was the only disadvantage that came with moving to the village. The only I repeat.

I walked into my room and took out my phone to chat with Peter, Adam and Gbemi. I informed them that I was going to be traveling to the village tomorrow. Afterwards, I started to arrange my clothes and fold them properly into my luggage. Doing that made me realize that aunt Caro hadn't bought any clothes for me since I moved into her house. The clothes I had were the ones I brought from the village.

Once done with everything that I had to do, I sat on my bed and went lost in thought. I thought of a lot of things. First was how I was going to travel all alone to the village. I know I was no longer a young girl. I could ask questions and all that, but for some reason, I was scared. What if I miss my way? I shook off the dreadful thought. I needed to be optimistic about this before I changed my mind about traveling to the village. I also thought of opening up to mama and papa on everything that I was going through in the city. They needed to know.

The door to my room opening ripped me off my thought. Aunt Caro walked in with cane in her hand. She moved towards me and started to whip me. I didn't shout or cry or even make a sound. I just took in the strokes, confused as to why she was beating me.

Having hit me four strokes of the cane, she stopped and began to talk. "Did I not tell you to prepare semo for me?!" She shouted. Then the reason behind the whips dawned on me. I had completely forgotten about that. You can't blame me, I was too excited about going to the village. Perhaps that was the reason I didn't feel the cane too.

"Oh!" I simply said.

"Oh? C'mon get to that kitchen and do what I said you should do! Don't be silly!" She yelled.

As I ran to the kitchen to get the semo prepared, a stroke of her cane landed on my back and this time, I felt the pain. I rubbed the spot in my back where she hit as I made my way to the kitchen angrily. So help me, I could kill this woman and her entire household.

The day came to an end and gave birth to a brand new day. The day I was going to be seeing mama and papa again. Boy was I happy! I woke up as early as four o'clock, had my bath and did a little bit of chores in the kitchen. That was the last chore I would be doing in this house till the following year. At least, Aunt Caro and her lazy daughters can now do some work. They have been lazying around for too long.

Thirty minutes since I was done with the house chores, aunt Caro still hadn't come downstairs from her room. I checked the time on my phone screen and it read 5:13am. I contemplated going to check her up in her room or just going back to bed. Thinking about it well, going to her room might just cause another issue, so it was best I went with the latter.

I laid down on my bed to sleep for a short time before aunt Caro woke up.

***

A slap on my leg jolted me up from my sleep. I was dreaming about village before I received the slap.

"I told you that we were going to be leaving this house very early for the bus station to Owerri and you're here still sleeping, when I actually should be the one enjoying my sleep!" Aunt Caro kept shouting as I yawned and rubbed my eyes with my fist.

Calm down woman, I'm ready. I wanted to tell her that, but we all know the repercussion if I did. So instead, I just let her keep barking.

"We're leaving now o! I don't care if you've had your bath. I'm not going to allow you waste my time."

"I've had my bath. I've been up since four." I said.

"Oh better! Then we can go now." She said questioningly.

"Yes."

We walked out of room and saw uncle Henry coming down from the staircase.

"You guys are going already?" He asked.

"Yes dear." Aunt Caro answered.

"Take care o. And Daniella make sure you ask questions, don't go and lost." He said.

Like you care! I thought to myself.

"Let her not ask questions na! If she likes, she should be doing like dummy." Aunt Caro said.

Shut the hell up woman!

"Go well." That was the last thing uncle Henry said before we left the house.

When aunt Caro and I eventually got to the bus station, aunt Caro took out some money from her purse and handed it to me.

"Count that money." She commanded and looked at me as I counted it. "How much is that?"

"Thirty thousand naira." I said.

"Good. Now you'd give mama and papa ten thousand naira each. Five thousand naira is for your transport fare to go and come back. Have you heard me?" She asked, drawing her ear.

"Like to come back to Lagos?"

"No to come back to London." She replied sarcastically. "Of course to come back to Lagos! If you like don't come back to Lagos to continue your education, you're on your own. That should be the bus going to Owerri." She pointed at a bus, which on it was boldly inscribed GOD IS GOOD. "Let's go there and make enquiries."

We walked towards the lined up buses and made all the possible enquiries, after which, aunt Caro left me all alone. I had gotten the ticket to board the bus and I was patiently waiting on queue to hand mine to the ticket collector. Once all that was done and I was finally seated on the bus just by the window side, I was relieved and excited.

Before long, the bus started to move and a man in front stood up to tell us all to join him in worship and prayer. People are so accident conscious! We all joined him anyways. The prayer session was going fine until the man started to pray for protection.

"Father I commit our journey into your hands, cover us with the blood of Jesus."

"Amen!" Everyone shouted including me.

"Cover this vehicle, the tires, the engine, even the drivers eyes with the blood of Jesus!"

Okay seriously readers, if the blood of Jesus covers the drivers eyes, would he be able to see the road?

Some people on the bus chuckled, including me. Throughout the prayer session, I didn't say Amen again. I just looked outside the window and watched as the bus moved passed many buildings until I finally saw GOODBYE LAGOS on a sign post.

I smiled.

***

The bus parked at the bus station in Owerri and all the passengers alighted with their luggage. I looked around, confused as to what to do. I stopped a nice looking lady who was backing a baby to ask her questions.

"Sorry ma, I'm going to Umunobo village. Which bus will I take now from here to the village?"

"Umunobo village? Which local government is that?" She narrowed her eyes as she asked.

"Ngokpala."

"Oh oh oh." She widened her eyes in realization. "I think you'd take a bus going to Mbutu. Then from Mbutu, you'd get a bike going to your village."

"Thank you ma." I said.

"This is your first time traveling to your village?" The woman asked.

Oh jeez! "Yes."

"Wait, how old are you?" She probed further.

I had been told severally, when I was little, never to talk to strangers, but I could not easily walk away from a woman who just gave me the direction to where I was going. The least I could do was to be polite to her.

"Sorry ma, that would be enough information for now." I said as politely as I could.

"Oh okay, be safe o." She said.

I smiled. "Thank you. Ma, I'm sorry what did you say the name of the place is again?"

She chuckled. "Mbutu."

"Alright, thank you so much ma."

"Don't forget o."

I smiled. Such a nice woman! As I noticed the woman had gone away, I asked another person for direction to be certain that I wasn't lied to. Not that I thought the woman lied to me, but she was a complete stranger and I was told never to trust a stranger so I had to be on the safe side.

The other person I asked for direction told me the same place the woman had told me, so that gave me certainty of where I was going to.

I boarded a bus and told the driver specifically that I was going to mbutu. As the bus moved, I kept looking from left to right to see if I would see any signpost that indicated my destination. When it was looking like we were going too far already and I hadn't seen any signpost, I decided to ask the passenger sitting beside me where we were.

"Sorry sir, where is this place?" I asked the young man sitting beside me.

"I don't know, but where are you going?"

"Mbutu." I answered.

"We've passed mbutu na."

Oh Jesus! "Driver, please stop this bus I'm going to mbutu!" I hollered.

"We don pass mbutu o." The driver said as the bus came to a halt. A low rumbling sound began to ensue in the bus.

"But I told you I was going to mbutu!" I said angrily.

"Ah I don forget. But you sef you no see mbutu as we dey move?" The driver said.

"Oh lord." I muttered. "Take me back to mbutu o, better take me back to mbutu!"

"How you go talk say make I take you back to mbutu? Where your eyes dey when we pass there?"

"This is my first time coming to the village!" I said in a bit to get sympathy from everyone on the bus. "So I don't even know mbutu. How am I going to get a bus going to back there now?" My voice quivered as I asked. I wanted to cry. I was so frustrated.

"Just come down, you'd see a bus going to mbutu." The man beside me said.

"Driver you're wicked." I cried as I got down from the bus.

The bus immediately zoomed off. Tears streamed down my eyes as I stood by the road side with my luggage. What kind of thing is this? I waited to see if I would see any bus passing, but none did. That bus driver would die by car accident! I cursed out of frustration and started to walk, hoping to see a bus that would take me back to mbutu.

It was getting dark. I checked the time on my phone and it was past five. I kept walking until I heard the sound of bike approaching from behind me. I flagged the bike and told the biker where I was going to. He charged me a high price, which I tried to haggle with him but he didn't budge. I got on the bike nonetheless to avoid wasting anymore time.

We got to mbutu safely and from mbutu I took a bike to Umunobo. It was a smooth ride. As we whizzed passed buildings and hut, the sweet smell of village gave me that nostalgic feel. It smelled mainly of cassava. I could hear the sound of cricket. Oh how I have missed village!

The biker stopped at the front of the house where I grew up. It had been four months since I left the village and the house still looked the same. Not like I expected it to have changed anyway.

I paid the biker his money and he went away.

Mama came out from her room just then and saw me. "Ululu! Daniella!" She exclaimed excitedly and walked towards me.

I ran to meet her and gave her a tight hug. I had missed her so much that I didn't want to pull off from the hug. We were still embracing each other when I heard papa's voice.

"Who's this?" Papa asked.

Then I let go off mama so he could take a look at me.

"Daniella!" He exclaimed just the same way mama did and pulled me in a bone crushing hug. "How are you my princess?"

"I'm fine papa. I've missed you both."

"See how my Daniella is now talking like an oyinbo person. You just went to Lagos o. What if it was London you went to?" Mama teased me and we all laughed.

"Lagos has really been treating my baby well. She's looking fresh." Papa said.

If only they knew my situation over there...

"Where's Caro?" Mama frowned as she asked.

"I came alone."

"Ululu! You came to the village alone!" Mama exclaimed in surprise.

"Yes."

"Wow thank God nothing happened to you." Mama said.

"My Daniella is now a big girl o." Papa teased and put his arm around my neck.

"Paaapa!" I laughed.

"You must be hungry. Lemme get you something to eat." Mama said as she made her way into the house.

"Thank you mama." I said, with a broad smile on my face

Oh it feels good to be back home!

____________________________________________

Heyo everyone! How many of us know that my birthday was yesterday? Just a few of us I'm sure. But who says it's too late to send in my gift?

Anyways, the plot of this story could allow for sixty or seventy chapters cuz Daniella has a lot of story to tell, but the author wants to end it at fifty chapters only. Why am I telling you this? Well because the story might come across as a bit too fast paced in the other chapters. Note the word might. There are some event I might not capture in detail. I might just narrate in a nutshell. I believe you get what I'm saying. But that shouldn't make you stop reading Daniella, cuz there are a lot of sizzling drama that you're yet to enjoy. So stay tuned.

Thanks for reading anyways.

Honestly rate this chapter by percent. And when I say honestly, I mean honestly.

Follow on IG @dan_lexicon