Again, Mr Goat-Droppings tapped his dirty, slippered feet on the vehicle engine and popped the annoying cane into his mouth for another squelchy bite.

Eartha grimaced and cursed at her luck of a seat partner for the nth time.

At least, he could have left the window seat for me, she thought bitterly. That way I wouldn't have to endure this brashness.

The man, oblivious to the discomfort she was going through, took another huge bite of the sugar stick, filling the air with the annoying sound again.

Eartha turned her nose away to her right side. Almost immediately, she regretted doing that - she had turned to her mother again.

The said woman noticed the turn to her direction before she could amend her gaffe. She looked out from the nameless book she had her face in and graced her daughter with a stare.

'Eartha, are you alright?' she asked, looking down at the young girl from her nose now, the disapproval still evident on her face.

Eartha nodded mutely and stared ahead, not wanting to look at her mother again. She didn't have the time to let herself be bothered by the hurt and disapproval that had been balanced, as precariously as a mouse on a bowl of pap, on her golden-brown face. So, she busied herself staring at the back of the driver's head.

To her relief, the woman just cast her one more glare and returned her attention to the anonymous book.

She released a breath she didn't know she had been holding and tried to relax back in her seat, but found no space to. Goat-Droppings had sat back completely, taking up her space with him, so that he could almost touch his angular shoulder to Mother's if he leaned the enough distance. So, she settled for sitting up straighter, prepared, anyway, for the back pains that was sure to come later on.

She slowly reassessed her surroundings as much as she could from their front seat in the commercial bus. They were four on their own seat, and the last person, beside the vehicle door, was an emaciated sixty-ish old man with cloudy gray-black eyes and a hawkish nose (those had been the most distinct features that had jumped out at her when she first gazed upon him). And she found the eyes to be scary.

Goat-Droppings squelched again and Eartha tried to tamp down her blossoming irritation. Did he have to have such repulsive and tactless table manners?

She had developed an affectionate dislike to him since that first time he had entered the loading bus and asked her to relinquish her window seat to him.

The girl stopped herself from hissing at the memory, just in time.

And it's Mother's fault o! She grumbled inside. If she hadn't told Eartha to move over for the agbaiya*, as she had called him, she wouldn't have budged from the seat.

To add insult to injury, he reeked of poultry, like he had been soused in chicken water before he came to the bus, and his too-white eyes scared her. How can somebody have so bloodless eyes?

His head was an abandoned, black forest. No, the man wasn't a natural dread , but he seemed to have misplaced his comb for a long time now, resulting in the dark, matted clumps that stuck to his head, and didn't look dissimilar to a gather of wet goat-droppings.

The shrill ringing of somebody's Nokia chin chon phone saved her from remembering more gross details of the human beside her.

'Helo!' the owner of the phone stressed in heavily accented Yoruba. She was seated at the very back of the bus and didn't seem to care who heard her.

Mother seemed to have been disturbed by the call too, because she dropped the book to her laps and hissed softly.

Eartha bit at the inner of her cheek and busied herself with the hem of her gray, pinafore dress. If she were a betting person, she'd have bet that she knew exactly what was going on Mother's mind.

The woman was probably glaring at the girl again and reminding herself to give her husband a piece of her mind, once she returned back to Lagos. After all, it was Eartha that had insisted on going to the new school on time, even though Father was out of reach and Mother had never bothered herself to learn the technicalities of making a vehicle move from one location to the other.

So, when the daughter wouldn't let her have peace of mind, she had agreed that they take public transport to Ogun State, where her school was. That was after she had first had her school things sent ahead to a family friend who lived in the town where the school was situated.

But Eartha didn't feel an ounce of guilt for that. That house had been suffocating her and she knew she couldn't stay a few more days, just to wait for Father to come back from his business trip to the East, she just didn't trust herself not to do something drastic.

Also, her new resolution had been to start a new life. Going to school after the first week was over would ruin that for her, she wouldn't be able to blend in very well and make friends.

She could imagine the look that would be on Father's face when he discovered that they had already left, though.

He would first frown at her in a bid to appear stern. But he had kind black eyes, they never scared Eartha at all, instead she always found herself fascinated by them and that always ended in the man loosing all the seriousness on his face. Who could continue to look that way when a child was staring at your eyes in the most peculiar way?

Meelaaney, she could imagine him saying, revealing his slight British accent. Meelaaney, you're a little too much.

She smiled at the image and made a mental note to call him as soon as she could.

'Eartha, would you like some akara balls?' Mother asked.

It was then that she noticed that the bus had pulled into a filling station, and hawkers were already attacking the windows of the commercial bus with their various wares.

Good, we're in town already.

Yes, Father, she imagined herself saying in reply to her father's half-hearted scolding while barely trying to cover giggles with the back of her palm.

'Will you not answer me?' Slight irritation had crept into the tone now.

Eartha stared at the transparent, plastic bucket half-filled with akara, being shoved through the open window by a pair of tiny, dark-skinned hands. Mr Goat-Droppings squelched at his diabetes stick again and her eyes followed a trickle of liquid sugar as they spilled on the edge of the bucket, from - ugh - his big, brown lips!

'No, Mother,' she said, 'I'm not hungry.'

As the bus pulled out of the filling station, the sound of the rickety engine revving up sufficiently covered up the loud rumbling of her stomach.

*Agbaiya - cheat, bully (especially if the person is older)

**Akara - fried beancakes. A local delicacy.

PS: I cut the chapters into two, after trying to reread and realizing they were insanely long . . .

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DISCLAIMER

Hello! If, per adventure, you've come here looking for some romance because this book is labeled 'Teen Fiction', well, I'm really very sorry to disappoint you. This isn't a Romance teen fiction . . . it's just that - teen fiction, original.

I'm only saying this at the beginning so you won't be disappointed as the story progresses. And I really do hate to disappoint people :}

If you still really want to stick around to the end of the story (because I know you'll love it :D) you're highly welcome!

Thank you! <3

••

That said, let's get to the koko of the note, lol . . .

Hello!

Welcome to my second Nigerian based story! :)
I'm really excited to start and finally publish it! (Took me a lil' over four hours straight to write this chapter, lol)

I really hope you all enjoy reading it as much as I am, writing it! :D

Eartha is a really exceptional character and you're all going to bond with her!
This book is actually a spin-off of Alacrimia, my first Nigerian story on here. This is the story of the main character's mother when she was young. So, I'm sure you're all going to bond with Eniiyi's mother a lot better as you learn more about her.

Fact: She's actually my favourite character from Alacrimia! (Since nobody had asked me that in the book ^^)

Don't forget to spoil the book with votes and comments, they are all highly welcome!
Share the story, too, if you think I deserve ittt!
*makes puppy dog eyes*
Thanks in advance :)

Thank you!

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