I witnessed one of the most beautiful scenes in February. I took a 2 day trip to Port Harcourt to retrieve one of my school documents which I recently discovered had been forgotten there during the holidays. The house was unusually quiet without the music from my older brother's MP3 player and my mom shouting one name or the other for assistance.
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Apart from the gentle fussing of my nephew as he was being bathed for the evening and a generator sound close by, everywhere was quiet when I arrived.
“Treasure, you're here. Welcome” my brother in law smiled broadly at me. I returned the smile and headed straight to the bathroom where I knew my sister was.
“Aunty Treasure!” My nephew babbled as he saw me first, his mother gladly handed him over.
“Welcome” she told me, I thanked her and headed straight to the children's room where I had slept during the holidays to check for the document.
I found it in my niece's wardrobe.
I was about to turn off the lights when my sister came into the room.
“Treasure, do you think you can manage with Jay bobo on your own? I'm going in for prayers with my husband”
I'LL BE THERE - Gabriela Bee (Cover)
I shrugged. It wasn't going to be the first time I stayed awake for the most part of the night if he began to make a fuss. Or I could just go over to their room and knock when that fussing became unbearable.
It was about 3 am when I woke up to check up on the children. I managed to lift my niece who had doubled in weight as she was sleeping and take her to her potty then I checked on my nephew in his cot. He was still asleep.
I was about to go back to bed when I thought I heard singing.
I turned the lights in the corridor on and traced the sound. It was low but perfectly audible through the silence of the night.
“.... Everybody needs somebody, and you got me
You know that I know that you know that
I'll be there for the highs and lows
Give you mine if your heart gets broke
By your side when you're all alone
I'll be there…..” I'LL BE THERE - Gabriela Bee (Lyrics)
It was coming from my sister's room. I wondered what they were doing until 3 am and why they were singing but I didn't knock. They sounded like they were having fun so I crept back to the children's room, turning the lights back off as I went to bed.
The following morning, I had to single handedly prepare and drop my niece at school, then bathe and feed my nephew. Their parents slept till noon.
My sister looked tired when she trudged over to the kitchen. I was still slicing plantain for our breakfast at the time.
“Treasure, you dropped Kima off at school already?”
I smiled. “It's past 12 big sis”
She opened her eyes wide in surprise.
“I didn't know we slept that long. My husband has even refused to get up from the bed.” She picked my phone up to confirm. “Can you imagine?”
I laughed at her. If I was not around or didn't know my niece's school routine, she would have skipped school that day.
“But what were you guys doing throughout the night? I even heard singing at 3 am. I didn't mean to eavesdrop but you guys were audible”
She laughed softly
“We knew you were there. You turned on the lights, remember? I even thought you were bringing your nephew to me”
“He didn't disturb last night but you guys did”
“You won't give up eh?” I shook my head and she sighed.
“My husband and I…there's this thing we do every month. “We time”. We do it during weekends when we can drop Kima at her friend's house and manage with Jay alone but since you said you were coming, we decided to take advantage of that”
I totally understood what she was saying, what I didn't understand was why they were singing.
“Ehn I understand, but why were you people singing?”
She shrugged. “It was part of it. We found a song by Gabriela Bee and decided to use it for our karaoke time. It's an amazing song that talks about friends being there for each other. That kind of stuff”
I didn't want to ask any more questions so I just nodded. It made me see the beauty in marriage, that they made time to be alone with each other despite the huge responsibility that came with having kids, even if it meant staying up almost throughout the night.
If there was anything I began to wish for at that point, it was that my husband and I would be just like them.