Although, the rain drizzled like sprinkled showers in the sky. I stood by the fact that I wouldn't miss Mr Peter's jumping-the-gun party. My friends, Gabriel, Sam, Ade, and Bosun came to pick me up as promised, and we were in our best outfits. Then, we ventured through the streets, and Peter's Street, which was the third street, was dense, as if it were a graveyard.
The building was the last in the street and the flowers that were planted all around it covered it up beautifully and made the house in the fence hidden but we could hear the echo of the old school blues music oozing out from the compound as we got there.
But as we got to the entrance, one sort of shyness or fear in elaboration held all of us together at once and we couldn't knock or push the gate open.
Although Mr Peter’s building is always locked, he did not have friends in the vicinity who visited him as such. The only thing we knew about him was that he had a music school and his wife was a Jamaican woman who always came to the market on a bicycle to buy stuff needed back home.
“ Are we going to stay here all day” Bosun asked as we stood under the gigantic Neem trees which were planted all along Mr Peter's fence beside the road.
“ Let us wait and see if people will come out and use the opportunity to go in” Sam suggested.
Gabriel walked closer to the fence and peeped through the perforated walls of the fence to see what was going on in there and came back saying he saw no one.
“ Let someone go in and come back to tell us what is going on” Ade hinted jockingly.
“ Then you should be the one to go” I replied and he declined.
Looking at everyone and noticing that none were ready to go first, I put up with the challenge and told them I would go.
“ Promise to come back” they said and I replied “Why not, promise is a debt”
I adjusted my yellow and black stripes Polo shirt and dusted my jean trousers which was by mud which splashed on them on our way.
I walked towards the gate and pushed it softly and it opened without a noise. I entered and closed the gate behind me only to turn back to see the beauty of nature in Mr Peter's compound.
As I walked through the flowers whose fragrance scented like the ones in the garden of Eden, I also observed Rose, Orchid, Hibiscus, Bougainvillea, and Ixora all around the garden which was some feet away from the gate.
I looked straight and saw Mr Peter's house for the first time, the house sits quietly within the compound where flowers wrapped themselves around the walls, and their stems twist gently upward, turning plain concrete into a living tapestry of green leaves. The flowers spread on the walls like soft curtains of colors; pink, purple, red, and white create a softening structure that makes it feel warm and welcoming. Some of the vines extend upward reaching the edges of the roof and they form a natural canopy.
“ Hello and welcome” I heard from the other side of the environment and saw the Jamaican woman who gave me a bright smile.
“ Good day ma'am” I replied and before I could utter another word, she said “Come, have your sit here” and she pointed to a palm-thatched hut which was all around everywhere in that particular space inside the compound.
I sat calmly on a chair in the hut and she said politely, “ I will be back in a jiffy”
My friend's promise came to my mind and I was about to stand up when a young white girl walked up closer with a tray having a jug and a cup.
“ Hello friend” she said and I answered, “Hi friend”
“ Can you have this for a start” she said and dropped the jug and a cup on the table in front of me.
I looked back wanting to tell her that we were much and she noticed my inconvenience.
“ Are you not happy to be here” she said with a smile and told me to smile too.
I smiled and took the jug from my table and poured what was in it into my cup to see that it was a chilled palm wine.
As I took a sip, she said “ I will be right back” and after a gulp, she was back with a tray that comprised a plate of rice and a bowl of paper soup. She smiled as usual and I smiled back then all of a sudden, I heard my name and saw that my friends were standing behind me.
“ You left us outside, sat down here, and started chatting and laughing with Mr Peter's daughter” Gabriel said.
“ You broke the promise” Sam replied and before the matter escalated, Mrs Peter called each of them and asked them to sit in different huts.
“ You are among the ones here for the jumping the gun party as we had lesser attendance than we expected” she said and within a twinkle of an eye, they were all served just like me and we left that day satisfied and tipsy only to go home and sleep for the day.
It was before that I took the quote, “ promise is a debt” a statement I grew up with so firm that if anyone breaks a promise around me instead of upholding it, it pains me like a dagger striking the heart of a vampire to keep it in slumber for over years but after that scenario that happened over fifteen years ago, I believe breaking or upholding a promise is a significant illustration to show the kind of people I am dealing with and to also depend on wearing their shoes in the situation they have at hand.
A native says “If your father's relatives say your ancestral masquerade will dance, and at the end of the day, it doesn't. There should be no quarrel” although, I am a person that don't like to make promises that I can not uphold.