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It was Christmas and the Ofodile's all arrived their family house in the village to celebrate, the smell of old books mixed with the mouth-watering aroma of fried chicken filled the house.
For the first time in 15 years, the family came together under the same roof. Mama Emeka-their mother, had made sure all of her children returned home that December, not because of Christmas but because she had an important issue to discuss with them.
She sat on the middle couch in the sitting room while observing the faces before her: Emeka the eldest, calm and reserved, Victor the second born, chioma the third born and Ifunaya the last born. The ceiling fan moved in circles, making a faint noise.
"I called this meeting because I'm tired of the disunity amongst my children. If your father was still alive he won't be happy with this. I'm tired and I've decided to put an end to this today!" Mama Emeka finally spoke.
Victor shifted uneasily on the couch, his face twisted into a tight expression. "Mama some deeds can't just be forgiven."
"Victor, please let's not act like kids here, we are all grown-ups now and should reason like one. Mama is actually speaking the fact, this silent war has been going on for too long." Chioma spoke.
"No chioma, Victor is actually right, you were never the one being betrayed here so you won't know how it feels like. Emeka chipped in coldly.
"Let's talk about this one and for all." Emeka spoke, rising up to his feet.
"Ifunaya, 10 years ago, you presented a business idea to me-selling of electronics. The idea sounded nice to me and I bought it. We invested together in the business and later when things got bad you labelled me a thief and told everyone that I took all the profit for myself and left you with nothing." Emeka spoke, his voice full of pain.
"You did take the money!" Ifunaya exclaimed standing up to her feet. "You changed the business account without informing me and only you had full access to it."
"I did what I had to do because you were spending the money on irrelevant things, our business was collapsing and I did my best to save it."
"Do you know how it felt? To watch everything you worked for being taken away by your own brother." Ifunaya spoke.
The duo stood across each other, looking at themselves with eyes full of resentment.
Mama Emeka tired of the whole drama, decided to let the cat out of the bag.
"Few months after the death of your father, I discovered the bank had mistakenly put a loan repayment under Emeka's name. That was the reason why money disappeared mysteriously from the account. Emeka struggled to fix things quietly without letting anyone else notice."
"Seriously?" Ifunaya's spoke faintly "You never told me or anyone else, you should have let me know about it, we could have fixed th together."
"You wouldn't have believed me even if I did, morever you never gave me a chance to talk things out with you." Emeka responded.
There was a long silence in the palour then Victor finally spoke, so you people bore malice for about 10 years all just because of pride?
A moment of silence fell across the room.
"I wish I had known better..." Ifunaya finally broke the silence as she reached towards Emeka.
Emeka leaned forward and they were wrapped in a warm embrace.
Mama looked at her children with joy in her heart and said "These are my children I remember."
Everyone laughed "so now we can now have a united family once again." Victor spoke.
"Seems Mama's prayers finally worked." Chioma added.
"This calls for celebration." Emeka spoke with a grin on his face.
They all rushed to the dinning table where lunch was being served, jollof rice with fried chicken was served and the aroma filled the whole room.
"If papa could see us right now, he would be so proud of us." Ifunaya spoke while they were at the table.
"This is exactly how a family should be." Mama chipped in.
"I have a new idea we can probably invest in without changing the account this time around." Ifunaya said to Emeka jokingly.
"That can only be possible if you promise not to call me a thief again." Emeka said with a smile on his face as everyone in the room laughed. It was a happy moment for all, one that hasn't been seen for a long time.