Uncle Christian, as we normally call him, is my father's brother. Whenever he traveled and returned, he always brought plenty of things for us, and he was kind and friendly whenever he visited. He wouldn't condone anyone scolding us and would always help us beg when we got in trouble with our mum.
As the teenagers me and my siblings were back then, we figured if this man could spoil us silly almost all the time, imagine how we would enjoy ourselves if we went to his place. We would be free to do whatever we wanted to do and enjoy ourselves.
So we decided to approach my mother to seek her consent.
“Mummy, there is something we want to tell you” My sister Ify said as soon as we got into our mother's room.
She looked up from the clothes she was arranging worriedly and asked us if all was well
“Yes ma I replied, we just want to tell you something” I replied and pinched my sister signalling her to hurry.
“We wanted to ask if we could go over to Uncle Christian's house during the summer holidays” Ify replied.
“Is that all?” Mom asked.
“Yes, our cousins are always coming to our house so we want to go and stay with them in their house this time around” I replied.
“Have you wondered why your cousins like coming here?” she said, smiling at us as if she knew something.
“To spend time with us?” Ify said.
She laughed and thought about it, then she said yes. We were happy and couldn't wait for that term to be over. Our cousins, on the other hand, didn't seem to be as thrilled as we were about the news that we would be the ones coming over to their place.
At the end of the term, arrangements were made, and we were happily shipped off to my Uncle's place. My mother made sure she gave us some money which we assured her we wouldn't spend because why would we need to buy anything when we were going to our uncle's house?
“Welcome” My aunt greeted us happily when we arrived, informing us that our uncle had traveled, but he would be back in a week or two. My cousins were also suddenly excited to see us, and soon enough the house was filled with the sound of games and kids talking and laughing.
The first two weeks of the holiday were blissful, we ate, rested, played and didn't even want to enroll for the summer lessons. I will never forget the night my uncle returned. His second son Austin ran upstairs into the living room shouting “Daddy is back!”
My siblings and I smiled because to us this information meant more enjoyment. The events that took place, however, wiped the smiles off our faces. We watched confused as my cousins hurriedly switched off the television, my aunt rushed in and told us to clear the toys and tidy the parlor.
We joined them in hurriedly putting the living room and the house in order before my uncle could come up. Thereafter, my cousins dragged us to the bedroom and thrust books into our hands.
“Pretend you're reading that book. If you don't know how to pretend, you better learn” Oge his first daughter said.
We stared at them baffled until my sister finally asked what was going on. They promised to explain later, and we all opened our books and started reading. We heard Uncle Christian being welcomed by his wife, and then he asked of the kids.
He walked into our room and we greeted him. I noticed my cousins didn't even run to hug their Dad. He asked how we were and left the room happily because he would rather not disturb our reading. We burst out laughing when he left and fell asleep shortly after.
My cousins didn't need to tell us what was going on as we experienced it ourselves over the coming days. We discovered the Uncle we knew was different from the Uncle we were staying with. We were not allowed to play with the neighbors. The television was off limit, he rationed our food, we did house chores repeatedly and barely had time to play.
He also had a very short temper and would yell at us at the slightest provocation. The goodies we thought would be in abundance were not given to us at all. Whenever my Aunt prepared something we couldn't eat, he would force us to eat it, even when she offered to cook us noodles.
“I didn't know uncle Christian was like this” I said to his kids one afternoon.
“I'm tired, I want to go home” My brother complained.
My cousins burst into laughter and Austin said, “Now you see why we're always at your house, even during weekends. So next time, please allow us to come”.
“I'm never coming here to spend my holiday again. God forbid” My sister Ify said.
With the money, our mother gave us, we would sneak out to buy snacks when we became too hungry. When our mother finally agreed to come pick us up, we were ecstatic. As soon as we got home, we all breathed out sighs of relief. My mother walked in with different packages from the car from my uncle.
We couldn't believe our eyes, this was a man who treated us the opposite of how he normally did, and staying with him wasn't what we imagined It would be.
“So how was your holiday?” My mother asked innocently. That was when we realized she knew how my uncle ran his house. We all struggled to voice our complaints, shouting over each other to be heard while she just laughed and hugged us. We realized the grass wasn't greener at his house as we didn't get the freedom or premium spoiling or even a stress-free holiday.
At least we could eat whatever we wanted to our satisfaction in my father's house, and we rested and took naps instead of slaving way all afternoon. But I guess kids will always be kids, and we had to learn the hard way that things are not what they seem to be most times.