Sweetest Taboo pt4

Since the time we met at the field, Hope and I have become inseparable. Hope Bwalya. That's her name. School has become far more bearable because she is just like me. She is and extrovert and very clever. So clever that even Janet feels happy having her around. She transferred from Kansenshi to our school because her mum got a job near the area. The best part of having Hope around is that she was just like me. Half breed. Ofcourse she was not containing any trace of Indian in her. Her mother was white. At first my aunty did not take kindly to this. she recently moved in with her son Trevor who everyone calls pastor because his father was a pastor. I have no idea what has happened for their family to be dissolved and Trevor will not talk to anyone about it. He is good to us children and ever so entertaining.
On my 11th birthday, everyone who was anyone was invited. My hair had to be put in plaits at the front because of the uneven cut that Mrs Mwalubemba accorded me. After we got home, we found aunty and Trevor at our house. I was so mad! One, because as usual there were thousands of other kids at my mothers house already taking her attention away from me especially now that I need her. Where does she even get the energy to have time for all of them. And they are so demanding. This one wants tea, the other one could not care less for sweet potatoes, the other is shouting for bananas and soemone else is screaming for buns.
Secondly, by the time most of these kids are picked up, there is nothing left for me to fuss over because Mama is too darn exhausted to listen to a word i say. However that particular day I was furious for finding Trevor and Aunt Gift. The looks on their faces implied they were to be a permanent fixture in our house. The vulturuous look on their faces told that they were about to gorge out our cupboard until it was empty. I can no longer only worry about Bana Kulu Themba from next door who always makes a point of feasting on my lunch food just before I come from school, but i had a permanent problem because these were not going anywhere.
Bana Kulu Themba is quite skinny and ancient but still hops around on her broomstick. Sorry I mean her walking stick but I am sure for her they are one and the same thing. When ever it is 12:00 hours, there is a knock at our door 'Odi!! Odini Kuno!'. The knock that rescounds like a clanging symbol even when I am at school because it is deeply ingrained in my subconscience. As soon as it is 12:00 hours, I think to myself there goes my food. So by the time I get home at 13:30, I find her and mum still at the kitchen table. Bana Kulu Themba will be nursing a neat bowl of my chicken stew and Nshima on a separate plate. She deeps her whole hand into her mouth after making a well for the okra. The Okra slithers down her hand but is frogged back into her mouth with a swift lick from her tongue. Gross. The only food that is left over is half my chicken wing and a bit of Okra. I pull a long face which Mama soon discards by telling me not to have 'bad manners' in front of guests.
Yes she still made an appearance for my birthday!
Trevor on the other hand is a big boy. Even bigger than Chisanga. I told Mama I was not happy to have him here. He just gave me a bad vibe but every body was charmed by him. Even Papa was taken by the preachers son. Trevor was so helpful and strong and from the big boy school. He was in grade 10 and Mama began to call him her first born. His mother, my aunty came to the school that very day and flooded Mrs Mwalubemba with enough insults to bombard a nation. Mrs Mwalubemba has not touched a hair on my head since. Hope is now the monitress in class and I am the Bemba monitress. Dante, a quiet boy in my class is a monitor for the boys side and Irvin the Bemba monitor. We never write each others names down and Mrs Mwalubemba does not dare contest any names we write down. Hannah, my nemesis, cannot stomach that my group has been growing larger since Hope arrived at school and worse still, that Dante is always passing me secret notes.
Recently, Mama opened a store outside our house. The mango tree behind the store provides the perfect shade and now that December is fast approaching, the mangos are ready to bear their young. It makes for the perfect store Mama thinks, because you can sell even the mangos. There are sweets in the store, plenty of sweets, and ice blocks and frizzits and bonbon sweets and all sorts of other goodies. It is candy land and teh sugar rush it gives my friends and I is so addictive. Trevor has been told to mind the store. He gives my friends and I free sweets and sometimes iceblocks. Sometimes if we are good and don't tell Mama about his girlfriend being at the store with him, Trevor gives us a bit of money for Chapattis at school. Maybe  I was wrong about Trevor after all. He is funny and has big arms with lines going through them. The type of lines that you see when Papa is angry with one of us and his neck is streched out. Trevor says that these lines are because he is a big man then he picks me up and flings me over his shoulder. He begins turn me around whilst Janet and Hope scream for him to put me down lest he drops me. Trevor turns me around whilst holding my legs and one hand on my bum. My hands are dangling over his shoulder swinging away.
When he puts me down, I am so dizzy and fall gently to the ground giggling. My friends come and pick me from the ground and dust my dress off. Trevor winks at me and returns to the shop. I feel sick but I am not sure why.