Chapter 4

Ava ‘s POV

Immediately I got home , I quickly went to find my grandmother before she comes to find me , I‘m sure by now, Mrs Nate would have called back to tell her that she had not seen me in her house.

"Grandmama ! I am home ! Where are you ?” I checked inside her room but she was not there , checked her bathroom to see if she was bathing, she was not there too.

"Okay . . . I know you are angry with me that i didn't get to hand over the envelope, but I promise you I have a huge explanation for that. In fact you will see it when you lay your eyes on me. I am practically soaked in mud water" I said at the top of my voice still looking for her, I'm sure she will be in somewhere in the house my grandmother hardly went anywhere. She was probably angry at me since I didn't do what she asked.

"Where are you Grandmama?” I asked again.

Still no response, so I went to the kitchen since that was the only place I have not checked.

Just as I entered inside, lo and behold my beautiful grandmother, just standing there beside the window, not having a care for my presence, looking at God knows what. Her whole attention was put into whatever it was that she was looking at.

"Grandmama, did you not hear me call you ? I have been looking for you throughout the house! What are you doing here ?"

I could see the smiles on her face when she looked at me, she looked happy at something and I was immediately interested, I wanted to know what so I joined her at the window. I looked through the window but didn't see anything, then I faced her again.

"What are you looking at Grandmama? What ‘s taking all your attention?"

"Come here and keep quiet. Let me concentrate! " she said as she gave me space beside her.

"Concentrate on what? I can't even see what you are looking at , would you care to tell me ? I am lost here actually " I said out of frustration.

"Just Wait, He will come back out now” she announced, still looking at the air.

"Who is coming out Grandmama? Who ? "

"Our new neighbor! Oh so handsome a man. I heard someone bought that house and renovated it and I thought it was probably for a family or an old man. But it turns out that he is actually a young man. Ava darling, you should have seen him, he looked heavenly handsome, even an old woman like me cannot help but smile " she was about herself, I would not lie that I'm not enjoying looking at her enjoying herself. I laughed myself, no not because of the mystery man she is talking about but because she was smiling.

"Grandmama don't make me laugh! you are not even sure if he has a family coming after him , he might have just arrived first " Dismissing her thinking.

"No ! I doubt it ! He is definitely single. I can feel it to my bones and you know I am always right when it comes to these things."

"Okay. . . Okay Grandmama , let us assume that he is single like you said . I have heard you . But he is currently not visible for you to see now , why do you keep staying there . You will see him again when he comes back out or whatever”

"You think so, right? I want you to see him too"

"Yes, I know so. I know he is not going to lock himself up inside the room for the rest of the day , so you don't have to worry about that, and there is no way you can miss him, he is our next door neighbor"

"I suppose so. For the first time I feel good that these fences around here are not so raised up so high” She said in surrender

"Okay I hear you . But I don't think I will agree with you on that”

Maybe it was my disagreement that caused her to remember what she was supposed to do, so she turned to me.

"Ava Damaris ! What are you wearing first of all !? What happened to you? And why did you not give Mrs Nate the envelope. She called me to tell me that she didn't see you. And she waited, so don't give me the excuse of trying to catch up. Where did you go instead of going straight to where I sent you? " she asked, dotting her lips in a frustrated manner.

"Grandmama hold on. You don't have to be frustrated, because I already see you getting there. Just listen to my explanation, I was on my way there but something very unpleasant happened to me and that is why I have the dirt all over my clothes, but just so you know, I still went to her house I just couldn't meet up with her, I had already wasted time complaining to someone who didn't have any sympathy in his blood.” I paused, then continued “I would have just gone to my room instead to soak myself inside the tub and wash every dirt away from my body , but I chose to look for you first , because I didn't want you to worry . But here you are enjoying your view of handsome men"

"Look at you, talk your defense away. She told me that she could not wait, and well , tomorrow is another day. But you know. . . “ she said looking at me as some weird ideas began to cook up in my grandmother ‘s head “... instead of waiting on a stranger , why don't you visit our new neighbor here, I'm sure you will take to his liking just like I have done and he is closer to us . What do you say? "

"I say that I don't need you to set me up with our neighbor, I am sure you remember that we were just contemplating about his family, we cannot be sure if he has a family or not . And Grandmama, our neighbor is a stranger too. We do not know him from anywhere! He could be a serial killer for all I care . Don't try to match us please, I beg you"

"If you won't listen to me, then maybe I have like five more envelopes to distribute to other agencies. I am sure you will like it very much "

" What ? This is big torture ! This is not what is important now ! I am just tired "

" I am tired, too , of your nonchalant behavior. Are you agreeing or not ? Which way are we taking this to?” oh yes my grandmama can be a savage when she wanted to be.

" Okay . . . Okay , I hear you . But please let it be tomorrow morning. I will go tomorrow. You have already taken quarter of my day away from me , I want to do other things , let me get them done and tomorrow we will talk about our new neighbor "

" Okay Good , you have made the right decision . I have things to bake . Go and do your things and I will do mine. And soak yourself well into soap water, you can add some Rose water too , it will make you feel good "

" Alright, Grandmama. Whatever you say " I didn't even bother to wait to hear one more thing before I went away from the kitchen. Some more ideas might creep into her head but I'm not staying back to hear it.

I noticed my grandmother still didn't move away from the kitchen as she got ready to prepare whatever she wanted to prepare for the mysterious man. I just left.

If she continues looking, maybe after waiting for a long while the man will finally come out of the house to do things around , or maybe even make time to greet his neighbors, to greet them, then I would need not to go to his house. He cannot really stay indoors for the rest of the day. He is bound to come outside his house at one point.

But he didn't come out of his house at all , he didn't come out of his house to check out some activities or even anything at all that needed checking , and neither did he come out to say hello to his Neighbors. Maybs our new neighbor is someone like me who does not like to pass their boundary , or maybe he was just unpacking his stuff , whatever it might be , my grandmother will probably get tired at some point. If she waited so much and for so long but didn't end up seeing him. She will know to mind her business. The soak bathing was pleasant and I enjoyed every bit of it. It was even more amazing when my grandmother didn't come up for once to disturb me. I even went to sleep one time in the bath tub because of how cool the bath was, I totally forgot I was not in my bed.

I awoke to the ring tone of my phone. Thank goodness I had taken the phone with me into the bathroom, I would not be able to muster up courage to get out of the bath tub to pick the call . . .

It was my best friend Tonia.

"Hey girl, I thought you were coming over, it is past time already, did you change your mind" We had both agreed to meet at her place to have some fun and I had completely forgotten about it, talk about being a bad friend.

"Oh Tonia, you have no idea what I had to go through today, can you please cut me some slack and let us meet later in the evening instead?" I pleaded. I was always the one canceling all our appointments because of one reason or the other. and I want more than anything to not cancel another one today, if not I would have just preferred to stay at home.

"I'm sorry girl, it's okay . You have to be okay first . I can cut you some slack as long as you are not canceling"

"No I am not, I just need some rest, I will call you"

"okay girl , see you later then. You should get some rest "

"I will my love , thank you "

Tonia had also always been a big part of my life , she was always there for me both mentally and socially. Through out college and even after college.

Even though there were times when I would have thought Tonia would stop being my friend, but she keeps on coming back to me, Always looking after me in all ways possible. At least I'm always in my free mind space when it comes to pushing me on the matters about marriage . She doesn't ever remind me like the way my grandmother does . I realize that my grandmother has been on about me being with someone since she started being worried about me being alone. Maybe I should be worried, maybe something was wrong with my grandma , maybe she has a terminal disease.

"oh God, No! I won't be able to do anything without my grandmama" I said out loud, as if I was making my words stand. I got up from the bath tub, dried up my body, wire the rob around me because I didn't want to bother to change into my clothes until I saw her. My mind was doing full twirls. . . I needed to see her now, I will be better if I set my eyes on her.