Chapter Two

To my surprise, there was no one there. I looked left, right and even down too, but still nothing.

Weird. I thought, as I returned to the kitchen.

"Ola, strange enough there was no one…" I started to say before I noticed that both Ola and my sandwich had disappeared.

"What…" I thought, then narrowed my eyes.

"Ola! You sly kid! Get down here!" I shouted from the bottom of the stairs.

She replied from upstairs. "Like I said bro, I'm a ninja!"

I just shook my head dazed. How did she pull that off?

An hour later, I had dinner cooking on the fire. However, I had managed to convince Ola to help with cleaning up afterwards.

Most nights like this and some days too, Ola and I shared house duties between ourselves. From cooking, to laundry, shopping and several others. Our mom, who worked as a Chef at a catering company had to switch from part-time to full-time service since the loss of our dad two years ago.

All of what Ola and I know about culinary, had been taught by our mom and if not for her, we'd probably drain a substantial part of the family's funds ordering take-out meals.

I had just taken the smoked chicken stew off the fire when Ola glided into the kitchen.

"Whatcha doing?" She asked, sounding like one of those Looney Tunes characters. I couldn't remember which.

"What does it look like?" I asked with a raised eyebrow. I knew the eyebrow trick was one she couldn't do, so I constantly did it just to gloat.

She muttered something under her breath.

"What was that?" I asked, pretending I didn't hear what she said.

"Ah-hem! I said may I cook now?" She replied.

"Well, of course you may. Here, handle the rest." I said, tossing the napkin towards her face and began walking out the kitchen.

"No! I mean wait, I mean I said…" Ola stammered. But I was already passed the doorway.

I heard her mutter incoherently again.

"Sorry, what was that you were saying?" I said, popping my head into the kitchen doorway.

"Erm… I said it'll be ready shortly." Ola replied with a strained smile.

"Thought as much." I said you with a smirk as I once again made my way out of the kitchen.

About half an hour later dinner, which was smoked chicken stew and pasta was ready. Ola had insisted on having dessert, so I rushed out to buy a few packets of cookies and a tub of half strawberry, half vanilla ice cream.

Once we had both settled down to the meal with several teasing remarks on one another's cooking, we later got out our assigned school projects and got to work. It had become a sort of routine of ours. Get home, cook dinner, do schoolwork, watch TV and then when it was late enough, I would send Ola off to bed.

A glance at the clock revealed that it was 10:30 pm. I decided that I couldn't let her stay up any longer.

"Alright Ola, you should go to bed now." I said.

"But… but mom isn't home yet. I wanted to see her tonight." Ola protested.

I sighed. I knew that might have been the reason she wanted to stay up late.

"Alright look, I'll give you 10 more minutes okay?" I said, even though I could already see her eyes drooping.

She suppressed a yawn and mumbled her thanks.

It really was rare for mom to come home early. The time she arrived varied but was rarely earlier than 10:00 pm at night. She worked hard to support us ever since our dad passed away.

We did all we could in our own little way to encourage her. At academics, we topped the class. Not because we were born with extraordinary memory but because we studied like our lives depended on it.

Our mom rarely did the housework anymore except on her free days when she wouldn't let us work but instead pampered us, trying to make up for lost time.

Our neighbours always sang praises about how well-behaved the 'Damari Kids' were and how pleasant and cheerful mom was. None of them apart from just one family we are close with, knew how tough it really was for us.

When our dad passed away, they came trooping in with home-cooked meals which we appreciated but afterwards, no one seemed to be bothered anymore. It was like they thought we were over it at some point.

But they were wrong. All they looked at was the surface.

The smiles that we pasted on our faces when we passed by neighbours despite whatever heart-ache we were going through. The casual decline Ola gave whenever her friends had outings because she knew if for any reason, there was a bill to be split, she did not have the money for it. There were times girls and juniors asked me for cash and all sorts, but I’d just smile and tell them to ask later, painfully aware of my almost bare wallet and pockets.

All of these, were proof that our family was having its share of life's troubles. But through it all, we held firm to one another and it was that love and support that sustained us. Besides, they say change is constant. Things were not always as they were, so I believed they won't remain the same forever either.