Growing Yams in London (21 page)
Read Growing Yams in London Online
Authors: Sophia Acheampong
I was chilling on the couch after our huge Christmas meal, when I remembered that I was meant to be chatting to Tanisha online. I looked across at Mum, who was caressing a
sleepy Delphina’s hair as she lay across her lap, and Dad, who had just returned from dropping off Aunt Grace. He was wearing the Arsenal kit Mum had bought him and the scarf from Delphy and
me that hadn’t left his neck since we gave it to him. Mum only stopped playing the
1980s Greatest Hits
album Dad gave her when Delphy and I complained of headaches.
I jumped up and made my way through all the wrapping paper still strewn across the floor (Mum and Dad never made us tidy up straight away), and headed off to my room. I was carrying an mp3
player, make-up from Tanisha (that Mum told me I couldn’t wear all the time) and envelopes with vouchers.
‘Where are you off to?’ Dad asked.
‘I’m meant to be chatting to Tanisha online.’
‘Oh OK, say hello from us,’ he said.
Within minutes of switching on my computer an MSN box opened up.
HotT: | Maaan Makeeda, ur timekeeping is soooooo wrong! |
Makdiva: | Happy Christmas 2 u too! |
HotT: | Well, how is everyone? |
Makdiva: | Er OK. Except Aunt Grace made me get changed this morning. |
HotT: | Y? |
Makdiva: | I was wearing jeans and a T-shirt and apparently u have to wear new or smart clothes because it’s Christmas day. |
HotT: | SHAAAAAME! LOL! |
Makdiva: | I noticed her giving Dad funny looks for wearing his Arsenal kit after trying it on, but he reminded her it was new. |
HotT: | LOL! What about Delphy? |
Makdiva: | The traitor was already wearing her newest ntoma plus a duku, courtesy of Aunt Grace. Conspiracy or what? |
HotT: | So did your Mum wear out that CD your Dad was giving her? |
Makdiva: | U should’ve heard her singing along. Eighties music is seriously squeaky. |
HotT: | LOL! I heard about Delphy and the sweetshop. |
Makdiva: | OMG, has it reached Ghana already? |
HotT: | Yeah! |
This was it; Delphy’s name, not to mention my family’s, would be dirt. No one ever gets kicked out of primary school – well as far as I knew Ghanaian kids
didn’t. The fact that Delphy was seriously close to it was bad enough.
HotT: | Anyway, Nana’s going to talk to her later. She’s a bit worried about having delinquent grandkids, which is totally OTT cos I’m OK. |
Makdiva: | Your lollipops! |
HotT: | What r u talking about? |
Makdiva: | Makdiva: U gave me that bag of lollipops; I gave them to Delphy, and she sold them to her school mates and made ££. |
So how did the whole Delphy’s Dodgy Deals Inc get started anyway?I stopped typing as I could see that Tanisha was typing at the same time.
HotT: | OMG! SHUT UP! U R LYING! |
Makdiva: | No UR IN IT UP 2 UR NECK! So far, Delphy’s keeping up the code of silence. |
HotT: | Nice 2 know one of u has. |
She had a point but I wasn’t going to take the bait. Mum and I had sorted things out. | |
| |
HotT: | Why did u give them 2 her? |
Makdiva: | Why not? I didn’t think she’d set up a flaming business with them. |
HotT: | It’s impressive though. |
Makdiva: | U reckon? I had to deny everything to Mel and Bharti. |
HotT: | Yeah, that’s what u do 4 family! I hope she doesn’t grass on us. U got me punishment on the poultry farm next door for two days, plus babysitting some random |
Makdiva: | LOL! What was the farm like? |
HotT: | I’m becoming vegetarian! They made me pluck feathers off the chickens using boiling water and my bare hands!! That smell never leaves you. |
Makdiva: | Yuck! What did u do today? |
HotT: | Nana took me to every living relative we have! |
Makdiva: | Huh? Why? |
HotT: | 2wish them Happy Holidays. |
Makdiva: | Christmas! All of our relatives are Christian. |
HotT: | Sorry! Anyway that took us from 8.00 after the 7.00 a.m., yes, A.M., mass till about 9.00 p.m. |
Makdiva: | UR Lying! |
HotT: | Nope! It’s crazy! At least in England you can stay indoors with TV. |
Makdiva: | What’s the TV like? |
HotT: | Completely different. Nana has satellite so it’s cool. I mean, some of the programmes are a bit old, and flaming Lights Out doesn’t help. |
Makdiva: | What’s Lights Out? |
HotT: | Don’t you remember? It’s when the electricity gets cut. It’s soo random!! |
Makdiva: | Oh yeah. |
HotT: | It’s only for an hour or so mostly. Then generators come on, but only for the fridge and important stuff. |
Makdiva: | OMG! I couldn’t handle that. Nana has some dark corridors, plus those weird lizard-like things that crawl up the wall! |
HotT: | I know! I found out that they totally hate loud noises. |
Tanisha and I absolutely hate creepy crawlies. When we were both little on holiday in Ghana, every two minutes we’d start screaming at anything that moved.
Makdiva: | Guess what Nelson and I have |
I could see she was typing.
HotT: | NOOOOOOOOOOOO! I don’t want 2 know about u and Nelson cos that seems 2 get me punished! |
Makdiva: | OKAY! |
Mum walked in and sat on my bed, so I discreetly scrolled up past the Nelson bit.
‘So how is she?’ Mum asked.
‘She’s moaning about having to visit so many relatives on Christmas Day.’
‘That’s the best bit! Ask her how many presents she got.’
Makdiva: | Mum’s here. How many presents did you get? |
HotT: | Um . . . 15. |
Makdiva: | OMG! |
Mum was laughing behind me. ‘It’s not so bad is it?’ she said.
Makdiva: | So whilst I was stuck here in the cold, making up the instant custard, u had present number 12 or something in your hands! |
HotT: | 14 actually. |
I heard Mum tut-tut behind me. I could see her reflection in my PC and she had angrily folded her arms. It was funny when she and Nana-Amma got annoyed with each other. You
could tell if there were no kids in the room there would be a major argument.
Makdiva: | So unfair! |
HotT: | But I’m volunteering for a whole year. That’s not going to be easy, u know my Twi is as bad as yours |
Makdiva: | Tanisha?? |
