A CHRISTMAS COMPETITION: Chapter 3.

DECEMBER 25TH.
CHRISTMAS MORNING
“Merry Christmas, everyone!” Abuja Visitor 1 greets as he makes his way in between the Omode and Raimo’s house frontage.
“Same to you.” Mrs Raimo says as she eyes the two men who seemed in a hurry.
For the past few days, they had only been observing as the Abuja visitors only visited the house of the new neighbours who just moved in.
“Go and bring those other decorations, let us do our finishing touch.” Mrs Omode calls loudly so that the Abuja visitors could hear her.
“By the time i am done setting this up, even Father Christmas will be shocked.” Mrs Raimo also calls loudly as she stands with a silver bell and drapes in front of the house.
Mrs Raimo and Mrs Omode hissed loudly as they eyed each other.

Mrs Omode hangs her silver drapes at the front of her house with the help of Ife.
“Bring those bells and golden leaves quickly.” She tells Ife.
“Ehn?!” Mrs Raimo shouts as she turns around to notice Mrs Raimo also hung a silver drape.
“Mum, what is it?” Ike asks his mother as he hurriedly comes down from the stool he climbed to hang their silver drape.
“What is this, Mama Ife?” Mrs Raimo asks ignoring her son as she moves closer to the Omodes house.
“Wait…” Mrs Omode proceeds as she sets her eyes on what the Raimos hung in front of their house.
“I don’t understand. What are you doing Mama Ife? What am i seeing?!” Mrs Raimo asks dramatically.
“ooooooooohh, so now you have decided to provoke me this way? Putting exactly the same decorations as mine.” Mrs Omode screams.
“I put exactly the same decorations as yours or you are the one who is trying to do exactly what i do.”
“Eh Eh!” Mama Ife claps her hands. “Aren’t you the one always sending your daughter around to spy on people. You think i don’t know?”
“Mama Ife! You know you can’t stand a chance against me, that’s why you have done this. You have to remove those drapes o!”
The entire Raimo and Omode family were out and trying to get a hold of the situation. The two mothers were heavily lashing out on each other.
“This is really getting out of hands o, let’s just better tell them.” Ife tells Ike with a worried look on her face.
“Wait! See!” Ruth screams as she points at the house across the street.
Everyone turns to the direction to see photographers standing together with the Abuja visitors taking a family picture of their new neighbours.
The family looked happy. They were all dressed in sweaters and pyjamas posing in an orderly manner in front of their beautifully decorated house.

“We Lost.” Haliya says as she turns around to look at the two families staring together at the new neighbours.
The two mothers began to wail dramatically.
“Let’s go inside.” Mr Raimo tells his wife.
“We have a confession.” Ife suddenly blurted out.
“Ife…” Ike looks at her unsure.
“What confession?” Mr Omode asks his daughter.
“Ike and i…”
“Huh?” Mrs Raimo says as she suddenly shows interest in what Ife was about to say.
Everyone was staring at Ike and Ife now.
“We deliberately bought the same decorations for both families.” Ike said in a rush.
“What?!!” Everyone exclaimed.
“The golden leaves, The white lights, The multicoloured reindeers, the silver and golden satin drapes…” Ife counted.
“The silver drapes…” Mrs Raimo said confused.
“Eh! Ife has killed me!” Mrs Omode shouts in panic.
“We just wish both families will stop fighting. That was why anytime you sent us to go get the decorations, we made sure we went together to the same place to shop for them. Hoping it will bring some kind of unity.” Ike said looking around.
“We are just tired of the drama.” Ife added.
Mrs Omode lets out a loud scream, unsure of what to do with her daughter.
“Mummy, calm down.” Ruth says as she holds her mum hands.
“It’s Christmas!” Haliya says in a sudden excitement.
“Mummy, you said you will give them double this Christmas, didn’t you?” Haliya asks her mum very excitedly.
Mrs Raimo nods her head slowly.
Ike and Ife both looked at each other and nodded their heads and smiled.
“How about we pair up?” They both said together.
“Pair up?” Their fathers chorused.
Both Mrs Raimo and Mrs Omode raised their head up and staggered slowly towards each other, they both stared at each other with no expression on their faces and then let out a sudden outburst of smiles and laughter.

CHRISTMAS EVENING
The Raimos and Omodes were so busy attending to their guests. They had spent the early hours of the afternoon calling everyone they knew around to tell them they were having a Christmas party
The idea of a Christmas party was from Mrs Raimo and Mrs Omode.
They had spent the later part of the afternoon cooking, boiling and frying. Both families had pull their ingredients together to make the biggest pot of Christmas rice and Chicken for their guests.
Ike, Ife, Haliya and Ruth had all come up with a Christmas forest. They put the the silver and golden drapes across their houses to cover the edges on both sides, arranged all their Christmas trees in the large space inside the drapes forming a big circle and neatly arranged tables and chairs in the middle.
“Wowwwwwwww!” Abuja Visitor 1 and 2 says as they stood at the back of the drapes, coming from the new neighbours house.
Upon entering the compound; they passed in between the giant drapes, and met a large garden of Christmas trees more like a forest, both families had at least 6 Christmas trees each and on the floor were scattered golden leaves everywhere. There were Christmas lights everywhere brightening up the forest and the aroma of food was inviting.
“Aren’t those the Abuja Visitors?” Haliya asks Ruth.
“Yes…” Ruth gasped.
“Ife, go and call mummy!”
Ife dashed inside and dashed back out with the two mothers and Ike trailing behind her. Mrs Omode was holding a bowl of rice and Mrs Raimo was holding a big tray of chicken.
“Good evening to you all!” Abuja Visitor 1 greets.
“And i must say, a merry Christmas indeed.” Abuja Visitor 2 says as she takes a look around again nodding as he could tell the seated guests were having a good time.
“Merry Christmas!” The whole family chorused.
Mr Omode and Mr Raimo had come to join them.
“May i ask, what is the name of this family?”
The families looked at each other as they weren’t expecting the question.
“Omode..” Mrs Omode said in a rush.
“Raimo!” Mrs Raimo added looking at each other as they tugged at each others hands.
“Omode-Raimo?” Abuja Visitor 2 asks in a confused tone.
“O-Raimo!” Haliya, Ruth, Ike and Ife blurted out loudly.
“ORAIMO it is!” Abuja Visitor Number 2 says as she takes out a book and wrote the name down.
“Yes!” They all said as they gave each other high fives, with the children laughing hysterically.
“Alright! We want to take a picture.” Abuja Visitor Number 2 says.
“A picture?” Mr Raimo asks in a worried tone.
“Now?” The two mothers asks.
“Yes, just stand in front of your seated guests and give us a Christmas smile.”
“Okay…” They all said as they tried to arrange themselves for a pose.
“Smile for the camera!” The photographer says with a big smile on his face and captures a picture.
“Good.” He confirmed.
“Now, can we go take a look around and take other pictures?” Abuja Visitor Number 1 asks.
“Yes.” Mr Omode answered.
“Sure” Mr Raimo says as the two fathers led the way.
“Of course!” The two mothers says as they gave each other high fives.
“I told you, Mama Ike! The bigger, The better!” Mrs Omode says very excitedly as they head back to the kitchen.
“We gave them double indeed!” Mrs Raimo says with a satisfied smile on her face.

“Let me see the picture you took of the family.” Abuja Visitor Number 1 says to the photographer.
By this time, they were seated at the center of the Christmas forest with big plates of rice placed in front of them.
“Sure.” The photographer says as he brings out his camera and scans for the single picture he took the family.
Abuja Visitor Number 1 and 2 peered into the camera as the photographer shows them. They both looked impressed by what they were staring at in the camera.
In the photo, the two dads were at the back holding two bottles of wine up, Haliya and Ruth were at the right hand side holding wine cups and seemed to be laughing at each other. The two mothers were at the center with Mama Ife holding a big bowl of jollof rice and Mama Ike with a tray of fried peppered chicken both with a very huge “Mama Africa” smile on their faces. And then Ike and Ife, on the other side. Kissing.
“This is just perfect for the magazine.” The Abuja Visitors commented as they smiled and proceeded to dig into their plate of food.

Written by, GOODNESS FELIX-ADEBAYO.