Leona started screaming and jumping up and down as though she was jumping on a trampoline. “Wow, that’s fantastic, thought you were going to be working with one of his subjects and staying far from the house, but now you will be moving in with us! I can’t wait!”
Tamura just stood there bemused, grinning with excitement at Leona’s childish bouncing and said, “You know we are moving into the cottage; it’s not exactly moving in with you, is it?”
She jumped on him, gave him a tight hug and said, “That’s all right because it’s only five paces from the main house!” She ran off to tell her mother, at least Tamura guessed that was where she was heading to.
After she had run a few paces, she remembered to look back and shouted, “See you later, Mr Nice Guy!” Tamura just smiled, shook his head and went off to find his siblings, who by now were deeply engrossed in different activities with their new-found friends.
Chapter 8
It was as though they were waiting for Tamura in anticipation; they looked at him with expressionless faces as he walked in the door. Tamura knew they were anxious to hear what he had to say, when he said to them, “Don’t look so worried, we are staying, the king wants me to be his assistant with pay too, so you two can start school, right?”
They both echoed, “Right!” And by this time, they were on their feet jumping up and down rhythmically as though they were dancing to music.
When they had stopped jumping, Mara said, “I will be the brightest girl in school.”
Baka said, “I will have the best books ever to read!”
Tamura sat down and watched them with amusement. He thought to himself about what could have become of these children if it weren’t for his brevity to venture out seeking his lost relations and ending up at the king’s compound on that lonely day.
Not only that but the king and his family’s generosity were overwhelming. He thought he was dreaming as it was too much to take it all in. He sighed as he thought about his parents for a minute, and how he thought they would have been proud of him and how much he missed them.
Later that day, Tamura enjoyed devoting all his time to being with his siblings, helping them put away their belongings in the right order as they had strewn them all over the place with excitement and tiredness on arrival. He also wanted to enquire on how he could go about getting Baka and Mara started at school as soon as possible.
Help was all around him, some volunteered to take him personally to the head of school and some offered advice on what to do and what was expected of every student and the term times. The school was a short distance from the compound – about 2 miles away and all the children walk together to and from school during term time. He was told by Chief Bongo that school uniform was compulsory for each child and that the school supplied these and the parents normally pay for these as part of the school fees.
Tamura felt that was fair as he knew no place to buy them, especially here, a place in the middle of nowhere. One of the subjects promised to take him there soon before school would resume after the holidays. Tamura thanked everyone for their help. As if by magic, everyone started talking about the summer fete again with much exuberance. The men were organising themselves for who was going to do what task and by when.
The place was abuzz with agreements and disagreements, much to Tamura’s amusement. After a while, he asked them what he should do to help and they all echoed, “Nothing!”
“You just attend to the king, as you can see, we have got it all covered,” added Chief Bongo.
Tamura felt a bit left out, but at the thought of the arguments going on and all the confusion ensuing, he was glad it was just going to be him and the king and most importantly a quieter discussion about the fete. What he failed to understand was why grown men should argue over things they knew they would do at the end of the day, as they all knew Chief Bongo would have the last say on who would do what as it was his habit.
Tamura shook his head and smiled at them going-on, voices raised and he quietly left them to it, in search of his sweetheart, whom he hoped to spend some time with before it got dark. He reached the king’s house with the intention to avoid the king and his wife, but as he walked in, he found Leona sitting with her parents discussing the summer fete, but they were fortunately a lot quieter.
The king looked up at him and said, “You look like you have a headache.”
“No, dear King,” said Tamura, “I was just a bit distant.”
“I know you are just trying to be polite; those scoundrels were screaming their heads off over the fete duties, weren’t they?” scorned the king. He continued, “Don’t even try to cover for them as we could hear them from in here, yet it’s over 50 yards away from our home. What loud louts they are, are you surprised why I chose you to be my assistant?”
“I gathered you have a quieter temperament, Bongo was driving me to an early grave with his talking,” said the king. Leona and the queen burst out laughing and the king continued with annoyance, “It’s not funny at times I wish I was deaf to silence his idle babbles. If it’s not because I love his good heart, I would have given him his marching orders ages ago.”
They all laughed except Tamura who just smiled as he was
