Chapter 12 | The one with the flying watermelons

On Sundays Papa used to take us to the park in Crosby. We hated it. Not the park, the fact that we were forced to go play 'family family' with Papa while Mama stayed at home.

By then, Mama and Papa fought incessantly.

One day we had just come home from the park to find the front doors all locked. Papa hadn't taken the gate key with him so we couldn't get in. Mama was inside but we had assumed she was in the bathroom. We went through Daddi's house (remember we had broken the back wall down so there was no segregation) only to find that the back door too, was locked.

By now, you could see Papa was angry. He started banging on the door and that's when we heard Mama's voice from inside. Papa insisted that Mama open the door but she didn't. I have no idea what was the cause of the fight that day but I had seen Papa's anger enough times to know that Mama was probably justified in her actions.

When Papa went to the front to find a way in, Mama quickly opened the doors and we were let in. Papa was fuming when he came back round and shouted that I open. I refused. Only to be told: 'I'm your father. I even bought you ice-cream today and this is how you treat me?'

If I were older, I would have probably laughed at his mention of it but I was barely 7 and I was terrified. I knew I would have to face the consequence of his anger. Eventually Mama let him in. Not that things got any better after that. In fact, it worsened.

If you were standing at the front entrance of our house, Daddi lived to the right of us. We had no idea new people had moved in on our left until one day we discovered a woman claiming to be our neighbor screaming and ranting on our doorstep.

You see, the previous neighbors had a dog, whom we used to feed. 'We' being myself and Miya. 'Feed' being casting leftovers into the neighbors yard thinking the dog was eating it. On that day in particular, Mama had given us watermelons to eat outside. We ate our way through a watermelon and chucked its peel over the wall. Until the door bell rang.

Naturally, we ran to see who it was.

And there she was. A woman around my mothers age, thin, average height with thick black hair till the middle of her back, an elongated nose and caramel color skin pointing lady like fingers at Mama in reprimand.

New Neighbor: 'I have been trying to clean my damn yard this entire afternoon only to have your kids throw their trash in.'

Mama was taken aback for two reasons:

1. She had no idea who this woman was.

2. She was a timid woman and didn't deal well with confrontations.

Mama: 'Uhm, jee, but who are you?'

In the meanwhile Miya and I had our heads sticking out from the side of the door in awe. Never before had we seen a woman speak so rancorous.

New neighbour: 'I just moved in next door and. . . '

Mama: 'Oh. What happened to the old lady. She used to have a dog. That's why my kids threw the watermelon peels in your yard. I'm so sorry. We had no idea.'

New neighbor: 'Look. Just make sure they don't do it again.'

Saying that she threw all our peels on our front stoep and walked away.

We actually became close family friends and even till this day, still keep in contact.

Turns out her name was she was recently divorced and had moved in with her daughter who was four. When we speak about the incident (and our first meeting with her) she says on her returned home she felt embarrassed. Mama's polite mannerisms had left her flustered. She had expected someone else but instead she got Mama.

Quiet, placid Mama.