Catching The Smoke Before The Fire

"I have known Bro Sunday to be a liar and living a fake life. I can never believe that guy" I said to my brother while we were discussing an issue that had transpired that day. Bro Sunday is one of our uncles.

He and I lived with our aunt (Dad's younger sister) before he disappeared one day without anyone knowing of his whereabouts. Rumours were that he was still in the same state and town but we couldn't trace his location. After what seems like a decade, he just showed up unexpectedly and surprisingly to us. Ever since that day, his attitude and behaviour around us were something I started observing and making sure he didn't do any stupid thing, especially to my aunt who seemed to be more concerned about him as his arrival got into her that she wanted to do all in her best to protect him this time around.

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Before he ran away to only God knows where, we were living with our aunt. We were like cat and rat in the house, always fighting as I would yell at him over different things. This was because I didn't enjoy his lifestyle, one he still put up with today. My aunt would always beg and remind me of the age gap between us and how he was the one who took care of my younger siblings and me while we were babies. "I don't care. That is in the past", I would say to her.

Bro Sunday is a pretender and deceiver and his return only got worse. I would always caution my aunt to be careful and not to believe his words because he was living a fake life. As of then, he was over thirty years old, I am talking about the year 2016.

My younger brother also came to live with us, though my uncle doesn't sleep over, since his return, he has always come and left after staying around as we assumed he was all on his own and his sugar-coated mouth filled with lies, claiming what he wasn't had made my aunt assumed he was doing well but I and my brother never for once believed any of his words because we know who we were dealing with.

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When my brother and I started seeing the smoke around us, we tried to carry our aunt along on how he would show up and twist words to us about his fake life and the things he was doing. My aunt was someone who quickly believed his words and thought he was doing well, not knowing all were fake, he was putting up those attitudes so he could get into her head and dupe her.

We kept cautioning our aunt to be careful with him but she would refuse and accuse us of not loving him. She would want us to embrace him and show him love but we weren't ready to do that, especially to one who doesn't see himself as part of the family anymore but looking for ways to extort from us.

^{Original Image: pixabay}

On this particular day, I and my brother noticed another smoke but our aunt was so blinded by it that she couldn't see what was coming ahead for her. He showed up that afternoon while we were seated outside the house talking about an issue, he hurriedly came down from a bike he claimed to be his own but was for his friend as my brother's investigation brought out the truth which was still unknown to my aunt. He told her to lend him a huge amount of money to fix the bike with the excuse that his bank account was having an issue and could not withdraw directly from his phone. According to him, he would go to the bank the next day to get it done.

I guess my brother overheard his discussion with my aunt and he rushed outside and attacked him, "Bro Sunday, it's a lie. You do not have any money in your account" he boldly confronted him, my eyes locked up with my aunt's and we both laughed as it was funny the way he said it. He began to look for means to cover himself with excuses and lies when he realized the truth was about to be revealed. We knew he was lying but my aunt still couldn't conclude confronting him and believing all we had been telling her about his attitude. When he saw we were trying to stop our aunt from giving him the money, unfortunately for him and good for us, she had no money at that time and had to explain to him to come back next time.

"You aren't giving him the money, mummy" I interfered immediately so that he would know his fate. He stayed for a while that day before he left and for the next days, we didn't see him come around. We were suspicious and also curious about that because this was someone who would show up every day to come and eat since he didn't have money every time on him.

If not for our presence, my aunt would have fallen for his trick and found ways to give him the money. She wouldn't mind borrowing from her friend who was a neighbour living at the other end of the house where a fence had demarcated the building, but it didn't happen.

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^{Original Image: Karolina}

After like three weeks, I was in the parlour with my aunt who was writing a note to give to her typist, I got a call from my brother who wanted to confirm if it was true, "Sis, is mummy there?" he asked without saying hello when I had picked.

"Yes, she is here. What is wrong?" my aunt who was focused on her writing stopped and looked in my direction with a signal to know who was on the other end of the call.

"What is it, Michael" I shouted when he kept insisting I give the phone to her, and I had to tell him it was on speaker so we both could hear.

"Alright, bro Sunday came to the shop now and requested I give him #30,000 () that it was mummy that told him to come over."

My brother was learning photography skills at that time and his boss was a POS agent. We were both shocked to hear that from him as my aunt never told anyone to meet my brother.

We were even surprised how our uncle didn't branch the house first after three weeks of not showing up and not calling our aunt. How he got to know that my brother was learning a skill at a shop, and how he got the address baffled us. If not for my brother who was smart enough to call to confirm, that was how he would have collected the money and run away putting our aunt in debt she knew nothing about.

After the incident, my aunt believed all we were saying about him. Since that day, we didn't hear from him again. We noticed the smoke and prevented the fire on time.