My fourteen year old self.

My mother laughed, clapped, and then did a swirl. Most people who didn't know her well enough would have thought she was celebrating something. They would have showered her with "congratulations" before realizing that she wasn't celebrating anything. I knew that act. It was the same one she put up before screaming at my father when he dropped little or no money for food. It was the same one she had put up before slapping my brother for coming last in class. The same one she did when people priced her dried fish way less than her selling price before screaming at them to get lost. I was too familiar with her theatrics not to know there was a problem. Seeing her shout at Ufuoma after that act prompted me to run back to where I was coming from before it was too late. "Tobore, you better come here; you want to run?" My mother's voice rang out. I knew better than to continue running. I turned around and started moving sluggishly towards the local kitchen, where they were. Smoke wisped from the kitchen, carrying the aroma of my favorite soup. I wasn't as happy as I had always been when my mother prepared it because I could sense trouble. I was a few inches away from my mother when she pulled me closer to her. Then, I realized Ufuoma was crying. "You see, I've been telling you to stay away from this girl; now she's pregnant!" my mother screamed at me and pulled at my ears. I jumped up and down in the direction she pulled me in and winced in pain. "how now?" I managed to ask. "You're asking me how; didn't you touch her??" My mother screamed even more, and a loud knock landed on my head. "Ufuoma, didn't he touch you?"My mother asked, looking at Ufuoma, who nodded in the affirmative. If touch was all it took to get a girl pregnant, then she was because I really touched her. I was in trouble. What was I going to do?. Ufuoma was my best friend and classmate. My mother had warned me several times to stay away from her, seeing how we often sneaked around. I started crying and thinking of when she could have gotten pregnant. Was it the times when I always wanted to play her husband when we were playing so I could hug her countlessly?. Or the other times when I would casually throw my hand around her shoulder or waist. I was going to be a father. That meant I would have to stop school to care for my family. I started wailing. My mother had warned me about this, but I hadn't listened. But why didn't she tell me first instead of coming straight to my mother? I asked myself. "Now, you're going to take responsibility for this pregnancy," my mother's voice broke through my thoughts. I stood there frozen with fear, lamenting my ill luck, when my father walked in. "What is the matter? he asked upon seeing Ufuoma's and my faces. "I'm pregnant," Ufuoma blurted out. I felt like slapping her. It was as if she never cared about announcing it to the whole world. My father asked me how I got her pregnant, and I explained to him how I had hugged and touched her. My father broke into fits of laughter until tears began streaming down his face. I was staring at him, confused. He asked Ufuoma to go home to her parents, and no one ever mentioned it in my house again. Even though no one made mention of it, I was still scared. I would later swear never to go close to Ufuoma or any girl ever again. I would later become relaxed, seeing that her stomach remained the same. Now that I'm older, I still don't understand why my mother did that to a fourteen-year-old me and a thirteen-year-old Ufuoma. I still don't know what made Ufuoma think she was pregnant. Every time I remember everything, I laugh even harder than my father did on that very day.