MINDSET

DIFFERENT ANGLES

Standing at the corner of the peach painted room, Sam stood there wondering how on earth he got to that point. He was startled and almost running out of patience because he could barely recognize the new image he is seeing and then it hit him, he was the son of one of the city's most celebrated socialites and from the day he was born, a way of life was already chosen for him so it was not his choice to make. The food he ate, the clothes he wore and now wears were all 'predetermined' and the most annoying was that he does not even like peach, it was his mother's favorite color yet here he was in 'his room' where green, his own color was supposed to dominate. His mother had said peach brings out the 'loftiness' (whatever that means) of the Adedotun's. It was just dawning on him that all the twenty three years of his life has been about being an 'Adedotun', the friends he had, the places he visits, what he wears and he was beginning to think if even the air he breathes also have to 'represent' an Adedotun. If it has to, he was determined at that moment to stop breathing.

With an anger he has never felt, he remembered what had led him upstairs in the first place, the argument about the holidays he MUST spend with the Bello's (another society family his parents are trying so hard to cement a long standing relationship with the hope that one day, soonest, as his mother always puts it, Sam will marry Yinka). The thought of that alone makes him want to puke, in his mind, Yinka was a 'spoilt brat' who is as clumsy as 'miss piggy' and the fact that she always gets whatever she wants adds to his disgust at the mention of that name. He wanted to stay home all through the holidays because there is going to be a football competition in the area and although he has been forbidden many times from MINGLING with 'THOSE BOYS WITH NO FUTURE', he managed to become assistant captain by virtue of being an 'Adedotun' (perhaps, he thought, that is the best thing about the name for him thus far) and not that he was not good but he makes the first eleven all the time. He smiled at the thought of playing with his friends even though he has to sneak in and out of the house most times and he even had to keep his kits and jersey with Ike his best friend just so he appears normal when going for his practice, that was the only thing that gave him joy aside the 'akara and pap' they always share after practice. A smile managed to appear on his face, there and then he decided it was time and he is no longer a kid, he was going to confront the 'Adedotun Queen and her King' it either goes two ways, he drops the Adedotun name and all the 'annoying' things it comes with or they drop being the Adedotun's. They either change their MINDSET or HE is setting it clear that he needs a NEW MINDSET beginning with painting his room green, staying back for his competition and yes, never should they call that 'brat' Yinka 'our wife' again.