First Decade There goes Joojo as usual, walking up to Ralph, tapping him on the head, and saying, “Dumbo.” In reply, Ralph opens his mouth wide and goes, “waa waaa,” causing their mother to look at him in exasperation. His ears are not even big. What is he crying about? Joojo’s smile stretches from the far end of one cheek to the other. Mission accomplished, now he can change to the second gear, “Dumbo, Dumbo, Dumboooo,” a full blown song, and Ralph hits the ground, his cries louder. Next Joojo walks up to Cherie, an amused look on his face, wriggles his little waist, his thumbs stuck to the sides of his head, and his tongue sticking out at her. That one doesn’t even need an excuse to cry, she had just been waiting for Ralph to pass her the baton for this relay crying. Pandemonium. Joojo bursts into a fit of giggles. Their father looks up from his newspaper, and in mild irritation says, “don’t tease your siblings.” “Why not?” Joojo asks. “Because it is not nice.” “And why is it not nice?” And a debate has started between dad and Joojo; a back and forth of ‘whys’ and ‘becauses,’ which soon begins to annoy dad who tries to end the now turned argument, with a “you can’t be rude to me, you know?” which ends the tiff temporarily. Until Joojo advertently brings it up again, even though his mother is blinking fast at him, a silent warning that Mr. Annan is angry, her eyelashes fluttering like two overexcited butterflies. Mr. Annan picks his newspaper from the table and walks up to his room. A frisky child, Joojo is not done; climbing the dining table as music plays in the background, he makes stilted moves, freezing at each point; his own version of breakdancing, then it is time to do the ultimate flip, the move he has been dying to show off for so long; not even worrying about the slipperiness of the table cloth until, crash! He is on the floor. J J o o o For the family of five, who moved from Ghana to Liberia a few years ago, Liberia is a wonderful place, surrounded by good friends 4 The Birthday Journal
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTAyMTM3NQ==