Family time is precious - make the most of it without distractions

We all knew where he was so I rose to get him the minute my mother asked.

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“What is wrong with this boy for God's sake? Why can't he just be where other people are…..” I heard my mom say as I walked into the 3 bedroom apartment where she lived with my older sister and her family. He was curled on one of the sofas typing furiously on his phone. He didn't even know I had walked in.

“Flourish, mummy has been looking for you”

He spared a glance at me and nodded, I wasn't sure he even heard me as his ears were plugged.

“Did you hear me? I said you should come out. We're about to have our first family dinner”

He took his airpods off and gave me the most blank stare I had ever received. I just knew he had not heard a word of what I had been saying so I hissed and walked away knowing that he would follow me.

My siblings were already seated on the blanket on my sister's balcony. Her baby's cot was just beside my mom who had intentionally refused her first grandson out of her sight while my niece was snuggled just beside her father, snoring lightly.

My older sister herself who already began munching on some of the cookies her husband bought earlier in the day flickered her lashes in my direction as I walked out of the house. I knew who they were all staring at so I didn't ask why the disdainful looks in my direction.

Flourish was barely seated when my older brother who just walked out of the bathroom began with him.

“So young man, everyone was out here looking for one way or the other to assist this gathering and you were in there with your phone, right?”

My mother began to speak too,

“Don't mind him! I will soon seize that his phone….”

“I wonder if this is how other 3D character animators behave” that was my older sister. She was talking in hushed tones because she didn't want to wake her baby up.

My younger brother didn't say a word in his own defense as usual. He was fond of keeping quiet and allowing every allegation laid against him, correct or incorrect, go undefended. Sometimes I was the one who stood up for him, but I wasn't doing that this night because he upset me as well.

When everyone went back to being calm, my mom asked all of us to join our hands in prayer. My older siblings and I exchanged knowing looks and quickly bowed our heads before my mother could catch us and begin a sermon.

Immediately after the prayers which lasted thankfully for 10 minutes, my brother in law rushed to get the chicken suya which he bought on his way from work. A bottle of wine emerged from somewhere and I handed out the disposable cups. My younger brother was still on his phone so I just dropped his cup beside him.

“Can you at least acknowledge the fact that you're with other humans, not 3D characters, and drop that phone? It's becoming a problem here” my brother in law said, obviously irritated.

Flourish sighed and took his airpods off especially after meeting my mom's disapproving eye.

“Look, I think we should just ban phones completely when we're having family time. Let's spend time together, that's why we're here” my sister suggested. My older brother shook his head.

“We cannot completely ban phones. What if we have emergency or important calls? Let's just keep our phones away and only get them if there is an important call. What do we say?”

I was the first person who agreed with that suggestion. When everyone had unanimously agreed, my brother in law got all our phones and placed them in one of the now empty food baskets.

“Alright. There's a rule to this chicken suya,” he began when all phones had been kept away. My sister wanted to raise a protest but her husband cut her short. “It's a game. If you answer a question correctly, you get one chicken”

My mother whooped in excitement causing all of us to burst into laughter.

“We actually need a phone here to take a video of these amazing moments” we all knew it was true but because it came from my younger brother, 4 pairs of disapproving eyes turned to him. He raised his hands in surrender but my sister took out her iphone and handed it to him.

“Take as many videos as you can. I'm going to pepper my neighbors on the gram”

We all burst into laughter as the first question was directed at me. The laughter was so overwhelming that I couldn't even answer the question. When my sister got tired of waiting for us to stop cracking up, she took one of the chicken suya and ran away, automatically putting an end to the game.