The Fabulous Four

By Bunmi Oyinsan, Chima Okenimpke and Sardar Hammad Khan

The Fabulous Four is a children's adventure novel featuring a group of young teenagers, Tunji and Ekaete who are Nigerians, Tamara and Adrian who are Liberians and Nelson the dog. The story starts off in Lagos, Nigeria from where the c

• Language: English
• Publisher: Nurturing MInds Academy
• Release date: May 18, 2021
• ISBN: 9781990288098

Bunmi Oyinsan

Bunmi Oyinsan has an MA from Saint Mary's University, Halifax, Nova Scotia and a PhD from York University, Canada. She has published novels, written and produced for television, radio and stage. She has also written several short stories in anthologies and literary journals. She is also the author of the acclaimed illustrated children's series, Adventures of Anansi and Sewa.

Book preview

CHAPTER ONE

Tunji! Mrs Morin Fagba called again after an impatient pause. Tunji heard his mother call as he lay perfectly still on his bed. He looked around his room, and gallantly fought the desire to shut his eyes.

The room did not look anything at all like his. The walls had been repainted. His walls had been done up in a pacific shade of blue. His blinds had also been replaced. His mother had taken the trouble of using a fabric with airplane patterns on it. She knew how much he loved airplanes and ordinarily, Tunji would have been quite ecstatic about the new blinds, but for the fact that another bed stood intrusively next to his.

It had been decided that Adrian Thompson would share his room! If there was one thing Tunji hated, it was the idea of sharing his room. Never before had his privacy been so threatened. His bedroom had always been his territory and Nelson, his dog and best friend, was the only creature he had ever been enthusiastic about sharing it with. To make matters worse for Tunji, he had not only been prevailed upon to tidy his room in readiness for their house guests, but he had also been made to throw away or send into storage some of his most prized possessions. Oh, how he hated having to give up the bits and pieces of his broken model planes and his dog-eared collection of comics!

Even before laying eyes on them, Tunji decided not to like the houseguests, Tamara and Adrian. Whoever heard of such names? Even worse than having those two breathing down his neck was the fact that Tamara was a girl while her brother was a mere child of eleven. It annoyed him to think that his parents expected him to make friends with the two strangers. Tunji hated the Librarian crisis that his parents kept saying was sure to result in a full-blown war. He was also angry at his parents for imposing the guests on him. Actually, Tunji was mad at the whole world just then. He hated everyone and everything with a force that only teenagers seem capable of mustering.

Mrs Fagba sighed, reminding herself not to allow Tunji to ruin this big day for her. She wondered if Tunji was deliberately taking long to dress up. She suspected that Tunji, who hardly knew the Thompson children, could not bring himself to share his parents' enthusiasm about having them in their home. Mrs Fagba was not perturbed. Until Tunji and Tamara had been almost three years old, they were as inseparable as their parents. Sadly, the children had not met again since their two sets of families returned to their respective countries after the parents completed their studies in Canada. Mr and Mrs Fagba believed it was only a matter of time before Tamara and Tunji would renew their acquaintance. Though Tunji and Adrian had never set eyes on each other before, Tunji's parents also felt sure that as Adrian was just a little less than two years younger than him, they would soon become intimate friends as well. 

If his father decides to teach him a lesson, it would be just what he deserves, Mrs Fagba thought, almost tripping over Nelson, Tunji's dog, as she turned from the foot of the staircase. As usual, contrary to instructions, Nelson had decided to take a nap indoors. As she regained her balance, Mrs Fagba commanded Nelson to go outside, but he simply snuggled up to her, making himself more comfortable. Exasperated, Mrs Fagba dashed angrily out just as the car horn went off.

Where's Tunji? Mr Ore Fagba asked as soon as he saw Mrs Fagba emerge.

He hasn't come downstairs and if we don't leave now… Even before she completed her sentence, Mr Fagba got out of the car, and the moment he opened the door leading into the house, Nelson was up like a flash.

Standing just inside the door, Mr Fagba called out angrily, Tunji if you're not down in five seconds, I'll… he stopped midsentence when he saw Tunji was already on his way down.

Oh, please hurry! Mrs Fagba urged Tunji and his father as they made to get into the car.

Taiye and Kehinde, please make room for your father, she absent-mindedly instructed the twins who were arguing over who should sit closest to the door. She looked at her watch and sighed again. The twins had only recently turned five and believed it was time to start behaving like grown-ups. Sitting next to the door was, in their opinion, a very adult privilege.  

Taiye, you go and sit on Mummy's lap, Mr Fagba instructed the girl who was sitting next to her mother. 

Taiye's face fell, but she quickly complied. Somehow, she sensed that her father was in no mood to hear the argument at the tip of her tongue. She always made the same point. She would remind anyone who cared to listen that she was a few minutes older than her brother as the first of the twins to be born. Sometimes she succeeded in using that argument to make her father reconsider his position, but she could not always be sure he would. This was because Kehinde too had his gambit. 

He would argue that in Yoruba traditional belief, the last of a set of twins to be born is considered the older one. The question of seniority was a never-ending one between the Fagba twins, ever since their grandmother told them the Yoruba myth that when twins are born, it is the younger of the two who is first delivered. The second twin simply exercises his birthright as the senior one by sending Taiye to go and see what kind of reception awaits them on earth. Taiye is also supposed to find out if the world is a pleasant place to live in. The first twin is therefore named Taiye, a shortened form of  To Aiye Wo or Taiwo while the second bears Kehinde, short for A kehinde gba egbon.  

Feeling quite miffed, Taiye decided to wipe off the satisfied smirk she thought she saw on Kehinde's face. Without so much as a glance in his direction, she made sure their parents were not watching. Quickly, she grabbed hold of a tiny chunk of Kehinde's skin between her nails, she then squeezed. Even before Kehinde let out a yell, she had her chubby little hand back on her lap. Kehinde retaliated by slapping the very same hand hard, and within the twinkle of an eye, the twins were grappling with each other while their parents set about disentangling them. 

Stop it, both of you! At once! their mother's voice finally registered.

You two are simply impossible. Who started it? Their father asked, patting both of them simultaneously to pacify them.

He did! He took my seat. Taiye burst into tears, feeling genuinely offended.

You're lying! You pinched me first, Kehinde whose eyes had started watering after feeling the sting of Taiye's nails countered.

CHAPTER TWO

The Fagbas arrived at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Ikeja, just in time to hear the flight's arrival from Liberia being announced. Mrs Fagba explained to Tunji, who was already looking bored that it would take quite a while for passengers to disembark and go through immigration and customs. 

Tunji decided to walk around the airport's arrival terminal while his parents and siblings were waiting. The airport was one of Tunji's favourite places as he hoped to be a pilot when he grew up. Tunji wandered from shop to shop, looking through large glass walls at the various display of a splendid array of artefacts. He was most interested in a corner shop towards the northern end of the long arrival hall. 

It was a toyshop with a whole shelf filled with all sorts of model aeroplanes. There were fighter jets and remote-controlled models of all kinds of warplanes and helicopters. There was one chrome coloured model of a Boeing that Tunji decided he liked the most and he wondered if his mother would let him have it. Knowing his mother, he decided that perhaps he could turn this awful trip to the airport to some advantage by taking a new model plane home. It was easy for Tunji to see that she was in a rather happy mood just then and he decided there was no better time than the present to ask her for money to buy the toy plane. So, hating the whole world a little less, he hurried back to Exit B where he had left his family.

As he approached them, he saw his mother hugging and kissing a tall skinny girl clad in jeans and a red baggy shirt while the bespectacled Adrian who was just as thin as his sister stood next to Mr Fagba. He was clutching a book. The twins who, long before they arrived at the airport, had become bosom friends again, ran here and there chasing each other in a game of hide-and-seek, using adults as their shields. Tunji's father was talking to a tall, dark man whom Tunji recognized as Mr Manu Thompson from his previous visits to Nigeria.

How are you, Tunji? It's amazing how much you've grown, Mr Thompson greeted Tunji.

It's even more amazing to see how tall Tamara and Adrian have grown, Mr Fagba noted as Tamara and Adrian moved closer to join the two men and Tunji. Tunji was indeed surprised to see how tall the two Liberian children were. It was almost impossible to believe that he and Tamara were the same age because she stood towering above him.

I'm sure you two recognize each other, said Mrs Fagba introducing them. You two were best friends when you were babies. Look, I brought along a photograph of both of you. It was taken on Tamara's second birthday. She brought out and passed around the photograph of two chubby toddlers. They were holding hands and beaming at the camera. 

Tunji did not wish to see the photograph because he remembered it well from the family album. From where he stood, trying to look disinterested, Tunji watched Tamara looking at the picture and noticed that she was just as embarrassed by it as he was. It was not only the fact that they were dressed in matching yellow rompers that made the picture so embarrassing to the two young people. It was the fact that when Tunji had first seen the photo, even his mother was unable to tell them apart because both their faces were smudged with a gooey chocolate-like substance.

Mum, please can I have some money to buy a model plane?

Not now, dear, we have to go home immediately. I'm sure our guests must be tired and hungry after their flight.

But…

Please Tunji, we really do not have time to shop for toys right now. Taiye, Kehinde, Hurry Up! We're ready to leave. She called out to the twins.

Outside the airport, Mrs Fagba and the children crowded into the car while the two dads followed behind them in a taxi. Mr Fagba's new vehicle, which they had taken to the airport was not large enough to take them all.

 "This used to be the