The Orange Brick House

Doyin's grandparents' house was massive. It could fit three condos within it's walls. It was made of fine burnt orange brick tiles, gold detailing on the doors and tall black roofs. It also bore big railings around each window to seal them off from quick-footed thieves and nosy neighbours. There were no trees in the compound, just a dry cemented driveway. Big enough for all the fancy cars that her aunts and uncles turned up with when they visited. The house seemed so deep and large, she always felt that one wrong turn and she would be lost forever.

She had not visited the house in close to a decade. Not since her mother's fight with her grandmother, but now she was driving through the house's big black metal gates onto the cement driveway. She parked her car and then shut the black gates behind her. She stood with her hands on her hips, staring up at the orange house, the black roof cast a shadow behind her. She was wearing a sleeveless white crop top with a pair of baggy jorts, yet she still felt so hot; a bead of sweat dropped from her head onto her chest. She looked around the compound, and it was deserted. Her memory went back to a time when she could hear her grandmother's dog barking loudly in the distance, and the sound of her father and uncle watching football way too loudly in the main living room and hearing their chants and screams. She could almost hear the click-clacking of her aunt Dolapo's heels on the cement. The creak of the house gate made her jump; she turned towards the gate. The hair on her skin was still standing straight from shock. "Who is there?" she asked loudly and deep, imitating her father's deep voice. A young man poked his head through the gate. The man had full, puffy coils and a round button nose. His eyes opened wide; apparently, he was just as shocked to see her as she was to see him. He shuffled through the small gap he had opened in the gate. Doyin straightened and began to slowly back towards her car. The man seemed to notice her retreat towards her car, and he threw both his hands in the air. "I come in peace," he said. Doyin frowned at him. Who was this weirdo? she thought. "My name is Dunsin. I am your grandparents' lawyer. I assume you are Miss Doyinsola Collins." Dunsin said with both hands still raised high. Her grandparents' lawyer? How could this man, who looked no older than she was, be her grandparents' lawyer? She pointed at him, incredulous, "You stand by the gate and don't move. I will make a call." Dunsin seemed to understand and kept his distance as she entered her car and locked all the doors. Once she felt safe, she pressed her communication device on her wrist and called her father. The device buzzed,d and then her father's glowing face appeared in front of her.

"Hello Doyin, have you arrived?" "Yes, Dad, I just got to Grandma and Grandpa's house, but" her father interjected before she finished her sentence, "Oh, before I forget to tell you, your uncle Nife said your grandparents' lawyer would be coming by, a young man named Dunsin. He is the grandson of one of Grandpa's friends. I just sent you his picture, so you know what he looks like." She swiped her comm device to inspect the picture her father sent her. She looked at the picture, then the man standing by the gate, then double checked. "Okay, Dad, thanks for letting me know. How are you and Mom?" "Oh, we are fine, don't worry about us, sweetheart. This is not our first time navigating a new country," her father said. "Sure, Dad, well, I will talk to you later, I have to go now." "Alright, bye, my darling." She hung up. She turned to look at the lawyer, who had put his hands down and was typing something on his comm device. She got out of her car, "Hey, Mr. Lawyer." He stopped typing and faced her. She gestured him over with her index finger, "Can you come here, please? I need help carrying my luggage inside." He walked towards her slowly. "I assume you verified my identity?" he asked. "No shit, Sherlock," she said as she handed him her large, bright, bedazzled pink suitcase. He grunted as he lifted it. She balanced her backpack, purse, laptop bag and comfort water bottle, then headed for the entrance to the house. As she climbed the staircase onto the main floor, she could hear Dunsin's huffing and grunting behind her.

Doyin sat across from Dunsin in the main living room. She had placed a jug of water and two cups between them. She would have preferred wine, but water would have to do. Dunsin, the lawyer, was flipping through a clear display of what she assumed was some legal paperwork. She was scrolling on her comm device, replying to texts from friends. She heard Dunsin clear his throat; she looked up. "Usually, I would have read your grandparents' will in front of the whole family, but your grandparents stipulated in their joint will that they wanted it to be read to only you," he said. She chewed on her lip; she had not known about this, but of course she couldn't have known. Her aunts and uncles must be pissed. She had come on her own because she assumed her mother just did not want to be in the house or around her siblings; they had not told her that her aunts and uncles would not be coming at all. "I'm not even their only grandchild, why me?" she asked. Dunsin only shrugged, "I guess you were their favourite." She scoffed, "I disagree, but let's go with that, so what else did the will say?" He sat up straighter and projected a document between them from his comm device. "May I direct your attention to the second paragraph, the lines highlighted in red?" She squinted at the words. "We, Mr. and Mrs. Lasunmu, leave all our material possessions, including our house, to our granddaughter Miss Doyinsola Collins, upon our death."

Doyin choked on her own spit and went into a coughing fit. Dunsin rushed towards her to attempt the Heimlich, but she shooed him away. She stopped coughing and wiped tears from her eyes, "I'm okay, I'm okay, this just does not make sense. I have not even seen my grandparents in ten years, and why would they leave their things to me and not my mum, their actual daughter?!" She yelled. The lawyer only shrugged again, "I have seen more confusing will situations, Miss Doyin. It might not make much sense to you, but it made sense to them and in the eyes of the law." He swiped his comm device and flicked a finger towards hers; hers buzzed. "That's the will in full. Read it over when you can. There has also been a deposit in your account of five million. This sum your grandparents requested you receive immediately upon your arrival. The rest of their finances and assets I shall inform you of as well, but these are the most important things you should know first." She collapsed into her seat. Five million, she knew her grandparents were rich, but all this was insane. She could only nod at Dunsin as he rambled on about all the other assets and things that she now owned. By the time he was done, the sun was setting. Eventually, he left, and she was left alone in her grandparents' giant house that was now apparently hers.

Her comm device hummed on the nightstand beside her bed. It glowed bright purple; it was playing a gentle piano piece to wake her up. Her eyes remained closed, but she said in a raspy voice, "Comm off!" The comm device slowly shut off the music. A few hours later, she opened her eyes and stretched wide. "Comm device on," she said with a tiny yawn. The device flashed purple. For a minute, before her eyes adjusted, she forgot where she was. It felt like she was back in her own room in her mom and dad's house. Then she remembered where she was, in a guest room in her grandparents' house. She rubbed the bridge of her nose. "What the actual heck is going on?" she whispered before she climbed out of bed. She was not sure what exactly she was doing here. Most of the house was in pristine condition, not a single speck of dust, as if her grandmother's ghost was going around dusting. She shivered at the thought. She had stayed far away from her grandparents' bedroom yesterday, but today she felt drawn to the room. A part of her wondered if there were clues buried in there that would point to why they had decided to hand her their fortune. So she crept towards the room. Her grandparents' bedroom door was unlocked; she pushed it open and peered inside, scanning the vicinity, then she decided she was being silly and ventured inside. The room was large enough to fit three other rooms. There was a living area in the corner, with two couches and a coffee table. The coffee table bore magazines from all over the world. Then there was the bed, a huge king-sized bed that could swallow her whole. Above the bed sat a portrait of her grandfather. He wore a dazzling night-black agbada and smiled brightly. To his right was a portrait of her grandmother; she wore a full iro and buba, and atop her head sat a magnificent gold gele. However, her grandmother's portrait was unsmiling, as she often was in real life, but she was beautiful. Doyin stared at her grandparents; they bore no resemblance to their granddaughter. Doyin's own mother looked nothing like her parents. She stared at her grandparents' portraits, wondering why they gave everything to a granddaughter who looked nothing like them. She moved on to their office space in a separate side room; this, too, was sparkling clean. She went through the papers in the desks and drawers. People hardly keep paper these days, but her grandparents were old school; they preferred to write most things down. Her search went on for an hour or so; she found nothing useful until she heard a clicking sound when she mistakenly touched a small horse statue on her grandfather's desk.

Her ears followed the clicking, and she turned to see her grandfather's bookshelf give way to a small opening. Her eyes bulged. A hidden doorway? Her grandparents were messing with her. What did they need a hidden doorway for? Doyin peered through the doorway and noticed the space behind it was not very big. She passed through the gap and came to a small, empty room. Inside the room was only a comm device on a lone stool. She picked up the comm device, and it hummed and flashed an image. The image was of her grandparents, and then they started speaking. Doyin gasped. The video continued to play; she heard her grandmother's voice. "Doyin, if you are listening to this, it means we are dead. We know this will be a shock to you, but we recorded this video hoping you would find it and that we would be able to clear some things up. Firstly, we wanted to say we love you so much, and your mother." Her grandfather started to speak. "And secondly, we wanted to apologize for lying to you and your mother. We are sorry we pushed her away, but we had to, to protect her. The truth is, we are not actually Mr. and Mrs. Lasunmu; we killed them. Your mother was their daughter." Doyin felt the hair on her arms rise. Who the heck were her grandparents then?