"There's Food At Home"

"Tell Mummy," Mommie whispered to Aku.

If you tell her, I'll give you some of my chicken. Tell her you want Papaye. "

It was a hot Sunday afternoon right after church. The Atopre family found themselves battling the hectic Circle traffic. The streets were bustling with catcalls from hawkers, vendors, and the minibus conductors, popularly known as "trotro mates," but the family of five were almost oblivious to them. Of course, with the exception of the 3 kids, Mommie, Paa Kow, and Aku.

It wasn't really their fault that they wanted food from Papaye, the popular fast-food chain. They had woken up at 5 am to prepare so they could be in church by 7 am, and since Mr. Atopre had a strict Sunday morning fasting rule, they were already starving.

Mommie, the eldest child, was more than just hungry. She wanted to escape having to help her mother in the kitchen when they finally arrived home. Fast food would solve all her problems, and Aku, mom's favorite child, was the best bet for her to get this.
"Come on, Aku, tell mummy," she shouted a bit too loudly without realizing it.

"Tell me what?" Mrs. Atopre asked. All three children froze. Paa looked at Mommie, who looked at Aku and blinked hard at her as a signal that she should go ahead and make the request. But Aku was not ready to be the sacrificial lamb. She knew deep down that their mom was going to reject their request and probably scold them as well. She just wanted peace of mind.

But then again, she wanted chicken, and the extra piece Mommie was bribing her with sounded pleasant. Gathering the last bit of courage in her, she said, "Mummy, I want Papaye."

Time froze as the children held their breath in anticipation of the answer their mum would give as she looked at them with keen eyes through the rearview mirror.

Mrs. Atopre's economist instincts set in. In a split second, her inner mother was triggered. Buying food from outside? No way. It didn't please her and her ancestors. What would they say if she gave in to these preposterous demands these kids were making? Why would they even make such a request in the first place?

Because hold up, let's break it down. Looking at their current traffic situation, they were going to be stuck for another 20 minutes. The closest Papaye branch from their location was at Haatso, and it would take them another 15 minutes to get there, give or take a lot of traffic.

She didn't even want to start thinking about the wait time they had to endure to get their food, since Sunday was usually a busy day for the joint, after which they would have to battle a little more traffic before they got to their little home in Adenta.

In contrast to that, it was going home to make their own food. It would take them roughly 15 minutes to get home and then an hour to prepare their Sunday special of fufu and goat meat light soup. She had already prepped all the ingredients the night before. All she had to do now was combine them and have Mr. Atopre pound the cassava and plantain into the soft, sumptuous ball to go with the spicy soup.

After all her analysis and calculations had been done, the decision was obvious. She turned to the kids with a straight face, smiled softly, and said, "No Papaye. There's food at home. ", much to the pleasure and admiration of her inner mother and an invisible standing ovation from the ancestral mothers' association.