My grandmother was endowed with a full bosom.Her breasts were almost militant in their poise.The kind of breasts an undergrad classmate of mine would refer to as 'breastheses' : for she would argue that there are breasts , and then, breastheses! I will leave the judgement to your discretion ! I had always associated pendulous breasts with old age but my grandmother's sadly, did not make this list ! At 80 , they were still full and provided entertainment fior me , and my cousins. Now , don't ask me how! I and my cousin Nneka , were the only lucky heirs to this estatate, to the envy of my aunts and other cousins some of whom were flat chested and never evinced lines at the back of their dresses. My paternal cousins were all well endowed : endowments they considered ,grievous burdens of nature.One of them, by the name Oby, was often jokingly described as 'eggs on stick' . This was because , the only landmarks on her pencil line frame were her breasts ! Katy , an aunt by marriage had a knock out body . At 60 , her breasts had managed to retain their spots at her upper torso just like they did at 16 . One would have expected that after suckling seven children, they would graciously accede to the demands of nature. The suckling seemed to have tempered the pride of these breast a little rendering a subtle elegance to their bearing.Aunt Rose , another aunt by marriage, also had a full chest . A story was told of how her wedding dress could not fit because of this estate.
Breast did happen to me . I was nine, when puberty came calling .As if it wasn't enough that it came uninvited and early, it brought it's other relatives with it so that at eleven , I had a full chest and also , shed blood at the end of every month : a phenomenon I understood then to mean a visitation of God's anger for some past sins ! Unimaginable was the grievous burden these two constituted to me those days .
Thus , I had the position of senior girl forced on me when I had barely shed my childhood.My playmates could not understand these conspicuous ' balls ' on my chest . And yes ' balls' ! A little cousin of mine had hit me hard ( I mean on one of the balls ) during a fit of tantrum. I had winced at the impact drawing his sympathy , immediately.
" Aunty bólu gi ó na-fu gi ufu "? Meaning- Does your ball hurt, aunt ?
Now that you know the genealogy of breasts in my family , I will get back to the story at hand .
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