AUNTIE

A term used for one’s father’s sister

one’s mother’s sister

a local household employer

female apprentice employer…

Native use of the word is ascribed to any elderly one.

Elderly ones.. Married, single, or engaged.

Anyone who has completed senior secondary school

Anyone whose height and face tells age

Anyone whose body shows signs of puberty

Physical changes and psychological changes

Anyone who uses facial enhancements…

Leaving the environment in my early stage of adolescence and known round the neighbourhood by name,

comes back, just after a year, a big fat year of whole lots of changes to hear toddlers and early teenagers yell “auntie” at my sudden emergence.

Quite embarrassed, I give them a blank look and ask coldly”how are you?”

OMG! I can’t believe it!

I have been unwittingly welcome to the “auntie hood” even without any formal initiation ceremony

Teenage happens like a snap of a finger.

Precocious teens are perhaps, the fastest