My growing years was in a community where visitors didn’t need to announce their intentions before paying a call. It was simply the way it was.

It was normal to see hundreds of honorary aunties and uncles floating through the doors of my parents house and my parents returned the same courtesy.

Ours was a calm, intellectual and laid-back University community where the evenings after work were spent by the gentlemen at the staff club or folks visiting each other.

They would talk and eager laughter would echo through the house while they ate garden eggs and alligator pepper. Bottles of beer accompanied these relaxing moments and they recounted their tales.

I grew up with extended family drifting in and out of our home and it was likewise in so many other homes that I knew. As a matter of fact, some extended family members were permanent members of the household.

Meals were always prepared in extra quantities so that unanticipated guests would have a warm plate of rice or whatever was available; and it was always enough.

It didn’t matter how tight the house was, there was always room for one more and it was almost tantamount to an abomination for your folks to have to make a special request before they could come calling.

That was the mentality of hospitality back then, but times are certainly changing.

However, it was still such a pleasure that when I went home in August, visitors were still floating in and out to see my mother and I am certainly grateful for them being there and helping to take her mind off things.

So, assuming that I come home and see a strange couple in my house eating a slice of cake in my living room, my primary concern would be to find out if they are menacing, especially since they are unknown.

How did they get in? Are my family okay and not under duress?

As long as everything is as it should be and that they didn’t break into my home, but were let in quietly, I will then settle down to know who they are and why they came calling.

Maybe they are just the new neighbours who came by to get acquainted and my husband is being very magnanimous with my freshly baked cake and my inquisitive self would love to get to know them a bit better.

You never know what story may be lurking in there in their midst.

© Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha

The Daily Post prompt unexpected guests.

You walk into your home to find a couple you don’t know sitting in your living room, eating a slice of cake. Tell us what happens next.