(...continued...)
“O my God!”
she exclaimed.
“What is
it?”
“55 missed
calls and 13 messages.”
“From your
friends?”
“Yes.
Mostly from my friends especially Glory. What do I do now?”
“Return the
calls.”
“No. I am
not in that mood.”
“Then send
messages.”
“Is it
necessary?”
“Yes it is.
They will be very worried.”
“Come and
do it for me.”
She
gave Cynthia the phone and told her to tell them that she is fine but needs
some time alone. Cynthia replied all the messages. Some of them tried calling.
“Don’t
pick!” Mabel told her.
Glory
didn’t stop. She kept trying.
“You can’t
ignore her call,” Cynthia told Mabel.
“Ohhm. Okay
you can answer.”
Cynthia
picked and told Glory that Mabel was not in the mood to pick calls. Glory
insisted on speaking with Mabel, so Mabel had to take the phone. She reassured
Glory that she was fine. After a long talk which Mabel was not listening to,
Glory promised to come and see Mabel the following day and then hung up.
“Please
don’t pick any other call,” Mabel told Cynthia, giving the phone back to her.
“What about
mummy?”
“Call her
let me speak with her.”
“You are
sure your voice will not betray you?”
“No. if she
picks up anything wrong, I will tell her I have cough. Simple.”
Mabel
spoke with her mum with as much calmness as she could muster, yet her mum
discovered that something was wrong. Mabel covered up immediately with her
‘cough’ story which her mum bought. She promised to come and see her mum the
following day. Her mum psyched her by asking whether she saw Cynthia. She
wanted to say ‘yes’ but Cynthia nudged her and she got herself and told her
that Cynthia must be in church. After talking for a while, she hung up. She
gave the phone back to Cynthia and lay on the bed. Cynthia plugged the phone
back to charge, put it on silent mode and lay beside Mabel on the bed. Soon,
Mabel slept off. Cynthia pinged for a while and slept off.
That
night was Mabel’s worst night. She had a rough sleep. She had nightmares and
kept turning from side to side. Cynthia was woken up by the moan coming Mabel.
She felt sorry for her sister who was visibly suffering. She checked the time. It
was 3:11 am. She decided not to sleep. However, she couldn’t cheat nature and
slept off. The next time she woke up, it was the sound of the bathroom door
that woke her. She turned to where Mabel was lying and didn’t see her. She
jumped up from the bed and checked the time. It was 5:44 am. She pushed the
bathroom door open and met Mabel sitting on the WC.
“O sorry.”
Cynthia said and went out, but stood by the door.
“Mcheew.”
Mabel hissed and smiled. “My body guard. What are you thinking?”
“Don’t mind
me.”
“If I still
wanted to kill myself, do you know how many times I got up in the night?”
Mabel
came out.
“I couldn’t
sleep,” she said.
“Eiyaa. I understand.”
“I am glad
you stayed with me. The nightmares got me scared but whenever I opened my eyes
and saw you, I relaxed.
“It is
well. Don’t worry, you will be fine.”
Mabel
looked out of the window. Darkness was speedily giving way to daylight.
“It is
almost dawn,” she said. “There is no need trying to sleep again.”
“I will
still sleep but let’s do morning devotion,” Cynthia suggested.
“You and
sleep.”
“What can
one do?”
“Then
sleep. When you wake up we will do our devotion.”
“Let’s do
it now. No need waiting.”
“Okay.”
They
got their bibles and got set to start. When they knelt down to pray, there was
a bang on the door. (...to be continued...)
Chinedu Isaac
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