FED UP!

(...continued...)

  “Remove your cloth,” she told Cynthia when she got it.

                Cynthia sat up and did so.

  “Are you sure you can do that?” their mother asked.

  “Yes,” Mabel replied. “It is not a big deal.”

  “Ok if you say so.”

                Mabel began massaging Cynthia while their mother watched. After watching for a while, she took the balm from Mabel and began to do the massage herself.

  “You are not doing it well,” she said. “Children of nowadays, with soft hands.”

  “Ok oo,” Mabel replied and sat down.

                After massaging for a while, Cynthia said she was tired and asked her to stop. She stopped and Cynthia lay for a while till the hot sensation subsided.

  “Let me go into the room,” she said. “I want to sleep.”

                Mabel helped her get up while her mother went ahead of her to make sure the bed was ready for her to lie. She lay down, they tucked her in and she soon slept off. Mabel and her mother went back to the sitting room.

  “I hope what is wrong with Cynthia is not a serious matter?” she asked Mabel.

  “Dr. Obinna said she will get better,” Mabel replied. “With the drugs she is taking, she will be fine.”

  “I pray so. This one that has touched her kidney is scary. I don’t need any organ issue o.”

  “It will not get to that.”

  “If you say so. I have already sent SMS to our pastor.”

  “Ok. What did he say?”

  “He said he is praying for us.”

  “Did you tell him about me?”

  “No. Your matter is not something to talk about anyhow. You are the one to tell whoever you want to tell.”

  “Ok. Thank you.”

  “Though I was tempted to tell him.”

  “I will talk to mummy pastor, his wife tomorrow.”

  “Please you need to. So we will know what to do about the issue.”

                Mabel suddenly sat up as if she remembered something.

  “I have not heard my phone ring since we came back,” she said

  “Are you sure you did not forget it somewhere?” her mother asked her.

  “I don’t think so.”

                Mabel searched the sitting room but did not see it.

  “Let me try flashing it,” her mother suggested.

  “Let me check my handbag.”

                Mabel went into the room and soon came out with her phone.

  “It is switched off.”

  “Battery low?”

  “Yes. How did I not remember to charge it since I came back? We can’t trust NEPA people.”

  “I don’t blame you my dear. You have been stressed lately, both physically and emotionally.”

  “Mummy as if you know. It has not been easy.”

  “All will be well.”

                Mabel got her charger and plugged her phone. Then she sat and flipped channels for where they were giving news. Just as she began to do it, NEPA took the light.

  “Ooohm,” she lamented.

  “They will still bring it,” her mother said.

                Barely two minutes after the power outage, there was a knock on their door.

  “Who is it?” their mother asked.

  “It is me,” a guy said.

  “That sounds like Chuka,” Mabel said as she went to answer the door.

                When she opened it, she met Chuka.

  “How is Cynthia?” he asked a bit breathless.

  “Did you run?” Mabel teased him.

  “Answer me na?” he said, smiling like a kid whose secret had just been exposed.

  “She is sleeping.”

  “No need putting the generator then.”

  “There is need. When she wakes up we will tell her that it was you who put the gen.”

  “No. I will do it when she is awake.”

  “Please.”

                Chuka put his hands akimbo and thought for a while. Then he agreed. He went to the backyard.

  “Please come with a torch light,” he said to Mabel.

  “Ok.”

                Mabel got a torchlight and went with him to the backyard where the generator was.

  “Did the generator go off by itself last night?” he asked her.

  “No. Cynthia put it off.”

  “I need to check the level of fuel and oil left.”

                As he tried to check, NEPA brought back the light.

(...to be continued...)

-Chinedu Isaac