(…continued…)
Not long later, Mabel rushed into the bathroom. She almost pushed her
mother down. Her mother dropped the bathing kits she was holding and Cynthia
dropped the plate she was carrying. They rushed after Mabel and met her in the
bathroom, vomiting.
“What is wrong?” her mother
asked her.
She just shook
her head and vomited again.
“God, what is this na?” their
mother said with her hands akimbo.
She brought water
to pour on Mabel’s head and neck.
“Mummy stop,” Mabel managed to
say and ducked the water splash. “You will spoil my hair.”
Cynthia bent over
to help Mabel and felt a sharp pain in her back. She shouted and stood back up.
“What is it na?” their mother
asked Cynthia, going from one person to the other. “Why are you people doing
this?”
She helped
Cynthia stand upright.
“Don’t worry about me,”
Cynthia said. “Help Mabel.”
Mabel stood up
straight, took water from a bucket and washed her face.
“What happened?” her mother
asked her.
“I don’t know,” Mabel replied.
“I think it is the malt and milk I drank. It turned my system.”
“Or you are truly pregnant,”
her mother said.
“Vomiting in the night does
not indicate pregnancy.”
“Tomorrow will tell,” Cynthia
said, holding her back.
When Mabel was
done washing her face, she stood straight and hissed.
“If I had known, I would not
have taken that malt and milk,” she said.
“But it helped you with the
dizziness, didn’t it?” her mother asked her.
“It did.”
“So no need to complain.”
Mabel went behind the door and brought out the mop and
bucket.
“Leave let me clean up this mess,”
she said to them.
“I will handle it,” her mother
said. “Go and rest.”
“You don’t have to.”
“I want to. You two go now?”
“Ok. Thank you.”
Mabel went out
and pulled Cynthia with her.
“How is the back pain,” she
asked Cynthia who was still holding her back.
“It is better now. It was the
way I bent that caused it.”
“Sorry.”
They got to the
parlour and sunk into the chair.
“Are you still feeling like
vomiting?”
“No. I am fine now.”
They were silent
for a while as their mother washed and mopped the bathroom. When she was done,
she came out to the parlour and sought to know how they were doing. They
reassured her that they were feeling better.
“Let me take a bath,” she said
and went back in.
“Ok,” Mabel replied.
“Do you want something to eat
now?” Cynthia asked Mabel.
“Not now.”
“You need to eat something
since you have vomited the malt and milk and everything else you ate today.”
“My mouth is still tasting
vomit vomit.”
“Drink water and take fruits
then.”
“Do we still have oranges in the fridge?”
“I think so. Let me check.”
“Don’t stress yourself. I can
do that myself.”
Mabel went to the
fridge and brought some fruits for her and Cynthia. After licking, Cynthia went
to the kitchen and dished some food for both of them.
“I can’t finish this one,”
Mabel said when Cynthia brought the food.
“Eat as much as you can. I
will pour the rest back into the pot.”
“That is not hygienic.”
“You are not an outsider na.”
While they were
eating, their mother joined them and ate her own portion. When they were done,
Cynthia packed the plates before her mother could insist on doing it.
“Don’t bother about washing
them,” their mother said.
“Ok,” Cynthia replied.
She washed the
plates and kept them in the rack. Then she took her drugs.
“Who will massage me?” she
asked holding the balm.
“Manage yourself like that,”
Mabel told her. “I don’t have the strength to that now.”
“Neither do I,” her mother
said. “Tomorrow I will do it for you.”
Cynthia put the
balm back in the drug bag.
“Nobody is even talking about
watching TV today that there has been light,” their mother said.
“There is nothing to watch,”
Cynthia said.
“I came with some movies,”
Mabel said. “But I am not in the mood for that now. I need to sleep.”
“We will pray then before you
sleep.”
“Where are the movies?”
Mabel told her
where the movies were. Cynthia got them and selected one. She went to slot it
into the DVD player.
“Leave it until we pray,”
Mabel told her. “I need to sleep now.”
“Oohm, we have to pray fast o.”
They heard a
knock on the door. Their mother checked. It was a neighbor who came to ask for
sanitation levy. She settled the neighbor and locked the door.
They sang, read
their bible and their mother led them in prayer. That night’s prayer was the
longest they had ever done. At a point, Cynthia opened her eyes and looked at
Mabel. When their eyes met, she gave her sign that she was tired, that their
mother should round off the prayer. Mabel gave her sign to close her eyes and
concentrate.
“Let us begin to summarize our
prayers,” Cynthia said when their mother raised another prayer point.
“It remains three prayer
points then we will summarize,” their mother said.
Cynthia feigned
annoyance and closed her eyes. They rounded off the prayer.
“Mummy this long prayer you
chose to pray this night,” Cynthia said.
“Are you not seeing all that
is happening?” her mother said. “Don’t you know that the longer you pray, the faster
the solution comes.”
“Says who?”
“That is what pastor says
sometimes.”
“It is about what you say and
the state of your heart when you are praying.”
“He also says that too.”
Cynthia slotted
in a movie to watch. Mabel bid them goodnight and went into the room. Their mother
watched the movie with Cynthia for a while and went in.
“Are you tired of watching?”
“I don’t understand this type
of film. Let me go to bed.”
“Ok. Goodnight.”
Their mother
checked on Mabel who was fast asleep and then went into her own room. Cynthia
watched some episodes of the movie and fell asleep on the couch. It was her
mother who came in much later, switched off the appliances and woke her up to
go into her room. She sleep-walked into the room and lay beside Mabel on the
bed. When their mother was sure they were okay, she went into her room and lay.
They slept that
night without any incidents.
(…to be continued…)
-©2015.Chinedu Isaac
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