FED UP!

(…continued…)

After waiting a little longer, they heard a knock on the door. Mabel opened the door and saw Chuka standing at the door, with his shirt thorn and bleeding from the side of his mouth.

  “O My God!” she shouted. “What happened to you?”

                He did not respond. He handed over the kerosene can to her.

  “What is that?” their mother asked, rushing out to the door.

                She shouted too when she saw him looking battered. She saw some people in the compound looking in their direction. So she held his hand and gently drew him into the house and closed the door.

  “What happened to you?” Mabel asked, taking the kerosene can from him.

                Cynthia helped him sit on the chair.

  “Say something na,” their mother said.

                He just sighed.

  “Did you have an accident?” Mabel asked him.

                He shook his head.

  “So what happened?”

                He looked at Cynthia and did not say anything.

  “Cynthia please come and find out what happened to Chuka.”

                Cynthia sat beside him and asked him. He tried to talk and writhed in pain.

  “Sorry,” Cynthia said.

  “I know you will be disappointed with me,” he began.

  “Why? What happened?”

  “I fought.”

  “Where?”

  “In the filling station.”

                He writhed in pain. They told him ‘sorry’.

  “Why did you go to fight?” their mother asked him.

  “When I got there, the queue was a bit long, so I decided to jump the queue. I tried to do sharp-guy and get to the front.”

  “Why?”

                He looked at Cynthia and said, “Because I knew you needed the kerosene as fast as possible. So I wanted to make sure you get it early enough.”

  “Why didn’t you go to the kiosk?”

  “It is bigger in the filling station.”

  “So what happened?” Cynthia asked.

  “Some guys objected and I tried doing ‘hard-man’, so we exchanged blows.”

  “So sorry.”

  “But you still got the kerosene. How come?”

  “Yes. A woman told them to allow me.”

 “If I had known this would happen to you,” their mother said. “I would have just bought it by myself at the kiosk.”

Mabel went towards the kitchen.

  “Let me boil water to clean you up,” she said.

  “Clean me up?” Chuka asked with a babyish grin.

  “I mean your face,” Mabel said, laughing. “yeye man.”

  “I don’t mind C.Y. cleaning me up.”

  “As what na?” Cynthia asked, smiling.  “Because of kerosene?”

                They laughed.

  “Remove your shirt let me sew it for you,” their mother said.

  “Don’t worry yourself ma. I will just change it when I get to the house.”

  “What will your brother say when he sees you like this?”  

  “He is not around?”

  “Is he not coming back today?” Cynthia asked him.

  “No. He traveled with his wife to the village and daughter. They will be back on Sunday.”

  “So you are alone in the house,” their mother said

  “Yes ma.”

                Cynthia looked at her mother quizzically. Her mother knew what she was thinking.

  “That means you will eat here, before you go to your house,” she said.

  “I thought you wanted to ask me to sleep over?” he asked.

                They laughed.

  “Don’t mind me,” he continued. “I was joking.”

  “I know.”

  “I doubt if I can eat here sef.”

  “Why?”

  “I have food to eat at home. If I eat here, that one will waste.”

  “Hmm. But you will wait for me to clean you up,” Cynthia said. “I mean your face.”

  “Ok.”

                Chuka sunk into the chair. Their mother went into the kitchen and Cynthia followed behind her.

  “Is the water ready?” she asked Mabel.

  “Almost. I just boiled small.”

  “It does not have to boil.”

  “Then it should be okay now.”

                Their mother checked the water and brought down the kettle.

  “Get a bucket from the bathroom and one of those small towels,” she told Cynthia.

                Cynthia went to the bathroom and soon came back with the bucket. Her mother poured the water into the bucket and made sure it was the right temperature.

  “Take it and wipe his face,” she told Cynthia, handing over the bucket to her.

                She also gave her a cup of warm water for him to rinse his mouth. Cynthia went to the sitting room with them while Mabel helped her mother prepare dinner.

  “What would we have said if his brother saw him like this?” their mother told Mabel.

  “It would have been bad o.”

  “Thank God nothing happened to him.”

  “But you did not force him. He offered to help.”

  “That is not how people will see it o.”

  “You are right.”

                In the sitting room, Cynthia slowly cleaned Chuka’s face.

  “The water is too hot,” he said.

  “It is not. This is how it should be so it will work.”

  “Ok.”

                While Cynthia was still cleaning his face, Chuka suddenly held her hand.

(…to be continued…)

-©2015.Chinedu Isaac