FED UP!

(…continued…)

As Cynthia rushed back into the house, she met Mabel standing in the sitting room with her hand folded across her chest, with a grin on her face.

  “What?” Cynthia asked her and sat down.

  “What just happened?” Mabel asked her.

  “Leave me alone.”

  “You hugged Chuka. Wonders shall never end.”

                She came close to Cynthia and saw a drop of tear in her face.

  “Mummy must hear this,” she said, laughing loud.

                Mabel went into the room to call her mother and soon came out with her.

  “What is it na?” Cynthia asked, smiling.

                Their mother clapped her hands as she laughed.

  “Cynthia is finally in love oo,” she said.

  “Ooohm, mummy stop it,” Cynthia said, laughing.

  “He finally broke through,” Mabel said.

  “It is just a hug. It doesn’t mean anything.”

  “What about the tear in your eye?”

  “Which tear?”

  “You cannot deny it. I saw it.”

                Cynthia kept quiet and just smiled as her mother and sister continued teasing her. After a while, they left her alone. Mabel coined a song with “Cynthia is in love” and went into the kitchen to dish food. Her mother joined in the song and went to the kitchen also.

  “Funny people,” Cynthia said and laughed.

                It was dark so Mabel put on the lantern.

  “Should I get food for you?” Mabel asked Cynthia, peeping from the doorway. “Or you are still thinking about Chuka?”

  “Don’t worry, I will take by myself when I want to eat.”

  “Love nwa nti nti.”

  “Leave me joor.”

                Mabel and her mother came out to the parlour where they sat down and ate their food.

  “This place is hot,” their mother said.

  “I doubt if the louvers are open,” Mabel said.

                She kept her food on a stool and opened the windows well.

 “Should we put on the generator?” their mother asked Mabel.

  “There is no strength to draw that gen,” Mabel replied. “And Chuka is injured.”

  “I just hope he is ok,” Cynthia said.

  “It will take up to 72 hours before he feels well, but he surely will.”

  “This kind of love that will make a man fight in order to please the family of the lady he loves, I wonder o,” Cynthia said.

  “It is a huge sacrifice,” their mother said, “but it is still not yet a guarantee of genuine love.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Men can do anything just to get a piece of you.”

  “How will someone go through this and not genuinely love you.”

  “Unless you just want boyfriend/ girlfriend things. If you are thinking of marriage, then you are not certain of a man’s love until he walks you down the aisle and says “I do”.

  “It is true,” Mabel said. “These days, men even jilt ladies after the wedding card has been printed and they have spent so much.”

  “Really?” Cynthia asked.

  “Yes o. It happened to one of my course mates in school.”

  “So to get beat up is not a sign of genuine love,” their mother said.

  “That is not to say that he doesn’t genuinely love you,” Mabel added.

  “So what do I do?” Cynthia asked.

  “Just be friends.”

  “He is not a bad choice at all. We know his family. He is a graduate with a bright future, just that he has been looking for a job for more than two years now. Things can still turn around for him any day.”

  “Mummy is talking marriage when I have not even accepted ordinary friendship sef,” Cynthia said and laughed. They joined in the laughter.

  “You plan with the end in view and then start from the beginning.”

  “Let me finish school first joor. No distractions.”

  “I know.

Cynthia got up.

  “Are you going to check on him?” Mabel asked.

  “No. Let me eat.”

She went to the kitchen, dished food in a plate and came back to the parlour.

  “I will check up on him when I am done eating,” she said.

  “You will not go alone o,” their mother said.

  “Why?”

  “It is dark.”

  “And he is alone,” Mabel added.

  “Nothing will happen.”

  “You never can tell. Just be safe.”

 “You are sounding like he is a serial rapist.”

  “You are a serious beauty o and no man is a saint when an opportunity like this presents itself. Five minutes of error can change the course of your entire life.”

  “Ok o.”

                When they were done eating and taking their drugs, Mabel took the plates to the kitchen and washed them. Then she went into her room while Cynthia stayed in the Parlour with her mother. After a moment of quietness, her mother put on the radio in her phone.

  “ooohm what is this one na?” Cynthia asked. “Is not as if you will put a music station.”

  “I want to hear news,” her mother replied.

  “Everytime, news.”

  “Since we are not watching it on TV, I need to listen to radio and know what is happening in the country now.”

  “Let me go and check Chuka.”

  “Alone?”

  “I will not waste time.”

  “Call Mabel to go with you.”

  “Am I a little girl? Is it not in the same compound I am going to?”

  “Ok oo.”

                Cynthia opened the door and left.

  “Girls of these days will not listen,” her mother said to herself after Cynthia left.

                About ten minutes later, Cynthia came into the house sweating.

(…to be continued…)

-©2015.Chinedu Isaac