FED UP!

(…continued…)

          Mabel and her mother went after her. Cynthia ran outside and to Chuka’s apartment. She pushed the door and went in. They went in with her. When they got in, what they saw shocked them.

                They saw a little bottle of drugs open with some spilled on the ground. Then they saw Chuka lying on the floor, face down.

  “Chuka chukka,” they shouted as they shook him.

  “He is still breathing but he needs help as fast as possible,” Mabel said.

  “Let me go and get palm oil,” their mother said and rushed out.

  “What happened?” Mabel asked Cynthia.

  “I searched for him everywhere in the compound,” Cynthia said, crying. “Then I came here. I knocked but no one responded. I saw that the door was open, so I came in and met him like this.”

  “Did you tell anybody?”

  “No.”

                The door opened and two of their neighbours came in.

  “What happened?” one of them asked.

  “We just came and saw Chuka like this o,” Mabel replied.

  “Looks like he committed suicide,” the other one said. “Is he still alive?”

  “Yes he is breathing,” Mabel replied. “But he needs help as soon as possible.

                Their mother rushed in with a bottle of palm oil. The other neighbours rushed out to see if they can get a nurse or a means of rushing him to hospital.

  “What is the meaning of this na?” Mabel’s mother asked, fidgeting with the bottle.

                Mabel turned Chuka and faced him up. He opened his eyes and smiled. They were stunned and maintained their postures for a while, not knowing what to make out of it.

  “What’s funny?” Mabel asked.

  “Nothing,” he said, still smiling.

  “Chuka, why did you take these drugs to commit suicide?” Cynthia asked him.

  “I did not take them.”

  “What is going on? Why did you pass out? And what are the drugs doing here if you did not take them?”

  “I wanted to take them but changed my mind.”

  “And you made us believe that you were dead!” Mabel shouted in anger.

  “What kind of game is this?” their mother asked. “You think things like this are to be played with?”

  “Sorry ma. I didn’t mean for it to be like this.”

  “The whole street has heard that you committed suicide. You better have an answer for them.”

                The neighbours rushed in with some others.

  “Is he alive?” one asked.

  “Is he breathing?” another asked.

                They got their answer when they saw Chuka sitting on the floor.

  “We prayed for him and did CPR on him and he got up,” Mabel said, not wanting them to know what happened.

                They thanked God.

  “Still give him the palm oil to neutralize the effect of the drug,” one said.

  “Does that thing work?” another asked. “He needs to see a doctor now.”

  “Don’t worry he will be fine,” Mabel’s mother said.

  “Are you sure?” one neighbor asked her.

  “Yes.”

  “Imagine Chuchu trying comiting suicide,” one of them said and clapped her hands.

  “I did not try to commit suicide,” Chuka said.

  “Then what happened?”  

  “I did not read the prescription on the bottle. I took double the normal dose.”

  “That is risky. Be careful next time.”

  “I will. Sorry for the inconvenience.”

                Mabel’s mother carried her bottle of oil and left with the neighbours. Cynthia and Mabel stayed behind. When it was only three of them there, Cynthia went close and slapped Chuka.

  “Why did you do that?” she asked.

  “Am sorry,” Chuka said holding his cheek.

  “Do you know the kind of trauma you have put me through?”

  “What was I supposed to do? I felt insulted and abandoned.”

  “What do you mean by that?”

                Mabel just stood and watched them.

  “When the other guy came, you turned your attention to him. If I was there, you didn’t want to know. I saw the look in your eyes and the way you talked with him. You like him. Then you left me there looking like a fool and went inside because of him. When I was tired of waiting I went back to my house.”

  “When I came out calling your name, didn’t you hear me?”

  “I wanted to see what you will do next. Then I saw you holding him and the way you smiled when he held you. I concluded that I have lost you. Then I decided to end this. But when I got the drugs and still heard you calling my name, I couldn’t get myself to do it.”

                He paused and coughed. Then he continued.

  “Then I decided to know your reaction if you think I committed suicide.”

  “Now you have seen the reaction. Don’t ever talk to me again.”

  “I am so sorry,” Chuka said getting up and going towards Cynthia.

                Cynthia stretched her hand, telling him not to come close. He knelt down and pleaded with tears in his eyes.

  “It will not happen again,” he said.

  “You are intimidated by your fellow man. You should be ashamed of yourself.”

  “I was jealous. The tush boys get all the chicks and hustling guys like us just can’t do anything about it. We take care of girls and then people with cars come and take them from us. It is normal to feel bad na.”

  “But not to the point of wanting to kill yourself,” Mabel said. “Nobody is worth dying for.”

  “It depends o.”

  “You have bigger things to be worried about now. You will now be known as ‘Chuka the guy who tried comiting suicide because of a girl’. How will you deal with that?”

  “My thinking did not go that far.”

                Chuka’s phone rang. He checked it.

  “My brother is calling me,” he said and hissed. He sat on the floor.

  “You see what you have caused,” Mabel said.

                He picked it. His brother told him that he heard that he had committed suicide and asked him what happened. He kept quiet. His brother asked him whether he was depressed because of not getting a job. He kept quiet for a while, and then he told his brother that he did not try to kill himself, that he just took overdose of a drug. His brother asked him what he was thinking that made him take the overdose. He reassured his brother that he is fine. His brother told him to come to the village the following day. He agreed and his brother hung up. He dropped the phone, sighed and put his head in-between his knees.

  “You need to put yourself together,” Mabel told him. “Focus on your life and stand as a man before you think of getting emotionally attached to any woman.”

                Chuka just looked at the floor.

  “Are you hearing me?”

  “Yes,” he said, looking up. “But it is hard. I really love Cynthia.”

 “If you don’t have any security to offer her, your love is in vain.”

  “Was it not because of her I fought the other day?”

  “That is not the security I am talking about. A woman needs someone who is matured in thinking and character, and who has money to take care of her basic needs at least. It doesn’t have to be much but it has to be coming steady.”

  “It is not my fault that I am jobless. I have tried my best to get a job.”

  “You will still get one. That is not the only thing. Don’t tie your life to a particular person, especially someone who is just a casual friend.”

  “I don’t know why I feel this way about Cynthia. I have tried to call myself to order but if I see her, I lose my senses.”

                Cynthia turned her face and chuckled.

(…to be continued…)

-©2015.Chinedu Isaac