(…continued…)
She opened the door and saw Risi standing outside with
tears in her eyes.
“Risi how are you?” Mabel asked
her.
“I am fine aunty,” she replied, still standing there.
“Come in na,”
Mabel said and went towards her.
She
held Risi by the hand and gently drew her in.
“Why are you
crying?” Cynthia asked her.
“Did anything happen?”
Mabel also asked.
“My mummy…my
mummy…”
“Your mummy
what?”
“My mummy said
you paid my school fees.”
“Is that why you
are crying?”
She
nodded.
“Aww. It is
nothing at all.”
Risi
rushed to Mabel and hugged her.
“So I will go
back to school,” she said, sobbing.
“Yes sweetie you
will,” Mabel said hugging her tightly with tears forming in her eye.
They
remained in that posture for a while.
“Enough of the
emotions,” Cynthia said as she cleaned a tear that wanted to run down from her
eyes. “Can we have something to eat?”
Mabel
let go of Risi.
“Have you
eaten?” she asked Risi.
“No we have not
eaten since morning,” Risi replied.
“Why?”
“There is
nothing in the house to eat.”
“Eiyaa.”
“Will you eat
noodle and egg?”
“Yes aunty.”
“Ok.”
“Should I call
my brother?”
“He has not
eaten too?”
“No. We went to
our friend’s house with hope that they will include us in their breakfast but
when they were about eating, they told us to go, that they wanted to go pray.”
“Kai. People are
wicked o.”
“You really
don’t know their situation,” Cynthia said. “They may not have enough. It may be
their last which they don’t want to share with two extra mouths.”
“You are right,”
Mabel said.
“But they eat in
our house sometimes,” Risi said.
“Meaning they
don’t have sometimes,” Cynthia said. “Maybe they don’t have today.”
“Whatever be the
case, you will eat today ok.”
“Ok aunty.”
Cynthia
went into the kitchen to prepare the noodle.
“Add three extra
mouths,” Mabel said to her.
“Who is the
third mouth?” Cynthia asked.
“Mama Risi. She
should eat also.”
“Ok.”
“Ri, sit on the
bed and wait till the food is ready,” Mabel said to Risi.
Mabel
lay on the bed and went through her phone while Risi watched the TV.
“Pause the movie
till I come o,” Cynthia shouted from the kitchen. “I don’t want to miss
anything.”
“You can rewind
it when you come,” Mabel said to her.
As
she cooked, from time to time, Cynthia would come out to the room and watch the
movie.
“I hope you know
you are using the gas cooker?” Mabel asked her one time.
“No shaking,”
Cynthia said.
When
the food was ready, Cynthia dished for herself and Mabel and brought out to the
room.
“Risi you will
eat here abi?”
“Yes aunty,”
Risi replied.
“Go and call
your brother then.”
“He may not agree
to come o.”
Mabel told Cynthia to put his
food and mama Risi’s own in a food flask so Risi can give to them. Cynthia put
the food in the flask and then dished for Risi.
“Let me go and give
my brother his own,” Risi said.
“Finish your own
first.”
“I am coming now
now,” Risi said and carried the food flask and went out.
“What a caring
and selfless girl,” Cynthia said when she left.
“That is why I
opted to pay half her fees as hard as it will be for me to do. She is a very
nice girl.”
“Let me pour
back her food in the pot till she comes.”
“Just cover it.”
As
Cynthia went to the kitchen to get plate to cover it, Risi ran in, panting.
“Did you run?”
Mabel asked her.
“No aunty,” she
said smiling.
“You did jor.
Did you give it to your mother?”
“Only my brother
was in the house so I told him to keep for mummy.”
“He will keep
for her right?”
“Yes na. He
will. My mum did not go far.”
“Ok, eat your
own.”
Risi
carried her food from the table and sat on the floor, eating hungrily. Mabel
and Cynthia just looked at her and shook their head in pity.
“I remember
those days,” Cynthia said.
“It was not easy
at all,” Mabel said.
“You are not
eating,” Risi asked them.
“We are,” Cynthia
replied her. “It is still hot.”
“Blow it with
your mouth na.”
“Abi?”
“Yes.”
“Ok.”
They
stopped looking at her and ate, as they watched the movie. While they were still
eating, Mabel’s phone rang. She checked. It was Coker. He asked her whether she
was in her place. She told him she was. Then he told her that he was on his way
to see her. Then he hung up.
“Let me call
mummy sef and know how the meeting went,” Cynthia said.
She
dialed her mother who picked and told her that they were still in the meeting. She
was talking in hush tones so Cynthia figured she was inside the meeting place,
so she hung up.
“This their meeting
sef.”
They
noticed that someone was peeping through the door.
“Who is that?” Mabel
asked.
The
person went down the staircase in a hurry.
(…to be continued…)
-©2015.Chinedu Isaac
No comments:
Post a Comment