FED UP

(…continued…)

                They noticed that someone was peeping through the door.

  “Who is that?” Mabel asked.

                The person went down the staircase in a hurry.

  “I think it is my brother,” Risi said. “He is afraid.”

  “Why will he be afraid?” Mabel asked.

  “I don’t know for him o.”

  “You are sure he is the one.”

  “Yes. I know the sound of his slippers.”

  “Go and call him then.”

                Risi went to the top of the staircase and beckoned on her brother to come. She came in with her brother walking slowly behind her.

  “Are you afraid?” Mabel asked after he greeted her.

                He shook his head.

  “Then why were you running?”

  “Nothing,” he said.

  “Come in.”

                He came in and stood by the door.

  “Is mummy back?” Risi asked him.

  “She just came back now.”

  “Did you give her the food?”

  “Yes. She was eating when I left.” he turned to Mabel and said, “I just came to say ‘thank you’”

  “You are welcome my dear,” Mabel replied.

                He turned and quickly walked out.

  “My brother can be shy eh,” Risi said as she went back to finish her food.”

  “Why is he like that?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “But he talks with other people in the compound.”

  “Maybe he doesn’t feel comfortable around you.”

  “He will grow out it sha.”

                When Risi was done eating, she thanked them and carried her plate and that of Mabel and Cynthia to send to the kitchen.

  “Don’t worry about it,” Cynthia told her.

  “I am already doing it,” Risi said and went to the kitchen with the plates.

                She spent some time in the kitchen.

  “Risi,” Mabel called after a while.

  “Aunty where did you keep your soap and sponge?” Risi said. “That is what I am looking for o.”

  “Your hand cannot reach it,” Cynthia said. “I will wash them later.”

                Risi came out and sat on the floor, watching the TV with them. Almost immediately she sat, her mother knocked and walked in.

  “My dear, God will bless you people very much,” she said.

  “It is not a big deal ma,” Mabel replied.

  “I was wondering what my children will eat today. When they came back from their friend’s place and told me that they didn’t eat, I had to go and see if I can get foodstuff on credit.”

  “Eiyaa. Did you get?”

  “No. I have not paid the one I owe before.”

  “It is well. Things will get better.”

                Mabel’s phone rang. It was Coker. She picked. He told her he was downstairs. She told him to come upstairs. Then he hung up.

  “You have a visitor?” Mama Risi asked.

  “Yes o,” Mabel answered as she hurriedly wore a skirt over the short she was wearing before.

  “Risi come let us go,” Mama Risi said to her daughter.

  “Leave her na,” Cynthia said.

  “No o,” Risi said as she got up. “You have a visitor.”

  “Ok, I will see you later,” Mabel said to them.

                Risi and her mother left, almost colliding with Coker at the door. Coker knocked.

  “Come in if you have something for me,” Mabel answered.

                Coker came in followed by another lady, his fiancée.

  “Did you keep anything for me?” he asked, smiling.

  “Haba, you came with our wife,” Mabel said and hugged the lady.

  “Yes o.”

  “Mabeline how are you?” the lady asked.

  “I am fine o. It is just hunger.”

  “My dear it is everywhere o.”

  “You are looking good.”

  “I am doing a good job na,” Coker said.

  “I have been looking good for as long as I can remember o. Was it not because of my looks that you refused to rest?”

  “Which looks?”

  “I was looking better than this when we met sef. You stress me out.”

                They laughed.

  “You are welcome,” Cynthia said and shifted to the edge of the bed.

  “Please sit,” Mabel said to Coker, pulling a chair for him.

  “What about me?” his fiancée asked. “No chair for me?”

  “If you will not sit on the bed with us, you can sit on the floor,” Mabel said, laughing.

  “You are not serious,” she said, laughing and sat with Mabel on the bed.

  “How is your brother?” Mabel asked Coker.

  “He is fine. He traveled though.”

  “Ok.”

                Coker’s fiancée put her hands over Mabel’s shoulder and asked her, “So how are you doing?”

  “I am doing fine,” Mabel answered.

  “I mean after…”

  “I know. I am over it now.”

  “Has he tried to come back or apologize?”

  “Nope.”

  “Men are something else o.”

  “Not all men o,” Coker said.

  “Apart from you darling.”

  “You still can’t conclude o,” Mabel said and winked.

  “I am telling you o.”

  “If someone told me that Segun would do that, I would not have agreed.”

  “You are a nice person o,” Coker’s fiancée said. “If someone does that to me, I will just…”

(…to be continued…)

-©2015.Chinedu Isaac