FED UP

(…continued…)

  “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…”

                Coker coughed. They burst into laughter.

  “Don’t mind my baby,” he said. “She loves me scarra.”

  “She will scarra your head if you jilt her o.”

  “Better tell him,” his fiancée said.

  “Nothing can come between me and my baby,” Coker said.

  “That is why I will do you bad thing if you leave me like Segun did, after making me fall in love with you.”

                They laughed and kept quiet for a while.

  “What do I offer you?” Mabel asked.

  “Don’t stress yourself,” Coker said. “We want to take you out. That’s why we came.”

  “Oh really?”

  “Yes.”

  “Let me get dressed then.”

  “I am already dressed o,” Cynthia said.

                They laughed.

  “You too like better thing,” Mabel teased her.

  “Yes o.”

  “How many hours do I need to wait for you to be ready?” Coker asked.

  “I am ready,” Cynthia said. “Ask Mabel.”

  “I don’t waste time in make-up o,” Mabel said. “I am not like our wife here.”

  “I have to look good na,” Coker’s fiancé said.

                Mabel got up from the bed to dress up.

  “You have to go outside o,” she said to Coker. “Let me change.”

  “Yes o,” his fiancée said. “Leave, before you see and change your mind about me.”

  “Women sef,” Coker said, laughing.

                He got up to go out.

  “Make sure you don’t peep from anywhere o,” his fiancée said.

  “I will try not to,” he said.

  “You better behave yourself o.”

                They laughed.

                When Coker got to the door, he stopped.

  “Go na,” his fiancée said to him.

  “I want to ask Mabel something.”

  “No, you cannot stay,” Mabel said.

  “Not that. Has Kemi made any other move since then?”

  “No.”

  “Good for her.”

                He opened the door and went out. He stood at the top of the staircase, away from Mabel’s door, pressing his phone. His fiancée kept teasing him from the room.

  “Will you be ready by tomorrow?” he asked after waiting for a while and Mabel was not ready.

                They laughed.

  “You are not wedding today o,” he continued teasing Mabel. “Neither are you meeting the Governor. Please hurry.”

                They laughed. A short while later, his fiancée invited him in.

  “OMG!” he said when he saw Mabel. “You look beautiful.”

                His fiancée winked at him.

  “My baby is still finer than you,” he added, chuckling.

                They laughed.

  “You and your boo sef,” Mabel said. “Na una fit una sef.”

  “After hours of getting ready, shall we go now?” he asked.

  “Be going out,” Mabel said. “I will lock the door.”

                He went outside and His fiancée and Cynthia came after him. Mabel came out last and locked the door. They went downstairs. Mabel stopped at Mama Risi’s door.

  “You want to drop your house key?” Coker asked. “It is not safe o.”

  “It is not that.”

  “Ok. We will wait for you in the car.”

                Coker held his fiancée’s hand and they went downstairs. Mabel knocked again and Mama Risi answered the door.

  “We are going to see a friend,” Mabel said.

  “Will you come back here or you will go to your mum’s place?”

  “We will be back soon.”

  “Ok.”

                Mabel slipped a N1000 note into her hands before she could say “NO”

  “Get food for the children,” she said and turned to leave.

  “Thank you so much,” Mama Risi said.

  “I will see you about the other one when I come back ok.”

  “Ok. God bless you my dear.”

  “And you too.”

                Mabel and Cynthia went downstairs.

  “Mother Christmas,” Cynthia teased her.

  “How?” Mabel asked, laughing.

  “You are now sharing the money.”

  “You are not serious,” Mabel said, laughing. “Every kobo that leaves me hand pains me o. I suffered to get it.”

  “I understand.”

  “You don’t wait until you have so much before you help people around you. It might pain you but as long as it is worth it, do it.”

  “In Mama Risi’s case, it is worth it.”

  “I am telling you. Raising children alone without a husband and the help of anybody is not an easy thing to do at all.”

  “God will not let us go through such a thing.”

  “That is part of the reason why I am doing this. It is a seed that I am sowing for my future.”

                They got to Coker’s car, opened the back seat and sat in.

  “We can go abi?” he asked.

  “Yes,” they answered.

                He drove off.

(…to be continued…)

-©2015.Chinedu Isaac