FED UP

(…continued…) 

                Mabel went upstairs while Mama Risi went back inside, clutching the money and smiling.  Mabel met Cynthia struggling to open the door.

  “Why is your door hard to open?” Cynthia asked Mabel when she came to her.

  “It is usually not difficult to open,” Mabel replied. “Are you sure you are opening it the right way?”

  “This is not the first time I have opened your door.”

  “Let me try it.”

                Cynthia stepped back and Mabel tried to open it. It was hard.

  “Ah ah, why is the door refusing to open?”

  “Did someone try opening it by force?”

  “Maybe o.”

  “Let me ask mama Risi.”

                Cynthia went down while Mabel kept trying the door. Cynthia soon came back with Mama Risi behind her.

  “What happened to the door?” she asked Mabel.

  “It refused to open o,” Mabel said.

  “We are wondering whether someone tried to force the door open in our absence.”

  “I doubt that because I have been around,” mama Risi said. “If someone had tried to open it by force, I would have heard the noise.”

                Mabel stepped aside and mama Risi tried opening the door.

  “You are right o,” she said after some futile attempts. “Who must have tried to open the door?”

  “I wonder o.”

  “When you locked it when you were going out before, was it hard like this?”

  “No.”

                Cynthia checked around for anything incriminating. She did not find. Everything was intact.

  “What do we do now?” Mabel asked.

  “Go back to mummy’s place and come check on it on Monday,” Cynthia suggested.

  “The cloth I will wear to church tomorrow is here. I don’t have any other one.”

  “What if I call a carpenter?” Mama Risi asked.

  “That will be extra expenses.”

  “So what do we do now?”

  “We will leave it like that till Monday.”

                Mama Risi turned to leave but on second thought she asked, “Let me check the key.”

                Mabel brought out the key and gave her. She examined it for a while and asked, “Do you have the spare?”

  “It is inside the house.”

  “This one is a bit bent.”

  “Who bent it?”

  “It could be me,” Cynthia said. “Because when I tried to open it and it refused, I applied some force.”

                Mama Risi went to the door again and tried opening it, knowing the state of the key. After two trials, the door opened.

  “Hweeew,” Mabel exhaled. “Thanks a lot.”

  “You will have to use the spare key unless you will apply my opening technique,” Mama Risi said as she turned to leave.

  “I don’t have that time o. I will use the spare key.”

                Mabel and Cynthia went in. Everything was intact.

  “How long are you staying here?” Cynthia asked Mabel.

  “Not too long,” Mabel replied. “Let me take the cloth I will wear to church, then we will leave.”

  “Ok.”

                Cynthia lay on the bed surfing the internet while Mabel went through the cloths in her wardrobe. She brought out different ones and showed Cynthia who helped her select the one she would wear. Then she packed the dress, matching footwear, handbag and jewelries into a nylon bag. Then she lay down beside Cynthia.

  “Are we not going yet?” Cynthia asked her.

  “Let me rest a little,” Mabel said. “I don’t want that dizziness.”

  “Are you feeling it now?”

  “No, but if we rush and go now without rest, I will feel it.”

  “Ok. Don’t sleep o.”

  “Even if I sleep, wake me up.”

                Mabel soon dozed off. Cynthia also dozed off. It was the ringtone of Cynthia’s phone that woke her up about an hour later. She stirred and got up. She checked the time on the clock and shouted. The shout woke Mabel.

  “What is that?” Mabel asked her.

  “We slept for too long o,” Cynthia said.

                Mabel looked at the wall clock and jumped up from the bed.

  “You did not wake me up,” she said.

  “I also slept off,” Cynthia said. “If not for my phone that rang now, we would have slept here till night o.”

  “God forbid. If I stay here till night, I will not go out again.”

  “Let us start going na.”

  “Ok.”

                They got up from the bed. Cynthia checked who called. It was Chuka.

  “Who knows whether Chuka is back, this one he is calling me.”

  “You did not pick his call?” Mabel asked.

  “No. By the time I woke up, the call had cut.”

  “Return the call then.”

  “Let me check if I still have airtime.”

                Cynthia checked and it was not enough to make a long call.

  “I will just flash him and hope he calls me back.”

  “Ok.”

                Cynthia tried calling him but his number was not reachable. After four trials, she gave it up. Mabel washed her face and wore light make up. Cynthia did the same.

  “Did you check your phone whether mummy called.”

  “I did but I didn’t get a single call. I can’t believe my phone will stay hours without ringing.”

  “You don’t call and you hardly give unknown people your number so who do you want to call you?”

  “It is well o.”

  “Even your chat, you hardly reply.”

  “Too much work o.”

  “Let’s be going.”

                Mabel confirmed that everything was in order and the appliances put off. Then they went outside.

  “Bring the spare key,” Cynthia told her.

  “That’s true o,” Mabel said and went back into the house. She soon came out with another key. “Let me try locking the door with the normal one and see if Mama Risi’s trick will work.

  “Ok.”

                She tried it thrice and the door locked. They went downstairs. They met Risi and her brother and told them to tell their mother that they had left. Then they flagged down a keke and left for their mother’s place. When their keke was approaching their mother’s house, they saw Segun standing beside his car outside the compound.

(…to be continued…)

-©2015.Chinedu Isaac