They waited for Mama Risi much longer than they
expected. Mama Risi was taking time to come.
“Why is Mama Risi taking so
much time to come with the drug na?” Cynthia whined.
“I hope she did not forget,”
Mabel said. “Let me go to her house and check her.”
She got up to
leave.
“Get the buckets too,” Cynthia
said.
“No problem.”
Mabel left for
Mama Risi’s apartment. She knocked on the door and Risi answered the door.
“Where is your mum?” Mabel
asked her.
“Aunty, she is not around,”
Risi replied.
“Do you know where she went
to?”
“She said she wanted to buy
something from the chemist.”
“Oh ok. Do you know which one
she went to?”
“No aunty.”
“Did she go with her phone?”
“No. Her phone is here.”
Mabel stood for a
while wondering what to do.
“My mummy said aunty Cynthia
is not feeling fine,” Risi said.
“Yes but she is getting
better.”
“Can I go and see her?”
“Yes you can. But who will
stay in your house?”
“I will not waste time. Let me
just tell her sorry and come back.”
“Ok. Lock your door before going
o.”
“Ok Aunty.”
Risi locked the
door while Mabel still stood wondering whether to go downstairs and look for
Mama Risi or just go back up to her room and wait.
“Risi please follow me
downstairs and help me take something up to my room,” Mabel said when Risi was
done locking the door.
“Ok aunty.”
They went downstairs
to the backyard where Mabel and Cynthia had been spreading the cloths. She saw
that someone had put the buckets one inside the other and kept close to the
building. Mabel stretched the clothes well and then took the bucket.
“Aunty let me carry it,” Risi
said.
Mabel handed the
buckets over to her and asked, “Are they heavy?”
“No aunty. They are empty so
they are not heavy.”
“Ok dear. Help me take them up
while I go to look for your mum.”
“Ok aunty.”
Mabel went
towards the gate to see if she would meet Mama Risi while Risi went upstairs to
drop the buckets and check on Cynthia. Mabel got to the road and stood for a
while, not knowing which direction to go. She wondered which of the chemist
shops mama Risi had gone to. After standing for a while, she looked leftward
and saw mama Risi walking briskly towards her from an adjoining street. When
she saw Mabel standing on the road, she started jogging. Mabel gave her
hand-signal to slow down. She stopped running but still walked fast.
“What happened?” she asked
Mabel when she got close. She held her waist, panting.
“Nothing happened ma,” Mabel
replied. “I didn’t know you went to the chemist. I thought you said you were
going to your house to get the drug.”
“There was no drug and balm
left in my house so I had to go buy it. The first chemist I went to didn’t have
the brand I wanted. The next had it but they didn’t have change.”
“You would have told me so I
would go and buy it myself.”
“Then who would have stayed
with Cynthia?”
“She would have been fine without
me for some minutes.”
They went into
the compound.
“Where did you eventually buy
them?”
“I got them at that pharmacy
along the express road.”
“That far?”
“Yes o. I ran half way.”
“Eiyaa.”
“People were just looking at
me like something was wrong with me.”
“So sorry ma.”
They exchanged
pleasantries with some of their neighbours who were around and moved on. As
they were climbing the staircase, they met Risi running down the staircase,
crying and shouting “Mummy mummy”.
“What is it?” her mother asked,
worried.
“What happened?” Mabel asked
also.
“It’s Aunty Cynthia,” Risi
replied.
“What happened to her?”
Mabel didn’t wait
to get a reply. She ran up the staircase. When she opened the door of her
apartment, she saw Cynthia on the floor.
(...to be continued...)
Nedu Isaac
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