Ejike admired her for a while and
then said, “I see you are not yet married.”
“What?” Mabel asked,
just to be sure she heard him well.
Ejike’s
friend cleared his throat as a sign for him not to go further. Ejike ignored it
and pressed further.
“You are not wearing
any ring,” Ejike said, “So I am guessing you are not yet married.”
Mabel
burst into laughter. Ejike and his friend looked at themselves, confused.
“So you now want to
marry me.” Mabel said, still laughing.
Ejike
swallowed saliva and kept quiet, wondering what to reply Mabel’s direct question.
“I just want to
know,” he said after a while. “Afterall, it will not be a bad idea if I win
your heart.”
“You have a very
long way to go o,” Mabel said. “To answer your question, I am not yet married.”
Ejike smiled.
“Do you mean to say
that men are not seeing what I am seeing?” he asked, scratching his head. “Abi
you are yet to see Mr. Right.”
“They are o,” Mabel
replied. “I am just taking my time and being careful. Men are funny human
beings. Crooked and highly unpredictable.”
“Not all men are
like that o.”
“That is what they
all say. When they get what they are looking for, fiam, they go.”
“Try me and see. I
am not like that o.”
Mabel
looked at him and chuckled.
“Ok oo,” she said.
“Is that a yes?”
Ejike asked.
“Yes to what?”
“My proposal na?”
Mabel
burst into laughter again. Ejike joined in.
“You are not serious
o,” Mabel said.
A
little girl came out to the gate from the compound and greeted them.
“Have you seen Aunty
Cynthia this evening?” Mabel asked her after pleasantries.
“No,” the girl
answered.
Mabel checked her timepiece and
asked, “Why is Cynthia not back by this time?”
“But your mummy is
around,” the girl said.
“Ok. Tell her I am
around ok.”
“Ok.”
The
girl went back into the compound to deliver Mabel’s message.
“I should be going
in now,” Mabel said to Ejike.
“So soon?” Ejike
asked.
“I need to see my
mother and then find out why my sister is not yet back.”
“Ok.”
“Till some other
time.”
“Don’t mind my poke
nosing in your relationship life o. I was just pulling your legs.”
“No offence at all.
It is nice seeing you once again.”
“Yes o. I hope we
will get to see regularly before I travel again.”
“I hope so too.”
“Let me have your
number then, so I will call you tomorrow.”
He brought out his phone to collect
the number.
“Is that phone not
heavy on your hand?” Mabel asked, laughing.
“My dear na
packaging o,” Ejike said laughing.
“You use it to
deceive girl abi. Una dey try o.”
“That one dey sha. But the packaging is
mainly for the supply business. No one will take you serious if there is
nothing to show that you are a big boy and have what it takes to deliver on
your end of the deal.”
“I hear you.”
“Don’t worry, I will
get you one as big as this the next time we see.”
“Are you serious? I
can go inside now and come out again, then you give it to me.”
“Not today o,” Ejike
said laughing.
Mabel gave him her phone number and
saved his own.
“I will call you
tomorrow,” he said. “Do you do TGIF things?”
“Nope,” Mabel
replied.
“Please, for old
times sake.”
“Ok, depending on
what you have in mind.”
“What time will be convenient
for you?”
“I wouldn’t know
until you call.”
A keke stopped in front of the compound
and Cynthia alighted. She paid the keke man and walked up to Mabel.
“Are you just coming
back?” she asked Mabel as she got close and put her arm round Mabel’s neck.
“Not quite long
ago,” Mabel replied. “What took you so long?”
“Dinma had visitors
who kept distracting her. I just had to wait to finish making the hair.”
“The hair is fine.”
“Thank you. Is mummy
back?”
“I think so. I have
not entered the house yet.”
“Ok.”
All the
while they talked, Ejike and his friend just stood watching.
“Ehe, sorry I
forgot,” Mabel said. “Cynthia, meet Ejike, my course mate.”
Ejike offered his hand and Cynthia
shook it. He held on to the hand a little longer than he should. Cynthia had to
pull her hand out.
“And his friend…”
Mabel said
“Kene,” Ejike’s
friend finished for her.
Cynthia
just said ‘hi’ without offering her hand.
“You are welcome,”
she said to them. Then she turned to Mabel and said, “Let me go inside.”
“Ok, I am coming
behind you.”
Mabel
gave Cynthia her bag to keep for her inside the house. She turned back to Ejike
and caught him staring at Cynthia.
“Wow,” Ejike said.
“Wow what?” Mabel
asked, smiling.
“Your sister is
something else.”
“Is that a
compliment?”
“Yes it is o. Beauty
runs in your blood.”
“Thanks Ejike. You
too like fine girls.”
He
opened the dial pad in his phone and asked with a babyish grin, “Can I have her
number?”
“You are not
serious,” Mabel said laughing loud. “You want me, you want my sister. How much
more confused can you get?”
“I did not see her
before I asked you out. I have changed my mind. She is the one I want to marry
now.”
Mabel
laughed and hit him on his shoulder.
“Then Kene will
marry me,” she said.
“Immediately,” said
Kene who had been observing and laughing all the while.
“No o,” Ejike said.
“You cannot marry
two of us at the same time na,” Mabel said.
“I am an African man.
It is not a hard thing at all.”
“Ejii bobo.”
“I will just spoil
two of you.”
“We will milk you
dry.”
“Never.”
Still laughing, Mabel begged to
take her leave.
“Please let me be going,” she said. “It is
getting late.”
“It has been nice
chatting with you,” Ejike said.
“Same here.”
“Till tomorrow then.
Don’t switch off your phone o.”
“I am not a kid na.
How will I do that?”
Mabel turned to go in.
“Won’t I get a hug?”
Ejike asked with the babyish grin.
“Nope. You never reach.”
“Kai.”
Mabel
went in laughing while Ejike and Kene stood where they were, watching her frame
as she walked away. When she got to the door of their apartment, she turned
back and saw them still staring at her. She waved at them to go. They waved back,
entered the car and left.
Mabel went in and met Cynthia
peeping through the window.
(...to be continued)
Nedu Isaac
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