“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,” Mabel said.
“Better tell him,”
Coker’s 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 things 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 eyed him.
“My baby is still
finer than you though,” 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?” Coker asked.
“Be going,” Mabel
said. “I will lock the door.”
Coker
went outside with His fiancée and Cynthia following after him. Mabel locked the
door and 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,”
Mabel said.
“Ok. We will wait
for you in the car.”
Coker
held his fiancée’s hand as 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?” Mama Risi asked.
“We will be back
soon.”
“Ok.”
Mabel slipped
a N1000 note into her hand 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 my 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 out. He saw something from his rear view mirror and stopped.
(...to be continued)
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