Mabel
went upstairs while Mama Risi went back inside, clutching the money and
smiling. When Mabel got to her
apartment, she 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 na.”
“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?” Mabel asked rhetorically.
“Did someone try
opening it by force?” Cynthia asked.
“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 back 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,” Mabel
said.
“When you locked it
when you were going out before, was it hard like this?”
“No.”
Cynthia
checked around for anything out of place. She did not find any. 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,” Mabel said.
“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 bent nature 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 learn my opening technique,” Mama Risi said
as she turned to leave.
“I don’t have that
time to learn it. 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. 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 thirty minutes 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.
“You slept off o,”
Cynthia said. “And it is getting late.”
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.
“This one Chuka is
calling me,” she said. “Who knows whether he is back.”
“You did not pick
his call?” Mabel asked.
“No. By the time I
woke up, the call had ended.”
“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?” Cynthia asked.
“I did but I didn’t
get a single call,” Mabel replied. “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 joor.”
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 they were approaching their
mother’s house, Cynthia saw Segun standing beside his car outside the compound
and she quickly nudged Mabel.
(...it's a wrap......for now)
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