“Ndidi!”
“Ndidi!” her aunty shouted a second time.
“Ma,” Ndidi answered with fear in her voice.
“Will you come here immediately!”
Tears
rolled out of Ndidi’s eyes, down her cheeks as she went to answer the call. She
knew what it was all about: her aunty had found out.
She
met her aunty in the kitchen, standing with arms akimbo before some wraps of moi-moi
on the table.
“What happened to five wraps of moi-moi?” her
aunty asked.
“I..I…” Ndidi could not muster the courage to
tell her aunty the truth.
“You what? Talk or I will deal with you now.”
“They were stolen ma.”
“You are lying, you idiot. You ate them.”
She
went closer to Ndidi in an effort to slap her. Ndidi receded a bit, but she
held the collar of Ndidi’s blouse forcing Ndidi to rattle out her explanation.
“No ma, I am not lying,” she said. “When…when
I was hawking with Nkechi, an okada man
knocked her down. I kept my bucket by the side of the road and went to help her
gather her plantain chips scattered on the road and also to make sure she was not
badly injured. When I went back later to carry my bucket, I noticed that my
moi-moi had reduced in number. I counted them and discovered that five wraps of
moi-moi had been stolen. I looked around in search of anyone holding moi-moi so
I will know who took them but because the place was rowdy, I didn’t see the
thief. That was what happened ma.”
“I knew you would tell a sweet story to cover
up. You liar.”
“No ma…”
“Shut up,” her aunty said and hit her
repeatedly. “Because of this, you won’t
eat anything this night,” she said when she was satisfied with the beating and
started storming out of the kitchen.
“Am sorry ma. Please forgive me ma,” Ndidi
begged, crying, going after her. She stopped and looked back at Ndidi.
“If I close my eyes and open them and you are
still here,” she said, “you will see what I will do to you.”
Ndidi
knew better than to remain there, pleading. She left quickly, managing to dodge
another blow from her aunty who was standing close to the door. She left and
stood at the verandah sobbing. Whenever neighbours pass, she would either wipe
her face or turn her head but they already knew her situation and didn’t bother
asking her what the problem was.
“Ndidi!”
“Ndidi!” her aunty shouted again and came out
to the verandah.
Ndidi who was called back to reality
by the sight of her aunty moved backwards, wondering what else was coming.
“Did you or did you not hear your name?” her
aunty asked her.
“N…n…no ma.”
“Come here you liar.” She went towards Ndidi
to hit her.
Ndidi retreated but the wall was standing between her and any attempt
at escape. She held the wall hoping it would swallow her. As her aunty wanted
to hit her, a neighbour came into the compound. Her aunty pretended she was
doing something else but the neighbour knew what was happening and passed them
without saying a word.
“Will you go and buy bread for my children!”
she said, dropped the money on the floor and went back inside.
Ndidi picked it up, wiped the tears
from her eyes and left on the errand, trying as much as possible not to let
people know she had cried. Her savior was that twilight was fast approaching. She
went to a kiosk some buildings away and bought what she thought she had been
sent to buy. When she came back and gave the bread to her aunty, she had it
thrown back at her.
“Is this the type I asked you to buy?” her
aunty asked her, fuming.
“I thought…I thought…” Ndidi stammered.
“You thought what?” she said and hit her
again. “Will you send it back and get the other type.”
Ndidi picked up the bread and left
with it in a bid to change it. When she got to the kiosk, she told the owner
that she wanted to change the bread.
“Why?” the woman asked.
“My aunty said it is not the type she asked
me to buy.”
“Is that why you are crying?” the woman
asked. “Give it to me.”
Ndidi gave the bread to her and she
looked at it critically then picked out something wrong.
“The waterproof is torn here,” she said,
showing the spot to Ndidi.
“I don’t know how it happened o,” Ndidi
lamented. “I just brought it back as it was when you gave it to me.”
“It looks like it fell on the ground. Sorry I
can’t take it back as it is now.”
She gave it back to Ndidi who started sobbing again.
“Please ma,” Ndidi pleaded.
“Sorry I can’t.”
Ndidi reluctantly took it and left.
She got to the house and told her aunty that the seller refused to take it
back. Her aunty rained abuses on her and sent her out to the verandah. Ndidi
leaned on the wall crying. A neighbour passed by, stopped and asked her why she
was crying.
“Nothing,” Ndidi answered.
“Is it your aunty again?”
Ndidi did not reply.
When she wasn’t saying anything, the
neighbour left. Her aunty stormed out.
“What are you telling the neighbours?”
“Aunty nothing.”
“Will you go inside the room! You want to
show the whole world how foolish you are.”
Ndidi went in, doing her best to
avoid a hitting. She went to the children’s room and sat on the floor, sobbing
and wondering how much more she could take. She wished the unfortunate turn of
events in her nuclear family that exposed her to such ill treatment didn’t
happen. She lay on the bed and cried herself to sleep.
When
she woke up later in the night, the brightness of the light bulb in the room
hurt her eyes making her rub them for a while before eventually opening them
wide. She saw Ebere, her aunty’s son, reading.
“Good morning,” he said to her jokingly.
“Which morning?” she answered, looking outside through the window. “Everywhere
is still dark.”
“You
have been sleeping since evening. Have you eaten night food?”
“No. Mummy said I will not eat this night.”
“Why?”
“Somebody stole five wraps of moi moi from me today.”
“What were you doing when it happened?”
“While we were selling our things, an okada man hit Nkechi. I dropped my
bucket and rushed to help her. That was when someone took the wraps of moi moi.”
“How could you have dropped your bucket?”
“I wasn’t thinking straight then.”
“Because Nkechi was involved.”
“Not only that. The way the accident happened
and the way she fell, I was afraid that she had been badly hurt.”
“So how is she?”
“She just had some bruises but she is fine.”
There was sound of movement outside
the room so they keep quiet. They heard the footstep of her aunty as she walked
to the kitchen and walked back to her room.
After a while, Ebere asked her in a low tone, “How did mummy find out
about the missing moi-moi?”
“When I came back in the evening, I gave her
the money I got from the mo-moi I
sold and kept the remainder in the kitchen. She went to the kitchen and counted
the remaining wraps of moi-moi as usual. She knew the quantity I
left with, so from the amount of money I gave her and the number left, she
found out that five wraps were missing. She insisted that I ate them but I
didn’t. Then she beat the living daylight out of me.”
“Where was I when this was happening?”
“You were playing football in the neighboring
compound.”
“Really? I even saw when you passed twice to
buy bread. I waved but you didn’t see me. Little did I know what you had gone
through.”
“That one is another story.”
“Another beating?”
“Yes.”
“What did Onyi and Jerome do when this was
happening?”
“I think they were inside mummy’s room,
sleeping or busy with something else. They did not come out at all.”
“Even if they were not sleeping, they always
hide whenever mummy is angry like that.”
“Where are they now?”
“Sleeping in mummy’s room.”
“Will Onyi sleep there this night?”
“Mummy may leave her there or carry her here
later.”
“Ok.”
They were quiet for some seconds.
“When will mummy change towards me?” Ndidi
said, looking into space as someone in deep thought.
“Well you have to understand mummy and know
what she wants and what she doesn’t want ok,” Ebere told her.
“Am trying my best but I know she hates me.”
“Don’t talk like that.
“I don’t know what else to say.”
“Well that is past tense now.”
“Hunger o. I have not eaten since afternoon.”
“Let me go and get food for you.” He stood up
to go.
“No o. What if mummy sees you? I don’t want
more trouble.”
“Should I forget about it?”
“No. I am not saying you should forget it
but…”
“Don’t worry. I know how to do it.”
Ebere went to the kitchen to get food for Ndidi. As he opened the pot,
his mother tiptoed in with a bathroom slippers in hand, set to beat up Ndidi if
she was the one trespassing. When she saw that it was Ebere, she relaxed.
“What are you doing?” she asked him.
“Mummy I’m hungry,” he answered with plea in
his voice.
“Have you not eaten?”
“I have but you know I played football in the
evening and I have been reading for the past one hour.”
“So?”
“They are energy sapping and hunger arousing.”
“Grammar. Alright you may take but remain
some for tomorrow morning.”
“Thank you mum,” he said and went ahead to
dish the food. His mother went back to her room.
When he was sure his mother wouldn’t come out of her room for a long
time, he took the food to Ndidi.
“Thank you very much,” she said.
“You are welcome.”
“Why did you say that? I am not coming back
from somewhere.”
“We were taught so in school. You say it when
someone thanks you.”
“Okay o.”
Ndidi
proceeded to eat the food as hastily and silently as possible, while Ebere
continued reading his school books.
“Thank you once again,” Ndidi said to Ebere
when she was done.
“So soon?” Ebere asked her.
“Yes. I was very hungry and I didn’t want
mummy to come in here suddenly and see me eating. She would have beaten the
food out of me.”
She
got up to take the plate to the kitchen but Ebere stopped her.
“What are you trying to do?” he asked her. “Do
you want mummy to see you?”
“Hei! I forgot o.”
He took the plate from her and took it back to the kitchen. When he
got back to the room, he saw Ndidi going through one of his note books.
“We did not learn that subject today,” he
said. “Those are old topics and you have read them. Take this one.”
He gave her another note book.
“But it is in your time table,” she asked
him.
“Yes it is but the teacher did not come today.”
She went ahead to read while Ebere read a novel. When she was through,
she requested for another one which Ebere gave her. When she had gone through
all his current notes, she took one of his text books and began to read. She
was still reading when Ebere closed the novel and went to bed. She continued
for a while and fell asleep.
(c) 2015. Chinedu Isaac Ezeala
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