FED UP [xiii]

(...continued...)


  “Oh Noooo!” Cynthia exclaimed and put her hands on her head.
  “What?”
  “I need to go and see Chidinma today.”
  “Is that why you are shouting as if something just happened to you?”
  “I just remembered that today is Monday and I am supposed to collect something from her.”
                Cynthia got her phone and dialed Chidinma’s number.
  “I will leave you and go then,” Mabel
  “No problem. When I am done seeing her, I will call you to know where you are.”
  “Ok.”
                Chidinma’s number was not reachable. After several tries, Cynthia dropped the phone.
  “Just send her an SMS,” Mabel advised. “She will get it whenever her phone becomes reachable.”
                Cynthia sent the SMS. Few minutes later Cynthia’s phone rang. It was Chidinma. She picked. They talked for a while and she hung up.
  “She said she will be in her room by 12noon,” Cynthia said.
  “Ok.”
They ate breakfast and Mabel went to freshen up. When she was done, she lay on the couch in the parlour, watching a movie on her phone. From time to time, her phone would ring. Mostly, it was her colleagues from the office. She answered the ones she wanted and ignored the ones she didn’t want to. Even the ones she answered, she did not speak much. She just reassured them that she was fine.
  “Have you spoken with Glory, Miriam and Oge since yesterday?” Cynthia asked her.
  “We have been chatting. It’s better for me that way.”
  “Ok. Let me check whether I will see any ripe mango outside,” Cynthia said and went towards the door.
  “You have not changed,” Mabel teased her.
  “As if you will not eat if I get,” Cynthia answered, laughed and left.
After a while, she came back.
  “All these children in this yard sef,” she lamented. “They will not let the mango rest.”
  “No more mango on the tree?”
  “They have plucked all the ripe ones close to the ground. The remaining ones are on top of the tree.”
  “You didn’t climb the tree?” Mabel asked laughing.
  “You are funny. So I will fall down because of mango. I used a stick I saw there but it was not long enough to reach them.”
  “You should have asked Chuka to help you na.”
  “Which Chuka?”
  “Your new…”
  “He is not my new anything o.”
  “I thought something is going on.”
  “There is nothing going on o.”
  “Cynthia, you know we don’t hide things from each other.”
  “Seriously, there is nothing going on.”
  “Are you serious?” Mabel asked. “Because I saw the way you were looking at him yesterday.”
                She laughed.
  “Ooohm stop na. He is not my type joor.”
  “But he likes you.”
  “He has been applying o but I am not interested. I only use him whenever I need help, just like yesterday.”
  “Hope you don’t ask for help in the other one?”
                They laughed.
  “You are not serious,” Cynthia said and sat opposite Mabel. “You are not going yet?”
  “To where?”
  “I thought you said you were going to your house, then to see Mrs Biodun?”
  “Yes I will. I want to get to the house when all the neighbours must have left for work or school.”
  “It’s true. So they will not be asking stupid questions.”
  “And you know I am supposed to go to work today. So if they see me in the house, they will start sniffing.”
  “Ok.”
Mabel spent another 2 hours in the house. She finished watching the movie as she talked with Cynthia. When it was 11:00, Cynthia called her attention.
  “Is it not yet time to go?” she asked. “Remember I have to meet Chidinma by 12pm. So I need to start getting ready.”
  “It is true.”
                Mabel got ready to leave.
  “Won’t you wait for me so we will leave together?” Cynthia asked her, still looking for what to wear.
  “We are not going in the same direction na,” Mabel replied.
  “Ok.”
  “Don’t forget to call me when you are ready to come so you know whether I am in the house or not.”
  “Okay. I will”
                She left, boarded a taxi and left for her house. Cynthia got dressed too and left the house to go and see Chidinma.
                When Mabel got to her compound, everywhere was quiet. There was no one in the compound. She just saw distant neighbours on the road, waved at them and walked in.
  “Thank God,” she said as she looked around and walked briskly to the staircase.

                As she got to the first floor, on her way to the second floor where she lived, a door opened. 

(...to be continued...)

Nedu Isaac

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