He dialed the gateman’s number again and he picked.
“My friend where are you?” he
asked with a raised tone.
With a shaky
voice, the gateman told him that he was washing at the backyard.
“Washing what?” Mr. Biodun
asked. “Will you come here immediately!”
He cut the call.
Few seconds later, the gateman ran into the sitting room, smelling of booze. They
all covered their nose.
“What did you say you were
doing at the backyard?” he asked the gateman.
“Washing sir,” the gateman
replied a bit scared.
“Did you know when this madam
came?” he pointed at Mabel.
“Eehm no sir,” the gateman
replied.
“Did you know when I came back
with the children?”
“No sir.”
“Were you hired as a washer or
as a gateman?”
“Gateman sir.”
“You were drinking and you
said you were washing.”
“Am sorry sir.”
“Let this not happen again.”
“Yes sir.”
“Will you go and put on the
generator!”
“Yes sir.”
The gateman
turned to leave, staggered a bit and used the door to hold himself. Then he
continued to the backyard where the generator was.
“Are you sure he is in his
right senses to put on the generator?” Mabel asked, a bit concerned.
“He can be in his wrong senses
for all I care,” Mr. Biodun said. “I will just fire him right here right now.
This nonsense is getting too much.”
“All these men from the
village,” Mrs. Biodun said. “They think alcohol is everything.”
“This man is an addict,” her
husband added. “I don’t know where he gets money for the alcohol he drinks.”
“Maybe from his gambling,”
Mrs. Biodun said.
“Why not fire him,” Mabel
suggested. “It is risky to have a drunk as a security man.”
“He is from my husband’s
family,” Mrs Biodun said and laughed. “We are trying to help him.”
“Is it not you that stops me
from sending him away?” Her husband said.
“Yes na. If he loses this job,
his own has finished. Then your people will say I am the one that made you send
him away.”
The generator
came on.
“Let me leave you two,” Mr.
Biodun said to them and then turned to his wife, “By the way, have you given
your friend anything to take?”
“She is doing shakara,” Mrs. Biodun said.
“Is not true o,” Mabel said.
“I have taken yoghurt.”
“Only?” Mr. Biodun asked his
wife. “Dinner is not ready yet?”
“The rice is ready but I just
need to warm the stew. I brought it out from the fridge to defrost.”
“I may not wait that long o,”
Mabel said. “Moreover, I ate heavily this afternoon before coming.”
“Ok o,” Mr. Biodun said. “Let
me check the kids in the room before they spoil something.”
“Ok dear,” Mrs. Biodun
replied.
He went into the
room.
“Ma I think I should be
leaving so you can resume your family duties,” Mabel said.
“Ok,” Mrs. Biodun said. “But
you are yet to tell me what really happened.”
“What Glory told you is what
happened.”
“The summary of what I know is
that Kemi took Segun from you and you were humiliated in public. Is that it?”
“That is what happened but let
me add some flesh to it.”
“Ok go on.”
Mabel told her everything.
“It is well,” Mrs Biodun said
when she was done. “So what do you plan doing about it?”
“Go on with my life,” Mabel
replied.
“You don’t want to confront
him?”
“No. It is not necessary.”
“But you still have feelings
for him.”
“Honestly, as much as I try to
deny it, I still do; but I can’t keep getting hurt.”
“I understand how you feel. I
have been there before.”
“So how did you handle it?”
“I will tell you when you
resume work. Let me not keep you here longer than you should.”
“Ok ma.”
Mabel got her
things together and stood up.
“Hold on a little,” Mrs Biodun
said and went into the room. She soon came out with something in her hand.
“I hope that is not what I
think it is,” Mabel said. “You don’t have to bother yourself.”
“It’s nothing.”
Mrs Biodun tried
squeezing some money into her hand but she refused taking it. She then forced
it into the drug bag.
“At least for your sister,”
she said.
“Ok ma,” Mabel said. “Thanks a
lot.”
“My husband said you should
take care of yourself.”
“Ok ma.”
They went
outside. It was getting dark.
“It is already getting late
o,” Mrs Biodun said.
“Not really,” Mabel said. “We
are in shorter days and longer nights.”
“Really? I don’t follow all
those things.”
“You don’t surf the internet.”
“My dear, I don’t have that
time o.”
“You have to. It is
important.”
“Important for people like
you. When you add family to your day job, you will know how far.”
They laughed.
“How will you go now?” Mrs.
Biodun asked as they got to the gate.
“I will just pick a drop,”
Mabel replied.
“If not that I don’t drive at
night, I would have dropped you off.”
“No problem.”
Mrs. Biodun
called the gateman to open the gate. He rushed out and opened the small gate.
“Follow am reach main road make she enter keke,” she told him.
“Yes madam,” he replied.
“Thank you so much ma,” Mabel
told her.
“You are welcome,” Mrs. Biodun
replied and gave Mabel a hug. “I am expecting you the day after tomorrow as you
said.”
“Yes I will be at the office.”
Mabel left with
the gateman. They got to the main road and waited.
“Madam wait make I find keke for you,” the gateman said. “You no fit trust all these people for
night.”
“Ok thank you,” Mabel replied.
Mabel stood for a
while waiting for the gateman to select a keke.
He would stop one, look at the driver for a while and tell him to go. Then the keke driver would leave cursing. He did
that severally. Mabel didn’t know whether to laugh or get angry.
“Oga stop one na,” she told him after a while.
“I dey look their face o,” the gateman said. “Make you no enter one chance.”
“Oya stop this one wey dey come.”
He stopped it and
looked at the driver for a while without saying a word.
“Wetin you dey look?” the man asked him angrily.
Mabel interrupted
when she saw he was an elderly man. She told the man where she was going.
“Madam na for your own good o,” the gateman said. “You for wait make I scope this man.”
“Go scope your papa,” the keke driver said angrily.
“No worry,” Mabel said. “I no
be J.J.C”
Mabel bargained
with the man, agreed on a price and entered. She waved at the gateman.
“Anything for the boys?” the
gateman asked.
“Nothing. When I come another
time.”
“Madam make I go?” the keke driver asked impatiently.
“Yes sir. Go.”
The keke driver turned speedily and drove
off in the opposite direction.
“Oga, where you dey go?” Mabel shouted.
(...to be continued...)
Nedu Isaac
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