When there was
nothing more to say, her mother said she wanted to go to bed.
“Are we done for today?” Mabel
asked her.
“Yes I am feeling sleepy,” she
replied. “Moreover, I need to wake up very early in the morning.”
“Ok. We have not yet prayed o.”
“That’s true. Bring a bible
let us do so now.”
“Should I call Cynthia?”
“No. Leave her to rest. We
will put her in prayer.”
Mabel got the
bible, put off the television and sat down. They sang worship songs for a
while, Mabel read scriptures her mother quoted and they prayed. Her mother
concluded with a heartfelt plea to God to help her children weather the storms in
their lives. When they were done with the prayer, Mabel made sure all the doors
were properly locked while her mother made sure everything in the kitchen were in
place and went to her room.
Mabel lay on the couch in the parlour and switched on
her ‘data’ to surf the internet. She received many chat messages. She read them
and replied the ones she wanted to. Some of her chat friends wanted to engage
her in a chat when they saw she was online but she dismissed them and chatted
with only Margret and Glory. They asked her for updates on what had happened
since the last time they communicated. Mabel told them what they wanted to
know, they chatted about other things for a while till Mabel began feeling
sleepy. She bade them goodnight and switched off her data. She went into the
room. Cynthia was fast asleep, spread out in the middle of the bed.
“Ooohm how do I push you now?”
She said to herself, a bit frustrated.
She thought about nudging Cynthia but she didn’t want
to wake her up and cause her pain. She touched her neck to know whether she was
having fever, but she was not. She stood for a while wondering what to do to
create more space for herself on the bed. She decided to manage and squeeze
herself in the little space available on the bed.
“Bad posture even while
sleeping,” She lamented as she lay on the bed. “Mcheew.”
Mabel lay like that for a while but she was not
comfortable. Then she decided to lie on the floor. She got a small-sized foam
they rolled up and kept in the wardrobe. She spread it on the floor and lay.
She soon fell asleep. She did not have any nightmare that night.
In the middle of
the night, Mabel was woken up by a tap on her shoulder. She opened her eye. It
was Cynthia.
“What is it?” she asked.
“What are you doing on the floor?”
Cynthia asked her.
“Ehh?” Mabel asked, still
feeling sleepy.
“Why are you not on the bed?”
Mabel rubbed her
eye.
“You were sleeping on all the
bed na,” she said.
“You would have woken me up to
lie well na?”
“I didn’t want to wake you and
you will not be able to sleep again.”
“Oh ok.”
“I don’t want to do nurse work
in the middle of the night.”
“Thanks for your
consideration. Now come up to the bed.”
“It is almost morning. I am comfortable
here.”
“No. Come up. I can’t stay
here alone.”
Their mother came
into the room.
“What is the talk about?” she
asked. “Any problem?”
They were
startled by here question as they didn’t hear her enter their room.
“Mummy you are still awake?”
Cynthia asked her.
“How did you know that we were
talking?” Mabel asked.
“When you become a mother you
will know,” she replied. “Is there a problem?”
“No problem,” Cynthia said. “I
woke up and saw Mabel lying on the floor.”
“Why on the floor?”
“Cynthia occupied the whole
bed and I didn’t want to wake her,” Mabel said.
“Cynthia you should be the one
lying on the floor to rest your back,” their mother said.
“Not today. From tomorrow.”
“Ok. Let me go back to bed
since there is no problem.”
“Goodnight mum.”
Their mother went
back to her room. Mabel got up from the floor and rolled up the foam.
“Leave the foam on the floor,”
Cynthia told her. “You can put it back in the wardrobe in the morning.”
“Let me keep it by the side so
it will not trip someone in the morning,” Mabel said.
Mabel shifted the foam to the wall and lay on the bed
beside Cynthia.
“Are you still feeling how you
were feeling yesterday?” Mabel asked her.
“Not really,” Cynthia replied.
“Ok.”
They were quiet
and soon slept off.
It was their
mother who woke them up in the morning. She opened the window so the ray of the
sun would enter the room and smart their eyes. Mabel was the direct person to
be hit by the ray so she was the first to stir.
“Good morning mum,” she
greeted when she opened her eyes and saw her mother.
“Morning dear,” her mother
replied. “You people don’t want to wake up?”
“Is it not too early to wake
up? Why are you already dressed for work?”
“Do you know what time it is?”
“Ehh?”
“It’s past 8am.”
“What!” Mabel shouted and sat
up on the bed.
Nedu Isaac
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