Mabel washed the
plates and pot. Then she packed few clothes she would go back to her mother’s
house with. She added a few she wanted to dash
Cynthia. Then she went through her movie rack and added movies she would also
go with. While she was putting things together, her phone rang. She checked who
was calling. It was Dr Obinna. She answered the call and spoke with him. He was
calling to find out how Cynthia was responding to the treatment. Mabel told him
she was feeling better. He reminded Mabel to come the following day for the
remaining result. She thanked him and he hung up.
Mabel checked the
time.
“It is too early to go back to
the house,” she said to herself.
She called
Cynthia on phone and she reassured her that she was fine. Cynthia asked her
when she was coming back and she told her in an hour’s time. From the voices in
the background, Mabel knew Chidinma and Kate were still in the house.
“Your friends still there abi?” she asked Cynthia.
Cynthia told her
that three more friends joined them.
“What! That’s a crowd. I can’t
come back when they are still there.
Cynthia told her she could still come, not minding how
many people were in the house with her.
“You have enough company. Let
me take my time and do all I need to do here.”
Cynthia said “Ok”
“When they leave, let me know,
so I will come back.”
Cynthia told her that Kate said she would soon be
leaving for the market but she didn’t know when the rest would be leaving.
“Have you eaten anything since
I left?” Mabel asked her.
She told Mabel
that they warmed the remaining rice from the previous night and ate.
“What about your afternoon
drug?” Mabel asked her. “Have you taken them?”
Cynthia told her
that she had taken them and that she also got massaged.
“Were you able to wash your
hair?”
Cynthia told her
that it was taken care of and told her not to worry about her but to come back
soon.
When Mabel had asked all she wanted to ask, she hung
up. There was ‘no light’ so she
decided to stay a while in the balcony. Her own apartment had a balcony which
she could come out to anytime she needed to see the environment or get fresh
air. She went out and stood. From time to time, she would ‘on her data’, receive messages, reply the ones she wanted to and
then put it off. After looking around for a while, she saw a familiar car
driving into the compound.
“What is Coker doing here?”
she said to herself, a bit nervous.
Coker parked and alighted. The Passenger door opened
and another man came down. Mabel almost lost her breath. She thought he was
Segun but he was not. Coker waved at her from the ground.
“You are welcome,” Mabel said.
“Come up.”
“I am in a hurry,” Coker said.
“Come downstairs let us see briefly.”
Mabel adjusted
her top, wore her fancy slippers and went downstairs. When she got to them, they
exchanged pleasantries. She side-hugged Coker.
“Meet my younger brother,”
Coker introduced the other man.
Mabel offered her
hand and he shook it gently. They also exchanged pleasantries. Coker gave his
brother eye-signal, he pretended to have a call and stepped away from them to
pick the feigned call. Mabel and Coker went towards the building to provide
shade from the sun.
“How are you?” Coker asked
Mabel.
“I am fine,” Mabel replied.
“I came looking for you
yesterday but did not see you.”
“You would have called. I was
in my mum’s place.”
“I tried calling twice but it
didn’t go through.”
“Ok. Sorry about that.”
“How are you coping?”
“With?”
“With Segun leaving you and
stuff.”
“I will not lie to you. You
know you are one person I can tell the truth exactly as it is.
“Yes.”
“I feel hurt but I have made
up my mind to move on.”
“Good. That’s the best thing
for you to do.”
“Why do you say so?”
Coker told her how
much he and some friends tried to make Segun come back to his senses. He had initially
refused seeing them. When he eventually did, he sounded so convinced that he had
found his heart throb in Kemi and has moved on.
“At a point he started insulting
us,” Coker said. “We had to let him be.”
Mabel didn’t
respond. She just looked aloof.
“You are a nice person and
shouldn’t have to go through this,” he concluded.
“Thanks a lot,” Mabel said.
“If not that I am already
hooked, I would have made a move on you.”
“And I would have shown you
pepper.”
“Revenge?”
“Exactly.”
“You cannot do ‘payback’ on an
innocent man when the guilty man is walking about free.”
“I don’t care.”
They laughed.
“Men are all the same,” Mabel
said.
“It’s not true o.”
Coker checked the
time on his wristwatch.
“Is there anything I could do
for you before I leave?” he asked. “I need to be somewhere with my brother now.”
“Write a cheque or do transfer
for me, for starters.”
“You are a big girl na,” Coker
said laughing. “What will I give you now that you don’t already have?”
“You are wyning me abi.”
“No o.”
“But on a serious note, don’t
bother yourself. You have tried for me already.”
“I will be leaving then.”
He moved towards
his car where his brother was already standing. Mabel followed him.
“Is it ok if I ask for her
phone number?” Coker’s brother asked him when they got close to the car.
“Don’t even go there,” Coker
told him.
“Bro why na? You already have
a fine fiancée. Let me collect this fine babe na.”
“No think am o.”
Mabel giggled.
“You did not tell him?” she
whispered to Coker.
“Why should I?” Coker
whispered back. “Am I Network news?”
“You see,” Coker’s brother
said to him. “She is telling you to allow me collect her number.”
“I am not free,” Mabel said.
“But I can work my way into
your heart. I don’t mind how long it takes.”
“See lover boy,” Coker told
him. “Enter the car let us leave joor.”
Mabel’s phone
rang. It was Margret. She ignored it.
“You don’t want to pick your
call?” Coker asked her.
“The call is still about that
matter,” she answered. “I am not in the mood for another reminder now.”
The call kept
coming.
“Still pick it and find out
what the caller wants,” Coker said.
Mabel answered
the call. Margret spoke to her in low tone like she didn’t want to be heard or
she was in trouble.
(...to be continued)
Nedu Isaac
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