“What?” Mabel said
and sat up. “You are joking right.”
“That’s what it
says,” Cynthia said.
“Give it to me let
me see.”
Cynthia
handed the note to Mabel and continued grinning. Mabel saw the write-up boldly
written on one side of the small card.
“I wonder why that
smile is on your face,” Mabel said to Cynthia.
“What are you not
telling me?” Cynthia asked.
“There is nothing to
tell. I don’t even know who dropped this in the nylon bag. Anybody could have
done it.”
“Who bought these
things for you?”
“It is Coker.”
“Ehe I said it! No
Wonder!”
“No wonder what? He
couldn’t have dropped the note. He is getting married soon.”
“So?”
“Even if he is the
one, it doesn’t mean anything. He is like a brother to me.”
“Maybe he likes
you.”
“Oh please cut that
crap. You have not seen his fiancée. The chick is hoit.”
“Men are the same everywhere
o. They are never satisfied with one girl.”
“Yes but not when
they already have what they are looking for.”
“Well, I don’t care
who it is from as long as it is not from Segun.”
Mabel
thought for a while.
“How did this note
enter here?” she kept asking rhetorically.
“Is there no name written
on on it?” Cynthia asked her. “Check properly at the bottom or the flip side of
the card.”
Mabel
used the torch app in her phone and looked at the card well. Then she saw what
looked like ‘-Timi’ at the end of the write-up with a much smaller font.
“I Just saw what
looks like someone’s name,” she said.
“What is it?”
Cynthia asked her.
“Timi.”
“Who is Timi? Could
it be Coker’s middle name?”
“I need to call him
now to know if it is from him and know what this is about.”
“Is it necessary?
Won’t he feel embarrassed?”
“No he won’t. Such
things don’t offend him. He prefers ladies being open and straightforward.”
“Hmm. You even know
him that well.”
“Please stop. One
year of observation is enough for me to know what a person is like.”
“Yet you did not
know what Segun is like.”
“I kinda knew but I
refused to accept it.”
“Love was formatting your brain na.”
Their
mother looked out from the kitchen door.
“Any problem?” she
asked.
“No problem mum.”
Cynthia answered.
“Mabel, how are you
feeling now?”
“Better than when I
came back,” Mabel replied.
“Food will soon be
ready, then you can eat and sleep.”
“Ok ma.”
She
went back into the kitchen.
“Let me call Coker,”
Mabel said and dialed his number.
His
number rang but Coker did not pick.
“Maybe he knows you
have seen the card and he doesn’t know what to tell you,” Cynthia said.
“I don’t think so,”
Mabel said.
Mabel
dialed again and he ‘busied’ it.
“Ah ah which one is
this na?” she asked.
“What happened?”
Cynthia asked her.
“He rejected my
call.”
Mabel’s
phone rang. She checked. It was Coker.
“Ok he is calling
back,” she said.
“Maybe he didn’t
want to waste your airtime,” Cynthia said.
Mabel
picked the call and spoke with Coker. She asked him if he dropped any card in
her stuff. He sounded surprised about the question and asked Mabel to explain
further. She told him she had seen a card and told him what was written in it.
He said it could not have been him, that he had the guts to tell her anything
he wanted to tell her to her face. Then she asked him who Timi was. They could
hear Coker burst into full belly laughter.
“Why are you laughing?”
Mabel asked him.
He told
her that Timi was his brother. For about five seconds, Mabel kept quiet, not
knowing what to say. Then she broke into laughter.
“When did he write
it and how did he put it in my stuff?” Mabel asked.
He told
her that he didn’t know, that he could have written it much earlier and had
been looking for a way to put it. Then when they brought her home and he
carried her stuff, he must have put it then. Mabel laughed.
“Please tell him I
appreciate his gestures but I am not in the mood for that at all,” she said.
Coker
said he had been telling his brother but he has never seen his brother in love
with a girl like that before. He told her that the meeting he was taking his
brother to that day was worth millions but his brother told him not to bother
until they had settled her.
“Whatever,” Mabel
said. “I am not interested.”
Coker
promised to sound it loud and clear to his brother. When they were done
talking, Mabel hung up.
“Yeye guy,” Mabel
said when she hung up.
“Who?” Cynthia
asked.
“Coker’s brother. He
is the Timi.”
“The other guy that
came with him this evening?”
“Yes.”
“How can he be falling in love with a girl in
distress?”
“If you ask me, na
who I go ask?”
“And he was there
and saw all the drama.”
“He was o.”
“Men have a way of
thinking that beats me o.”
“Abegi leave men
matter. Give me the cup cake inside the nylon bag.”
Cynthia
got it.
“But if you eat this
now,” she said to Mabel. “You may not eat the food that mummy has been
suffering herself to cook since.”
“It’s true,” Mabel said. “Keep it back.”
Cynthia
kept it back. Her mother came out of the kitchen.
“Food is ready?” she
said.
“So fast?” Mabel
asked.
“Mothers know some
cooking tricks that children like you don’t know.”
“See how you are
sweating,” Cynthia said. “You just suffered yourself alone.”
“I am going to take
a bath now.”
“Ok.”
“Cynthia, dish the
food.”
“Ok ma.”
Their mother went into her room to
get her bathing kits while Cynthia went into the kitchen to dish the food.
“Just little o,”
Mabel said to Cynthia. “More of the vegetable.”
“Ok,” Cynthia
replied.
Some
minutes later, Mabel felt somehow and rushed into the bathroom. She almost
pushed her mother down outside her room. Her mother dropped the bathing kits
she was holding and Cynthia dropped the plate she was carrying. They rushed
after Mabel and met her bent over in the bathroom, vomiting.
(...to be continued)
Nedu Isaac
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