She opened the door and saw Risi
standing outside with tears in her eyes.
“Risi how are you?” Mabel asked her.
“I am fine aunty,”
she replied, still standing there.
“Come in na,” Mabel
said and went towards her.
She
held Risi by the hand and gently drew her in.
“Why are you
crying?” Cynthia asked her.
“Did anything happen?”
Mabel also asked.
“My mummy…my mummy…” she managed to say.
“Your mummy what?”
“My mummy said you
paid my school fees.”
“Is that why you are
crying?”
She
nodded.
“Aww. It is nothing
at all.”
Risi
hugged Mabel and held her tight.
“So I will go back
to school,” she said, sobbing.
“Yes sweetie you
will,” Mabel said stroking her hair, with tears forming in her eye.
They
remained in that posture for a while.
“Enough of the
emotions,” Cynthia said as she cleaned a tear that wanted to run down from her
cheek. “Can we have something to eat?”
Risi let go of Mabel.
“Have you eaten?”
Mabel asked her.
“No we have not
eaten since morning,” Risi replied.
“Why?”
“There is nothing in
the house to eat.”
“Eiyaa.”
“Will you eat noodle
and egg?”
“Yes aunty.”
“Ok.”
“Should I call my
brother?”
“He has not eaten
too?”
“No. We went to our
friend’s house with hope that they will include us in their breakfast but when
they were about eating, they told us to go, that they wanted to go pray.”
“Kai. People are
wicked o,” Mabel said.
“You really don’t
know their situation,” Cynthia said. “They may not have enough. It may be their
last which they don’t want to share with two extra mouths.”
“You are right.”
“But they eat in our
house sometimes,” Risi said.
“Meaning they don’t
have sometimes,” Cynthia said. “Maybe they don’t have much today.”
“Whatever be the
case,” Mabel said. “You will eat today ok.”
“Ok aunty.”
Cynthia
went into the kitchen to prepare the noodle.
“Add three extra
mouths,” Mabel said to her.
“Who is the third
mouth?” Cynthia asked.
“Mama Risi. She
should eat also.”
“Ok.”
“Ri, sit on the bed
and wait till the food is ready,” Mabel said to Risi.
Mabel
lay on the bed and went through her phone while Risi watched the TV.
“Pause the movie
till I come o,” Cynthia shouted from the kitchen. “I don’t want to miss
anything.”
“You can rewind it
when you come,” Mabel said to her.
As she
cooked, from time to time, Cynthia would come out to the room and watch the
movie.
“I hope you know you
are using the gas cooker?” Mabel asked her one time.
“No shaking,” Cynthia
said.
When
the food was ready, Cynthia dished for herself and Mabel and brought out to the
room.
“Risi you will eat
here abi?”
“Yes aunty,” Risi
replied.
“Go and call your
brother then.”
“He may not agree to
come o.”
Mabel told Cynthia to put his
food and mama Risi’s own in a food flask so Risi can give to them. Cynthia put
the food in the flask and then dished for Risi.
“Let me go and give
my brother his own,” Risi said.
“Finish your own
first.”
“I am coming now
now,” Risi said and carried the food flask and went out.
“What a caring and
selfless girl,” Cynthia said when she left.
“That is why I opted
to pay half her fees as hard as it will be for me to do. She is a very nice
girl.”
“Let me pour back
her food in the pot till she comes.”
“Just cover it.”
As
Cynthia went to the kitchen to get plate to cover it, Risi ran in, panting.
“Did you run?” Mabel
asked her.
“No aunty,” she said
smiling.
“You did jor. Did
you give it to your mother?”
“Only my brother was
in the house so I told him to keep for mummy.”
“He will keep for
her right?”
“Yes na. He will. My
mum did not go far.”
“Ok, eat your own.”
Risi
carried her food from the table and sat on the floor, eating hungrily. Mabel
and Cynthia just looked at her and shook their head in pity.
“I remember those
days,” Cynthia said.
“It was not easy at
all,” Mabel said.
“You are not
eating,” Risi asked them.
“We are,” Cynthia
replied her. “It is still hot.”
“Blow it with your
mouth na.”
“Abi?”
“Yes.”
“Ok.”
They
stopped looking at her and ate, as they watched the movie. While they were
still eating, Mabel’s phone rang. She checked. It was Coker. He asked her
whether she was in her place. She told him she was. Then he told her that he
was on his way to see her. Then he hung up.
“Let me call mummy
sef and know how the meeting went,” Cynthia said.
She
dialed her mother who picked and told her that they were still in the meeting.
She was talking in hush tones so Cynthia figured she was inside the meeting
place, so she hung up.
“This their meeting
sef,” she said.
They
noticed that someone was standing outside the door, peeping.
“Who is that?” Mabel
asked.
They
heard the footsteps of the person running down the staircase in a hurry.
...to be continued
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