==THE VILLAGE GIRL== EPISODE 5 She slept under the avocado tree that night. At some point her younger brother, after he’d brought her things and sneaked her some jollof rice wrapped in a plastic bag, told her to now come inside that their mother had slept. They gathered her things quietly and with one careful step after another, they crept toward the house. Like a ghost, the night-darkened image of Onyiudo Ekemma appeared before them at the veranda, momentarily stopping their hearts. She called the boy ‘nwoke obioma’, held him tightly by the hand and pushed him through the corridor. She turned up the lantern in her left hand. Mma’s teary eyes glistened in the yellow glow. ‘Mama, biko, please forgive me,’ she said. Onyiudo Ekemma stared at her with an expression close to what’s expected of someone addressing a thief, one caught in the act of shameful and petty stealing. ‘Mama? Please, bikozienu.’ ‘Bia, nwata, disappear from this place before I kill you here and kill myself!’ Later that evening, she told her fellow women during their Ezinne meeting that the devil had finally penetrated her house, using her daughter as a tool. They hissed, hummed and sighed, consoling her. In the morning, Nwa-amulu-na-mma wiped dust off her long gown and walked to Nkechi’s shop. She hadn’t opened so she sat on the paved space before the shop door and waited. Soon Nkechi’s round figure appeared on the wide ebe-ato road. Her long-roped recharge card bag was slung across her like a pageantry sash. She walked slowly, twisting this way and that in her peculiar duck-like gait. She hummed to Onyeka Onwenu’s ‘Onye Ihem na Ewe Iwe’ while popping sounds made by chewable gum burst out from her mouth once in a while. Mma rose and waited, all the while wishing she could throw some sort of magical rope round her big waist and yank her to the front of the shop. ‘Good morning,’ she greeted as Nkechi finally arrived. ‘Morning, Nwamma.’ She shot her a suspicious look, still humming and popping gum. ‘This one you are here so early, hope there is no problem.’ Mma shook her head. ‘No problem. I just want to make a call.’ Now Nkechi stopped humming. ‘You want to make a call?’ She nodded. ‘Yes.’ ‘To who? Who do you know that you want to call?’ Mma scowled at her. ‘Do you not make calls again or has Echezona collected his phone back?’ Nkechi’s face changed suddenly, from condecending to defensive. ‘The phone is now mine. Whatever that is given in dating goes with the dating.’ ‘Anugo m, can I make the call now?’ ‘Won’t I sweep my shop?’ ‘No, it’s urgent.’ She gave her a slow look before she started to open her bag. She brought out a big Nokia phone. ‘Call the number.’ Mma carefully unfolded the paper she’d written down his number on. She’d protested when he told her to have it, to call him whenever she needed anything. ‘But I don’t having a phone to call you, Sir,’ she’d said to him. He told her she could use a public center and promised to get her a phone on his next visit. ‘Ok, calling the number, Sir,’ she finally said to him. ‘Won’t you write it down somewhere?’ ‘Calling it. I writing it in my head.’ He looked at her, first in surprise and then defeat. She got home and wrapped the N10,000 he’d given her in a plastic bag. She tore out a paper and wrote down the numbers. As Nkechi entered the digits, her face fully focused like one working with a delicate stock analysis software, Mma felt an urge to grab her and shake her to activity. ‘Take, it’s ringing now.’ She took the phone from Nkechi. It felt heavy, not like Nnanna’s when he’d given it to her to look at. ‘Ha, NKechi, this your phone heaving o, it using Tiger battery?’ Nkechi hissed and told her in Igbo that ‘her money has started counting.’ ‘Don’t worry, I having money,’ she replied her in English. ‘I –‘ A male voice came from the phone, taking away her attention. ‘Yes. Halo to you too.’ A pause. ‘Is me, Nwa-amulu-na-mma.’ ‘Yes, Mma, yes.’ Her voice was loud and Nkechi stared at her with the amused face people used to watch village people displaying. Mma’s face dulled. ‘I having serious thing to tell you now o.’ ‘Reallys very serious o.’ She turned her eyes and saw Nkechi staring. She waved. ‘Go and sweeping your shop now! Abi you wanting to entering inside the phone?’ Back to the phone. ‘No, no minding her. Is one village girl doing call in Ebe-ato. I using her phone to call you.’ Her already high voice went even higher. ‘Ehe, shebi you saying you buying me phone and I not having seen the phone o.’ A small pause and a large smile popped out of her face. ‘Oh, reallys? You buying me the phone next week?’ She looked at Nkechi, now bent over with a broom, to be sure she’d heard. It appeared she did but pretending she hadn’t with her absolute concentration in the sweeping. To be continued
Posted on: Thu, 27 Nov 2014 07:24:13 +0000
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