THE VILLAGE GIRL. . . . EPISODE 5

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.