Living In The Ghetto - Episode 7

 

I know I have failed with updates but I'll be serving double episodes everyday from henceforth. Bear with me. 

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"How was school today," Mama asked, while she walked out from the corridor. Her face beamed with a smile and she flashed her white tooth exposing her gap entry. She embraced them one after the other.

They both smiled . "It was fun. I made a new friend today," Adanne said.

"Good. What about you, Chimaobim?" Mama asked while her eyes tripped off from their gaze as it moved all over the surrounding. A bird flew from a tree and perched on another one, creaking.

"Mama, I tried my best. Friendship isn't by force. I don't think I'll make a friend in that school for now. They are not friendly at all," Chimaobim said.

"Abi, it's you that is not friendly toward them" Adanne mocked.

"Maybe they were intimidated by your charisma," Mama laughed, "come inside and eat your foo--"

Adanne interrupted. "What does charisma mean?"

Mama cackled. "How he carried himself to them. Maybe they were intimidated."

Adanne nodded and smiled.

"I love how you are always willing to learn; you are too inquisitive," Mama said and bent down her face and gazed at Adanne.
She smiled.

"Because she doesn't know anything. It's someone that doesn't know something that is always willing to learn," Chimaobi said and gestured.

Adanne squint-eyed and hissed. 

"Don't mind her," Mama said and patted them on their heads with her hands.

They walked into the house and Mama directed them to where she kept their foods

All episodes of this story can be found here >> https://www.ebonystory.com/story/living-in-the-ghetto

. She gawked at them while they ate the food slowly and gulped down water at successions.

"I finally found a private school where I'd be teaching for the meantime. The pay is so small but I'll manage," Mama said.

Chimaobim nodded. He didn't utter a word. He gasped and they fixated at him as he munched the food angrily. Grasping the plastic cup of water, he placed it toward his mouth and it ran down slowly and droplets dropped down from his lips. He patted his chest. Feeling relieved, he yawned.

"Ah! It's okay. Don't kill yourself. Eat slowly. The food isn't running away," Adanne said. Her brow furrowed while her cheeks wrinkled.

"Mind your business," Chimaobim replied.

"Why should she mind her business. She is advising you," Mama cautioned and smiled.

Adanne smiled back and squint-eyed again.

***
Chimaobim and Adanne laid in the bed while Mama covered them with the duvet. She walked out of the room to wait for her husband who is yet to return back from work. 

Since her husband finally got the job he has been doing, he doesn't come home early from work. He closes from work around 8:00PM, according to what he narrated to Mama the last time. He has always been overwhelmed by the traffic from the main town to the ghetto which takes almost two hours of his time on the best day without severe traffic.

Mama Chimaobim used her palm to rub off the sleep that had accumulated in her eyes. She checked the time again and it was 9:17PM. She wiggled her body and kept walking toward the heart of the ghetto.

"Hey, Mama Chimaobim, how you dey?" A voice said. 

She stretched her eyes to see who it was. It was Mama Oyinda and Oyinda.

"Hey, how are you people doing?"

"We are fine," Mama Oyinda replied. 

Oyinda brushed off her face when their eyes made a contact. Mama Chimaobim drifted her head backward and shook her head in amazement. When did I start quarrelling with this one? she thought to herself. She hit her palms together and waved at Mama Oyinda while she kept walking down the heart of the ghetto.

"I know no why you dey famz that woman all the time," Oyinda said and tapped her mother.

"How na? I just dey greet her. Wetin dey bad for that one?"

"She go dey feel say because dey get small money and their pikin come dey behave like ajebo, dem pass us and we dey try relate with her by force. Ignore am sometimes."

"Hah! Oyinda, na you sabi. Me, I no know that one o."

"Now you know," Oyinda said and made a sound with the gum she had been chewing.

As they made to walk away, they turned immediately they heard a noise at the other side. It was Kevwe and her friend Ngozi.

"Hah, Ngozi jealousy no good," Kevwe said and clasped her palms together.

"I dey tell you, sis," Ngozi said.

They both glanced at Oyinda and her mother, removed their faces and laughed. Oyinda blew her gum again and made a sound with it, then walked away. She walked few distance ahead and turned back. "Na una sabi," she blurted and blew her gum.

"What's this lunatic saying? Who was talking to her?" Ngozi asked rhetorically and turned to Kevwe. Her hand roaming in the air.

"Let she who the cap fits, wear it," Kevwe mocked.

Mama Oyinda couldn't stop staring at them as they kept rambling.

Read " The Thorny Path " by the same author ( Obinna Tony )

. They noticed her constant stares and shoo her away with gesticulations. 

"Oloun maje," Mama Oyinda spat, and flung her hands in the air, before walking away.

They waved her off as she walked toward the house rambling unknown words. The full moon continued to brighten the ghetto as it served as the source of light to them. Everywhere brightened as Mama Chimaobim got to the heart of ghetto. The atmosphere had different smells. Long and short candles stood in different shops to show how they had burnt. Men kept chattering as they smoked and held bottles of drinks in their hands. Little children played with the sand. Mothers yelled at their children as their plays got rough.

Mama Chimaobim stood with her hands akimbo while she observed the beauty of nature in its raw form. She has never seen an atmosphere so cool like this. The leaves of the trees blew effortlessly and brought enough breeze that saturated in their body. A hand touched Mama Chimaobim immediately and she got a grip quickly.