UNCONDITIONAL LOVE – Episode 5
A story by Jochrine Kunda
Jeremiah gave me money to do Sekela’s shopping since she only had the clothes she wore and a pack of diapers, I gr@bb£d my bag and we walked out and found Alicia watching TV in the living room
Jeremiah: Alicia, make sure you clean the house and buy Sekela a packet of porridge or prepare her something soft to eat, the diapers are in the spare be-droom and she takes her bath in the morning. Mumba and I are running late
Me: plea-se take care of her for me, I’ll be back before my usual time
She gave us disgusted looks all along
Alicia: st©p the act alre-ady coz me being your house help ended the moment that woman left
Jeremiah: ALICIA THAT’S MY MOTHER YOU’RE TALKING ABOUT I CAN TAKE ANYTHING BUT INSULTING MY MOTHER IS OUT OF THE PICTURE AND YOU’LL DO EXACTLY WHAT I’VE TOLD YOU. MUMBA LET’S GO
He was really scary that I didn’t want to get in his way and we drove in silence, I gr@bb£d myself an energy drink on the way and when he dropped me at school I wished him the best during the day but he didn’t respond and drove away in speed. I headed to the lecture hall when I bu-mped into Amos and I could tell he was happy upon seeing me
Amos: beautiful soul, you’re finally here
Me: hey you
He offered to help me with my books then we chatted before lessons began, lessons went perfectly well and had to wait for another one which would start in the afternoon. I packed my belongings with plans of going to the libr@ry but Amos st©pped me
Amos: where are you going to?
Me: the libr@ry
Amos: let’s go out for lunch
Me: ummmmm…no I’m fine
***My stomach rumbled and we both laughed***
Amos: that has sold you out now let’s go
Me: alright let’s go, guess I can also do my baby’s shopping using this time
Amos: when did you have a baby?
***I looked at him and he had a shocked expression on his face which made me to almost laugh***
Me: duh, let’s go before I change my mind
He carried my books and as we were approaching his car, three girls walked towards us
Girl: well, well, well if it’s not the gold digger
I then remembered she was the one who had the post on the school’s page asking who deserved Amos and she looked more beautiful than she was on the picture
Amos: Bertha not now, I’m seriously not in the mood for your nons-en-se
Bertha: come on babe don’t tell me you’re seriously planning on replacing me with thissssss little piece of trash (she measured me with her eyes)
Her friends laughed and I felt embarras-sed because people had gathered watching the scene and I knew it would be a trending t©pic something which I hated
Amos: okay now listen, these two puppets you’re with are pieces of trash because they don’t know what they’re here for and you use them to do nons-en-se and throw them away like used toilet paper but they still come chasing after you (they g@sped) and Bertha you’re thee biggest piece of trash because you’ve got no morals, values, respect, you’ve got no goals in life and you run your life like a plane on auto flight once it crashes it turns into trash but since you’re alre-ady trash just imagine when your life crashes, awe mwandi you’ll be garbage
Bertha: Amos, don’t talk to me like that, I’ll report this matter to your parents especially your mom
Amos: yeah coz you’re birds of the same feathers, chowing another woman’s ha-rd earned money and this so called relationsh!pof ours was slowly killing dad, he even looks younger his age ever since I told him I’m done with you. Now get your worthless selves out of here coz you’re suffocating my lady
She was crying with embarras-sment written all over her face and the students were cheering Amos’ speech and some taking pictures, he opened the door for means I quic-kly got in trying to avoid the c@m£ras then he went to his side and drove off
Me: why did you talk about your mother like that?
Amos: she’s a step mother who does nothing but spend dad’s money like she worked for it, I think she even cheats on him
Me: enough about that, you were wrong to address me as your lady because I’ve told you time without number that I’m married we’re just friends or this friendsh!pends right this moment
Amos: in dreamland…
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*
We had lunch and there was tension between us Amos tried to crack jokes from time to time but my mind was all over the place, he settled the bill when we were finished and we went to do Sekela’s shopping with him asking if I had a baby every now and then. I withdrew some money from my savings account and bought her hair accessories and other things I envied then called Lydia, her mother asking her what kind of toys she liked and she told me that she was a fan of Barbie then I knew right then that she’d be my little princess. Amos helped me with carrying the bags to the car when I was done and drove back to campus in silence, I attended my last clas-s and avoided him at all costs then went straight home when the lesson was over. I got home and was welcomed by Sekela’s cry and found Alicia feeding on take always while Sekela was in the kitchen and it was messed up, the entire house wasn’t swept and even found the previous night’s dishes in the sink ma-king me lose my cool
Me: what’s wrong with you Alicia?
***She got up annoyed***
Alicia: hold it right there “Miss goody shoes” who accepted the baby? was it you or me? I’m not going to pay the consequences of a foolish decision you took just to impress the old hag. Now let me have my peace
She continued eating ma-king that annoying sound, I picked Sekela up and her diaper was dripping we-t and was messed up I could tell that she never had anything to eat or took a bath
Me: where’s her packet of porridge?
Alicia: I used the money to buy the food I’m eating since you two didn’t leave me any food
Me: but there’s plenty of food in the house an…….
Alicia: is it cooked?
Me: no but you can co……
Alicia: I’m too pretty to be wasting my beauty in the kitchen when there’s even money available
I saw that talking to that fool was just a waste of time so I left her and went to prepare Sekela a bath and got her clean then prepared her something to eat while I cleaned the house, I was exhausted by the end of the day then sat to start feeding her when I received an anonymous call I hesitated a bit to pick it up
Me: he…..hello
Voice: the battle line has been drawn b***h
Me: who………
The call had alre-ady dropped dead and tried to figure out who it could have been but had no idea so I continued feeding Sekela then put her on my back where she fell asleep as I was preparing supper, Jeremiah returned and looked at both Alicia and I then went to the be-droom he shared with Alicia without saying anything and she followed him then I later heard voices
Jeremiah: can’t you at least help out with the child since you can’t cook?
Alicia: that’s not my baby and if I were your wife I wouldn’t even accept it no wonder you married a village chicken
Jeremiah: Alicia behave like a woman for once an…..
I interrupted their conversation with a knock on the door and was allowed in then summoned them for supper and went to put Sekela to be-d, we had supper in silence so I decided to break the ice by asking Jeremiah about his day and the conversation kept on flowing while Alicia just looked at us
Me: Jeremiah, I think we should get a babysitter for Sekela
Jeremiah: we alre-ady have Alicia
Alicia: FOOLISH YOU
He attem-pted to sl@p her but I st©pped him and she wasn’t fazed at all
Me: I can take over from the babysitter when I don’t have clas-ses and when I knock off
Jeremiah: I SAID WE ALre-adY HAVE ALICIA AND THAT’S FINAL
She cli-cked her ton-gue and took her plate then went to eat in the living room and Jeremiah left after some time too and walked back with his wallet and car keys
Jeremiah: don’t wait up, I won’t be back
I tried to speak but Alicia beat me to it, she was blocking his way with her plate of food in her hands
Alicia: where the hell do you think you’re going to?
Jeremiah: out of my way
Alicia: you’ll have to f0rç£ me out because I won’t allow you to spend the night out while I’m here
Jeremiah: alright Mrs Kadarshian wannabe
He pushed her away and she hit the wall before landing on the floor, he didn’t have any regret and walked away. I locked the door after I heard him drive away and went to my be-droom leaving Alicia on the floor still gro-an ing in pain holding her head which hit against the wall, I started studying and was disturbe-d by Amos’ call so I put my phone on flight mode because I knew he wouldn’t st©p. I finally felt the nee-d to sleep after two hours of studying then got into the blankets and sleep deserted me when I thought of the anonymous call I’d received, I felt a hand t©uçh my cheek and turned only to find Sekela seated with her twi-nkling eyes then she called me “mama” which made my heart melt and I took her into my arms and imagined how great it would have been with Jeremiah around then she disturbe-d me from my imagination when she said she wanted milk with a babyish tone. I went to warm it for her and found her pla-ying with her dolls when I returned, she finished the bottle and i cu-mddled her with her snuggling closer to me and we both fell asleep….
To be continued…