Victims – Episode 9
A Story By Rosemary Okafor
“Kpam!” Mmesomachi sl@pped her palm on her shoulder as she felt the sting of a mosquito.
“This yeye mosquito eh, if I manage go heaven I go vex for Baba God say why him create this kin this sef” she muttered
She looked at the young woman slee-ping with abandonment beside her and shook her head; she knew Ukwuoma would be on her mid thirties, her firm skin gave that away.
Her guess rested on her sunken cheeks and the aggressive muscles standing like two warriors on a fighting contest. Mosquitoes were perching on her and she didn’t even stir, except the periodic unconscious nodding of her head like an agama lizard which fall from a tree.
The young woman reminded Mmesomachi of herself years ago. She wasn’t usually fat, during her school days she was so slim that she earned the name ‘dotted I’.
And then she got married, Okechukwu could carry her around without wincing, life was beautiful at least they were able to rent and paid for two rooms where Okechukwu would place her back on the wall, hung her legs on his shoulders and Bleep her while she would scream to the envy of the other women in the yard.
She loved the look on those women’s faces whenever she c@m£ out with a piece of wra-pper tied round her che-st and her b©dy full of sweats, she knew the loud envy in their minds even without them saying it.
Then c@m£ the babies, and her b©dy began to change, at first it was getting fuller and roun-der, her husband loved it;
“Ukwu gi a na ebu kwa (your h!ps are getting larger) lekwa ka ona aku igba ma I na eje (it dances to the rhythms of a drum while you walk)” He husband would tease her
She was young and fresh and she was the de-sire and allurement of every young men in their street, she knew they were attra-cted to her bu-ttocks and she would always shake it provocatively, though it got Okechukwu worried and angry once in a while. A p@rticular scenario would always amuse her; the day Aminu’s wife caught Aminu looking at her dancing bu-ttocks and l!çk!ng hisl-ips, the poor woman had drawn a pestle and had ran after her husband round the yard, cursing and swearing in Hausa, to the amusement of other tenants.
As the babies kept coming so did the fat, he husband bec@m£ worried and started throwing comments at her
“Nne marakwa ihe I ga eme onwe gi, I dizikwa ka udu mmiri (know what you will do about your size, you now look like a large water pot)”
Her neighbors did their p@rts also,
“Make you no dey chop too much na haba! See as you done big reach”
“Your husband go leave you go meet another woman o”
“oya make you no dey chop for morning again, dey drink lemon water and slimming tea, make you dey eat only small food for night”
But the fats didn’t leave; it was as if the whole fat community decided to relocate to her b©dy. As the fats gathered so did their finance diminished, money was no longer easy for them to come by and this infuriated her husband more.
He secretly blamed her for bringing misfortune to him; it was as if she getting fat was draining their pocket. If there was a place she could sell the fats in other to get their money back, she would have done so.
Mmesomachi walked inside the room where the slee-ping Ogugua lay, she watched as the child’s che-st raised and fell at the rhythm of his breath. She checked the boy’s temperature with the back of her hand and nodded.
She struggled so ha-rd not to remember the death that had visited her and had wors£ned her situation. She had lost everything with the death of her only son;
“He had yellow fever” the doctor had told them
“You brou-ght him very late, we are sorry we couldn’t save him” it was like a nightmare to her.
She left her husband with the dead child in the hospital and had run like a man woman, with tears blinding her; she headed to the road without looking.
“Mtcheewww” she hissed as she walked back to the sitting room where Ukwuoma was still slee-ping.
“Nkonye nwam, I were gbaba nne gi aka nwoke (My son Nkonye, you left me with no male child)” she said to herself with sadness, quic-kly suppressing those memories for the time being.
Mmesomachi shooed away mosquitoes from Ukwuoma’s b©dy;
“I no even believe say mosquitoes go still dey for this kine place too, I think say na for only our tent the thing full”
Her stomach was also beginning to complain. She ran her palm on her belly that stood like a community mortar, the stomach sat with her as she as-sumed her seat, the vibr@tion from her bu-ttocks awoken Ukwuoma.
Ukwuoma looked around like someone that was lost, wiped the spittle that ran down to her jaw with the back of her hands.
“Night don dey reach o” She muttered
They have been at the old woman’s house for long, and had only a bottle of coke each, with few pieces of chin-chin, scantily spre-ad on a flat plate like a decoration.
“Eeh… I say make I no wake you, I no say your mind no go rest if you dey awake” Mmesomachi replied
“Abeg, you don hear my pikin talk? Watin the woman talk say dey worry am?” Ukwuoma resumed her worries
“She don commot, she talk say the pikin don dey okey small, but him dey sleep.
“eeh ehh? God I thank you” Ukwuoma gave a sigh of relief.
She scratched her chin and looked at her unkept f!nger nails; she wasn’t surprised at the heap of debris that attached themselves inside her nails,
“Oga ezu I ru ulo (It will be enough to build a house)” her father would have said
She had not have her bath for two days now, the general tap wasn’t running and the water tankers did not come as usual, fetching from outside meant that she would have to pay for it.
She looked at the Mmesommachi and wondered why she would want to stay here with her and her son.
“Why you help me?” she asked before she could st©p herself
Mmesommachi looked ha-rd at her and turned away without answering, Ukwuoma didn’t ask again.
*
“O girl! Come here!” the young office ordered
He pu-ll-ed the girl by the arm r0ûghly; the girl gro-an ed in pain and tried to shrug herself away from him. He knew the girl saw him coming and was avoiding ma-king contact with him.
He looked from left to right to confirm if someone was watching them, then he pu-ll-ed the girl ti-ghter to himself
“Na that woman abi? Na she say make you no dey come see me again?”
The girl said nothing
“I wan see you for my office this night, I no wan remind you watin I go do to you if I no see you…”
“I no go fit come see you, I no wan do that thing again…” the girl was surprised that she could say those words to him
The young officer wi-de-ned his eyes in surprised, he was infuriated, he ti-ght£ñed his fist and held himself from hitting the girl. Then he gave a ghost of a smile
“In my office, in the night or your brother will pay for your mistake” he left the girl standing there with tears in her eyes.
Hearing her reject him took him by surprise, but it awoken something else in him;
“I like them aggressive and scared at the same time” he gave out a chuckle
Like the night he watched her struggle with those his friends as they mount her one by one, her cry, her tears and her little fists thrown up and down had ha-rd ened his man-hood.
This would be the night to take their little exploit to another level,
He felt his ha-rd ness between his legs,
“She is re-ady, and so am I” he muttered
His thought diverted to the Woman, anger and worries clouded his joy and fantasy. What would he do with her? He was beginning to hate her terribly and would do anything to get her out of his way.
To be continued
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