Chapter Two

1

Time was running out and I still haven't found the damned thing!

It was a Monday morning -the day after Naja's misfortune -and because we had come back late, I wasn't able to do anything but sleep. Which was why, in the wee hours of Monday morning, I was checking the laundry baskets kept by the end of the corridor of our bedroom for my school uniform.

Someone cleared their throat and I spun around only to see it was Lawal.

He flashed the torch he was holding onto my eyes and asked me what I was doing awake, even though it was six in the morning.

You see,I wasn't only disorganized and messy but lazy as well and usually the reason why we sometimes went late to school.

"Something bit me and I couldn't sleep. Stop shining that thing into my eyes".

My brother lowered the torch.

"What are you looking for in the laundry basket?"

I closed one basket and began to search the other,

"The thing that bit me".

"Really? And I thought you were looking for your uniform. I saw something like it some days ago but..." Lawal trailed off intentionally.

I snapped my head up, "But what? Where is it, Lawal?"

"I am not even sure it's the one. I burnt it alongside things I swept out of my room".

That was when I realised that he was only pulling my leg because he was just like me; dirty and disorganized. So there was no way he could have swept his room. It was a fact I could lay my life on.

"Please give me back my uniform".

"Didn't I warn you to stop coming into my room?" Lawal flicked on the torch again.

"Yes", I answered trying -and failing- to look sorry,"I only went there to iron the uniform. The socket in our room has spoilt".

"And you left it there after ironing?" He sounded unsurprised like it was something I was always doing.

"Iman called me to help her with something".

Lawal regarded me wordlessly for some seconds before finally shrugging.

"Alright, but on the condition that you'll help me wash my clothes. I barely have any to wear anymore".

I gasped and began pleading with him to reconsider but it all fell on deaf ears.

"That'll teach you a much needed lesson about orderliness".

"Tell that to yourself oga "I mumbled under my breath lest he hear me and gave a self-pitiying sigh.

All for the love of education...

2

Honk!!

I tripped over my bag and immediately got to my feet.

"Honk!! Honk!!!"

I opened the door to the wardrobe and brought down my clothes in a tumble of different materials....I was looking for my stocking -just that other leg.

To all parents out there complaining of their children's tardiness, say nothing until you've met Layla.

The horn blasted through the air once more...HONK!!

"I'm coming!" I shouted in response.

Finally finding what I sought, I grabbed my school bag and sandals. The front door opened as soon as I got to the living room and a furious Lawal stormed in.

He was doing his internship at the polytechnic in town and usually took the car in order to avoid the high cost of transporting to and fro. And since our school was along his way,he would just drop us before proceeding there. When coming back,he would then pick us up.

"Sorry, it was my socks and- "

"Just go to the car, Layla".

"Let me tell mummy goodb- "

"NOW!!" bellowed my older brother.

Without another word, I scrambled out and into the car with a fuming Lawal behind me.

..............

I drop the pen and begin pacing up and down.

I remember more than I thought I did. And with such startling clarity too.

When the therapist came earlier,I told her what I was doing and she approved of it. She said that sometimes,it helps to write things down.

You think more clearly and it's a means of unburdening yourself.

I don't know how true it is and seriously, I don't care. Now that I have started,I feel like I should stop. But no...

.... I'll write this to the end.

The door opens for the third time today and Kudirat enters with a tray of aromatic food.

I breathe it in gratefully for I am famished. Who knew writing could be so stressful?

Her hands are shaking as she drops the tray unto the table by the bed.

She is very scared of me.

I don't blame her though. I'll also be scared of a mentally unstable person who always smiles at me whenever I bring her food or make her bed.

Kudirat is the help assigned to me. She is the one that does my laundry,brings me food,prepares my bathing water and keeps this room white and clean.

She's the real angel here.

She turns to go and I call her back.

"Kudirat".

"Yes" she isn't looking at me.

"Can I ask you a question?"

She regards me warily and slowly nods.

"Do you think I'm crazy?"

Kudirat wrings her hands together uncomfortably. The word "crazy" is forbidden here.

"Well? Do you?"

"I...er.... that's what madam said. That you had an accident and lost your mind"

"Oh..", so she doesn't know the truth.

"Anyway", I begin, smiling brightly,"thank you. You are very efficient. Thank you".

Kudirat nods and like the devil himself is on her heels,dashes out of the room.

I have a feeling I have made her even more scared of me than before.

Oh well, that's what we crazy people do.

...........

3

School that day was a blur. Just like most first days, that first day was boring and full of work. The only interesting thing that happened was the face that I had an argument with a girl called Samantha.

She's the archetype of a mean girl; beautiful, famous, proud and super confident. Not to mention dull too (snigger).

She was also my arch nemesis. She disliked me because... it's still not clear why she disliked me so much.

I wasn't even the brightest girl in my class and I was far from being the most beautiful.

If anything, I was considered among the weird,geeky ones (thanks to my glasses) and one of the most annoying (thanks to my sharp mouth).

Anyway, that evening when I was in the kitchen with Iman and my mother, she (my mother), said -apropos of nothing- "Naja'atu is coming back home tomorrow".

And my first thought was; well,Isa has finally gotten tired and he has decided to send her packing.

"Why?" asked Iman without taking her eyes off what she was doing.

She was slicing tomatoes while my mother was peeling yam. I was doing nothing but sitting on the cabinet and eating one of Iman's tomatoes.

Last born privileges.

"She told me that she just feels like coming back home for some days".

"And what did her husband say?" That was me.

My mother dropped the yam into the basin by her side and shrugged her shoulders.

"He doesn't seem to mind. The reason I am telling you this now is so as not to say anything stupid when Naja comes" said my mother referring to the two of us but looking at me.

I bit into my tomato and frowned," I am not without sense. I won't say anything that would remind her of her dead babies".

Iman looked up and gave me a disapproving look,

"When you say it like that, it sounds horrible. Now get down from there and help us out you lazy imp", she said.

"So says the imp's sister who is also an imp", I retorted and bit into my tomato again.