The Wife ESCAPED!

Living and working with the orange seller whom she had come to know as Madam Mary was nothing short of normal and natural for Caro. She missed Trisha as a friend, but making the switch from luxury to lower middle class was not difficult in any way. Both were far above the standard of living in which she had spent the first fourteen years of her life and she had absolutely no complaints whatsoever.

She had totally forgotten about her decision to avoid policemen and had now regained the attributes of her old self except for the fact that she now woke up at 6am and slept at 10pm.

She had lost all her excess fat and was now back to being trim, slim and muscular. She had even rose to become the captain of the neighborhood girls football team of six who played only on weekends.

At the moment, they were looking to renew their persuasion of their male counterparts in the area to take them on as opponents in a football match, but so far, the boys had proven to be slippery and full of excuses. Caro suspected that it was due to the ruthless beating she had given their leader when he playfully tweaked her breast after she had rejected his amorous advances. The rest of the girls did not know about the incident and she had no plans to tell them, hence their continuous badgering of the boys.

Though food wasn’t as luxurious as it was in Trisha’s place, Caro enjoyed the same privilege of having supper with Madam Mary every night. It was during one such meal session that the woman decided to broach the subject of Caro’s future.

“Caro, how old are you sef?”, she asked, looking directly at the girl.

At the sound of the question, Caro became frozen in mid-action of taking food from the plate to her mouth. It was a completely unexpected question! After overcoming the initial shock, her Lies Recording Unit needed some time to boot. To buy time, she faked a cough and quickly into escalated it into a non-stop affair.

“Sorry, sorry, take water,” the woman encouraged, rubbing her back and pouring her a cup of water.

After emptying the cup, Caro belched and coughed some more before looking directly at her and croaked, “Fifteen. I’m fifteen years old.” The Lies Recording Unit had come through.

“Take more water,” the woman instructed, ignoring her answer.

Caro obeyed and they continued the meal in silence. There was no fear in her heart because her brain’s Lies Recording Unit had also confirmed that she had never lied about her age to Madam Mary, the only lie she had told was about how she ended up being homeless.

It was after they had finished eating that the woman decided to continue the conversation.

“So you’re fifteen… which class did you leave school?”

“JSS3,” Caro replied without hesitation.

“Which year?”

“This year.”

“Eh?! This year?”

“Yes,” Caro nodded. “The woman I was living with sent me to school and I was still preparing for my junior WAEC when she died in the accident.”

“Oh. So that means you can still enter school and write the exam na, abi?”

“Only private school, ma,” Caro replied, glumly.

“But you can start SS1 in government school,” the woman said, clearly thinking aloud.

Caro looked at her in puzzlement. What on earth was this woman thinking? An orange seller thinking of sending her back to school? Did she know how much it would take to pay and bribe your way into registering a new student into a private school in time for the final junior exams?

“Hmm,” the woman sighed, getting to her feet. “God will help sha.”

And what did she mean by that, Caro wondered as she watched her leave for her room.

*****

“Chidinma, give me this ball na. Why are you doing like this? Am I not one of your men?”Nôvel/Dr(a)ma.Org - Content owner.

“Eh? One of which men?”, Chidinma scoffed as she released a shot Caro’s way. “You that cut my necklace how many days ago.”

“Ah ah. You still remember that small mistake that happened many weeks ago,” Joy pouted.

“Eh eh? A mistake that cost me one thousand naira is small, abi?”

“Come, you guys,” Caro sighed. “If you people want to play, play. If you want to argue, go home and argue. Every time, chor chor chor chor chor like parrots.”

“What’s the meaning of that? Who called your name in this conversation?”, Joy fired back.

Caro, who was still holding the ball, quickly dropped it and strode over to the girl, squaring her shoulders as she went.

“Joy, repeat what you just said,” she demanded as she towered over her smaller statured neighbor.

“I said, ‘what is the meaning of that?'”, Joy repeated in a very different tone.

“And what is not the meaning of that?”, Caro retorted, her voice a few octaves higher. “Answer me na, Joy!”

“I… it was just an innocent question,” Joy mumbled, keeping her eyes on the ground as the other team members watched in total and sacred silence.

“You better warn yourself o, Joy,” Caro cautioned, sending the girl staggering as she jabbed her forehead with her forefinger. “If you talk to me like that again eh, the kind of slap I will give you, even after you die it will still be ringing in your head.”

“The way you are bullying people in this place eh, you this Caro,” sighed Millicent, the oldest of the girls who was seating crosslegged on the ground.

“And what will you do about it?”, Caro demanded, turning to her.

“Nothing o. But one day, you will see somebody that will bully you too.”

“And what’s that supposed to mean? Are you trying to swear for me or what?”

“No o,” Millicent shrugged. “I’m just trying to tell you the fact. You know, I’m older than you…”

“So you think you can talk to me anyhow, abi?”

“Caro, your Mummy is calling you,” Sarah suddenly interrupted. Caro turned to face her and also heard the voice of Madam Mary shouting her name.

“Ma! I’m coming!”

With one last glare at Millicent, she jogged off to go answer the summons of her guardian.

As they watched her leave, the rest of the team could not help but breathe a sigh of relief. They had elected her as captain not only for her speed, dribbling skills and fiery shots, but also because though she was the youngest, she was the only one who could rule the team with an iron fist and ensure discipline and order. She was the Supreme Queen, both on and off the pitch.

When Caro reached the house, she found Madam Mary seated outside on the verandah.

“Caro, where you dey since? I’ve been shouting your name for how many hours now.”

“Sorry, ma. We were playing ball.”

“You better not play too hard o. I want you to wake up very early in the morning tomorrow. We are going somewhere by 6:30.”

“Okay, ma,” Caro nodded.

“Oya give me key let me enter house. You can go and play your ball.”

“Thank you, ma.”