Conquered #4

Obynofranc returns with Conquered . Click here to read previous episodes

Till Nkechi finished secondary school, she only talked to Tega from afar. Their eyes would lock together most times. They will only exchange pleasantries waving at each other. 

Mama was finally getting married. 

During the dinner, Nkechi was eating her food in the dining with her mother. She was rushing the food and the cutleries were clinking on the plates as she moved the fork and knife in a slowly. Mama dropped her own cutleries on the plate and gazed at Nkechi. She rounded her palms against each other and her elbow rested on the table. Her face bared an angelic smile which Nkechj had never had in a while. Nkechi pinned the meat to the plate with her fork. She dragged out the flesh and made to put it in her mouth, then her eyes caught Mama’s gaze. She dropped the meat into her mouth and chewed it, then picked up a glass on the table filled with fruit juice and gulped it down.

She lifted up another rice filled form and looked up but Mama was still staring at her. Dropping her cutleries, she gestured at Mama raising up her two elbows up but Mama only smiled not saying anything. “You seem happy today, mum? Have you won a jack pot?” she asked and her gaze dropped on her plate of food.

Mama shook her head. Her face was glowering and her teeth were outside. “I won something more than a jack pot. Guess what?”

“Mum, I’m not good at guessing. I am so hungry. Maybe when I’m done eating, I’ll rack my brain about it. For now, I need to fill my stomach,” she said, picking up her cutleries dipped in the plate of rice.

Mama stretched her finger towards Nkechi. As Nkechi lifted her cutleries after filling it with food, she saw a shiny thing rounding one of Mama’s finger. “Really, mum?” she asked in a rhetoric.

She dropped her cutleries and her eyeballs lit up in a bewilderment. Standing up, she held her mother’s fingers and fawned over the shiny gold ring. “Mum, this calls for celebration for real. I’m going to be having a step daddy. Are you for real? Not like I care anyway,” she rolled her eyes. “…just want to know how it feels to have a father,” she said, jumping up and shaking her body.

“He is in his thirties right? A hunk?” she asked, fanning her self with her palm while her mouth was moving.

Mama was still looking at her till she calmed. “What are you saying? He is in his fifties, dearie,” Mama said and stood up from the dining table.

She shifted the chair and walked to the sitting room happily throwing herself on the sofa. Her back rested on it. Nkechi picked up the glass of fruit drink and walked towards her mother. She sat on the sofa, staring at her mother. Mama looked up on the ceiling and gloated in a self excitement ignoring her constant smiling stares.

Nkechi smiled and looked at the curtain that blew to and fro, while the excited wind slithered in through the window. “But… Mum, are you saying I’m going to be having step sisters and brothers? He is fifty or over that, for Christ’s sake.”

Mama lifted her back that was still resting on the sofa. “Oh… that’s what you have been thinking about?”

“Yes. I have to think about it. I can’t share your love with anybody. I can’t imagine myself babysitting adults; his children.”

Mama adjusted her back very well and sat straight. She turned towards Nkechi that was sitting beside her with a glass of fruit drink gripped in her palm. Nkechi dropped the glass on the ground away from her legs. She fixed her eyes on her mother’s eyeballs. “But… Wait… Who has fed you with the stereotype that a man at fifties is always married?” Mama asked.

“Mum. That’s the reality. No need to sugar-coat it.”

“Reality indeed!”

Nkechi facial expressions changed and Mama held her by her arms. “Mum, I have read different articles online about how cunning these men can be to get what they want. You have to research about him well and be careful,” she said.

Her face was clouded in concern. Mama gave her a stern look. “Since I got you a phone, that’s what you have been reading online these days, right?” Mama asked in a rhetoric.

“Mum. I have said my own,” she stood up and walked back to the dining table.

“Bye, girl. But I have been dating him for sometime. He is unmarried and a nice human,” she said.

Mama heaved.

Nkechi flung her hand at her mother and continued eating. Mama glanced at her for a few minute. She stood up and walked back to the dining table. Sitting on the chair, she stretched her hands and grabbed Nkechi’s hand. She dropped her cutleries and her hand fell on the table. She gripped Nkechi tight. “I really care about you. I can’t do anything that will hurt you. I’m glad this decision I have made won’t hurt you. He is unmarried. I know society had made it awkward and you think a man can’t be unmarried at fifties? It’s possible, I saw it myself and believed. I think we will make a really happy home. We found love at the late time but love still wins, regardless of the time,” Mama said.

Nkechi’s eyes brightened and she smiled. Mama smiled back and they cackled.