Sister zone: part 5
As soon as I heard the word fiance, I felt faint. Standing by the door, I realised my world had just crashed. I had been cultivating on a barren land. As I walked back to change from my work clothes, I was expecting someone to tell me I had just been pranked. I checked the date, it wasn’t April 1. This was reality. Nonso was engaged to be married.
Nonso was engaged to this lady who did not have the initiative to remove her footwear in a cleaned apartment. I instantly felt sorry for him. On my way out, I heard my name.
‘Nnenna, pls how much pepper did you put in this stew, I have ulcer’, she asked.
I quickly changed direction and marched to the kitchen. I looked for an empty bowl, hurriedly rinsed it and then proceeded to pour the whole stew into it. I put the bowl in a black nylon and marched out the way I came in. The shock on her face made me smile a little. If she wanted to eat rice, she could make her own pepperless stew.
The tears poured freely on my way home. I couldn’t believe Nonso was going to marry that mannerless ugly girl. I then remembered she was finer than me. I started wailing. I remembered our last prayer point in church. I thought of the pastor as he was screaming,
‘Pray my brothers and sisters that God whould not allow you smell the food that you won’t eat, pray’, he kept screaming
The thought of Nonso did not let me pray hard that day.
As I got home, I saw Arinze talking to Musa. I called out to him.
‘Arinze do u want stew?’
‘Nne, why are u crying’, he reached out to carry my bag
‘Kai madam, person die?’, a concerned musa asked.
I couldn’t answer them both. Something worse than death had happened. Another woman had snatched my Nonso. I started wailing again. The witches in my village had struck again. I thought of my friends. I had told dem to expect my engagement ring pictures by Saturday. How would I face them.
Arinze took me up to my room. I couldn’t tell him what happened, at least not yet. He left some minutes later to go and boil rice. A knock on my door startled me. I looked at the table, Arinze had forgotten the stew. I opened the door to hand it over and there Nonso was, leaning on the frame of my door.
