NKEM 13
The noise outside flickered to her ears and she stirred from her sleep. There was no one with whom she could enquire about the matter.
As the noise deepened, she could hear her mother's angry voice commanding and another voice unmistakably familiar, pleading. Even in her pain, the voice brought warmth to her heart.
She tried to sit up if she could catch a glimpse of him but she could not. Why had he waited two days before coming to see her? Her anger began to surge, giving way to her erstwhile admiration.
What if she had died, would he have forgotten her just like that? How wicked of him to have delayed before coming to see her? She fought the tears but she didn't succeed. The loss of the pregnancy seemed like her only ticket to getting married and now the same man who had given it had taken it away from her.
The noise had subsided and she heard the footsteps of her mother approaching. She quickly wiped her tears and maintained a neutral expression.
"What was the noise about", she asked as her mother entered the room.
"Is it not that foolish, good-for-nothing Nkem", she responded, retying her wrapper and dusting nothing from it.
"What does he want?" She said it as though it did nothing to her heart.
The look in her mother's eyes belied her anger.
"Are you seriously asking me that question?"
"You and I both know why he was here. Anyways, I have told him never to come back."
The tears came without warning. He tried to fight it but he failed. He tried to recall the last time he wept. It was days after the death of his father. He didn't initially feel the pain until much later. He recalled how his father would put him on his laps and play his flute until he fell asleep. They were two inseparable duos until death came in between them.
She caught herself softening for him. She wished she could see him and hear from him how sorry he was for all he had done to her. Beneath that too was that anger and jealousy that Adora's pregnancy is still intact. How could one love and hate the same man at the same time? She told herself to try and get over Nkem if she was to have her sanity. But how was she going to do that?
He brushed past him without looking behind to say sorry or be told sorry. His mind was preoccupied with the problem he had brought upon himself and upon Gladys. The present condition had given Gladys' mum the opportunity to label him as no good for her daughter just as his own father had been no good to her.
"Excuse me…excuse me". He stopped without turning.
The caller walked to meet him with a big smile of mockery on his face.
"Are you the Nkem I have heard so much about?"
He simply stared at him without uttering a word.
"Do I know you?" he asked disinterestedly.
"Of course not. I am just here to see Gladys. Do you know if she has been discharged?"
He just pointed without uttering any more words to him and then continued his journey.
