The Lives We Lived

4: Food Fight

Kemi tried to ignore the alarm and enjoy a well-deserved rest. She tossed and turned but the irritating sound of the phone never stopped. Her eyelids flew open and she saw her husband lying beside her on the bed. She frowned at the fact that he was still heavily asleep while she had to bear the torment of his phone ringing.

"Osa," she called quietly. He was the one who ought to go to work first. He ought to wake up first. He kept snoring away his life while his alarm grated on her nerves. "Why would you put on an alarm when you sleep like a dead dog?"

"Wake up!" she screamed at him, shaking his shoulder. He didn't budge. She frowned and stretched over him to turn off his alarm. She turned off his phone completely and went back to sleep. A few minutes later, her own alarm jeered her from her rest. She groaned as she picked the phone off the bedside table and contemplated throwing it against the wall. She couldn't believe that thirty minutes flew by so fast. She'd just turned off Osa's alarm, shut her eyes and now...she was waking up to her alarm.

She shut off her alarm and shut her eyes but her mind wouldn't let her return to the sweet sleep she had enjoyed. She had a lot to do. Heavy eyed and reluctant, she dragged herself from the bed and made her way to the bathroom. She switched on the light and stared at her reflection in the mirror embedded in the medicine cabinet. She was beginning to have dark circles under her eyes. When she had decided to take up this job and balance it with her Master's class, she hadn't expected it to weigh down on her so much.

She noticed the flower patterned gown that her reflection was wearing and she stared down at her own body. She couldn't remember putting this on. She tried to remember when she put on this cloth. She didn't like it. Osa had bought it for her birthday but she didn't have the mind to tell him that she despised it. She'd been planning to give it to Zainab.

She was sure she was forgetting something and it had nothing to do with the fact that she suspected Osa might have dressed her up last night. She picked up her toothbrush and tried to remember what she had forgotten. The moment she remembered that her mother-in-law was in the house, she got on her feet and ran out of the bathroom.

"Kemi," he called groggily.

"What?" She snapped. She wanted to hurry downstairs and make sure that last night was just a bad nightmare.

"Why didn't you wake me up?" Osa asked.

"I just woke up," She lied. "Good morning."

He ignored her greeting and sat up, placing his feet on the floor beside the bed. "We need to talk."

"About what?"

"About my mother." He said. The saliva in Kemi's mouth dried instantly and a bitter taste filled her mouth.

"So it wasn't a nightmare. She's actually here." Kemi whispered. She wished she could melt into a puddle at that moment.

"Kemi. Kemi," she blinked when she heard Osa repeating her name.

"We can't talk now. We'll talk later. I need to make breakfast." She sped out of the room and as she made her way to the stairs she could smell Banga soup wafting through the air. She hurried to the kitchen where her mother-in-law was bent over a pot in the kitchen. The woman was dressed in a simple plain blue blouse while two wrappers hung from her waist.

"Good morning," Kemi knelt down the way she would whenever she was greeting her own mother. The old woman didn't even acknowledge her.

"Good morning Mama," Kemi said louder. The older woman only hissed and began to sing a song in her native language.