“Mummy, I'm hungry,”
Jane's eyes flickered open, adjusting itself to the morning light coming from the window.
She sat up slowly and stared at the figure before her.
Junior tapped her again. “Mummy, I'm hungry,” he whined.
She yawned and stretched, rubbing her sleepy eyes. Junior was in front of her, clad in shorts and a plain tee shirt. His face was contorted in a frown and he was holding an empty plate.
“Will you eat yam?” she asked, half yawning.
He shook his head. “No, I want noodles.”
Jane blew a tired breath, she did not have money to buy noodles but she knew she could not tell Junior, he would not understand.
She could not borrow money from Phoebe because she still owed her ten thousand naira and she had already collected an advance from her next month's salary, so she could not ask her boss too.
She sat down to think. Her debts were accumulating. She retrieved her phone from the bed, clicked on the palmpay app and took a quick loan of three thousand naira. No matter what, she could not bear to see Junior hungry or in need, she had sworn to take care of him, even it meant her selling literally everything. It was what she had signed up for, she brought Junior into the world, she would see to it that he had everything he needed, even if she had to be in debts.
She withdrew the money from a POS outlet nearby and strolled to a shop opposite her house and bought noodles.
She prepared the noodles as Junior liked it– soft and succulent with diced onions. The scent filled her nostrils and junior smiled.
She laughed, happy that he was happy. She served the noodles in a flat plate and watched him eat.
He would not be stripped of the love of the father and lack needs too. She would make sure that never happened.
“Mummy, why don't I have a daddy? My friends in school have daddies but I don't, why?” he asked out of the blue.
Jane stilled and the spoon she held fell. She had known that the day would come when he would ask questions but she never knew it would be so soon.
Today, when his words came. It rendered her speechless. Mere words spoken by a toddler had the power to strip her of words and make her muse. Such words, painful and sharp.
Jane turned to him, still struggling for words. “Junior, don't talk about this again. You are not your friends. You don't have a daddy.” it slipped off her tongue before she could stop it.
Junior frowned. “But that man says he's my daddy.”
She stared at the five year old before her. She knew he was referring to Emeka and it irked her to realize that Junior was thinking Emeka was his daughter. “Listen to me, that man is a bad man, he is not your daddy.”
“Then, who is my daddy?”
“We will talk about your daddy later, eat your food.” she ordered.
Junior continued eating and Jane walked towards the bed. She sat down and wiped the tears that were beginning to fall.
Few minutes later, she wiped her tears and began to prepare for work. No matter what, she would not sulk in a corner when she had work to do. It was what put food on her table.
One day when Junior grew up, she hoped he would understand and stand by her. That he would not leave her lonely.
She bathed and prepared Junior, she'd decided that they would go to work together. She did not want to leave him with Phoebe.
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SILVER LININGS (Christian Romance)
Spiritual"Every cloud is silver lined." When Jane gets pregnant in high school, she becomes the black sheep in her family, all filial ties are cut and she has to drop out of school. Everybody believes she is a slut and worse, the person responsible for her p...
