“Here is what your mother said I should give to you” the man said, handing the food cooler over to her.
“Alright, thank you” Ogechi said and quickly collected it from him.. She continued: “I just hope nobody saw me. Oh Lord, please protect me oo, I am in your hands in this marriage, don’t allow Mama and my husband to see me.” She prayed, heading back inside.
On trying to enter the house, Okwuchi saw her and asked her where she was coming from, that she had been searching for her..
“Thank you Lord that I hid the soup behind the tree, who knew what Mama would have said if she had saw me with it” she was still in her thought when Okwuchi repeated the question…
“Are you not the one I’m asking, where did you go to? Are you not supposed to arrange the chairs the women will use to sit down when they arrive, have you forgotten you invited them?”
“This woman is very wicked. She can’t just wait to see me get humiliated in front of those wicked women. She knew that there is no food in the house, and yet she is so eager to have them here… Hmm, I am now convinced that I have a very bad mother in-law.” She said in her heart and then spoke up “Hmm, but what’s the point of setting the chairs for them when there is no food to give them, have you forgotten you poured the whole soup away?”
“Ogechi, that is none of my business. You were the one who invited them after my son warned you not to. So you will have to deal with the consequences of your stubbornness, so that next time, when my son instructs you to do something, you just do it without any stress”
“But Mama, won’t you save me? Am I not your daughter in-law?”
“Ogechi, I will only help you when you start realising your place in this house” Okwuchi said, looking mean, as she entered inside.
“Mama, just watch and see how you will get disappointed. That your desire to see me face disgrace in the hands of the Umu-Ada will be shattered. Thank God that I have a loving mother, may God bless her for me” she said in her heart
After Okwuchi entered the room, Ogechi went to the place she hid the soup and then hurriedly carried it to the kitchen. Just like her mother suggested her, she turned the soup to her own food cooler so that Okwuchi will not use the new cooler to dictect that the food was not from her. She hid it in a place where Okwuchi’s eyes will not see it and then rushed out and kept the cooler at the place her mother’s messenger asked her to hide it, so that he will carry it from there..
After getting things under control, she used a small deep plate and dished out a small soup for Ndubuisi to taste. When she entered the room, she saw Ndubuisi looking serious, as he was getting ready to leave.
She stood in front of him, blocking him from making a move.
And in a teary eyes, she requested: “My husband, can you do me a favour by having a spoon, just a spoon?”
The way Ogechi pleaded gave him shivers and he then took a half spoon….
He widened his eyes and then took another spoon…
“Ogechi, I don’t understand. What happened?”
“My husband, you now believe me? I told you that somebody somehow is messing with my food. I specifically brought this one out in case something goes wrong. This was exactly what happened to my stew, so I took preventive measures to avoid any story… Do you now believe me?”
At that point, Ndubuisi was confused.. “What is really going on here, how come the food?”
Mama Why by Ngozi Lovelyn O…
Warning: Copyright Reserved..
