Meet me.

MEET ME
“Ewo lo kan mi gan?” I said to myself. It didn’t take another minute before I knew how it concerned me.
“Iya Idera!” She screamed with her voice that was naturally loud even when talking. “Iya Idera! E wa gbo nkan!”
I almost went berserk. It was Mama Tunde. It took a while to orient myself with my environment. The new house I just moved into and the super-crazy neighbours. I had rolled from the bed to the rug. Rug, abi? Nothing fanciful. Yes it was a one-room affair but I planned to make it look presentable. I had a cable, a TV and a DVD player. The pant-less children that roamed the compound had smiled at me while I was packing my stuff from the truck into my room while the women had remained outside, frowning because of my 21 inches colour TV. Shio! No one had volunteered to help.
I rolled back on the mattress which lay close to the wall and heaved for a while. Of course there was no light. I picked my phone, wondering why the alarm hadn’t gone off. It was only five o’clock! These women were screaming at 5am! I pulled out the net, pushed the hook off the window and stretched out my neck. Mama Tunde was one of the lousiest women I had ever met. While I had come to check the house, she had pulled me aside to discourage me on taking the room, saying the previous occupant had been a witch. It wasn’t my first time in Lagos but getting an apartment in Lagos was the smartest thing I’ve been able to do rather than remain an occupant in our Felele home in Ibadan. Dad was already old, and my mother, who tied me to him, was late. He never bothered if I had stones for breakfast or sticks for lunch, never cared to throw a ‘how are you’ at me, no matter how insincere. Strangers I met in the market were even a lot friendlier. He had three more wives, even before my mum died. Not that I was that close to her too. She was too ambitious and unreasonable to let dad ruin her.
She said she had never known dad with a job, yet she was too blinded with love she didn’t see him as the lazy thing he was. She took care of the family, bought him clothes, fed us and bought the house in Felele.
“Sisi, you better carry your face inside because if hot water touches you, am not there oh.”
Mama Joy, the twenty-something year old rival of Mama Tunde advised.
Hot? This house I moved into was one mad house but my dear, anything but Felele.
I stuck my head back in and pulled the window shut just in time because the crashing of buckets was the next sound that filled the air. It was always war at the backyard every morning, I had noticed, that was why I filled in my containers at midnight. No one dared came to my door step, let alone step foot in my room. I was not my mum. I had sworn I won’t let people take me for granted.
Maami had taught me all I needed to know. Sad she had to die the way she did. Full of regrets, but she caused it. She spoilt my dad and showed him the way to her safe. He had one afternoon emptied it and went to Iseyin to ask for the Oba’s daughter’s hand in marriage.