Scars (Romola 2)

5: Sunbo's Call

Romola tugged at the elastic bands of her face mask. There was always a problem with the face masks she bought. If the mask didn't need amending, the elastic bands would be too big or too small. She crossed the road after a keke sped down the road just before her.

She turned and swore at the back of the keke driver but only the cloud of dust he left behind heard her words. These keke men had been banned from using these roads. They, along with the rest of the okada men, were still going around town, darting left and right to avoid policemen while still carrying passengers.

She took her time to walk across the wooden planks that bridged the dusty road with the hairdresser's thin rectangular shack. Once inside, heat and noise from the chattering woman blasted her. She tried to find a place to sit. Lined across the wallpaper of hairstyles to her left, was a bench where five women sat. A dark skinned woman sent her a nasty look. She turned her head to the end of the shack. A little girl sat on the plastic hair washing chair, squinting her face as her hand rose to touch the white creamy substance on her hair.

The hairdresser's reply was sharp. "You better not touch it."

"Aunty, he neva do? This pikin hair go burn? Is it not enough? Her hair will burn." One of the women on the bench said.

The hairdresser held the girl's chin and turned the girl's face this way and that, inspecting the hair. "Oya, come to the bucket."

The girl walked towards a little bucket in front of the makeshift table. One of the women got out of the bench and flung herself into the plastic seat in time to hit another woman in the seat. Both of them struggled to sit properly- the first woman, trying to hold her belongings in her lap and the other trying to push the first off with her huge derriere.

"I got here first."

"Come on, I've been standing since I came."

The woman closest to Romola turned to her with a sneer on her face. "You see these two. They will not practise social distancing."

Romola shook her head. This same woman was trying everything within her physical power to gum her body to her neighbour so she wouldn't fall off the bench.

A small wooden stool held a tub of combs. She picked up the tub. Long slim dark fingers grabbed the edge of the chair. Romola forced her butt on the chair and swung her legs over the woman's hands so that they dangled over each hand. She peered into the woman's eyes smiling.

The woman folded her hands.

"Na wa oh. Dey no dey practice social distancing for your shop?" The woman closest to Romola continued.

"Abeg, Corona no real." The hairdresser paused from pouring water on the little girl's hair. "Na scam."

"Hmm. How you take know?" The older woman pouted.

"Abi, you don see anybody wey get am? You know anybody?"

"That doesn't mean. Na why you pack us here like sardine?"

The hairdresser propped her hand on her waist. "Shey, you fit wait outside till e reach your turn?"

"Aunty Jummy, my hair!" the little girl screamed.

"It's just small burn jhoor."

The older woman mumbled something under her breath. Romola didn't need to hear what she had said. If she stepped out before her turn and someone else happened to be there, that person would get her spot. That was why she cast off her fear of corona to find a spot in the hairdresser's salon. Appointment was not a word that Jummy understood.

"Jumoke," Romola called. "I want to do all back."

"With attachment?"

"Yes. Neat one. Ghana weaving."

"My work is always neat."

"Sure." One of the women on the washing machine chair said with a snide look.

"How much?" Romola already had an estimate of how much she was willing to pay but Jumoke always liked to haggle. The hairdresser could charge an arm and a leg for losing plaits if she found a customer dumb enough to pay such exorbitant amounts.

"3500."

"Ha." The woman close to Romola said.

Romola stared at the woman. A black net covered her hair and her fair face had patches of purple and red.

The woman tapped the net with her hand. "What happen na?"

"Corona." Jumoke slapped the little girl's back with the wide tooth black comb. "You sef, stop shaking like worm."

"Jummy, I don't have 3500."

"How much do you have?"

"1000." Romola said. "And even this 1000; it's Christmas I'm doing."

A buzz in Romola's pocket had her reaching for her phone. She pulled the Nokia button phone out of her pocket and stared hard at the inky screen

Her eyes caught the letters S, B and N. "Not now. Not today." She picked the call and rose.

"Romola, you dey go? Jummy asked.

Romola shook her head before stepping out of the shack. She took a deep breath of the fresh air that kissed her skin. "Hello?

"Sister mi. Egbon mi."

"Sunbo."

Sunbo giggled. "That's my name."

"What do you want?"

"What makes you think I want something?" Sunbo's voice was light and whispery.

An okada that sped down the one way street.

"Don't use that voice on me. I'm not your boyfriend."

"Is it Frank? We have broken up since."

"Sunbo. Sunbo." Her sister's attitude towards relationships irked her. There were just so many similarities between Sunbo and Yetunde. "That's how many boyfriends in this month?"

"That's not important. If you want to preach to anyone, come and preach to daddy. He's not even trying to hide his bottles again. Last night, he gave Jide a bottle."

Jide and Sunbo's father no longer existed in her world. "How is Maami?"

"That's what I am trying to explain." Sunbo's voice rose. "Last night, daddy took the money that Maami had made and went to buy drinks. What he couldn't finish. Jide and his friends finished it."

Romola placed her index finger on her temple. Jide's behaviour mirrored his father's every day. She worried that he would corrupt Lolade.. Why did Sunbo try to plead for him? As far as she was concerned, he was a lost cause . "Well, that's not new. I don't know why Maami won't talk to him."

"But you can talk to him."

"Is this why you called? I have better things to do with my life than to talk about people who don't have a future."

"Well, em... I wanted to tell you that I got called for an audition."

Romola's eyes widened. "A what?"