Scars (Romola 2)

30: Messages

"Hahan, Romola. Are you not going to work?" Lydia asked.

Romola stretched, sitting up and clearing her eyes. The rhythmic pounding of Lydia's pounded yam preparations had lulled her back to sleep. She cast her blanket aside, sniffing as she rose to her feet. Lydia was the only other person in the room.

"Is Edidong done?"

"Does Calabar ever finish on time?" Lydia shook her head and drew the mortar closer between her legs.

Romola began to fold her blanket. She usually had her bath before Edidiong but she had not seen the need to dash to the bathroom because Iya Tobi would probably kill her if she showed up at work today. She had decided to wait for Edidiong and then Lydia's pounding had sent her back to sleep.

She looked into the mortar and noticed the white pieces of yam that had melted to forma a solid wall on the body of the mortar. "Pounded yam, early in the morning?"

Lydia set the pestle aside and scooped some of the yam into the blue bowl at her feet. "Good food won't make itself."

"Yes ma." Romola smiled at Lydia before bending over to pick up her mattress. She rolled it into a scroll and then propped it against the corner of the wall, beside the bunk bed that Lydia and Edidiong shared.

"Do you want some?" Lydia scooped some of the poundo yam into her mouth. "It's not as if you will eat sha."

Romola shook her head and then bent to pick her phone from the socket on the wall. The phone screen lit up again with Iya Tobi's name flashing on the screen. Romola waited for the call to end before she unlocked the phone. She could not forget how Chioma had groaned all night long about the constant light flashing from the phone. She'd thought Chioma was joking so she had remained glued to her bed and she eventually drifted into a dreamless sleep.

The door to the room opened, allowing some of the cold morning air tyo seep into the room. It was already bright outside. Edidiong closed the door and adjusted the wrapper around her body. Water droplets streamed down her plump dark skin to the floor.

"Calabar." Lydia dragged her words. "How many times have I told you to stop wearing wrapper when you're going outside. What if one of those boys see you?"

"What do they want to see?" Edidiong placed her hand underneath her breast and raised them high. "She turned away from Lydia to walk to her bed. Ah, Romola, you've not gone to work."

"How would she go to work when you're giving birth inside the bathroom?" Lydia pushed her mortar aside and turned on the stove.

"It's not my fault na. If your job is to pack people's shit, you will sleep in the bathroom if possible."

Romola frowned. Now, Edidiong's flowery scent filled the room and pleased Romola's nose but by evening time, Edidiong would stink so badly that Chioma wouldn't let her into the room. How Edidiong could stand the smell, she didn't know.

Edidiong hung her sponge on the door. "You can't enter the bathroom sha. That mechanic has gone inside."

Romola sighed, then settled into the chair at the other side of the room. Her phone screen came up again. This time she cut the call, then stared at her call log. between 8pm last night and 7:14 this morning, the woman had called her 75 times. Romola exited the call log screen and a message notification showed that she had 36 messages.

She clicked on the top most message and she could almost hear Iya Tobi's shrill voice as she read the message.

'You ungrateful thief. If I had known, I would not have employed you."

Romola pressed a button to get to the next message.

'So, you don't want to pick my calls. After all I've done for you. I should have left you to die on the streets.'

Romola swallowed a laugh. It was Tobi's father, at Esther's request, that had picked her up from the hotel that night. Iya Tobi would not even had noticed her even if she had passed the street a thousand times.

Romola read the rest of the messages while Lydia settled down beside her, hoisting a plate of hot okra soup and pounded yam. Edidiong stood in front of the narrow cupboard, lathering her body in layers of a strong scented cream.

Iya Tobi's tirades continued. 'Do you know how much I've invested in you. All the free food. The free housing, nko! May God defend me from wicked people like this. You cannot go. Pick my calls. Answer the phone now. What is this nonsense stunt you pulled in my house. This is why nobody wants to help anybody. They accepted you? Fake job abi? Just say you are too lazy to work. Mummy help'

Romola pressed the back button to return to the previous message. Mummy help? From Iya Tobi? She stared at the sender's number and her heart lodged itself in her throat. It was her mother's number. The time stamp on the message read 11:47pm.

Romola stared at the message focusing on each letter as though she could decipher the cause of the message from the alphabets used. Why would her mother text her? She exited the message app so she could call, just as another message entered the phone. From her mother's number.

'Mummy's Dead. Where are you?'