Iya Tobi wanted her back at the Ikeja store. She didn’t know why she had not fought to get a position in one of the bigger stores. The woman was practically at her mercy and it would have been a way to twist Iya Tobi’s hands but the bigger stores did not need a part-time staff. They only needed her to take account of stock and sales and to report back to Iya Tobi.
She bounded up the staircase and came to a stop at the white door. There was a new sales girl, Sekemi, Iya Tobi had said.
Romola walked into the store.
Two fair arms wrapped around her neck. “Romola.”
‘Sunbo? What are you doing here?”
“I’ve been waiting for you. Do you know this foolish girl would not allow me to sit inside?” Sunbo untangled herself from Romola.
A skinny girl with long all-back braids reaching her waist and dressed in a white three-quarter sleeve shirt and black skirt came to them. “Are you Romola?”
Sunbo spun, turning to the girl. “Yes, and she’s my sister. Like I’ve been telling you since.”
“Hi, you must be Sekemi.” Romola tried to shake the girl’s hand.
She wasn’t really a girl. They looked about the same age.
Sekemi’s brows narrowed as she stared down at Romola’s hand. “Won’t you wash your hands, there is Corona. And is this girl your sister?”
“Which corona? Where is the Corona?” Sunbo yelled.
“Calm down.” Romola pulled her sister outside the store and closed the door behind them.
The light from the sun warmed them as she walked to the sanitizer fixture bolted to the wall. The bottle was full. Fuller than it had ever been when Rosemary was in charge of refiling it. She sanitized her hands then turned to Sunbo.
“What are you doing here and why haven’t you been picking my calls?”
“I didn’t want anybody to reach me. But I’m here to see you.”
“Why didn’t you come to the house? Why didn’t you call?”
“Is not like you will answer me.”
Romola propped her hands on her waist. Sunbo looked slimmer than she remembered. Her shoulders popped out and the shape of her eyes sockets were pronounced.
“Oya, what do you want?”
“Food! I’m starving. I came here to look for you yesterday and that rat would not allow me to enter. See how she is black like the back of Iya Basirat’s pot.”
“I don’t work here during the week.”
Sunbo’s opened her palm. “Why? Did they fire you? Are they replacing you with that girl?”
“No. No. I got something else to do.”
“A new job? Is it the one you were talking about? How much are they paying you again?”
Romola returned to the store with Sunbo behind her. She didn’t want to tell Sunbo how much she earned. Not yet, at least. Her sister would nag her until she drained all the money in her account.
“Why did you come here for food?”
“If I come to the house, you will say you don’t have food, that you have eaten at work, so I came to the wok.”
“That’s not true.” Romola walked down the middle aisle to the checkout table where Sekemi stood furiously punching numbers on a calculator.
“Okay, I came there yesterday when I didn’t find you here but, that your roommate, that Igbo one— I don’t like the way she was looking at me. As if I was begging her to let me stay in the room.”
YOU ARE READING
Scars (Romola 2)
Romantikk"Then maybe you should have stayed in schoool. Instead of trying to be an elevated secretary and teaching me my Job." - - - - - Beyond managing Iya Tobi's store and pursing a shadow of an education, Romola's plate is full. It's been two years since...
