Episode 8
Mrs Ekamma couldn’t stay any longer in Eket without seeing her daughter , she was tired of stories and fantasies her younger sister Emabong had been telling her.
She wanted to see her daughter in Flesh and blood not on voice call . She imagined why Eno would agree to stay away from siblings for three years , she knew the love bond between them, aunt Emabong would send her ten thousand naira each timwme she tried to speak with Eno , she didn’t inform her , that she was on her way to Onitsha. The eighteen seater bus left Eket for Onitsha It was a five hours long journey.
“Hello Emabong how are you doing?”
Madam Sharp was not desperate to hear from her sister.
“Hello sister good afternoon, do you need money again? Because me I don’t have money to throw away .”
Mrs Ekamma shock her head, this is the real colour of the chameleon , it can change into many colours , but it cannot change it bad colour, she knew Emabong was never kind, she was feigning to be kind , when she knew , she didn’t have a heart to start with.
“No madam I didn’t call you for money! I am the Onitsha main park! Send somebody to come and take me to your house!”
She said angrily. Emabong was unpleasantly surprised. She never told her sister to come to Onitsha.
“Sister you must be joking right ? Come to Onitsha to come and do what na ?
She asked pouring out her streams of displeasure.
“Who is joking with you? Since my daughter cannot come to Eket to see me , I’ve come to Onitsha to see her , and her kind madam who had been sending us packs of indomie.”
Emabong was wrath with her sister .
“Sister I don’t like this thing you did oh! How can you just appear here like that? Just wait there ! I’ll send my girl to come and pick you .”
Mrs Ekamma sat there waiting for three hours , she would call her sister’s number , It would be switched off, she but a bottle of Lacasera and Gala to take as breakfast. She waited for another two hours , when the sun was going back to sleep , and the traders shuffling to and fro looking for vehicles to their homes , when one of Madam sharp sharp girls walked to her .
“Madam are you madam Ekamma? ” Mrs Ekamma jumped back to the physical world .
“Yes you’re?”
The girl looked at Mrs Ekamma in a demeaning way , as though she just got out of a trash bin.
“Madam I don’t have time for your questions! Your sister my boss asked me to come and pick you. Are you going or not ? ”
Mrs Ekamma followed the lady who got to a ten seater bus, which drove like for ten minutes and stopped, for them to alight. The lady paid her own fare hissed rolled her eyes at Mrs Ekamma before leaving . She wondered what would make such a small girl the age of Emelia her second daughter to be misbehaving .
When she got to Madam Sharp Sharp fast food and restaurant and bar, she saw small girls dancing the loud makossa music who was blaring on the box speakers , those girls were dancing seductively, the men were drinking beers and eating peppersoup while they fed their eyes.
” Welcome oh! Sit down and let me give you food!”
Mrs Ekamma ignored her sister.
” I didn’t leave Akwa Ibom state to come and eat your Afang soup and garri, I came to see my daughter! you left me in the garage for five hours!”
She shouted which drew the attention of the men on the table to them. Emabong went into the kitchen and brought a plate of Afang soup and eba, Mrs Ekamma ignored her and her food .
” Emabong I’m here to see my daughter! Take me to her madam! ”
Mrs Emabong wandered around attending to her customers, who were mostly mean In their thirties and forties , business men who came to chill out before returning home , after the day’s business.
“Madam sharp I like that your girl, she’s very delicious, see her ekebe is standing like a wrap of Akpu, can I have her for the night .”
Madam Sharp Sharp laughed innocently.
“Customer I’m not a pimp talk to her if she likes you whatever you do is not my business.”
She lied to the man , whatever the girls earn from the men , they gave her fifty percent . She went back to meet her sister where she was sitting.
“Sister if you have told me when you were coming, I would have told you that, Enobong travelled with her madam and her family to their home at Lagos , but your distrust made you waste your transport here.”
Mrs Ekamma started suspecting her sister when she also wanted to take Emelia her second daughter who had just finished secondary school to come and join Eno in town , saying Emelia would help her in her restaurant business, and she would register her to write jamb and go to the University in Abia, and some parents in the town were complaining that since their daughters left they couldn’t reach them, that Emabong kept giving them excuses . She came to see for herself what her daughter was doing in Onitsha, and why she refused to return home.
When madam sharp sharp finished sales for that night, her husband drove in with a Lexus SUV to pick her up, her two kids were at the back seat she failed ro introduce, her sister to her family, she told her sister to sleep on one of the foams the maids and sales girls slept on . The girl who the man had spoken with , followed him home in his highlander jeep. She couldn’t have been more than eighteen years old . She told her sister she would take her to see where her daughter was working the next day .
Mrs Ekamma lay on the student foam in the shop, the young sales girls three of them went out to the street , they hung out with guys on the street , later in the night , they brought two guys into the shop, they were at a far side ignoring Mrs Ekamma, they made love and moaned wild till the break of dawn , she could only close her eyes when the cock crowed .
“Hello madam Gold . God morning, how are you doing my sister ?
Her call woke madam Gold up from sleep around see A.M .
“Madam sharp why did you called me so early ? Aaaah you’ve caused a migraine headache.”
Madam sharp Ignored her .
“Madam Gold I made a mistake , i shouldn’t have brought my sister’s daughter, her mom appeared in Onitsha , she wants to see her child !”
Madam Gold sat up from bed , this was serious for business thought.
“What did you tell her , when she asked about her daughter?
Madam Gold asked.
” Well I told her , her madam and her family are in Lagos for the long long vacation for rhe children.”
Madam Gold was convinced.
“Well that’s a nice excuse , I’ll go to the facility and make sure , Eno speaks very well on phone.”
Madam Gold was about to hang up when madam Sharp interjected.
“Well I’m bringing her to your house, tell your gateman to play his part very well .”
Madam Gold didn’t like that idea but she had no choice.
She drove to thr facility, Eno was told what to say at gun point .
Aunt Emabong brought her sister to a mansion which she said belonged to Eno’s madam house .
She horned outside.
“Hello gateman Is your madam back from the journey .”
He shook his head .
“I’m Eno’s aunt this is my sister her mother, we wanted to see Eno.”
Madam sharp said .
“Madam they travelled they’ll be coming back at month end, Eno went with the children.”
Eno mum was a bit calmer .
” Please can I have her number?”
The gateman went into his security room and got his phone . He gave the number to Madam sharp who dialed the number on her iphone pro Max 12 .
“Hello Madam Ukamaka good morning, I came to your house with my sister , Eno’s mum, she wanted to see her daughter, you know it’s been three years since she left home to work with you .”
Madam Gold spoke to Madam sharp sharp as if she didn’t know her . Eno was given the phone to call her mom.
“Mummy how are you?”
Eno said so emotional, she had not spoken to her mom for over three years, she spoke to her last when her mum put pressure on her aunt the first year she got there .
“Eno why have you decided not to visit or call me or your siblings?”
Mrs Ekamma said crying . Eno too was crying on her side .
“Mum it’s been work , I hardly have time for my phone.” Eno lied as tears strolled down her face, she couldn’t tell her mum what her sister did to her .
“I came to Onitsha to take you back to Eket , but your aunt said you travelled to Lagos, for vacation, should I wait for you to return, so I take you back with me.” Eno could not hold the sobbing noise .
“Eno are you crying? ”
Magnus pushed the pistol against her stomach.
“No mum , I am just crying for joy, I have missed you so much , mum I love you, please don’t wait for me don’t worry , I’ll be coming home soon greet my siblings tell them I miss them all .”
She hung up and gave the phone to Madam Gold. She wiped off tbd tears from her face , she was stronger she knew she would get out of the compound .
She had stopped trying to run away , since the last attempt a year ago when Mary died . Ekaette , Carolina and herself had all given birth to a set of children, all girls , and had been sold , for four million each . Eno made Friends with most of the girls in the facility, she started dating Ugochukwu he bought things from outside the compound for her , he would sneak into the room she shared with Ekaette and Carolina, they’d excuse her to spend time with him .
Aunt Emabong bougt some provision for her sister to take back to Eket but she rejected it .
“If you can keep me in your shop to sleep with your wayward girls , and mosquitoes! See me see your husband and children and you couldn’t introduce me to them!
Keep your dirty provisions, me and my family, were surviving before you popped into our lives , we’d go on surviving after you have left. And whatever you’re using people’s children to do you better stop it ! When the wrath of God turns on you , you’ll hate yourself, was that what you wanted to do with Emelia?.”
Emabong hissed and went into her kitchen to check the soups her girls were preparing, for the day’s business. Goat meat peppersoup filled the air with sweet aroma of goat meat sauce and alligator pepper.
Mrs Ekamma carried her bag without saying bye to her sister , she headed to the park.
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