Thursday, February 20, 2014
- School
- Chidi’s house
- Supper
- Help Sarfoa with homework if she has any (make sure she studies for an hour if she doesn’t)
- Study
Chidi handed me a new Sudoku puzzle the next day. I hadn’t slept well. My head ached and I was in a bad mood.
“Are we still on for today?” he asked.
I nodded and buckled up.
“After school?”
I looked up from the puzzle. It was 7:30 a.m. “Do you want us to go before school?”
He grinned and shook his head.
“Where are you and Chidi going?” Sarfoa asked me.
“None of your business,” I said.
“Where are you and Gyikua going?” she asked Chidi.
“I invited her to my house.”
“Can I come too?”
“No,” I said at the same time that Chidi said “Yes.”
“Please, Gyikua, I’ll be good.”
“When do I have to hand it in?” I asked Chidi.
“Tomorrow.”
“Gyikua, can I . . .”
“I already said ‘No’.”
Chidi looked at me and then at Sarfoa. “How about tomorrow, Sarfoa? After school, okay?”
“I’ll have to ask Daddy,” she said.
“Okay.”
We spent the rest of the ride to her school in silence. Maa Sarfoa only said bye to Chidi.
“Why do you treat her like that?”
“Treat her like what?”
“She’s only seven.”
“I know her age. I’m her sister.”
“I don’t mind her coming with us this afternoon.”
“I do.”
“I think you take out your frustrations on her and that’s wrong.”
“Please spare me your Psyc 101.”
“I’m just saying.”
“No one asked your opinion.”
We rode to school in silence. He sat next to me at assembly but we didn’t speak. We didn’t speak at break time either. I was waiting for him to apologise, but he didn’t.
“I can’t come over anymore, I have homework,” I said to him after school.
He shrugged.
We drove to Sarfoa’s school in silence. I went inside the school to get Sarfoa. She and a group of girls had taken off their shoes and were playing ampe at the playground. Her white socks were already the colour of the red dust.
“Eyɛ mawo w’ahu? When you wake up, your clothes have been washed and ironed. So you just go ahead and dirty them as soon as you can. When we get home, take off your socks and wash them,” I said with more anger than I’d intended.
Sarfoa put her shoes on and went into her classroom for her school bag.
“I said when we get home you have to wash your socks.”
“You’re not my mother. You can’t tell me what to do,” she said walking past me.
I stood there stunned and followed her to the car. No one spoke a word on the drive home. Chidi dropped us at our gate. Dad met us just as we got inside.
“Emeka has invited us over for supper.” I groaned inwardly.
“Can I come too?” Sarfoa asked.
“Of course, you can. He invited all three of us. We leave at 6 p.m.”
Sarfoa looked at me with a gloating smile.
I told Dad I had homework and wouldn’t be able to join them. I started working on it the minute they left.
I finished my homework about thirty minutes later, but I didn’t get much studying done. I just kept thinking of the four of them eating some good food and having fun and that made me feel worse than I did.
I tried solving the Sudoku puzzle but kept losing concentration.
They came home a little after 10 p.m. I pretended to be sleeping when Dad carried Sarfoa to her bed. I lay in bed for another two hours listening as Dad watched TV downstairs, locked up and went to bed himself. Nothing had gone according to my plans. Nothing.
- School √
- Chidi’s house x
- Supper x
- Help Sarfoa with homework if she has any (make sure she studies for an hour if she doesn’t) x
- Study x
And the worst part was I had no one to blame but myself.