A typical day starts with her ceaseless trips to the communal tap to fetch water into the two giant drums in the house. After laps of tireless trips, exhausted already she wakes the kids to have their bath. Getting five little hyperactive kids to sleep the previous night was a tug of war but having to wake them up from their faraway fantasies is a different story altogether.
But with patience, she helps them have their bath and then she prepares breakfast of the regular 'Agege' Bread and Tea and no matter how many times they've had it, they loved it. For them, probably the best part of waking up. But for her, only the beginning of a very long day ahead.The kids leave for school at about 7:37am. Then she begins preparation for work at the market place where she sells foodstuff for a living...
Arriving the shop at about 8:15am, Iya Ibeji (Mother of twins) as she is commonly called, begins displaying her wares but she is cut midway through by an early influx of customers who want to buy one thing or another. "Iya Ibeji, wetin make you no come early today" enquires a customer. "my sister, na my children O, before I fit wake them this morning na wahala" she replied while giving the customer her change. It's 12 noon and the 'swarm invasion' of customers is gradually dying down, so she continues with putting the shop in order. "Iya Beji, come o" Aunty Titi, her very nosey next shop neighbour who likes to quarell with everybody over nothing, calls out with a loud cry "Ewure n'je nyi o, wa le kuro" a goat is eating your yam o, come o. And with a burst of energy she lashes out of her shop with a whip to scare the goat away. She never joked with her tubers of yam. And after a few minute bout with the goat, she returned to her seat and then it dawns on her that she hadn't prepared lunch for her kids especially the twins who usually closed early from school on fridays. And so, she decides to prepare what was left of the yams not eaten by the goat."Argh!" she exclaims, as the smoke from the kerosene stove made her eyes teary. While most corporate working mothers take a lunch break at noon, Mama twins makes lunch at her place of work everyday, not just for her, but for her kids. With the yam still on the fire, she notices the sky turning grey, and a couple of minutes later, there is a heavy downpour escorted by a fiery wind which tosses the tapoline material used as her shade back and forth till it's ripped in two.splatter by splatter the rain drops directly on her as she tries to move her food commodities back into the main store room. Unfortunately, the yam on the fire is getting burnt. With disgust written all over her face as she stares at the charred yam pieces in the pot, the twins walk into the shop all soaked from the heavy rain. "Mummy we're hungry" they mumbled. "Is that how you greet me when you come from school?" she retorted "and why did you allow yourselves to get this wet?" she asked with more disgust on her face. Her anger is not entirely because their now dripping uniforms could be compared with the rain droplets outside or because they had earlier forgotten to greet her but for her not being able to prepare lunch on time. Somehow, she had wished that the rains will delay their coming a little longer to afford her more time to prepare the food besides the rains had already caused enough havoc, a little delay wouldn't do much harm, she thought. But It seems that, against all odds, they defied the rains. "We're sorry Mum" almost in unison, the Patrick and Patricia reply.
...to be continued
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