Nolana ✨
Only the whirring sound from the sewing machine can be heard as it reverberates through the silent shop, well not too silent as Tolani sits giggling to herself in a corner of the room playing with her dolls not giving a care in the world, also the noise from the rowdy market outside makes the silence more bearable.
The day is bright but not fair, it seems all the joy in the world has been sucked out of me. And while I sit staring into nothingness Grace is busy on the sewing machine as she tries to put on the finishing touches to a client’s dress, her mood even more sour than mine making me wonder if she’s still pissed at me about yesterday or if it’s something else entirely. I want to ask but my lips feel too numb to speak so I bask in the uneasy silence waiting for time to slowly pass by.
Okay, I can’t take it anymore. We can’t both be depressed someone has to say something, the dullness in this shop is about to kill me.
“Are you still angry at me about yesterday?” I ask finally breaking the silence.
” No.” She replies not looking at me.
” Did something happen?”
” No.”
” Then why do you look the way I feel?” She looks up at me with a puzzled expression.
” I mean why is your face like that? Something is clearly wrong with you,” I rephrase my statement.
” It’s Nothing.” She replies with a shrug going back to her sewing.
What’s with all the cold responses?
“It’s nothing and your squeezing face like agbalumo?” I ask and I earn a glare from her. I know I shouldn’t be pushing too hard, she’d tell me anyway when she was ready, but the gossip girl in me is active.
“Okay o. If you say so.” I’m not ready for any transferred aggression, I have problems of my own.
“Soo…. You had something to tell me today.” I say changing the topic. I’m not letting her rest even for a minute she can be annoyed for all I care.
” I did?”
Is that supposed to be a rhetorical question?
“How do you know Riyah?” I ask cutting straight to the chase.
“Who says I know her?” Grace asks back.
We’re not doing this question-for-question thing, not today at least.
“Aunty don’t play with me, I’m serious,” I reply, my tone more serious.
” I don’t know her, we just crossed paths that’s all.” She says with a forced laugh. ” I was only surprised yesterday when I saw her. I didn’t expect her to be your co-wife. What a small world.”
Co-wife is not the word I want to use when referring to Riyah. And this woman is lying to me with a straight face as if I don’t know what I saw. So much for being my friend. Tch!
“Even you Gracie? You’ve joined them. You now lie to my face. I thought you were my friend?”
” Don’t say that Nola, you know it’s me and you versus the whole world.” She says sounding apologetic.
” You say it’s me and you versus the whole world but it sure doesn’t feel like it.” I retort feigning annoyance.
” Okay, fine I’ll tell you.” She says with a sigh.
That’s more like it. A little emotional blackmail was all it took.
“You too like gist.”
” I’m all ears,” I reply grinning. I needed any form of information that would help me get that woman’s claws off my husband.
“I knew Riyah when I was with my first husband,” She says and I’m taken aback.
” Just how many men have you been married to?” I ask and she laughs at the expression on my face.
” Well, he’s not exactly my first husband but we lived together throughout the entire duration of our relationship.” She says her face beaming with smiles. She must have been very much in love. I’m about to ask what his name was but she’s back to the story.
“Riyah was also staying with a man, her boyfriend and mine were friends so we met pretty often and that was how I got to know her.”
” So you two were friends then?”
“Not exactly, just acquaintances I had other friends at the time and besides Riyah clung to that man like a purse. Her whole life revolved around him.”
” So what happened?” I ask my curiosity heightened, I want to know why Kolade is the new purse she’s decided to cling to.
“One day she came to me telling me that she wanted out of her relationship with her boyfriend, saying all sorts of things like he was a bad man and that she felt trapped in the relationship. I didn’t even know why she chose to tell me all that because we were not even close as friends or anything like that. So I gave her the best advice I could to leave since she claimed that he was a bad man and she wanted out.”
Well, that advice sounds pretty familiar.
“But was he a bad man?” I ask
“Sadly yes but there was nothing I or anyone could do about it. One day he came to the house and I thought he was there for my boyfriend but he said he had come for me. He warned me to stay away from Riyah telling me their relationship was none of my business and that I should stop putting silly ideas in her head, he even threatened to cut my tongue off if I ever spoke to her again.”
“Ha! And what did your boyfriend do after?” I ask in absolute shock of what I’ve just heard.
” I didn’t tell him anything, I didn’t want to be the cause of any misunderstanding between them. Besides the one Riyah had caused was enough already.” She says as she picks up the dress and gets back to work, indicating she didn’t want to press further on the topic, even though I knew there was more to whatever she had just said. However I let her be she wasn’t in the mood and I wasn’t going to push it.
Minutes of silence pass with only the whirring sound of the sewing machine filling the shop, and I sit dazed trying to take in all Grace has just told me. Although I feel bad for Riyah and whatever she might have gone through, it still didn’t change the fact that we were rivals now and I wasn’t going to let her have her way. Whatever happy ending she was hoping for with Kolade was not going to happen, not on my watch at least.
“Is that why you’re supporting me against her?” I ask with a playful smirk. ” Because of your past beef?” I ask wiggling my brows playfully trying to lighten the dense mood that has taken over the atmosphere once more.
“Don’t put words in my mouth Nola.” Grace answers with a chuckle.” I’ll change my mind now oo.”
“You no fit.”. I say and we both let out a hearty laugh.
°°°°
It’s 5 pm. Grace and I have locked up the shop as usual, we both need to get home and cook for our respective husbands. I can’t wait to get home the walk back home through the market today feels oddly long as I can feel the eyes staring at me with every step I take. I try not to put much into it as Grace and I chat about random things, it’s not the first time this community has had bad things to say about me, which is something Grace and I have in common. ‘Being the bad eggs.’
An eruption of laughter as we pass by a group of women catches my attention and I can’t help but turn to see what they are laughing at, and of course it’s Mama Bisi and her gossip gang all staring right at me with the wicked grins plastered on their faces.
The paranoia in me kicks in and I’m about to say something when I feel Grace holding my arm as a signal to let it go.
” Leave her now, let her come and beat me if she wants, did I say anything wrong?” She yells after us. ” Birds of a feather do flock together don’t they?”
Okay, it’s high time I give this old woman a piece of my mind.
“They do actually, “I say breaking free from Grace’s grasp. “Look at them flocking right now,” I say referring to her and her group of measely-looking friends.
“You better watch your mouth girl” She warns.
She’s annoyed? That was quick, but she started it.
“Nola let’s go,” Grace says as she tries to pull me away from the already forming scene, but I don’t budge.
“Leave me.” I snap at her these people started it I’m here to finish what they just started. We stand glaring at each other, I can see the mischief in Mama Bisi’s eyes she’s ready for a fight, especially for the troublemaker that she is. A small crowd already starting to form around us.
” Do you really want to do this in front of your child?” Grace whispers nudging me to leave. Eyeing her once with a tongue click I turn around to leave but the next words I hear have me throwing every self-respect I have for myself and everyone around me.
Everything else that happens next happens so fast and in a blur leading to chaos, my hands are slapping and scratching this woman’s over-bleached face as we both go crashing on the ground with me on top of her. All hell has broken loose on my tongue as I utter all the curse words and insults I have been holding in for a long time now.
I can feel the adrenaline rush in my veins as I keep slapping and scratching, her screams satisfying me, however, I’m cut out of my small victory when I feel a sharp pain in my eyes.
Did she just put sand in my eyes?
The tables turn on me as I feel hands and feet slapping and kicking me from different directions while I struggle to break free. This woman and her gang of gossip mongers want to kill me, well too bad I have a backup. Speaking of my backup, where is Grace? Isn’t she supposed to be helping me in all this? I manage to open my eyes through the burning sensation as I keep struggling, it’s not fair these women are fighting four against one.
Some people are cheering while others try to break off the fight, I see my baby on the floor amid all the chaos wailing loudly with no one around her and now I’m truly alarmed. Where is Grace?
While I struggle to get through to Tolani through the many bodies around me I see a silhouette running away in the distance and I recognize it at once, it’s Grace.
And a wave of disappointment washes over me, so much for her being my friend.
