Episode 5

Sparks erupted in her brain, desperately striving to connect the dots, but instead, it only resulted in a short circuit.

Her eyes and mouth were frozen wide open, staring straight at the man as he disappeared from her sight in an expression of stunned surprise while her thoughts struggled to catch up on what just happened.

Once the man was gone from her view, she shook her head clearing the shock away; instantly her lips stretched in a wide smile and without thinking twice, she abandoned her goods by the side of the road —only taking the tray—and raced down the wide asphalt concrete road, breathing heavily without for once glancing behind.

She had a target—Peter—she hoped he had gotten home safely and also, wasn't in some trouble at home, even though she knew she couldn’t protect him all the time, she still tried her best to do so every single day. Besides, if she didn’t look after him who would?

*****

Nellie suddenly came to a halt by the side of the road, her head quickly swerved towards the source of her immediate delay and she inhaled deeply. God, the smell of roasted plantain and fried fish that was coming from the street food vendor’s cart was really intoxicating.

Taking out and counting the money that was given to her by the nice stranger, her eyes widened the size of saucers and her lips formed a perfect ‘O’ as the realization hit her, this was twice the worth of goods she was given to sell, meaning, for the first time in her life, she had spare change to do with as she pleased.

Suddenly, there was a boom! In her brain—the good sort. “Oh my God” she exclaimed; this meant she could afford to buy food, Peter won’t go hungry tonight, there would be enough spare change for the next day, and also, not everyone was as horrible as she was made to believe.

With a very wide smile, Nellie confidently stepped up to the food vendor and placed an order. She watched the vendor dish out her food and extreme happiness soaked right into her bones. She never believed she could be so happy—even only for a second—but here she was buying roasted plantain and fried fish, a meal she never thought she would ever try; and although it looked or sounded trivial to others, but to her, it was the best thing that had ever happened in her life.

*****

Getting home, Nellie could hear loud voices coming from inside, thankfully, it wasn't her stepmother hitting or yelling at her brother as usual, instead, it was her father and the stepmom going at it again. It wasn't a new occurrence for them to fight and batter one another; on the contrary, it was actually a very common experience.

Stealthily, Nellie began approaching the house, listening intently, trying to pick up what their quarrel was all about, in order to find out if it had anything to do with her bother or herself. Luckily, it had nothing to do with them, instead, it was her father suggesting the want of another wife when they were barely feeding well.

Nellie shook her head and laughed quietly to herself, her father never ceased to amaze her—well, as long as he was making her stepmother feel even the slightest bit of pain, it was extremely worth it.

She circled the house as quietly as a mouse would and went straight for her bedroom window, she placed the food she had bought earlier by the side of the window then circling back out to the front porch, before taking in a deep breath. Holding the money she would be presenting to her stepmother, she quietly opened the door and stepped inside.

Once she entered the house, silence spread across the room; her stepmother strode forward and focused a hard stare on her.

“Why are you so late?” she asked, sounding very angry.

“I couldn’t sell the goods on time,” Nellie replied and suddenly a hand spread across her face almost knocking her teeth out.

“You are as useless as your father, you can’t do anything right!” she yelled and her father cut into the conversation at the mention of his name, making her stepmother turn her attention back to him and they began yelling again.

Nellie quietly slipped away from the quarrel into her room not letting the episode with her stepmom deter her very high spirits.

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