Empty Vases: Episode 2

The rain did not stop; it continued to drum on everything. Nedu was wide awake, arm behind his head. He had tried but could not sleep. The bed was lumpy, and the sheets smelled alien. He could not understand how Otito could sleep so soundly, how she could be so comfortable.

She had been the same with the meal Munachi served, eating so ravenously that he was embarrassed. He thought Munachi was too happy at Otito’s feeding and that there was something odd about the way Obichi stared at his girlfriend. The man had kept looking at her, muttering something with his hands closing and opening. Otito thought he was overthinking things, that it wasn’t his business whether the couple had children or not, but she did ask if his grandmother would not be worried.

As Nedu lay there, thinking about the grandmother he barely remembered, he wondered at the impulsiveness that had brought him on this journey. Someone had teased him at work about not remembering his mother’s hometown, and Nedu was not one to carry the stamp of ignorance about like a star. He had decided to visit his maternal hometown and write a sensational article about it in the weekend edition of The National Piece. Otito had told him he was hotheaded, but he couldn’t be bothered. This hotheadedness had garnered him international awards and a growing recognition among the nation’s elite.

Suddenly the downpour reduced to a light shower, and Nedu heard frogs croaking. Otito stirred beside him and reached for him. He turned on his side and stroked her back. Just then he heard something—the light scraping of feet against the cemented threshold. His ears perked up. The front door opened, and there was a faint rustle of nylon, the creaking of wood, and cracking of knuckles. 

Nedu extricated himself from Otito and tiptoed to the door. A slice of light came in through the crack between the door and the frame. He could hardly see anything, so he pressed his head against the door and caught the end of a sentence.

“… you be good to her. The gods have answered our prayers.”

“Amen. Let me make some tea.” he heard Munachi say.

****

The sun and laughter woke him up the next morning. Otito was nowhere to be found; the space beside him was cold. He struggled into his trousers, grabbed his bag, and walked out of the room.

He traced the laughter to the small hut outside the house. Otito was wearing a strange dress, white with yellow stars on it. She had flung the excess folds between her thighs and spread her legs. Beside her, Munachi was stirring a sauce. The air here was crisp and clean, unlike in the city where he lived. 

“Good morning,” Munachi said cautiously, seeing his intent on his face.

“Hey, dear, where are you going with the bag?” Otito asked with a surprised smile. “Not leaving me here, are you?”

“It’s time to go. What are you wearing?”

“Go? Munachi is making yam and garden egg stew. Do you know when last I had that?”

Nedu looked at her oddly. “Can we talk?”

“Oh, you’re such a serious man!”

They went some distance away from the hut. 

“What’s going on here? It’s time to go. What’s this you’re wearing? Where are your clothes?”

“Munachi washed them for me. I know it’s not what I would wear, but she’s been so nice. And the garden egg stew looks so good.”

Nedu paused. “Okay, Otito, I don’t know what’s come over you, but we need to leave now.”

“Nothing has come over me. I’m hungry! In case you’ve forgotten, pregnant women need to eat.”

“We’ll eat at my grandmother’s place.”

“The car hasn’t even been repaired. Do you want me to go hungry till then? Why are you in such a hurry to leave?”

“Look, I can’t explain it, but I think something is not right here. The man …”

“You mean Obichi.”

“Yes, I forgot his name. Well, he went out late last night, and when he returned, I heard them saying something about being nice to someone, and I think that is you.”

“What’s that supposed to mean? Is there something wrong with going out at night?”

“He went out in the middle of the night. Who goes out in the middle of the night?”

“Hunters?” Nedu sighed and Otito placed her hands on his shoulders. “Listen, love, I don’t know what’s making you paranoid about this place, but can you just relax? These folks are nice. Let’s eat, and we’ll go, okay?”

Nedu barely ate a piece of yam; Obichi was nowhere to be found. 

“He has gone to his workshop,” Munachi said.

“I don’t understand. He was supposed to help me find a mechanic.”

“Yes, but you were still sleeping when he was ready this morning.”

Nedu cursed his lack of direction. “How do I get to his workshop? I don’t remember how we got here from there.” 

“My brother, you can wait for him,” Munachi said sweetly, placing a plate of sliced cucumbers before Otito. “My friend, you need to eat more vegetables, your eyes are pale.”

Otito was offended by the slight condescending tone she detected from the other woman, but she was too full to take her up on it.  She ate the cucumbers and watched Nedu pacing the room, stopping to peek out of the window occasionally.

“Are village people really so daft? How can this man just go AWOL? At this rate, we’ll turn back to Lagos because I have to finish up that report and send it to the editor.”

“Nedu, you need to calm down. You’re acting strange and scaring me.”

“Well, maybe that’s good because you’re too relaxed.”

“That’s because some of us are actually logical. we don’t get spooked by phantoms.”

“What are you going on about?”

“You’ve been this way since we saw that food on the road. Nothing is going on here. Why can’t we just relax?”

“You’re starting to get on my nerves, Otito. Maybe you should just eat your cucumber.”

“I’m getting on your nerves?” Otito swayed to her feet, holding her abdomen in one hand and a cucumber in the other. “Whose idea was it to come to this place? Did I not say I wanted to stay back? Are we not here because of a stupid argument you got into at work? Are we not stranded because you refused to buy a spare tyre at Enugu?”

Munachi re-entered the room just as Obichi was about to retort.

“My brother, your blood is too hot.” She said with that sweet smile. “I will go to Obichi and tell him you’re waiting for him.”

“Thank you!” Nedu said, it was the best thing he’d heard all day.

****

Three hours later Munachi returned with a young boy.

“I didn’t find Obichi. They said he carried someone to the hospital.”

Nedu stared at her disbelievingly, glancing at Otito as if to share his shock with her.

Munachi continued with a smile. “The man fell from a tree; he was tapping palm wine for his in-laws. I brought this boy here; he will mend the tyre. He’s Obichi’s apprentice.”

Nedu wanted to say no, but he couldn’t imagine how long it would take Obichi to return. It seemed that village people had no awareness of time. 

****

Otito felt Muncahi’s eyes on her as she ate and paced the room afterward. A strange fear crawled on her skin like a millipede, tickling it into goosebumps. She sat still and gazed around, looking for something to break the awkward silence. For the first time, she noticed that the faded calendars were all church souvenirs. 

“They must make a lot of calendars at your church,” she said.

“Yes, we like them. They make good decorations. You see that one?” She pointed to the farthest one on Otito’s right; it was the most recent. “We made it in the year of the drought. Things were so tough. So tough. We lost many, many things.”

“Is that why you stopped collecting the calendars?”

“No, we stopped going to the church. Well, I still go … sometimes …”

“Just like Nedu and I. I don’t like church, but he loves to go, so we go once in a while.”

“Why do you not like church?”

“There are too many hypocrites there.”

“That is true, my sister.” 

Otito began to yawn. Soon she sat, then she slid down the chair, then her breathing slowed down, then she closed her eyes and slept.

Munachi loosened her wrapper and brought out a cowrie chain. She chanted the words she had been taught and placed it on Otito’s neck.

****

Far away, Nedu placed his hands on his head. The boy vulcanizer had cut an irreparable hole in the tyre. From the position of the sun, he could tell that there was no way they could drive this car today. The boy was saying something about how the hole was not his fault, but he wasn’t listening. His heart was racing with rising agitation.

He wandered down the road, thinking about a possible solution, when he saw a woman riding a bicycle towards him. 

“Where did you say you’re going?” she asked when he told her his destination. “That is far from here…”

“Caro, what are you telling him?” Obichi had suddenly appeared out of nowhere, bag in hand.

“Where have you been?” Nedu almost yelled at him.

Obichi began a winding story about the man who had fallen from the palm tree, leading him away from Caro and telling him that he had contacted a vulcanizer who would come early the next morning. When they reached the house, Otito had changed into another outfit and was picking vegetables with Munachi.

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Image copyright: Micah Boerma/Canva

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