Ruin

2

Monday: 6 am
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"Manda! Wake up man...a work mawning!"

I stir and groan as the intruder pokes and prods my sides.

"Five more minutes..." I manage to say through a groan.

I had stayed up until quarter past twelve last night watching movies with my mother and chatting like idiots. And even after I went to bed, I had a hard time falling asleep. I didn't even realize when I had dozed off. Now, I had to wake up early for work. I hardly got any sleep.

It was her fault.

"Five more minutes yuh foot! Look pon di time. Wake up, man!" the voice that has an uncanny resemblance to my mother's says.

I stir again and pull a pillow over my head.

A slap follows suit and I spring to a sitting position.

My eyes burn from the sleep which still settles in them.

I rub them and look across the room to where my mother now stands in the doorway, and grimace at the devilish smirk gracing her face.

"Wake up!" she shouts, clapping her hands together and it is then that I realize I was dozing off again.

I switch on the lights to get some energy and pull the sheet from my body.

Feeling satisfied that I was at least out of bed, I guess, my mother turns on her heels and heads down the stairs humming a tune as she goes.

I recover my phone which was entangled between the top sheet and fitted sheet. I quickly punch in my code and pull down the notification bar, but my heart sinks when there was still no response from Odaine to any of my messages.

I clear the rest of the notifications, including the one saying I had missed all four alerts from my alarm.

I sigh.

I don't know what to think. Why isn't he answering my texts? Why hasn't he called in almost three weeks?

Was he that busy? I doubt he works through the nights, every night...

I punch his number in and bring the phone to my ears.

"Press zero to make this your tune..." the automated operator says just before a familiar rhythm starts to play.

I groan and roll my eyes.

Unuh just know how fi waste people time and credit, dutty Digicel.

The phone rings straight through to voicemail the first three times, then goes straight to voicemail on the fourth attempt.

Is he okay?

I wonder if he's still sleeping...

Or at work. But so early?

"Wait likkle bit. Manda, it nuh look like yuh plan fi guh a work todeh! Look deh..." my mother says and pulls her phone from her jeans skirt's pocket. "A almost six-thirty now and yuh still siddung in a bed a look pon phone!"

If she didn't say anything, she wouldn't be named what she was named.

I spring to my feet and pick up the soap and my underwear from the hamper by my bed. "Mummy, nuh bathe mi ago bathe now, man. Yuh juss miserable suh!"

"Miserable nuh, mek mi know who ago wake yuh when mi nuh deh yah. Yaah act like sleep scarce!"

I chuckle and run past her and into the upstairs bathroom and shut the door behind me.