WHOSE FAULT?

Chapter 2: They're landlords but live like beggars.

" Mom!, when is dad going to come back?,the way he treats us makes me feel like we're unwanted children who interrupted his peaceful life." Tina questioned her mother about the whereabouts of her father with tears streaming down her pale face.

" It has been a month ever since your dad collected money from the rentals and ran off without leaving anything for us to use. He used the excuse of having a trip to the ancestral homes.  Once he brings pig's trotters it's like a Christmas celebration." Christie replied her daughter while weaving a mat with banana fibers.

Comforting her daughter,she promised to later visit their aunt cissy who was the owner of a shamba to work for her in exchange for food. In the meantime,the ladies sat on the verandah of their houses gossiping about everyone in the neighborhood.
That's one of their favorite hobbies but suddenly a short lady with a bleached face rushed saying " Lydia! ,guess what I found out?"

Lydia gazed at her with frustration etched on her face saying "am not good with guessing so hurry and tell me before I lose it."  The lady  sat down and wrapped her arms around herself saying" I went to throw rubbish at the pit but found Aubrey miss Christie's last born picking leftovers wrapped in a black polythene bag and took it at their house."

" It's very weird to me in away I totally don't understand,the husband just recently collected rent from us but it's so a shaming that the child picks leftovers from the piles of rubbish where everyone dumps like used pampers,pads and other trash that looks disgusting. Just a mere thought of them eating gives me goosebumps." Lydia rubbed her arms while trying to act dramatically.

She was tall, chocolate skinned, had a sharp nose with pink lips. She resembled the ladies from the western part of Uganda who are extremely beautiful with their curvey figures. Continuing to stir her beef sauce she closed the lid and adjusted her posture .
" Do you know that it's recently I got to find out that our landlord was once rich and one of the employees of Grindlay's bank Uganda limited. He was married legally but divorced his first wife and ran after a mistress who made him go bankrupt in few years. Though he lost his glory,he dressed smartly making the onlookers to mistake his appearance as a rich man ,I feel sorry for miss Christie who fell prey for his image."

" Why are you well informed about his past?, and when did you get to know this juicy news hmm." The short lady with a bleached face questioned Lydia who grinned .
" A little bird told me." Lydia smirked without revealing the details of how she got the news.
Amidst of their heated conversation,a tall man with a lean built without an extra muscle arrived saying " Lydia the beautiful Queenie Queenie,why don't you heed my advice and stop mixing with such friends?"

The short lady turned red with anger , definitely this man Alex was directing his mean words to her. Lydia felt angered by the demeaning words Alex used to mock Melissa.
" it's my choice to befriend anyone I want,so it's my business to whoever I mingle with."  Holding her chin , suddenly saying" Ohh! , don't tell me that you're still holding the grudge against Melissa who warned me not to fall for such stringy men,you know ladies of this generation want money,to me even my husband knows it,if I request whiskey he won't bring beer."

Alex felt sadness engulfing his entire being for being called a stringy man,he hadn't even relaxed when Melissa gloated saying" men should take this advice from me, when a woman is with you for money,then give her enough of it and she will leave you alone despite you being intimate with a nother woman. If a woman was with you for the relationship then give her enough love and security so that she won't look down on you for not having money. But if you are unable to provide money or love and you expect her to forgive your faithlessness, laziness and lies,then I'm sorry you don't need a girlfriend,you need an idiot."

Lydia burst into a fit of laughter having heard Melissa lecturing Alex as if she was a love expert. Alex felt belittled and jogged back to his home fuming with anger but had no where to extinguish it. Melissa entered her house to watch the TV soap which was about to start.
She had just started watching the soap when her daughter Joseline came with a book requesting help with her home work.

Melissa felt like a bucket of cold water was poured on her and got her phone and dialled the class teacher for Joseline. " Good afternoon Mr John,why do you want us to look stupid in front of our kids hee?,  what's the reason for paying school fees,so tell me are you stupid and am being lenient on you guys,if was there in person you would have tasted my wrath,what a stupid teacher."
She didn't give an opportunity for the teacher to explain anything and hung up the call.

Previously, Christie wanted to go for a short call but was dump founded by what she heard,the tenants had made them the topic of discussion,the most hurting of all was for being called beggars. All this wouldn't have happened if Joseph took his responsibility as a husband and father. She lost the mood to release herself and went back to her house with tears in the brim of her eyes, comforting herself saying " I shouldn't be saddened by this because all those who fear to be talked about die even they see this chaotic world.

Aubrey looked down at her feet unable to retort back to her mother who reprimanded for not being patient when she picked leftovers from the pit . She thought that since Joseph had a place where to live without the hustle to pay rent would save her the energy to quarrel with the landlord. If she had known,she wouldn't have jumped from fire to the pan,the desire to have a successful and happy marriage is just a mere fancy of hers that would never come true in this world.

Aubrey was two years younger than Tina,she was short, brown skinned with braids on her head. The yellow dress she was wearing paled with years due to constant washing. Tina witnessed all this shrinking back in her seat as her mother yelled to Aubrey who was silently sobbing. Picking the hoe and panga, Christie warned them not to enter anyone's house and left for the job .

Aubrey asked Tina her elder sister while hiccuping questioning whether she did was wrong. " Aubrey! , it's not the right thing to do,you should have waited for mom to get food for us,you definitely know how Aunt Melissa is,the moment she sees you doing something wrong,it spreads like wild fire and what mom hates the most is being gossiped about and ridiculed."
Tina replied while wiping her sister's tears.

Upon reaching her sister in-law 's home, Christie greeted her respectfully while kneeling down. " How's my brother?"
" He left for ancestral homes without leaving anything for us that's why I came hoping if you have anywhere I can dig for you in exchange for food."
" Sorry to hear about that,but doesn't he give you a share of the money he collects from the rentals."
" He spends the money anyhow on his friends and his alcohol."
Christie elaborated everything to her sister-in-law with sadness in her voice.

Cissy sympathized with Christie and ordered the Linda to show her the shamba where she's supposed to weed . Cissy is the kind of person who's interested in getting to know other people's problems inorder to help them after hearing how pathetic their lives are. Digging with all she got,she finished when it the sun was setting. As a reward for her hard work,cissy gave her sweet potatoes and a bunch of Matooke. Since she didn't have charcoal at home,she collected firewood and placed everything in a suck.

Thanking her sister in-law with a blooming smile,she embarked on her journey back home to prepare food for her daughters.
Lydia knelt down and prayed for her husband who hadn't come back making her worry.
" May God deliver you from the forbidden women, from the adulteress with her smooth words,who forsakes the companion of her youth, for her house sinks down to death, and her paths to the departed. None who go to her come back,nor do they regain the paths of life but only turn your eyes to me, amen."

After reciting the prayer,she sat in the couch to wait for him but her phone rang getting excited but it last long when she saw the number on the screen.