Cold At Dusk

Chapter Twenty Six

"Nwunye Engineer"

Kamsi raised her head from the game she had been playing on her phone . It was Ireti, one of the co workers.

"Good morning " She greeted the older woman.

"How you dey na? This one you are not talking today"

Kamsi briefly wondered if she had ever joined their conversation which comprises of all most everything and nothing in particular.

" I just wan observe today" She said with a smile then returned her attention to her phone to dismiss the woman.

She did not like that nobody in the office ever called her name. It was 'Mrs Nwoko ' or 'Nwunye Engineer '
A time like this, she was trying to have a name of her own and not just be known as the wife to a man. She believed she was more than that, she was more than just a wife. Who really was she then? Her office was a crowd of people most of them barely finished secondary school even. That was who she was, a woman who worked in a place below her qualification.

A young man carried in a pile of files into the office. He went to Ireti to drop it, her table was closest to the door.

"Mba, mba. Find someone else " She protested, waving him off.

Everyone in the office had excuses to give.

"I'm going now sef" someone said even though it was just past twelve in the afternoon.

"I'm not well. I'm taking drugs, biko" someone else said.

One of the religious women they had in the office shouted, "Nye ya Mrs Nwoko. Onweghi ihe  ona aru" - Give it to Mrs Nwoko. She doesn't do anything.  

Kamsi who had been quiet since the young man entered, stretches her hands towards him.

"Bring it " She said.

The young man handed her the files and left. The room fell quiet. It was unusual. There were no chatterings. It was as if they had expected her to give an excuse so the young man would leave with the files but she disappointed them. She kept the files on her legs and began to work. It was their usual behavior.. Pushing their work to the other unit because they felt the other unit which was the next office did no work. She always sat on the bench close to the window so she had no table. There were only two tables in the office and a very long one which people sat on  and a part of it was even used to display home made dettol, airfreshener, bleach and liquid soup for sale.

After work, she strolled down to the gate to get a bike man. Bike men were not allowed to enter the headquarters. It was then Joseph called.

"Dede good evening " She greeted  holding the phone to her ear.

"Kamsi, how are you doing. It's been a while " He said.

"I'm well. It's work o. Work has been busy "

He laughed, "I can understand. Working class woman "

"Dede, how are you doing kwanu ?" She asked, after laughing to what he said.

"I'm well o. Junior is now crawling so I'm happy he would soon be washing car. " He said.

Kamsi laughed, " It's not like that na" She said.

"It's o. What's happening , Have you started the painting ?"

"Yes" She replied excitedly as she stood outside the gate and watched as bikes sped past her without calling any.

" I have something I worked on two days ago . Dede, it's beautiful. " she said.

" I'm buying it" he said firmly .