Cold At Dusk

Chapter Twenty Eight

It was a lazy Saturday morning for Kamsi. She still lay in bed not minding sun light that managed to enter the room even with the closed curtains.

She turned from the left side of the bed to the right. It was not in her habit to stay in bed till that time but she could not move her legs to stand. She tapped the screen of her phone to check the time . It was a few minutes past eleven. She looked at the butterfly wall paper on her Infinix phone thinking of what to do. She began to scroll through her gallery, looking at the very scanty couple pictures she had with Mark. The ones that they took mostly in village with Michelle as the photographer. In all the pictures ,Mark held her waist and she held him with two hands , her head on his chest and a smile on her face.. A true smile.

She washed her face in the bathroom and even moved to match the T-shirt on the floor even though she did not have to. The sink was close to the door and the rag was infront of the bathtub which was at the end of the room. She came out to a missed call from her Step-mother. It had been long they spoke. She did not need to wait till later to call her back, she did it then.

"My baby" The older woman's beautiful voice came on.

"Mummmmmy, how are you doing?" Kamsi asked, holding the phone to her ear and removing dirt from her free finger nails.

" I'm alright. Just hold on let me give the phone to my husband. He has been asking of you"

"Alright" Kamsi replied now playing with her white night wear with pink flowered designs.
There was a brief silence which was later replaced by Venerable Nwachukwu's rich tenor.

"Kamsi, how have you being?" he asked.

"I have been alright , sir. What about you?"

"I am great. The Lord has been so good to us" he replied.

Kamsi nodded silently. It was his usual reply.

"Your mother and I plan to come down to the east before the year runs out. If all goes as planned, we would definitely be seeing you soon." The Venerable said.

"I am excited already. You people should be quick with your arrangements o"

The man laughed then spoke,
" Keep praying hard, Kamsi. We pray for you over here every morning"

The phone was later passed back to Genevieve and Kamsi was grateful. The call with the Venerable had later turned to a counselling session but she did not know that her Step mum was about to continue.

"What of Mark?" she asked .

"He should be in his room" Kamsi replied.

" Are you in the kitchen?"

" No, I am in my own room. We no more sleep together"

"Ah, good. That is just why I called"

Kamsi could not help raising an eyebrow in confusion.

"How naa? Did you speak to Maka?" she asked.

"Maka told me everything. I don't know what she left out or what she added.. You know she loves to worsen matters but you should have called me. I should be your emergency number even before Maka"

" I did not want to bother you" Kamsi replied.

"Bother me?" The older woman laughed. "If you know what I went through for you, you will realise that there's nothing you do now that can be called trouble to me"

Kamsi heard her shut the door . She was probably in her own room.

"Kamsi, I know how you are. I don't want you to shut down like you did with your father" Genevieve said. She paused waiting for a reply.