Behind the Mask✔

Chapter 26

Weeks had passed since the death of  Felicia's mum and she was still struggling with the reality of the death. Unfortunately, Jemima's parents were also having serious issues at home and our mummy of the group as we called Jemima wasn't in the best of moods for sometime.

  SS1 was slowly passing as we were approaching  third term ,the promotional term and on the home front, mum was growing very big each passing day. She was now about five  months gone and the twins were fine but pregnancy brought out a more vulnerable side of my mum I had never seen before.  She was often tired and hungry and every day, I gave her foot massages.

Sometimes, she did unexpected things and the height of it was when I caught her eating rice and chocolates and I was shocked. She said it felt like one twin was craving rice and the other was craving chocolates. Dad and Aunty Ebere always ignored mum and I and it felt like we were in different worlds but it was better than being beaten by dad always but then they still did not like me .

Dad and his sisters convinced grandma to take a break from nursing grandpa back to health and she decided to come back to our house for her 'few days break'. Aunty Chika went to see grandpa daily and dad hired a nurse to stay with grandma. The thought of grandma coming back annoyed me and mum was no different.

I was just returning from school and I met grandma in the living room feasting on Semolina and egusi soup and I greeted her and she replied

"Welcome. Eh hen! When you go upstairs, tell your mother to give you the cloth I asked her to collect and bring it to me."

Mum was back?

I was surprised that she was actually back home by this time. I hoped nothing bad happened to her. I dropped my school bag and took of my shoes before going to do what grandma asked me to and truly , I found mum in their room lying on the bed and it seemed like she was sleeping and my knock woke her up.

"Good afternoon ma " I greeted her and she responded with a nod and smile. I told her what grandma wanted and she handed me a blue carrier bag and told me to come back after answering grandma.

Soon, I was back with mum and before she said anything, I spoke

"Mummy, when did you come back?"

"Few minutes past eleven "

"Ah ahn! Why?  Did something happen? Are you fine? What of the twins? Is anywhere paining you?"

"Jasmine, which interview is this one again?" Mum asked me laughing "Anyway, I'm fine. I fell earlier in the office but I'm fine now"

She did  what? !

"How? Why?"

"Calm down. I'm fine and I was given today and tomorrow off "

I accessed her and maybe she was fine . Her feet were already swelling and she looked very tired. Even the way she spoke said she was tired

"Okay ma " I said nodding. The good part was that she got to stay home tomorrow and that would be nice.

"I prepared egusi soup not long ago, so go and take some if you want but that's the soup we'll use for dinner o so if you're taking now , take small except you want to eat small at night"

Since I was hungry, I decided to eat immediately. Besides, I didn't like eating swallow at night. I wondered how they all did it.

I took a quick shower and changed my clothes before going to eat. When I got to the kitchen, I saw a pot resting on the burner and went to open it guessing that was where the soup was but surprisingly, I didn't see any soup left in the pot. It was obvious egusi was in the pot before since it wasn't washed but it looked like the soup was taken out.