Much ado about a little something.

Amaka
Saturday 4.25 p.m

It felt good; this sense of relief. The beans she had for lunch had transformed into a dying boa constrictor in her stomach, roiling and thrashing about.
 She sat now hunched over the white toilet seat and released the snake in fluid outbursts.

She was engaged with the task at hand; concentrating on the prruhm prruhm sound in the bowl when her phone interrupted her.

"Amy," sister Chigoziri's voice said through the phone." Please wait for me at the junction at Ariyo. I want to give you the ingredients for tomorrow's stew."

"Alright sister Chi, I'll be there," She replied.

"Okay then." The line went dead.

She still sat there trying to force the last vestiges of the beans-turned-snake out of her system.
She didn't try to hurry up. She knew from experience that sister Chi must still be a long way off. She might  even still be in Trade fair. She had been to Ariyo on multiple occasions and waited hours before sister Chi showed up. After the third complaint, sister Chi had agreed to call her a second time when she got real close to Ariyo to signal her to start coming out.

"Amaka!" Emeka shouted from the living room.

"What!" she shouted back.

Who knows what he wanted her to do for him now. If not that they were siblings, she would have stopped talking to him a long time ago. He was so annoying, disrespectful and demanding. He seemed to derive some secret pleasure from annoying her; maybe he imagine that because she is his little sister, and he was an only son, she was his slave.

"Do fast and go to Ariyo! Chigoziri want to give you some things!" He shouted again.

"I have heard!"
So sister Chi called him too. What is special about today? She mused.

When she came out of the toilet, Emeka glared at her. She hissed and went inside her room.

"Amaka! Didn't I tell you that Chigoziri is waiting for you at Ariyo." He shouted angrily.

She didn't reply. She simply busied herself with her phone. Five minutes later, Chigoziri called her again.
When she opened the curtain and stepped into the living room, Emeka wasn't there. She hissed again. She was nearly at the junction when sister Chigoo called again. This time to tell her not to bother coming. "I already gave it to Emeka," she said.

"So that's where he went. Nonsense," she hissed.
Suddenly, her stomach rumbled again. "oh no. Not again," she muttered.
She started hurrying home.

"Amaka!"
She turned. Emeka was striding towards her with a rather unpleasant scowl.
"You're mad abi!" he shouted.
"What kind of talk is that one? Nonsense," she replied him.

He flew into a rage.
"You have grown wings abi. Idiot! If you say one word again, I will slap respect out of you, Mumu. Chigoziri is calling you, go and meet her. But did you go? No!  you were wasting time, doing nothing. And now you're shaking nyansh, doing catwalk. If I didn't go to meet her, she would have taken these things home. Fool!"

What was peppering him today? She thought. She'd better keep her mouth shut, she decided quickly. This boy could hurt her in this state he is in.
She turned and walked quickly away. Running away from her raving brother, who still didn't give up but rather was following close behind her still shouting, to the toilet promising relief from the chaos within her.


Emeka
Saturday 4.25 p.m

Emeka lay on a sofa in the living room, sullen.
Chelsea FC, his favourite football club had lost today's match to a very weak club. The defeat, however, was wrought on Chelsea because the referee was prejudiced against them.
How can he give Morata a red card and award a penalty against Chelsea when clearly the other guy was at fault, and Morata was only the victim?

"Stupid referee, I hope he dies," he muttered."

The curtain rustled and he turned his attention in it's direction. Obi walked in from their bedroom. He stood on the doorway and looked around the living room, apparently searching for something - or someone.

"Emeka, where is Amaka?" He asked.
"I think she went to the toilet," Emeka replied.
"Oh, Okay." Obi turned to the door directly behind him and knocked.
"It's not that one," Emeka stopped him, "it's the one outside at the far end of the balcony."
"Alright then. When she comes out, tell to meet Chigoziri at Ariyo." Obi said and went back in.
"Okay."
"Amaka!"
"What!" she shouted.
The impudent brat. Just imagine how she's shouting back at him, with no respect whatsoever. One of these days he is going to beat some sense  into her, stupid girl.
 "Do fast and go to Ariyo! Chigoziri wants to give you some things!" He shouted.
"I have heard!" She shouted back. Again, with that insolent tone.
He sighed, then shook his head thinking "it's not her fault."
"He turned his attention once more to his phone. The blogs were abuzz with the comments and criticism about the match. With each word criticising the match and berating the referee, the more angrier he got.
"These guys bribed this yeye referee walahi" he muttered again.

He was reading the tenth article when  Amaka came out from  the toilet. He glared at her and in return she hissed at him and went inside her room. He would have rushed into the room and give her a well deserved beating if he had not heard the lock turning inside her door, almost immediately.

Mtcheeew. O nwela luck 

He turned once more to the news articles, but he was now so angry and distracted and in need of a walk to relieve his mind of the nonsense match  that few minutes later he went to Ariyo himself. This girl is becoming too much in this house, he thought. What if Chigoziri carried these things home? Then tomorrow they'll have to go to her house at Alibaba to get them. And before breakfast will be ready it will be nearly two o'clock in the afternoon.

Almost as soon as he got to the junction, Chigoziri's bus appeared and she gave the items to him through the window of the moving car. Few minutes away from the junction, he saw Amaka turn around and start walking back home.
"Amaka!"
She turned and hissed.
"You're mad abi!"
"Which kin talk is that one. Nonsense." she said.
"Oh, you're asking me. Is it me that you're asking. Foolish girl. Oya wait there."
She turned and quickly walked away.
"I say stop! Stop there!"
But, she didn't stop. She only quickened her pace.


Ikenna 
Saturday 4.45 p.m

Ikenna lay on the bed rolling and turning. The beans in his stomach was no longer the soothing nutrition it was meant to be. He gave up trying to quiet the roiling cobra nestling inside him and reached for his transistor radio. A few twist of the knob and he found the sports channel.

The were still talking about the surprising thrashing of Chelsea at the hands of the relatively unknown Boleyn. Emeka has been in a foul mood all day. Especially since Obi had not stopped teasing him.
Poor Emeka. Maybe he shouldn't have hyped Chelsea too much before the match.

His stomach rumbled again and he groaned. Amaka and her blasted beans. This one is somebody eating their death with their own mouth.

He was fumbling with the radio knob, trying to find a station that was playing some music when the door suddenly flew open and Obi barged into the room, wide eyed.

"What is it? What happened?" Ikenna asked, eyeing the space behind the boy warily.
Whatever had spooked the boy took his voice as well. He merely pointed towards the parlor and tears started streaming down his face.

Ikenna pushed past him into the sitting room and there he saw the most bewildering sight of his entire life.

Amaka lay beside the thick mahogany table, blood pooling around her head. A patch of blood stained the ceramic tabletop, near the edge. Apparently she hit her head as she fell. Emeka knelt beside her, hands supporting his head. He seemed in shock.

"What happened?" Ikenna asked, when he found his voice.
"I... It was an accident... I was just so angry... She has no respect... I don't... I didn't know." Emeka began to cry.
Ikenna looked at him for a long time.

"Your sister." He whispered.