by Maya Rossi
I washed my hands and waited.
He didn’t come all the day down. Stopped right in the middle and called. I wiped my hands with a napkin and ran forward.
“Yes, sir?”
“Indomie and egg, bring it naked. Cook it naked”
It was just like before. The ‘before’ I had refused to give a single thought to. I stripped in the kitchen. My hands shook as cooked. As I fried the egg, I nearly poured hot oil on myself. I stopped, took a deep breath. I ran water over my wrists until my nerves calmed. When I was calmer, I quickly made the eggs and served.
I logged it upstairs, naked. Again he got out the camera, had me recline in different poses. Then he sent me on my way. I ran down the stairs to get to my clothes. Right in the nook between the dining room and the kitchen, I heard the fridge close.
I froze.
In a panic, I glanced around, searching for a hiding place. No one, especially Madam, could find me like this. How would I explain it?
The fridge opened and closed violently. Then Merrick appeared. He had my clothes in one hand. He stopped. Nostrils flaring, lips twisted in disgust, he took his sweet time, looking me over. I trembled all over, watching him watch me.
He made another sweep. With a roar, he flung my clothes to the ground. He stalked over, tight-lipped with fury. His fingers dug sharply into my flesh as he leaned down and shook me lightly. “You slut.”
He pushed me aside and ran up the stairs, shouting for Oga to come out. I stood there, naked as the day I was born, shaking. Something crashed upstairs. The plates. Then father and son went at it, shouting and fighting. With a whimper, I lowered myself to the ground. I had no idea what to do. There was no part of my training with Madam Gold that prepared me for this.
Something crashed again. I jumped, crying softly.
They went at it for a good thirty minutes. When I heard footfalls coming down the stairs, I jumped to my feet, unprepared for the worst. Merrick. He skidded to a halt, took one look at me and made a sound of disgust.
“Put on your fucking clothes!”
I grabbed my clothes, nearing tearing the gown in my haste. He watched me, didn’t take his eyes off me, making every single movement harder than it was.
“So this is what you do, fuck my father when my mother, isn’t home?”
I bowed my head, the cool air caressing the skin of my back from the undone zipper. Merrick went on and on. He talked about everything I knew well. Betrayal. Self respect. Prostitution.
“Is this what you do? Destroy families? My mother loves you, for God’s sake. This will destroy her!”
Finally he stopped, breathing hard. “How long has this been going on? And don’t lie to me.”
I licked my lips, fear making speech difficult. “Last month?”
“You don’t freaking say!” He paced forward and backward. “You know what this would do to my mother? She loves you, talks about you all the damn time. How wonderful and helpful you are. Here you are seducing her husband.”
“What the hell did he even see in you?”
My skin crawled. The look of disgust was more devastating than a slap. I wish he would hit me. Madam or Benita or Oga would hit me to make their point. But Merrick didn’t. He went on and on.
When he stopped, I almost keeled over in relief. He shook his head, eyes dark with disappointment. “I…. thought. I really thought— stupid. Always have been, always will be.”
My mind whirled. What to do?
“You’ll leave this house, right this minute. No point deceiving my mother you’re who you’re not. Go, pack your things and leave. You will get your pay.”
My head jerked high at that. Did he really think? Merrick really thought I was being paid. I wanted to laugh, but it wasn’t remotely funny.
“Grab your things. I will drop you at the bus stop.”
I shook my head. “I can’t, please--”
“I won’t have you deceive my mother any longer. This will kill her. She loves you.”
“Mer--”
“Get out!”
I went to my knees. “Please--”
He ran forward; I flinched and waited for the blow. It didn’t come. He cursed. “Get the fuck out. And better be ready when I come out.”
I watched his boots as he stalked up the stairs. Suddenly, rage twisted up my insides like something ugly. How highhanded of him. He met me naked and assumed I must be seducing his father. No question asked. It was the way they trained us, accept and endure. People had endured worse. Riggy was enduring worse. But I didn’t want to be a seducer of married men in Merrick’s eyes. It irritated me that his opinion mattered so much. But there was nothing I could do about it.
He would ruin everything. He was already ruining everything. Maybe if I begged, explained… I sat on my heels, thinking. He had been so angry, hurt even. I feared I had no chance of reaching him. Maybe I should give him time to calm down.
No, I decided. I should go beg.
I hiked up my skirts and rushed up the stairs.
It’s the way of servants to never be heard or seen, unless they’re needed.
I could still see and hear Madam Gold. The smell of akpu clinging to her, a promise of food that would never come. It was the hardest part of the training to master. To be unheard. To be unseen. No one was better at it than I. But I had let myself be seen today.
I had to make it right.
Merrick’s room was the last on the right. A room I assumed to be a guest room all these years. On silent feet, I rushed forward, my skirts swishing around my legs. At his door, I stopped. He was on the phone. He leaned against the door. I could hear him so clearly.
I glanced down the hall to Oga’s room. I needed to go clean up the broken plates. But I needed to secure my job first. If I joined the twins with a sick aunty Sheila, how would we manage? My hand almost touched the door when the conversation penetrated the fog of fear.
“.… just a few more days. He can’t know, not now.”
A pause.
He gave a caustic laugh. “How do you think he would react knowing I’m a farmer somewhere?”
“No, no, he thinks I’m studying civil engineering in the university. We need to let him go on thinking that.”
“I just need a little more time.”
“I will get the money. Just like before.”
“He has no clue.”
“Buy it.”
“Before I leave, he’ll give me the allowance and school fees. Come on, I got it.”
Even to my uneducated mind, the context of the conversation was clear. Last year, there was a scandal on the other side of our area, about three streets over. Madam and her friends had talked about it for weeks. The man sent his son to school in America. Only he never went. Someone saw him in Abuja, partying the money away.
I knocked.
The conversation stopped. Merrick opened the door immediately. He eyed me with suspicion. “How long have been there?”
“Where do your parents think you’re schooling?”
“Put your voice down and shut your big mouth.” With a loud hiss, he grabbed my arm and dragged me into his room. “You don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said dismissively. “Have you packed?”
But I did. The quarrels with his father. The taunts from Oga. “I think he already suspects.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.” He walked to the dresser and grabbed his keys. “You ready?”
Heart pounding, I closed fingers slick with sweat over the doorknob. When I had the door open, Merrick whirled around.
He stalked over. I crossed the threshold and ran into the hallway. I stopped outside his father’s room.
He hissed, “What the hell do you think you’re playing at?”
I licked dry lips. “I have two younger ones, twelve years old. They need me. I need this job.”
“If you think I will let you stay here, fucking my father, betraying my mother, you’ve got another thing coming.”
Wi
thout a word, I crossed to Oga’s door. As I raised my hand to knock, Oga jerked the door open. He glanced from me to Merrick.
He sneered.“I have sent the money to your account, can you just disappear?” His head swiveled to my direction. “Come and clean up the room.”
When I remained unmoving, he raised an eyebrow. “Is there something else?”
I glanced at Merrick. He stood tense and angry, biting his lip. Finally he shook his head. Oga stepped back and jammed the door closed.
“You’re not staying in this house,” Merrick snapped and stalked back to his room. “Don’t think you’ve won.”
Chapter eleven
Benita of all people broke the news.
It was exactly one week since the disastrous moment Merrick walked in on me serving his father naked. Oh, I saw the disgust in his eyes. The expression on his face as he watched my every interaction with his father. I tried to avoid him by spending more time in the shop.
Madam sent me home to get a book from her room.
Suddenly, Benita came running out of Merrick’s room, screaming for joy.
“We’re going to Canada.”
I ran out with the notebook Madam needed and into Merrick. Our eyes met. That familiar disgust streaked through his handsome face. I wished he would remove the shades so I could see those eyes.
“Is she telling the truth, you’re going to Canada?”
He raised an eyebrow. “You don’t think my father can afford it?”
“You know that’s not why I’m asking.”
He walked past me. I still thought it could be a prank or a dream. But over the next few days, my legs and arms ached from carrying shopping bags. Madam and Benita were besides themselves, running around, buying things, giddy with excitement.
At the shop, Madam talked about nothing else. “Oga’s been so sweet. He said, buy whatever you need. Believe me, I’m buying.”
“What do you think Canada is like?” Aunty Yemi asked.
It was a sizable crowd. They gathered around Madam, eager to learn about Canada, asking about the free chocolates they heard was duty free. I worked and listened. I worried. How was Merrick going to play this?
Each day leading up to Friday—the day of travel, the shop grew smaller, and the crowd increased. On Thursday, Merrick visited the shop, and I dragged him to a corner.
“What are you going to do?”
He shrugged, avoiding my gaze.
“This is not the time for you to worry about me seducing your father,” I snapped.
“Don’t think I’ve forgotten that.”
I wanted to hit him. I tried again. “You’ve never been to Canada, have you?”
“No.”
“You’re not going to any University?”
“No.”
“Convince your mother, do anything to stop this visit!”
Merrick folded his arms, looked me up and down. “When did my business become yours? Worry about how you will explain coming with me because you are.”
Going with him? What was that?
I walked into the shop after Merrick. When the women saw him, they swarmed around, patting his back, wishing they had a son like him. My stomach churned with every word of praise. I didn’t know Merrick was capable of this kind of deception, but they ate it up.
I opened the newest carton of hair weaves from Desmond. As I worked, I listened, cringing every time the women swore about taking their children to Canada. Every time they mentioned bringing their kids over so Merrick could motivate them.
“If you talk to them, I’m sure they’ll take their studies seriously.”
Merrick would nod seriously, listen. Then he would smile, dimples popping, shades glinting darkly. “Put up a rigid timetable, make sure they follow it. Follow them up, you’ll be surprised.”
“Bible never lies,” some women whispered, “don’t judge based on appearance. To think I assumed he’s just another bad boy.”
“The tattoos deceive,” Ngozi Babalola agreed.
The closer the day drew, the more the frenzied buying continued. I waited for Oga to complain, but he never did. At dinners, he would sit back, watching his family with a tiny, sneering smile. Did the others not see it? I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop.
In the shop, Madam continued the interviews. “He bought the tickets over three months ago.”
“Awwww,” they chorused.
“He wanted to surprise me, and he did. A pleasant surprise.”
She would shake her head. “You know his aunty’s over there, my sister. She raised him. I missed my baby.”
“But he’s here now.”
She would sniff and smile. “He truly is and I will see how my baby has been doing, if those oyinbos, the white people have been treating him well.”
“I heard their food is terrible,” someone said.
“No pepper,” another added.
“No taste.”
And so it went. People who had never been outside Lagos, talking about Canada like it was in their backyards. I waited and waited, but nothing happened.
Sometimes, I wondered if Madam was in on it. Did she know her son’s life was a lie?
Thursday evening Merrick came to the shop after the women had left. “I want Ada to come with me.”
Madam’s mouth dropped open in shock. “No!”
“The food is bad and Ada is such a good cook, please Mom.”
“No!” Madam cried. “What will she do in America? Blessing can go with you, take care of you. Maybe even attend school.”
He cajoled and begged, and she still refused. I thought that was the end.
On Friday, neighbors and friends descended on the house to say goodbye. Madam was the cynosure of all eyes. Benita flitted about like a peacock, proud and happy. Oga sat back, drinking with his friends, observing but not taking part. Not really.
I sweated it out in the kitchen. Madam insisted we had to feed people coming and going, and they were a lot. In the middle of the fanfare, Joy dropped by.
“You should be happy. School is calling your nemesis, huh? Fucking peace.”
I eyed her curiously. “He wanted me to go with him.”
Joy’s eyes went round and big. “To God fucking Canada?”
I nodded. “I couldn’t believe it.”
“Hmmm,” Joy frowned. “How did that happen? The last time we spoke you were complaining about shit. You were thinking of becoming friends, you wanted him to act like Oga and get the pressure off you.”
“Oh.” I had never told them about Oga’s preference for being served naked. I shrugged. “He wants someone to cook, take care of the house.”
Joy raised an eyebrow. “If I was our Madam, I will send Blessing, not you, a maid. It’s Canada for God’s sake.”
“Well, he wanted me.”
“And Madam said no,” Joy shook her head. “A pity.”
Soon, we piled into the car with Merrick driving. Oga and the neighbors waved us goodbye. I worried about the cleaning, and washing the mini party would require. We got to the bus stop. Merrick continued to chat excitedly with his mother and sister.
Then Merrick turned into the shop. Madam looked confused. “Did you forget something?”
He switched off the engine and sighed. “We need to talk.”
I almost pitied her. Her shock and confusion, the shame from those celebrating neighbors. As much as they celebrated, some of her peers were jealous. If she returned home without going to Canada, they would laugh her out of town.
I stayed back, watched them leave. But Madam turned back. “Ada, please come.”
With a sigh, I joined them in the shop. It was late evening. Most of the shop owners had locked up for the night. But some were still open. And they knew about the much talked about trip to Canada.
“You no go Canada again?” They asked in broken English.
“Wetin happen?”
Madam looked panicked, like she hadn’t expected to be questioned. Then she gave a strained smile. “
We forget something for shop.”
She turned on me, and I rushed to unlock the shop. Original target missed, she faced Merrick and hissed, “What are we doing here?”