by Maya Rossi
“I told you to take your bath and sleep.”
I couldn’t.
Until Madam came for me, I was to serve him. Merrick moved around the kitchen with his usual grace. He cradled one chicken in the crook of his arm. It looked pitiful, feathers wet and stuck to its body, shivering. He did something to the fire, and it produced better fire than before.
After murmured words, he placed the chicken on the ground and left. I followed. “What do I do?”
He jumped down the death stairs and turned. “Bathe, sleep.”
“I-I can’t,” I admit.
“Why?”
“I’m here to work,” I said.
He arched an eyebrow. “You’re not here to work--”
“Then why did you--”
“You’re here until I figure out how to keep you away from my father.”
I followed him out of the house. He tugged his jeans out of the tree and dug out something from the pockets. When he turned and found me behind him, he frowned.
“Go inside, bathe and rest. That journey was exhausting.”
There was a small building out front, the right wall was unfinished. It smelled like a garage, engine oil, motor parts and other things. There was also lots of bags and supplies I couldn’t make out.
He stopped insisting I went inside and we worked together. There were about a hundred birds and some goats. An hour later, it started raining, and Merrick cursed. We carried the cage a few paces out of the water to dry land closer to the house.
We worked under the rain until all the animals were safe and the supplies secure. As we walked back inside the awful house, I shivered.
Merrick yawned. “I think I have some tea, Lipton.”
Of course. Lipton. I loved tea, normal tea. I hated Lipton. I hesitated over the death stairs, and he wrapped an arm over my waist and lifted me easily. I sputter out a thanks, but he yawned and headed straight to what might be the bedroom.
I was afraid to see what it looked like.
The animals around the fire had stopped shivering and were fast sleep. I listened to the sound of Merrick pottering around for about ten minutes before the house went silent. I was still with his phone. What young person in this day forgot his phone? Blessing and Benita worshiped it, adored their phones and cried for a newer version every year.
In the shed outside, I found cleaning supplies long forgotten. By the time I had every inch of the house cleaned, it was almost three in the morning. The bare ground I swept. After, I went to take my bath and realized I literally had nothing to wear. A mosquito landed on my forehead and I hit it so hard, my head reared back and forth like a dolls’. I checked my palm and when I saw the glob of blood with the dead mosquito, my pulse raced in rising panic.
Could I survive this place for two weeks?
Just then thunder flashed, the heaven rumbled and the rain slammed on the aluminium roof. I shone the touch across the roof and cringed. It was black with smoke, bushy with thick cobwebs and made of those cheap iron materials. No wonder the sound of the rain was so loud. I moved to the living room, aiming the torch light through the gap of the boarded-up windows. If the rain didn’t stop and the water level continued to rise, what then?
Was there a time Merrick gave up and returned home begging to his father like the prodigal son?
The rain increased, slamming against the roof with force. Something creaked above. I aimed my torch up and gasped. The beam holding the roof was bent downward, groaning and whining in protest. I watched mesmerized as it continued to bend.
A moment before it came crashing down, I jumped. Bits and pieces of wood rained on my face and neck. So much for bathing. I stared at the clump of dead wood, rotten beams, and what else masquerading as a roof. Jesus. The sound of the crash echoed in my ears like a nightmare. This was my life at this moment. Crashed, rotten and hopeless.
I turned to leave and ran into Merrick. He stared at the fallen roof. For a breathless second, his eyes went from the roof to me. Then he slipped back to the bedroom. It was only when I ran soap over my body, I felt the spot where a piece of nail scraped my flesh. I notice another spot on my leg and sagged against the wall. When I remembered I hadn’t washed the wall, I jumped back.
I tied the towel around my body and went to the bedroom. There was a single bed propped against the wall. Against one wall were rolls and rolls of books, much like the arrangement of the firewood in the kitchen.
I was confused. I thought he couldn’t read.
I also thought he had gathered the money for school and was living the big life somewhere like guys his age.
The only spot to sleep was right beside him. I stared at the space, shivering in my towel. I sat on the ground with my back against the wall and looked around. It was the only room I hadn’t cleaned, and I regretted it now.
I had only just closed my eyes when someone shook my shoulder and a gruff voice ordered, “Go to bed.”
I held on to my towel and staggered forward. I fell face down on the surprisingly comfortable bed and I was out.
I’d only been asleep for five minutes when loud voices intruded. I covered my ears with my hands and tried to go back to the warm arms of sleep. But it was impossible. The voices came from the back of the house. I moved to the window and looked out.
“I’m not going,” Merrick said.
“Please, you’ve got to reconsider. This shit has to stop,” I. J replied. “Imagine, this is just April, for God’s sake. When the real rains come, do you think it won’t enter your house?”
The rains yesterday weren’t real enough?
“I’ve always loved aquaman,” he said wistfully, “maybe I’ll try a little experiment where I sleep in the water and wake up an aquaman, you know like batman sleeping with bats to become, like batman.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I. J admitted.
“Then stop disturbing me. Those morons don’t want to act, they just want to marry little girls, fuck little--”
“Merrick!”
“OK, OK. I’m gone.”
There were folded clothes at the foot of the bed. Clean clothes. Jeans trousers. Not as nice or expensive as the ones Aunty Yemi gave me. Just manageable. The thought reminded me of home. I stood there, jeans in hand, towel around my body, missing home.
I forced myself to put on the clothes. The jeans were short, like those fancy three-quarter jeans I liked so much. The shirt was a little tight. It had to be I. J’s. The clothes fit her frame. There was no mirror, like none. There was nothing in the room except the bed, a bag of clothes in the corner and the books.
If my friends would see me now.
Joy wouldn’t even want to hear this tale of woe. Riggy would tell me to suck it up. Merrick might not have much— or nothing at all, but he was no maid. Plus, my room back home didn’t have a mirror. So…
Outside the room, I found the wreck of the roof was gone, neatly swept off. But for the gaping hole above, I would have thought I dreamed the whole thing. The house looked worse in broad daylight. The emerging sunlight was unforgiving, exposing the ugliness all around me. I made my way to the kitchen. To my relief, the animals were gone.
I was contemplating the next step to take, when I stepped on chicken shit. It was slimy and wet. The smell, strong and disgusting. I ran wild eyes around the room.
“This is a kitchen. A kitchen!”
Hopping on one foot, I tried to see the damage. I almost fell on my ass. I broke my fall but slammed into the wall of firewood. The pain was the last straw. I burst into tears.
Suddenly, Merrick and I. J were there. In the kitchen. They glanced around for what? I didn’t know. Their eyes came to me like it was choreographed. It reminded me of a Christmas Carol I attended with Madam. There was a performance from the children department at church where they wore white and danced. Every turn of the head, wave of the hand and even their smiles, happened at the same time. It was beautiful. There was nothing beautiful about Merrick and I.J. Was she his girl fri
end? I wondered silently.
“Are you alright?” he asked but I remained stubbornly quiet. He shrugged. “I’ve got to get going.”
“Be careful, that place it’s so lonely.” I. J looked worried for him. The scammer. Not me, who might have lost everything.
“Tell Thompson we’ll see when I get back.”
“He hates that name, prefers Tom.” She sighed. “I hate how much he’s changed.”
“Believe it’s the teenage years, he’ll come around.”
She laughed. “You sound like you know a lot about that, Merrick.”
He winked. “You have no idea.”
And he was gone. Just like that.
What did I expect?
“Are you alright?”
The soft-spoken words dragged my attention to I.J. She was in jeans and t-shirt, a replica of what I was wearing. The realization set my blood to a slow boil.
I nodded.
She grinned and spread her arms wide. “Girlfriend, you’ve done so much--”
“My girlfriends are in Ogba, a big city.” I set my jaw angrily. “We’re maids in a rich house. Our Madam is nice and we get wonderful clothes and a good room.”
I didn’t know why I said that. But there was so much more I wanted to say I had to bite my tongue to hold the words back. A throbbing ache in my foot reminded me I still had it bent backwards. I released it and straightened.
I. J watched me cautiously. It reminded me of one time a man brought Oga five beautiful dogs to settle a debt. I killed and prepared the dogs, fried the meat for Oga and his friends. My skin crawled at the memory. I. J looked at me the way those dogs did. Before I killed them.
“They are beautiful, my friends. Especially Joy and Riggy. Riggy cut her hair, so…”
“Joy’s the most beautiful,” she finished. “I’ve been to Ogba. Big house, rich shops, expensive cars.”
“Joy fucks her Oga,” I said defiantly, “he gives her things. She is… very rich. She will be big one day. Maybe have a car or a shop.”
“Do you fuck your Oga?”
The question rocked me. My head bump the wall and pain bloomed all over my skull. Tears slip down my cheeks. The strangest part was I. J didn’t move. She remained in that one spot, just watching me. There was a faraway look in her eyes. It was oddly familiar. It sent shivers down my spine. Her hair was in a simple all back style. Her face neither ugly nor beautiful. The type you forgot almost after. But there was something about her that was arresting. An air of sadness I couldn’t define.
“Do you fuck your Oga?”
There wasn’t enough air for me to breathe. The kitchen was airy; the windows were large, facing west. The breeze was refreshing, brushing against my clammy skin. Memories I had tried to lock up threatened to burst out of their chains. I swallowed hard. “Of course not.”
She smiled wide, her teeth blinding in their whiteness. “That would be weird. Merrick’s father and Merrick? Yuck.”
I gasped. “There’s nothing between me and Merrick. I’m only here for two weeks and I go back to Madam.”
“That’s Merrick’s mom?”
“Yes.” I cast a disgusting look around. “I can’t stay here. I can’t cook in this kitchen. Where I’m coming from--”
“The house is big and the kitchen bigger. The streets are even paved with gold.”
I had no idea what she was talking about. Before I could come up with a reply. She laughed. “But you’ve done great work here. Merrick bless him, but he lives like a pig.”
I sniffed. “I do far more work at home. Oga’s house is like a hundred times bigger than this.”
I. J shook her head. “I’ve met a lot of girls like you. Lost, maltreated--”
“That’s not true--”
“Your Madam has a heart of gold,” she laughed mirthlessly, “they all say that. I thought your experience will make you warmer. But you’re just a bitch.”
It was only when I heard her going down the death stairs that I realized two things. One, I never thanked her for the clothes. Two, apart from that front gate and the fence, there was no door. The house had no door.
I covered my face with my hands and dropped to the ground. Sobs spill unchecked from my lips. It’s been so long since I had a good cry. I just relaxed and enjoyed it.
“It’s just two weeks, Ada. Two weeks and Madam will come for you.”
I refused to think about Oga. Other maids endured worse. In fact, it was normal for the Oga to sleep with the maids. Oga hadn’t even touched me yet.
Strangely, I felt better after. Lighter. I went round the house, making a mental list of all I needed to do. Another top-to-bottom cleaning was in order. I rearranged, swept, cleaned and disinfected every surface. The brown curtains in front of the bathroom, I took down and washed. I couldn’t do anything about the gaping roof and the uncemented ground.
When I was satisfied with inside, I moved outside.
The water had moved back a few feet to the gate. The land was beautiful in a wild, natural way. The shed was to the left and the poultry to the right. Merrick must have cared for the birds because they paid me no mind, eating and drinking merrily.
I opened the gate and I was slammed by a thousand voices. It was a meeting. Why would they conduct a meeting right in the middle of a flooded street? There were chairs, a table, boxes floating in the water. Some children swam naked, playing and cheering. Older ones worked, gathering things from the water.
My heart went out to them.A shout drew my attention back to the meeting.
“I have said we should all go to my house,” a potbellied man shouted. “I can’t swim in water while my house is dry.”
“That’s exactly why you should be here, Daddy Bola,” I. J said. “It’s because we’re over there, dry and content that’s why we don’t take this matter seriously.”
“Let’s all suffer it together,” a fat woman screamed from the back. “We’re in this street together, united we will stand.”
“Merrick said we should petition the local government--”
“And where’s Merrick?”
From there the meeting degenerated into a shouting match. I tried to catch I. J’s eye; I wanted to apologize. I wondered if they would have a water fight or something exciting. We used to do that at Madam Gold’s when it rained. It was nothing like the flood here.
I shut the gate and studied the compound. There were two guava trees, lots of pineapples, and plantains. The trees waved and their leaves whispered in the slight breeze. From the gate, the house was just a speck in the distance. I pulled out some grasses while I waited for Merrick or I. J whoever came first.
Did I want to return to the house and let Oga do what he liked with me and betray Madam? Or I could stay out here with Merrick, away from Oga’s lecherous gaze?
But what if Madam replaced me?
What would Madam Gold do? Where would I end up?
Two weeks.
Just two weeks.
I wished I could read the future. What if Oga never slept with me? What if he did? Madam would be devastated. But nothing had happened yet.
If I stayed, nothing would happen.
It wasn’t so simple.
Chapter thirteen
I wish I could read.
I wish I hadn’t blown I.J. off.
Since I knew nothing about caring for animals, I didn’t go near the birds or the goats. I spent my time pulling out weeds as I waited. Three hours later, I. J still hadn’t come by. Around two in the afternoon, Merrick returned.
I exhaled in relief, dusting the sands off my hands. He had a sack bag flung across one shoulder. I hovered as he maneuvered past the gate and headed for the shed.
“Welcome, sir.”
He laughed. According to Joy, he fucking laughed. I stood there like a fool while he keeled over chuckling. Finally, he smiled, shaking his head. There was a line of exhaustion across his brow. His tattoos weren’t so noticeable, not when he was soaking wet with sweat and dirt. The hairs on his forearm
s were coated with a heavy sheen of dust, as were his legs.
“I take it you’ve accepted your fate,” he said through a loud yawn. “Christ, I’m thirsty.”
“Let me go get water--”
Merrick slashed a hand through the air. “Dammit. You’re not here to fetch and carry. Besides, I only returned to feed the birds. I have to go.”
Looking faintly irritated, he went out the gate and returned with another bag. I stood, my hands useless at my sides. If I were at home, I would know what to do. I’d been with Madam for so long, I knew what she needed before she asked for it. But with Merrick, I was out of my element.