Face Me I Face you

Chapter two.

The voice you heard could not be mistaken, that is surely Jara sarcastic shrill voice.
You rose from your mattress laying bare on the torn carpeted floor, and picked up an unwashed shirt of yours laying on the filled laundry basket, you placed it over your head in an attempt to find out the reason for such noise.
Walking out of the door, the noise became louder and clearer. You heard the timid voice of your neighbour's wife, Iya Chidi.

Her voice raised echoing through the compound, she argued with your dearest wife, clusters of people hanging around them waiting for the next line of action.

You came closer to the scene, some women had their hands hooked to their waist, their elbows jutted at an angle their eyes darting between the two women, even children in the compound seemed interested in the fight, some smeared with dried toothpaste on their face, their toothbrushes hanging from their hands. You recognized the sickly child of a single young mother living adjacent to your two-room apartment.

The familiar smell of old urine trailing past him as he walked, either him or the number of worn-out mattresses resting on the walls of the corridor of some rooms, some with visible wet patches.
If Eyo the sickly child who always kept to himself eating the dried baked up mucus from his nose was interested in the ongoing commotion then it must be serious.
The voices became clearer, the vehemence of their insult more pronounced than the former.

"I dey warn you, no try me, ehn!" Jara warned, her warning echoing past the ears of Iya Chidi. You slid through the unwashed smelling bodies of your neighbours and met the view of your wife's shirt being wrangled by the smaller woman. You could sense your wife's patience running out, her little nose flaring in the same way it flared when she gave you her sekembe slap.

Thwap
Jara was tall and has enough flesh in her body enough to make her look intimidating, if you can't challenge her properly as a man for the fear of her sitting on your lean bonga fish stature, and giving you correct sekembe slaps, then you wonder how this woman would survive Jara wrath.

Like you Papa Chidi stood in the cloak of the mini crowd, watching the drama unfold, none of you attempted to stop the fight. You can recall a certain passage your pastor read last Sunday, reading warning men not to interfere when wives are fighting.
Something like that.

Fights like this were common in this Face Me I Face You Compound, in two months, your Jara has been in more than five fights with different women, who kept their malice intact, singing Christian songs wishing their enemies death whenever they crossed their path.
Of course, Jara is the current reigning champion, by the look of things she would remain the champion, sighting the cause of your fight, you knew Iya Chidi was the one at fault, you recognized your favourite company shirt strewn on the wet earth, your wife underwear was thrown close to the latrine area.

"You think say I dey fear you, I no be Iya Sikiru, wey you rubbish finish. I go show you say I be..." Her sentence remained uncompleted as Jara mighty hand came landing hard on the left side of her face.

Paa!

The sound had people who watched the drama in silence exclaim in surprise at the gravity at which it landed hard on Iya Chidi's face, she looked dazed unable to familiarize with her surrounding, but Jara did not care her patience was up, she delivered another atomic slap.

That moment Iya Chidi knew she was being beaten by your sekembe slapping wife, her feeble attempt to retaliate had her thrown to the floor, her wrapper loosing in the process exposing some of her naked flesh, Jara wanted to finish her, her blood simmering but was held by the women around taking into consideration Iya Chidi nakedness was enough proof to make her the winner of this duel.
The familiar smile of a conqueror graced her thick lips, she walked away the crowd dissipating with her like steam.

You went forward picking your shirt from the floor and dusting it properly before leaving the scene, returning to your disturbed sleep would be nice.